The Birth Of Citizen Journalism

The Birth of Citizen Journalism

The concept of citizen journalism is a relatively new phenomenon that has played a new role in how citizens interact with the media. No longer is the average citizen a receiver of nightly television broadcasts but is now an active participant in how the news is shaped. In the past few years it has become increasingly clear that the use of social networks and user generated content is now the first link in the media’s distribution of news. I wish to explore and examine the potential this new social trend has.

In the last few years I have seen how the tactics of civil rights groups adapted and changed across the globe. The change is the struggle to counteract measures imposed by governments that have little regard for human rights. In viewing the 2008 documentary “Burma VJ” I watched as how the videographer named “Joshua” shot footage from a concealed Canon camera, and uploaded edited content onto a yahoo account for Radio Free Burma based in Denmark. This method helped capture the exact actions taken during the September 2007 protests by the Burmese government as thousands of protestors took to the streets of Rangoon. In addition to the Burmese opposition using this technology as similar scenario played out on the streets of Tehran in July of the previous year.

The opposition party of Mir-Hossein Mousavi disputed President Ahmadinejad’s reelection by staging a mass protest in the Iranian capital. In response the government ordered a crackdown of all telecommunications centers to disrupt personal cell phone communication as well as text messages directed to outside sources. In a move that stunned the world, the opposition groups turned to social networking sites as well as the micro-blogging site twitter. The Iranian authorities attempted to shut down the nations web services and restart them at lower bandwidths, only to find that the very computer literate activists often used open web proxy servers to get around net sanctions. The conclusion of these examples of social unrest was that anti-authoritarian opposition was digitally mobilized, yet could not be sustained without outside help. It is here that I wish to begin my research.

I hope to examine these two instances while keeping in mind how the citizen journalist theory applies to both. In each instance I will cite the methods that succeeded, what did not succeed, and how the international community could have further assisted them in fighting for their civil rights. This topic will be a sociological case study that will be conducted through virtual ethnography. The theory of Media Determinism will be invaluable as societal norms of communication depend on the means to which individuals collaborate. Keeping in mind that the uses of social networking in these instances are seemingly a utilitarian approach, I will analyze samples of tweets and messages relayed through sites sent out by these activists. I will also examine the government responses to the actions of opposition groups. As this is a new field I hope to uncover new theories and possibilities as to how the public can further exercise its self-determination through our interconnected age.

Tags: Human Rights, journalism, research proposal, social media