Citizen Journalism
Citizen Journalism taking edge over Conventional Media
Man landing on the Moon, John F.
Kennedy’s assassination or Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the world learned
about these incidents through conventional means of mass media. People were
glued to newspapers, radio and TV sets to know each and every detail.
“Incident of September, 11, 2001,
airplanes exploding into two skyscrapers” and 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks also
“followed the same pattern, but with a little change…. This time regular
audience was also part of news making,” claimed Dan Gillmor in his book “ We the Media. “
People shot and posted the video of the event
on the social media sites and sent them to media channels before reporters
could actually reach there. People narrated their eye accounts in their blogs.
That was the first time when
professional media acknowledged and used the contribution of the citizen
journalism in their news feeds…. The advent of technology made it possible.
Today, it has become a revolutionary
reality of the media around. Almost every day some video or tweet is surfacing
and grabbing headlines. PM Modi too prefers to tweet rather than conduct a
conventional press conference. New means of communications and gadgets made it possible
for anyone to report anything, anywhere with no cost and great global reach.
Going
by definition, Citizen Journalism is, indeed, Community Journalism. It
is also known as Grassroots or Participatory Journalism where local people give
local news and participate in the news making. They
collect, report and disseminate information.
The movement of Citizen Journalism dates back to early 2000s,
particularly in the US. But the origins of citizen journalism are as old as
journalism, when pamphlets and reports were issued by citizens. Slowly
situation changed, people started sending their news directly to the newspapers
and media houses.
Considering the importance of
citizen journalism and larger audience, big media organisations like BBC, The
Times of India, CNN-IBN, NDTV also started offering space to citizen
journalism. They have their own posts for the citizen journalism through blogs
and posts.
In fact, Google is also testing a new mobile
app called “Bulletin” that allows residents in a community to report and
post local news stories.
In India, we have some
great platforms of Citizen Journalism. Meri News with motto: "Power
to people" was the first Indian website wholly devoted to citizen
journalism. Khabar Leheria is also
a newspaper, run by local people and published in rural dialects of Hindi,
including Bundeli and Avadhi. Jan Ki Baat is an online platform where
people are posting their videos and stories. There are various community radio platform too
where local people generate content and talk about social issues.
Here, the reporting is more focused and
issued-based in nature.
Its presence on internet is also
quite significant. Movement like ‘India Against Corruption’
validates its presence in the society. The increase in social networking and
advancement in technology has made citizen journalism platforms more active and
reachable.
Nirbhaya
case, 2012 and Orissa, 2017 is also testimony to the fact that how people
galvanized the power of citizen journalism and successfully delivered concrete
reliefs for the victims.
Students
of Journalism in Orissa played pivotal role in giving authentic news/ relief
updates to people of inaccessible areas. This is a great case of reporting by
citizen Journalists in crisis.
In fact, epistemological roots of
community radio go back to “crisis reporting and wartime
reporting only.” According to Allan and Thorsen, “The birth of citizen journalism as such, lay in crisis reporting and wartime reporting
which was later spread to other areas of global pandemics.“
Also, it is a great outlet for Journalists
who felt restricted by their editors in exposing the truth. Citizen journalism is their alternative to
protect the truth.
It is a boon for wider and
detailed coverage of all local issues. As journalists are mostly busy in
covering national and other important issues, citizen journalists play an
important role in catering to the local needs of society. They are the real
watchdog of their locality and community.
In fact, many untouched or
unreported areas like tribal areas of the country have benefited because of
citizen journalism. Here, tribals could raise their voice against the local
problems and disparities that they find hard to talk about otherwise. ‘Voice of Chhattisgarh’ is an apt example
for it.
However, the only
drawback Citizen Journalism faces is that this kind of reporting or writing is not subjugated to any gate keeping
or checks.
But, it very well serves the purpose
of journalism that is informing and educating people.
Geetika Vashishata
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Studies
