Citizen Journalism

Contemporary journalism is derived from the ‘Public Sphere’ which Meadows states ‘in this way, modern journalism began as a cultural practice that was both of and for the public (2001, p. 40). The onset of the ‘post modern’ era has brought about new information technologies creating new media and transforming the notion of ‘professional journalism’ from elitist into popular culture. With new media technologies available to the public it is easier and efficient to access forms of expression previously unavailable. Nano technology and media convergence have allowed for more interactivity to occur between media and the public. Jay Rosen states in his video that the tools have been distributed to the public. These tools include mobile phones, laptops, cameras, iPods, video cameras, etc and the distribution occurs on the internet.

Aspects of new journalism have revived the media, for the public now has a greater interest and audience numbers have increased (Romano and Hippocrates 2001).
People from all walks of life now have forums of expression. Carey states that ‘important elements that influenced the movement of journalism away from its earlier, publicly accountable form- the emergence of national media, the growth of minority or alternative media, and the creation of the professional communicator’ (1997b, pp. 129- 33 cited in Meadows 2001, p. 41). This has been termed citizen journalism, which Jay Rosen defines as ‘When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism’ (Rosen 2008).


The Apple Company is the most famous for their developments in nano technology with a new version of the iPod nearly every week.
Mobile phone technology has evolve in leaps and bounds - once a mobile resembled a brick now it has a camera function including video, access to the internet, GPS components – the world is at the mobile users finger tips. And who knows what they’ll invent this week! Website software is available for ‘the citizen’ to create a website or blog and this has created a challenge for the media companies.

Who do they become if the Average Joe is reporting the news? So the media conglomerates have decided that if you can’t beat them, join them and now encourage citizens to send in their photos if they witness an event first hand. Does this mean that professional journalists are now on equal levels to the ‘citizen journalist’? While it is very interesting witnessing the digital world changing media in many ways, society still requires professional journalists. Whether you believe in objectivity or professionalism in journalism or if they just a bunch of unethical larrikins; ‘professional journalists’ have a role in society. ‘Journalism should be seen as part of the broader process of making culture – or ‘imagining’, to use Benedict Anderson’s term. If journalism is viewed as a cultural practice, it enables us to think about how it might be reformed so that it may again be both of and for the public’ (Meadows 2001, p. 41).

Citizen journalism has made way for the post modern times we live in by incorporating the ‘active audience’ which has been ignored by the media. With commercial radio and television stations competing for ratings and audience numbers; it is surprising that the audience has been treated like passive infants for so long as stated by Carey ‘and it is precisely the modern notion of the fourth estate, relying on the element of the adversary press, which has ‘stitched the citizen into a passive role of spectator’. Adoption of, and reliance on, the idea of the ‘objectivity’ under the fourth- estate banner ensured citizens would be cast into the role of ‘students’ to be educated by the media, rather than being participants in the process of self-government (Carey 1997c, p. 337 cited in Meadows 2001, p. 42).

All media can be considered a text to be interpreted by the audience. A text can be viewed in two ways as stated by McQuail ‘one refers to the physical message itself- the printed document, film, television programme or musical score’ and the second ‘is to reserve the term ‘text’ for the meaningful outcome of the encounter between content and reader’ (2005, p. 385). A popular myth is that the meaning is already in the text.
However poststructural research (Wolff 1981, Belsey 2006, Barthes 1977) has found that the audience give a text meaning by understanding it through their own context. So while the media are sending out messages it is up to the audience to decide the meaning. With citizen journalism the audience can now state what their meaning is and actively participate (using the platform of the internet) in political, social and cultural matters which will affect them.

While citizen journalism is a positive step forward it has not been embraced by all. Journalists, who have trained, studied and actively understood the domain and field of journalism are now probably wondering what the point is? As a University student majoring in Journalism I too have to wonder where does that leave me now and in the future? James Farmer for The Age states in his Blog that if a citizen has gathered, analysed and disseminated information to the masses they are longer a citizen but now a journalist (Farmer 2006). Farmer concludes with this statement:

‘So bring on the revolution. Let's have sites that are built on citizen media and far greater and more worthwhile interaction between readers, journalists and editors. It's a riveting and powerful development in the world of online news, information and entertainment, but it's not citizen journalism and nor will it ever be’ (Farmer 2006).

An interesting statement that Farmer makes is that the term ‘citizen journalism’ is an insult.

“The very term is a somewhat insulting assumption. Journalists suffer a similar fate to teachers in that everyone is or has been exposed to their work on a very regular basis - everyone's got an opinion and they're not afraid to share it. As a bit of a reality check, when was the last time you encountered a "citizen doctor", valued a report by a "citizen researcher", took off in a plane flown by a "citizen pilot" or saw justice meted out by "citizen policeman"? (Farmer 2006).


Jay Rosen’s Blog Press Think gives a very interesting perspective to the citizen journalist concept that is changing the way the media is viewed. A very important point that Rosen states is ‘there are now closed and open editorial systems: they are different. They don’t work the same way, or produce the same goods. One does not replace the other. They are not enemies either. Ideas that work in one—that describe the world in that system—often do not work in understanding the other: they mis-describe the world’ (Rosen 2008). Being able to blog takes freedom of expression to a new level and that is a positive for society. Reporters Without Borders continually fight for freedom of the press and the internet is creating a freedom of the press platform.


In articles and comments on NYU Local about blogs there appears a trend that the audience realises that a blog is not objective and has a biased opinion. From comments on the NYU Local it appeared that this was an appreciated way of disseminating information. That it was breaking away from convention and embracing the opportunities that new media has allowed. However, one person’s opinion does not equal fact or ‘good’ information. Having a rant was why the personal journal was invented and now the internet provides a public forum for people’s personal tirades.
So while new media should be embraced, is embraced and moving journalism forward, society still requires objective, authoritative voices. Where we have come from cannot be entirely abolished and journalism’s history should apply no matter what platform it is on. New media is important and taking the journalism industry into a new era and while opinion is important it is not the be all of reporting on a topic, it is just a different way of doing journalism.
Meadows has a very good point when he states ‘Public journalism professes admirable aims, but how effective can these experiments be when journalists and journalism maintain perceptions that naturally set them apart from ‘the public’ (2001, p. 52).


These are views which are shaping the citizen journalist debate as the media and journalism continues to transform. There are those who are for and those against but either way this phenomenon is occurring. Meadows concludes by giving little hope for the journalist if they choose to remain in the old ways, ‘until there is a return to the forms of ‘public conversation’ from which modern journalism emerged, there seems little hope of journalism and journalists regaining a credible place in the public imagination and, by association, in the process of the formation of culture’ (2001, p. 52).

References

Barthes , R 1977, ‘The Death of the Author’ in Image, Music, Text, Noonday Press, New York , pp. 142- 153.


Belsey, C 2006, ‘Poststructuralism’, in S, Malpas & P, Wake (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Critical Theory, Routledge, London, pp. 43- 54.

Meadows, M 2001, ‘A Return to Practice: Reclaiming Journalism as Public Conversation’, in S Tapsall and C Varley (eds), Journalism Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 40- 54.

McQuail, D 2005, McQuail’s Mass Communication Theory, 5th edn, Sage, London.

Romano, A and Hippocrates, C 2001, ‘Putting the Public Back into Journalism’, in S Tapsall and C Varley (eds), Journalism Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 166- 184.

Wolff , J 1981, The Social Production of Art, Macmillan, London.