Essay Assignment

The growing technological development and public access to digital media has resulted in everyday computer users being able to quite easily create and publish reasonable content (Kawamoto, 2003:16). Areas such as photography programs and music producing software are becoming increasingly available to the average person due to user friendly tools and decreasing purchasing costs (Thurman, 2008:1). This increase in the access of digital capabilities is allowing ‘amateurs’ to engage in publishing fair standards of digital content which in turn has created many concerns and challenges for the professionally trained and highly skilled person (Kamamoto, 2003:17). This essay will argue that technologies such as mobile phones and blogging on the internet, allows members of the public and everyday computer users to readily participate and play influential roles in the journalistic arena. The concept of ‘citizen journalism’ will be defined and investigated. The digital media’s that provide tools of production which allow citizen journalists to report and publish content will be examined. Finally the issues, challenges and impacts that professional journalists face from the capabilities that digital media’s grant to citizen journalists will be explored.

According to http://www.mediasmart.org.uk/parents-media-glossary.php
‘citizen journalism’ is ‘when members of the public engage in journalism’ The media website provides examples of citizen journalism ‘include providing pictures or film of events to news organisations or reporting events in blogs’. For example, images and video footage can now be readily captured on mobile phones through built in cameras and video recorders. Therefore, anyone who owns a mobile phone with these technological capabilities is able to capture events as they are witnessing them. The increase in the utilization of these ‘personal technology devices’ combined with the applications of the internet, are contributing to the operation and engagement of citizen journalism (Internetrix, 2006:1). This is attributed to the fact that through combining these digital mediums, members of the public are able to provide news institutions with their recorded images or video footage by uploading them online (Bainbridge, 2008:409). Therefore these digital opportunities allow everyday citizens to provide a global reporting of their recorded events (Savageau, 2009:1). As a result of this operation, citizens are producing news content which may otherwise have not been exposed to the public sphere. It is these actions which allow amateurs to engage in the journalistic arena as citizen journalists (Bainbridge, 2008:413).

Bainbridge’s 2008 text states that ‘some of the biggest stories or news images of the past decade have been …published online, by people who are not professional journalists’ (Bainbridge et al, 2008:409). For example, many live recordings of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, the 2005 London bombings and 2001 Twin Tower attacks were provided to the global community by citizens who captured the accounts on their camera phones (Bainbridge et al, 2008:409). Consequently, this digital production and publication of news content by everyday members of society is impacting the methods of public access and consumption of news (Savageau, 2009:2). Influential and breaking news and current affairs is now not only sourced from professional media organizations and journalists-as it was when these digital media opportunities weren’t readily available-but are also being supplied from the average person or ‘citizen journalist’ (Internetrix, 2006:3). Therefore, news is being documented and broken on online formats though the participation of everyday citizens. This powerful reality is illustrated by New Haven Independent editor Paul Bass, stating ‘power of the press now belongs not to those who own one, [a media organization] but to those who own a modem’ (Fanselow, 2008:4). Therefore Bass’s view outlines that contemporary digital mediums, such as the aforementioned portable camera’s and video recorders, combined with the open source abilities of the internet, permit any owner of these technologies-which in today’s society is becoming relatively ubiquitous- to capture, produce and publicize news to an international audience (Savageau, 2009:3). This significant change in the production and dissemination of news content has definitely allowed the world of journalism to transform. See ‘We the Media’ at http://www.authorama.com/we-the-media-1.html for readings on this transformation.

However, it is not just the visually recorded and published content of news that is providing citizens with the opportunity to participate in the journalism profession. Online blogs are also providing the means for everyday people to contribute and play an active and even prominent role in the reporting of news information (Stovall, 2004:30). Bainbridge’s 2008 text defines a blog as an ‘interactive chronological website that contains observation and comment and associated links’. See http://www.net-insight.co.uk/glossary.php for an online definition. In previous times, the technological tools that permitted the act of blogging were exclusively accessible to individuals who understood how to operate the HTML code (Bainbridge et al, 2008:410). In today’s information age, the development and availability of user-friendly and free of charge applications, such as “Blogger.com” make blogging simple for anyone who wants to engage in it (Thurman, 2008:1). Journalist and lecturer at London’s City University, Neil Thurman, states “blogging sites…have helped facilitate a rapid growth in the number and popularity of independently published websites that overlap the space traditionally occupied by the mainstream news media” (Thurman, 2008:2). Therefore, the increasing numbers of ‘citizen journalist’s’ and their actions of blogging news and information is creating s substantial impact on the professional journalism industry (Fanselow, 2008:3).

