Online Journalism: Theory and Practice Week 2 Lecture 2 Summer 2011 G. F Khan, PhD Dept. of Media & Communication, YeungNam University, South Korea

Part 2 Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism eos

Citizen journalism “Is the concept of members of the public playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information.” Source: Wikipedia “…when the people known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another.”

Terms Participatory journalism Open source journalism Online journalism Citizen journalism

Every citizen is a journalist E.g. ohmynews  모든 시민은 기자다  Most of the articles are written by other freelance contributors who are mostly ordinary citizens.

Who is doing it? Citizens  Using blogs, wikis, digital storytelling applications, photo- and video-sharing sites, Traditional media  Some traditional media companies feature citizen journalism, such as CNN’s I-Reporter Users generated news  user-generated news website, such as ohmynews and NowPublic

New York Times blogs  Infuses opinions, interpretation, and insight into articles  No longer static news environments uReport  Fox News & MySpace iReport  CNN sponsored citizen journalism (“On CNN”) Who is doing it? Examples

What it covers? Citizens journalism mostly take local approach, centering on news about a city or even a specific neighborhood, or focus on special-interest topics, such as financial matters or gender issues.

Why is it significant? People report their issues themselves Provides a complete picture that cannot be seen by an outsider Due to limitations of access and time traditional reporting may fail to present complete picture  Through blogs, citizen journalists have broken stories about political corruption, police brutality, and other issues of concern to local and national communities.

Why is it significant? Little towns which got no coverage on their local events could now do their own reporting thanks to access to new technology.

Gatekeepers Gatekeeper concept  A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something So what is a gatekeeper in journalism?  Someone who determines the news  Highlights particular stories, promotes trends, restricts the flow of information

Gatekeepers In the old days, traditional media were the gatekeepers to information Newspapers were limited in how much they could print Broadcast was limited in how much time they had to report news

Gatekeepers However, with the Internet, there have been a number of gaps in the gate that once filter news  Newsweek chose not to publish the story on Clinton-Lewinsky scandal  It was Internet reporter Matt Drudge who posted the story online The freedom of the Internet allows anyone and everyone to contribute to stories now THE GATES ARE NO LONGER CLOSED  Gates now open to any and all info. if you have Internet access

Down side With no filter information overload becomes an issue.  Columbia Journalism Review did a report on the study of online journalism today Concluded that the Internet did not necessarily translate into a better news environment

Down side Problematic issues with no gatekeeper and everyone being able to participate Slashdotcom  Online journalism site that relies on people to report news  People submit news on the web, the editorial staff selects the best news, posts them, and allows them to comment online  Works great until Trolls arrived on the site

Down side iReport and Steve Jobs  Report posted that Steve Jobs had heart attack  False, but reported anyway  Described as a failure of open systems  iReport tagline: “Unedited. Unfiltered. News.” Is this really news? Are editors even important?

Down side Lack of professionalism  many citizen journalists have a weaker sense of what constitutes a reliable story, free of conjecture Most citizens journalist are not well trained and thus the news stories produced might be inaccurate, offensive, or otherwise lack credibility.

How to make it work? Follow Standards  Just the Facts  Avoid gossip  No irrelevant opinions  Plagiarism  Spelling and Grammar  Photographic Integrity  Self Integrity  Source Integrity

How to make it work? Be unbiased Provide a balance report by Presenting competing viewpoints Earn readers’ trust Separates a mere tale from a legitimate news story Receive community feedback on your story or news

Thank You Questions & Comments