Aibreán Ó Connalláin explores how citizen journalism impacts the world as well as the imprint society has left upon it.
What’s on the other side?
In the pre-internet age media choices were limited. Sitting down in front of the television involved the difficult choice between RTE One and Network Two. Maybe BBC1 or Granada if you were lucky.
The newspaper rack provided a little more choice but many were resigned to the Irish Times, the Irish Independent or the Herald.
Then the World Wide Web arrived and with it came choice. It gave us access to media from around the world.
We were no longer separated by seas and by continents. While the online world became bigger our real world became a little bit smaller.
The connections the web provided gave rise to a new type of journalism, citizen journalism. While aspects of citizen journalism had been around for centuries with the radical pamphlets of 18th Century America and the pirate radio and tv broadcasts of the 20th century. The end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st saw citizen journalism being properly defined by the arrival of Web 2.0.
Web 2.0 marked the shift from citizens as media consumers to media ‘produsers’. The concept of media produsers was introduced by Axel Bruns who used it to describe the increasing blurriness between those who produce and consume media online. Before the launch of 2.0 media consumption was passive. People read and watched content online without any outlet to interact with it. Web 2.0 allowed consumers to give feedback for the first time. Which led to interconnectivity around the world.
High speed internet increased interconnectivity, allowing streaming platforms like Youtube to launch.
Youtube has impacted on how we see the world. At first it was a platform to share videos but for many it has become a platform to share knowledge.
All change
This reflects a general liberalization of information. Knowledge is no longer guarded by experts and academics. Anyone with access to the internet and a computer, can educate themselves on almost anything.
Social changes such as increased access to education and social movements such as social democracy and feminism have also impacted the access to knowledge. Certain careers and vocations are no longer the reserve of the wealthy who can afford to attend university or undertake training.
These social movements and new technologies combined to allow the emergence of a new type of journalism. One where anyone, anywhere can be a reporter.
Dr Eileen Culloty from DCU’s Institute for Future Media and Journalism describes citizen journalism as: “…private citizens acting like journalists by investigating and producing news stories”
We are all reporters now
The fact that anyone anywhere could now be a reporter changed how traditional journalism works. Traditional news media such as network news broadcasters and online newspapers started utilising the content produced by citizen journalists. Notable examples include the use of citizen footage after the 9/11 attacks, the 2009 G7 protests in London, and the 2015 Paris terror attacks.
It changed how we saw the news. In the years prior to Web 2.0 we were used to seeing the aftermath of events. The hours following the event when the television cameras and press cameras scrambled to the scene.
We are now able to witness the event as it happens. As the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, London and Vienna unfolded, the hashtags were already trending on Twitter before they were being reported on mainstream media. The videos had already gone viral around the world.
It has desensitised us. News does not land in the same way without the video or photos to immediately prove it. People no longer trust the words of the journalists and media alone. They need the shaky footage to back it up.
The constant exposure to violent news is also damaging our mental health.
Not all bad news
Citizen journalism has also had a more positive effect on traditional media and the world around us. Traditional media had a monopoly on agenda setting and gatekeeping. Social media and citizen journalism has changed that. It changed from journalists telling their audience what they should know to the audience guiding them to what they should be telling us.
After the leak of thousands of indecent images of Irish women, many mainstream publications were slow to report on the story. With pressure from the activists that were reporting it on twitter as well as the overwhelming response on social media these publications could no longer ignore it.
Neither could politicians. Last week the government announced that they were drafting legislation which would outlaw revenge porn. This was grassroots social change, from the bottom up, the work of activists and citizen journalists spreading the word online.
Check your absolute privilege
Some online campaigns have seen citizen journalists fall foul of the law. One of the problems with citizen journalism is the lack of accountability. The lack of regulation within citizen journalism as well as the lack of knowledge of journalistic ethics and codes of conduct.
The behaviour of some Citizen journalism has led to existing laws to be reviewed here in Ireland.
Currently any person reporting on court proceedings are protected from defamation once their reports were ‘fair and accurate’.
The coverage of the Jobstown Six trial brought into question who should absolute privilege be extended to. During the trial supporters of the defendants posted video updates and tweets about the progress of the trial. Some which were claimed to have been posted from the courtroom by one of the defendants TD Paul Murphy.
Many believed that these posts constituted contempt of court given that traditional media: “…is restricted from commenting on an on-going trial or offering analysis of evidence in case it interferes with the judicial process”.