Unmediated ‘bloggers’ and unqualified ‘citizen journalists’ have created numerous issues and challenges for trained practitioners and their occupational norms (Thurman, 2008:15). For example, ‘censorship and control of information is almost impossible’ as people do not need to adhere to regulations or guidelines in order to post information, chronicles, images or videos (Savageau, 2009:4). As a result many journalists have expressed the belief that these areas of accessible citizen journalism, such as blogging, are destabilizing professional news values. See http://www.glog.nl/wiki/upload/docs/thomas%20j%20johnson.pdf for further reading on this issue. Author of ‘Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production’ Dr. Axel Burns, represents this view stating many journalists believe ‘citizen journalism may…undermine professional journalistic ideals of objectivity and impartiality, leading… to the uncontrollable dissemination of unsubstantiated rumours and the publication of highly partisan opinion pieces as 'news' (Bruns, 2008:1-access power point at http://snurb.info/node/830). In turn, grammatical aspects, level of accuracy and fairness in the publications produced by citizen journalists are areas of concern for the conventional news media (Thurman, 2008: 15). Many qualified and professional journalists believe that while citizens can provide substantial public insight and valuable footage for witnessed events, the majority of these everyday people do not have the contacts, knowledge or trained experience to deliver researched objectivity (Savageau, 2009:4).

In summary, digital media’s such as portable cameras and internet applications such as blogging are mediums which are providing increasing accessibility for anyone to actively partake in the recording, scrutinizing and global dissemination of news. These technologies, with the open source capabilities of the internet, are avenues for everyday computer users or amateurs to become citizen journalists and participate in an arena which was once conserved for the qualified journalist (Stovall, 2004:30). Many believe these digital tools for citizen interaction are challenging the journalism industry in areas such as news value, competition, quality and level of professionalism. Despite these increasing concerns and challenges for the professional operation of the journalism arena, many people believe society ‘will always need trained media people to do a professional job of producing news for mass consumption’ (Bainbridge, 2008:410 ). Therefore, although digital media’s are providing access for citizens to produce news content, qualified journalists will continue to deliver professional news information for the online and global community.

Reference List:


Bainbridge et al. 2008, Media & Journalism. New Approaches to Theory and Practice, Oxford, Victoria.

Bruns, A. 2008. Beyond the Pro/Am Schism: Opportunities for Collaboration betw. Professional and Citizen Journalists under a Produsage Framework’. http://snurb.info/node/830. Sited 19th October.

Fanselow, J. 2008. The New Wave of Citizen Journalism. http://www.ncl.org/publications/ncr/97-4/01.08Fanselow.pdf. Sited 20th October.
Internetrix. 2006. Citizen Journalism & the Internet Revolution
http://www.internetrix.net/page/articles/newsletters/2006/august/citizen-journalism/. Sited 17th October.

Kawamoto, K. 2003, Digital Journalism. Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism. Rowman & Littlefield Publications, U.S.A

Savageau, J. 2009. FTC Steps in on Citizen Journalism, Internet, and Impacts on the News Industry. http://pacific-tier.com/blog/2009/08/ftc_steps_in_on_citizen_journa_1.html. Sited 20th October.

Stovall, J. 2004, Web Journalism. Practice and Promise of a New Medium. Pearson Education, Inc, Boston.

Thurman, N. 2008. Published in New Media & Society: Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. Sage Publications, U.SA. Available at: http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=neil_thurman

Links:
http://www.mediasmart.org.uk/parents-media-glossary.php

http://www.authorama.com/we-the-media-1.html

http://www.net-insight.co.uk/glossary.php

http://snurb.info/node/830

http://www.glog.nl/wiki/upload/docs/thomas%20j%20johnson.pdf