Is Citizen Journalism the Future of Journalism?
Media scholars often said that in terms of news culture, there are two types of people - those that produce news, to inform and educate, and those who consume the news to gain cultural education. However, in recent years, because of evolving technology and changing traditions, a third type of person has emerged - those that both consume and produce news, taking what they are given by the opinion leaders, putting their own personal interpretation on it, and then publishing for further public consumption. This supports Reception Theory, as consumers’ possible negotiated or oppositional readings may be used in their own production of media texts, with their interpretation depending on their experiences or background.
Often, what the public and consumers see as high quality citizen journalism are blog posts, and the more desultory being photos or videos and ‘tweets', ‘statuses' or comments. What links each of these aspects is the idea that ordinary members of the public (‘citizens') can collect, analyse, produce and distribute news in order to contribute to public knowledge and opinion, without being a trained professional in the journalism industry.[1] Incorporating all of these forms means that what qualifies as citizen journalism is debated, and can often take many different names; grassroots journalism, network journalism, participatory journalism and user-generated content. Henry R Luce assimilates this into his opinion of journalism as an industry:
"Publishing is a business, but journalism never was and is not essentially a business. Nor is it a profession." - Henry R Luce
Is journalism as a profession dying out, was it ever really a profession, and is citizen journalism the future of journalism?
Journalism commentator Jon Katz controversially posted on a discussion-based website ‘slashdot.com’ “Would you ever read a newspaper again?” before making the following comment:
“All over the information spectrum, media audiences are fragmented, drawn to the timeliness, convenience and immediacy of cable news, and the Net and the Web. As the Net and Web spawn ferocious and idiosyncratic commentary, democratizing opinion all over the country, newspapers cling to stuffy and elitist op-ed pages, where opinion is generally confined to a “left” and “right” and voice usually given to elite claques of pundits, academics, authors and CEO’s” – Jon Katz[2]
Jon Katz’s opinion highlights the speed and ease of access of network journalism, as well as the availability of unique viewpoints because of decentralisation.
The increasing available formats for citizen journalism means that as the amount increases so does the ease-of-access of news stories – for both the consumer and producer. ‘Simple' citizen journalism was used to get breaking news to the world much faster than traditional news sources throughout the 2011 London riots and looting. This backs up David Gauntlett’s Web 2.0 theory because of how easy it is to view and access citizen journalism, making it even easier by the many riot-related hashtags that were so largely used. Shortly after the riots, networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and Blackberry Messenger were being named as the reason the riots and lootings reached the scale they did.
David Cameron said in an emergency parliamentary meeting[3]: "Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media… We are looking at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.". Media Effects Theory suggests that media texts have an effect or influence on the consumer, and that the message of the text has power over the audiences actions, rather than the audience themselves, which would therefore mean the governments plan would be useful.
However, a team of academics at Manchester University led an analysis into the 2.6 million tweets related to the riots and loots from the time.[4] Professor Rob Procter exclaims: "Our study has found no evidence of significance in the available data that would justify such a course of action in respect to Twitter. In fact, the study found that Twitter and the other social networks used helped both during the riots and afterwards.” Professor Rob Proctor also states that "Twitter was a valuable tool for mobilising support for the post-riot clean-up and for organising specific clean-up activities.". Which contrastingly, follows Cultural Effects Theory, as it gradually affects people’s attitudes, in this case positively, and audiences can challenge the reading of a text. As well as this, Twitter was used as a news source, with images and information circulating before journalists had even arrived at the scene.
Grassroots journalism is also adding freedom of expression for the consumers and giving them a public voice. German political scientist Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann proposed the mass communication theory of ‘Spiral of Silence’, which suggests that members of the public have a fear of isolation, resulting from the idea that they may become rejected or excluded by a social group because of an opinion they have. Spiral of Silence says this then leads to these individuals remaining silent and continuing to conform to the dominant ideologies.
However, Citizen journalism is often used to empower the public, even those not as digitally advanced, and provide them with a voice, showing how liberal pluralism has benefitted from the rise of social media and citizen journalism. Bournemouth University have produced a journalism project aiming to empower elderly, disabled, and carers, through working with a local charity[5]. After a crash-course in journalism, these volunteers gained the skills and confidence to produce their journalism website and videos about many topics including living with cancer, social issues and more. This is an effective use of class-dominant theory – suggesting that the media reflects and projects the views of a minority elite. One of the videos they produced, has gained the attention and support from Parliament, the BBC[6] and more, with there most recently being a meeting with the transport minister planned. This shows collective intelligence as more hegemony is being provided to the public, instead of them having to follow the usual opinion leaders - with just the help of recent technology and basic knowledge.
Another issue occurring because of the rise of citizen journalism is the question of who decides what classes as news? Do the public have a right to know everything that is happening (as a pluralist may think), or is it beneficial for them that they are only exposed to certain things (from a moralists perspective)? CNN have recently set up their iReport project, where they set 'assignments' of stories, with members of the public then writing articles on that subject and one being chosen to be published.[7] When asked ‘What counts as "news" here?', the iReport website states that:
"We'll decide that together. One of the goals of CNN iReport is to expand the current definition of news. … share the stories you think are newsworthy… producers will check out the most compelling, important and urgent stories, so we can verify the information and add them to CNN's coverage."[8]
This use of gatekeeping means that the public are free to suggest and produce stories of any news they think should be broadcast to the world, and depending on the reaction of other iReport users to the story, and the professional opinion and verification of CNN's producers it can be covered. This may be seen as a form of prefabrication because its use of consumer empowerment and cultural proximity means something that may actually be marginal in news terms, is chosen over something possibly more newsworthy.
