CITIZEN JOURNALISM Qimin Yuan (Jessie) Oxana Astakhova Jing Ping

Outline  Summary  Analysis  Questions

Summary – “Preditors”: Making citizen journalism work What is citizen journalism? “ordinary person’s capacity to bear witness, thereby providing commentators with a useful label to characterize an ostensibly new genre of reporting” (Allan, 2009) or in other words… Reporting of the news by private individuals, who are not professional journalists “grassroots journalism”, “open source journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “hyperlocal journalism”, “distributed journalism”, “networked journalism”, “user- generated content”

Crowdsourcing – as a basis for citizen journalism Crowdsourcing is the idea that a crowd of people, geographically dispersed but sharing common purpose, can achieve things better or differently to small groups of professionals and gatekeepers” (Simons, 2008) It is transformation from “journalism as a lecture” to “journalism as a conversation” (Gilmor, 2006)

Semi-pro journalism – as an efficient model of citizen journalism Semi-pro journalism is a combination of “ground work of average citizens or inexperienced journalists with editorial and production expertise of professional journalists”

Who are “PREDITORS”? Preditor = Producing + editing + organizing = facilitator of “journalism as a conversation”

Preditor’s abilities must include:  be comfortable with writing and editing copy,  be cognizant of publishing law and regulation,  have a strong sense of news values and be committed to ethical standards, and balance and fairness in their own practice.  have the ability to establish collaborative interpersonal and professional relationships and webs of content syndication, across the online news environment.  have the capacity to serve, guide and sometimes manage a content-making community that includes not just readers, but users who have become, in effect, colleagues.

Youdecide 2007

Dimensions of Preditor’s Role:  Content work  Networking  Community work  Technical work

Content Work  editing and producing original content  ensuring that user-submitted stories meet legal, regulatory, ethical and quality requirements  ensuring that user-submitted stories providing “pro” content that drives visits, publicity, syndications and further contributions to the site.

Networking  making advantageous connections with existing, established online and offline news outlets  ensuring that content is delivered and sourced across a number of platforms and of entrepreneurially mobilizing on and offline networks

Community work  bringing people to the service and keeping communities engaged with on-site content and one another  Providing participating community with  Training  site-specific information  mediation.

Technical Work  on-site technical work  off-site technical work  “meta-tech” work

Citizen Journalism Amateur Journalists Mainstream Journalism Professional Journalists Relationship between Amateur & Professional Journalists Training Profession Open-minded Take more advantages of online & mobile technologies Respect Communication Social relationship Network Technologies

CITIZEN JOURNALISM vs MAINSTREAM JOURNALISM

 quality of content  conversational tools  news angle  trustworthiness  legal issue  readers flow to the website  risks  finance flow  danger

Do you still have to study to be a JOURNALIST? If anyone can be a reporter? If anyone can be called journalist? Short Survey Inside the Class

Further Analysis on Citizen Journalism  CRISES  Natural and human disasters  Scandal of the government  Politics  Social issues  Violation of human rights  Price of food vs. Level of salary & wages  Fair work & Fair trading

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY Main tools :  camera  mobile phone / smartphone  internet: websites, blogs, social networks CITIZEN JOURNALISM = DIGITAL JOURNALISM

CITIZEN JOURNALISM TODAY Main influences on development or stagnation of CJ:  technological development - devices  access to internet and mobile  government regulations

Questions  In the interrelated process of the development of technologies and citizen journalism, which one is the facilitator and which one is the follower?  What kind of news you would prefer to read and you would rely more in the mainstream media and what kind in the citizen journalism, i.e. crisis in citizen journalism and science news in biology in the mainstream one? Why?  The biggest exposure of the citizen journalism comes in crises, like natural and human disasters, politics, violation of human rights and etc. If we consider that there is no more crises in the world, do you believe citizen journalism will still exist focusing only on art, science, happy people’s lives and other exclusively positive things? And do you think it still will be so popular and claimed?