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- From a Voice in the Wilderness to the Wisdom of Crowds: Citizen Journalism, Nonprofit Organizations and Social Change
From a Voice in the Wilderness to the Wisdom of Crowds: Citizen Journalism, Nonprofit Organizations and Social Change
Time:
Tuesday, 11:00 and Wednesday, 9:30
Room:
Main Plenary
Speakers:
- Dan Gillmor: Dan's Presentation
- Hong Eun Taek: Website - Oh My News International; Hong Eun Taek's Presentation
- Ethan Zuckerman: Ethan's Presentation
- Michael Rogers (immoderator)
Session Highlights:
- Session Notes from Citizen Journalism
- Video Recordings from Citizen Journalism: Ethan Zuckerman Video; Dan Gillmor Video
Live Blog from Citizen Journalism
Description:
They used to say that freedom of the press belonged to those who could own presses, but today the words "we are the media" are a common cry from an emerging corps of citizen journalists. What's a social change organization to do in this changing media landscape?
Citizen journalists have played an important role in the rise and fall of politicians and media icons around the world. Traditional media faces declining distribution and runs stories about "the attack of the blogs". From neighborhood controversies to events of international proportion, news coverage and analysis of the world today is coming from unconventional quarters in the form of writing, photography, video and voice, published online and consumed around the world.
What and who is a journalist anymore? Are citizen journalists really just wannabes without the skills to get hired as real reporters? How can credibility be measured if everyone's the media? Is objectivity still a requirement in these new emerging roles? Does the proliferation of citizen journalists correspond with an atomization of discourse and our entrapment in political echo chambers? Is the line between social change actor and casual citizen being dissolved just as, and in part because of, the dissolution of the line between media and audience?
What are the best nonprofit practices for going beyond traditional media relations? Should nonprofits still send out press releases, and if so, to whom? Should nonprofits and NGOs integrate citizen journalism into their own practices, and if so, how?
Comments
opinions = credibility
Why are "opinionated" or "activist" blogegrs less credible than "citizen journalists?" What is wrong with having agenda? Hong Eun Taek is right, "objective journalism" is a myth. I trust bloggers much more because their motivations are transparent.
Greetings From OhmyNews
It will be a great opportunity for us to share our experiences and lessons we have had so for. Though technology can change the world, it is us who should decide its direction. That 's why it is a significance to see each other offline and build a community. I hope this conference will tie everybody in solidarity. If you take a look at what and how we are doing, please go to http://english.ohmynews.com. There is a new section "Citizen Journalism: Theory and Practice" which, I believe, can contribute to spreading the concept to the world. I look forward to seeing you all after 11 hours ' flight from Seoul. All the best,
Hong Eun-Taek
[Submitted by Mark Liu for Hong Eun-Taek]
Greetings from OhmyNews
It will be a great opportunity for us to share our experiences and lessons we have had. Though technology can change the world, it is people who decide the direction of the change. That's why it is a significance to meet each other offline and build a real community. I hope this conference will tie everybody in solidarity.
I look forward to seeing you all after 11 hours' flight from Seoul.
And if you want to take a look at our site, please go to http://english.ohmynews.com
There is a new section "Citizen Journalism: Theory and Practice" which, I believe, can contribute to understanding of the concept.
Thanks.
Thoughts from Immoderator
What I hope to emerge from this session is real hands-on practical advice for how to marshall the force of citizen journalism and the new open media space for social good. I don't think we need to spend much time convincing this audience that we need an alternative to the increasingly cowed and diminished mainstream media. However, in the two years since Dan's seminal book We the Media, a lot of us have been working hard at all kinds of citizen journalism projects and I think we've collectively discovered that the practice is not always as smooth as the theory. If you build it, they don't necessarily show up. If they do, the collective energy sometimes doesn't move in the direction you hope. And we still need effective ways to connect grassroots journalism with mainstream media when we want our messages to reach the widest possible audience. The last two years have seen the assembly of a lot of great tools, techniques and knowledge in this space. I hope in these ninety minutes we can really learn what works and how to work it.
Accountability
What is the role of accountability and fact-checking in the world of citizen journalism? Can we rely on the watchful eye of the many to ensure stories "self-right" themselves? If the blogosphere reports a story accurately in aggregate, does that make up for inaccurate stories on the fringe? Is citizen journalism a drop-in replacement for traditional journalism, and should it be?