Dr Culloty feels that: “…while there was a lot of optimism about citizen journalism in the past, that’s changed. Especially because disinformation, conspiracy theories, hate campaigns are often spread by people who claim to be citizen journalists. Anyone with a smartphone and social media account can claim to be a citizen journalist and there are no repercussions if what they report is flawed or incorrect.”
While those reporting on the Jobstown trial faced no repercussions, it has led to the Law Reform Committee looking into what is ‘fair and reasonable‘ reporting and whether absolute privilege should be removed from citizen journalists.
An option would be to restrict absolute privilege to: “…a limited group of prescribed people“. It would restrict citizen journalist’s ability to report on court proceedings.
This could shape how citizen journalism is defined legally. Who would decide who should have absolute privilege?
It could leave anyone who is not a member of the NUJ, or who doesn’t have training or an affiliation with a professional publication from reporting on cases.
Other countries and territories have adapted their press and media regulation to include citizen journalists.
The worry is any sort of regulation could limit freedom of speech. Citizen journalism and freedom of the press are important parts of a healthy democracy.
Media analyst Niamh Kirk states: “…citizens engaging in open journalism, through reporting and commenting on the administration of justice, enables ordinary people to become more than just passive consumers of news about the justice system. They add a layer of accountability.”
The more you ignore me
Could laws really limit the freedom of citizen journalism? In countries where there are oppressive political regimes and strict media censorship citizen journalism still exists and plays an important role in these societies.
One of the most recent examples of this is from the anti government protests in Hong Kong. While the state clamped down on reports coming out of Hong Kong more and more videos and images appeared.
As well as changing legislation, citizen journalism is impacting on how professional journalists work.
The professional journalist’s role is shifting from just reporting to that of a media aggregator. Consuming citizen media and reports, assessing them and then repackaging them for the mass media market.
It is unlikely that citizen journalism will replace traditional journalism. Citizen journalism could continue to give depth to professional journalism by both providing content and filling in the gaps by covering stories not touched upon by traditional media.
Traditional media might find itself in a fact checking role. This is already happening on The Journal.ie’s FactCheck section and in the company Storyful which uses journalists to analyse and fact check content primarily for professional journalists.
Dr Culloty noted that The Journal has also launched Noteworthy where: “…citizens suggest topics to TheJournal for investigation. In the case of noteworthy, they even fund it, but it’s professional journalists who do the work and, crucially, apply editorial oversight.”
Three step flow
Journalists are now longer the main buffer between the mass media and the public. The two step flow communication theory: “…proposes that interpersonal interaction has a far stronger effect on shaping public opinion than mass media outlets.” In this model information travels directly to ‘opinion leaders’ who are active media consumers who “…who collect, interpret, and diffuse” to less active consumers.
The less active consumers trust opinion leaders more as they have more of a connection with them than with the mass media.
Citizen media has become so organised and well produced that they have the audience and mass appeal of some small traditional media companies. All the while maintaining an interpersonal relationship with their followers.
Some news channels on Youtube like A Different Bias, Glenn Kirschner, and Philip DeFranco have 71,000, 214,000 and 3.6 million subscribers respectively.
This connection has allowed citizen media to become another step in the two step flow process, creating a three step process. The mass media reports on stories which are then framed and reported by citizen journalists on blogs and Youtube. Their work is then shared by opinion leaders on social media.
For some people citizen media forms the main type of journalism they consume. Over a quarter of adults in the US used Youtube as a news source with 51% using the platform to source opinions and social commentary and 48% using it as a source of information and facts.
42% of the news related Youtube channels identified by the Pew Institute: “…do not have a clear affiliation with any external entity” or mass media company.
There is a danger when a person’s sole media diet comes from citizen journalists who are working outside a code of ethics and code of conduct.
The Pew Institute found that videos from independent news creators were more likely: “…to mention or focus on conspiracy theories and to take a negative tone toward the main subjects of their videos.”
It is hard to nail down the effects of citizen journalism while the future of journalism itself is in a state of flux. Dr Culloty states: “…the news industry is suffering financially and many newsrooms are running on limited resources”
What is clear is that citizen journalism is entwined with traditional journalism. Both will continue to be shaped by the people they serve and in turn will shape the world they operate in.
Sources
Thanks to Eileen Culloty from DCU FuJo for answering my questions on the impact of citizen journalism in Ireland
Thanks to Niamh Kirk and their work on How Should Courts Handle the Rise of Citizen Journalists?
Thanks to Léopoldine Iribarren and their work on The impact of ‘citizen journalism’ on the public sphere
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Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
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