As well as the iReport scheme, CNN also have another project called ‘Change the List' where columnists would suggest a number of stories that they would cover, and whichever got the most votes would be reported on. John D. Sutter, a columnist for CNN, said ‘The project tries to call attention to stories that aren't widely known because they're "at the bottom of the list" of stories to cover'. This is giving the public even more freedom to choose what is circulated and talked about, with this project having the added advantage of higher public trust because of being jointly produced by the public and the corporation. However, this still illustrates a Marxism perspective, as the industry in power is gaining public trust and giving them the perception they are given freedom, while the industry themselves is still the ones gaining from it.
With technology constantly evolving, and consumerism theory predicting how audiences will always have a need for improving and advancement, citizen journalism will inevitably become the predominant form of journalism and news distribution. Looking at past forms, and how they've had to adapt to survive, grassroots journalism is journalisms form of adapting in order to keep up with digitalisation – some journalism industries have already evolved, for example, The Sun introducing Sun+, gaining the digital audience and also finance as a result of their paywall – showing how, in order to survive through changing trends and digital advancements, a media industry must adapt. However, traditional forms are still needed for user-generated content to base their structure on and follow the conventions of.
Although, if this is the case, and soon user-generated journalism will be a more common form of journalism than industry led pieces, there will be some issues that go along with that as an impact.
The National Union of Journalists' Code of Conduct has shown the principles and guidelines of UK and Irish Journalism since 1907[9], for journalists to follow through their principles and work. However, with grassroots journalism presenting many that don't see themselves as 'professional' journalists, as well as new, more unconventional ways of sourcing their stories, should citizen journalism be made to more closely follow the NUJ Code of Conduct? Or is the Code of Conduct outdated and need adapting?
'Does nothing to intrude into anybody's private life, grief or distress unless justified by overriding consideration of the public interest.'[10]
This is one of the codes that particularly apply to citizen journalism, as citizen journalists are members of the public themselves, their connection to the 'public interest' may blur their judgement of what is acceptable to investigate into. They may use the public voyeurism to invade personal information and space in order to publish a news article. However, if this was a professional journalist, their judgement may be different as to the extent of investigation needed and how to handle possibly sensitive situations.
'Strives to ensure that information disseminated is honestly conveyed, accurate and fair.'
Additionally, there is the issue of the accuracy of information collected as part of user-generated journalism. Because it is so easy to publish citizen journalism, and is often on a small, simple scale, it is often assumed it isn't as necessary to be sure that information you give is accurate, showing a simulacra, as reality on that platform is marginally constructed and ‘simulated’ in comparison to real life and the effect that platform may have on it. This could be due to the source - with people often giving their opinion, rather than fact, due to the context and the platform. Professional journalists take care to adhere to the codes and to present accurate news stories, largely because they work on behalf of a company with high public regard. However, as citizen journalists aren’t working as professionals, the context, seriousness, or impact of the opinion/statement they make may not occur to them - because of how easy and common it is to produce acts of citizen journalism, whether it will reach a wide audience is not guaranteed. As part of CNN's iReport, a story was published rumoring Steve Jobs had had a heart attack[11]. Because of the time the story was published, and the platform it was released on, Apple could not stop the post circulating to a wide audience before being verified, resulting in financial loss for Apple, and bad publicity for both them and CNN.
'At all times upholds and defends the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed.'
On the other hand this code set by the National Union of Journalists encapsulates why many strive, and continue to be, citizen journalists. Citizen journalism brings a new freedom for news publishing and, because of Henry Jenkins' participatory culture, more and more people are discovering this freedom, the new digital advancements that fuel it, and the sub-culture of citizen journalists - and with more people producing the news stories, the more news available to reach a wider audience, for the public to ‘be informed'
Although news publishing has conventions and codes like all platforms, all industries need to adapt and change as technology and trends advance. The traditional form of news publishing will still exist, as it is vital from a structuralism perspective, however dominant ideology suggests that citizen journalism will overshadow traditional forms in providing consumers/producers with news in the most popularly used way, both practically[12] and ethically. However, like the NUJ, citizen journalism should have some set guidelines to make sure the work of citizen journalists remain fair, although not to override the ‘freedom' that attracts citizen journalists. As user-generated journalism becomes more recognized and accepted among the public, it will become clearer to consumers the differences in content, and the eligibility of what they read.
[1] Citizen Journalism: Valuable, Useless or Dangerous? Melissa Wall (2012) page 2
[2] “Online News and Changing Models of Journalism” Brian Trench and Gary Quinn
[3] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/07/twitter-riots-how-news-spread
[4] http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/07/twitter-riots-how-news-spread
[5] https://research.bournemouth.ac.uk/impact/bu-citizen-journalism-project-featured-on-bbc/
[6] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-30659994
[7] http://ireport.cnn.com/about.jspa
[8] http://ireport.cnn.com/faq.jspa#news
[9] https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/
[10] https://www.nuj.org.uk/about/nuj-code/