Citizen Journalism,
a powerful tool to empower people
Who, nowadays, doesn’t own a smartphone ? Even my 87 years grandfather has one. He still struggles with it, but he manages to use it quite well.
There you have it ! On your table, into your pocket, your bag, somewhere in the house…
You probably are (if not surely) connected to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tok-tok. You receive, interact (“like” or not) and share many kinds of content.
This daily device has become of bigger importance when it started to be used as a tool to transmit information in real time not only by professional journalists but also by “ordinary” citizens who dare participate in the dissemination of information, messages, experiences.
The recent development of communication tools, in particular those provided by the Internet (Websites, Blogs, Social Media platforms) are being used by millions of individuals around the world as means of expression, documentation, information and also creation. These citizens instead of being in the role of simple receivers, they become transmitters, commentators, podcasters, and content creators. Citizens are, thus, empowered because they are using journalists’ tools to transmit, report, create and share their content. Among this shared content we can find: live events, live or recorded interviews, recorded stories, live or recorded comments on an event, etc.
As a result of the technological advancement of social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, “providing innovative methods for stimulating citizen engagement in public life, and easy Internet access, the development of the public acting as journalists has become a phenomenon where anyone with digital gadgets such as Internet-connected smartphones can upload content freely and call themselves citizen journalists”(Rani Ann Balaraman & Faridah Ibrahimm, in Malaysian Journal of Communication, 2013).
Isn’t this innovative mainly in a world where the mainstream media have the tightest monopole over which events, subjects, people, to treat, promote or not ?
These innovations brought by the users consist of developing the participatory, contributory and community aspects of the network: the information receiver can be a transmitter.
He/She is, thus, a medium, a MEDIA. When these users provide independent, reliable, precise, diverse information they are necessarily contributing for the consolidation of democracy within their communities, their countries and also in the whole planet, depending on the information and the events.
Citizen Journalism undermines the news media by questioning the representativeness and legitimacy of reports from traditional media, often partial and under the control of authoritarian regimes or that of very rich people and/or corporations. Besides, these citizen journalists champion the idea that they are contributing to their societies, that they are influencing their fellow citizens to become themselves citizen journalists, encouraging them to take responsibility, be actors, not mere spectators easily influenced and manipulated.
These social actors use their computers, cameras, their phones, the Internet to testify about what they see, what they hear and/or what they observe.
It’s said that the roots of Citizen Journalism goes back to 1963, when Abraham Zapruder, with his camera, filmed the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He is considered to be the “ancestor” of “citizen journalists”.
In 2010, a footage about Mohammed El Bouazizi dying by immolation in Tunisia, went viral on the Internet, reaching millions of people in the MENA region and created many revolutions and revolts against the authoritarian regimes in the region, known as “The Arab Spring”. During these revolutions, in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Algeria, Morocco citizens reporters spread the information about rallies, about actions to be taken and disseminated information while the official and regimes’ “dog media” were spreading fake news, misinformation and propaganda against the freedom fighters.
In recent times, the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement in France at the end of 2018, was covered by many individual citizen reporters. The phenomenon was so particular and the citizen reporters didn’t use this form of journalism to only film and report but also to denounce social inequalities, as well as the police violence that took place so often.
Here and there, many whistleblowers are using the power of the Internet to tell “the truth”, warn us and inform us. They are citizen journalists committed to the values of justice and democracy.
As a matter of fact, who warned us about the Covid pandemic before it spread to the whole world? Dr Li Wenliang. “I didn’t want any trouble with the security bureau. I really feared trouble. [But] it was more important that everyone knew the truth”, Dr Li told Caixin magazine when he was at the hospital before he himself died from Covid-19.
In 2021, the Pulitzer Prize “Special prizes and citations” was awarded to Darnella Frazier, “For courageously recording the murder of George Floyd (with her phone), a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice”.
Many of these citizen journalists, around the world, have been or are being harassed, arrested, missed and/or killed. This is to say that Citizen Journalism is crucial in our times.
In many countries, the contribution of these journalists has been used to hold the state, the governments, the regimes, police departments and mainstream media accountable for their actions or their lack of action. The content they share helps galvanize civil and political movements.
Much of these journalists’ work is used by big media outlets when it is impossible for these latter to be where the events are taking place such as war zones, repressive environments, countries where international media are not allowed. From Syria, Taiwan, China, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, citizen journalists reported to worldwide known newsrooms.
No doubt, Citizen Journalism is important but it has its limits.
A huge amount of potential for fake or manipulated news circulate on the already mentioned platforms.
Concerning this very aspect, Max Hänska (Lecturer in Digital Journalism and Media Discourse) & Mike Bode (visual artist and researcher) argue that “eyewitness footage is polysemic and polyvalent, because it is easily stripped of the context of its original upload, to appear in different contexts, with different descriptions, advancing different interpretation of events and different political goals. Eyewitness media of protests complicates journalism’s task of providing a trusted record of the present.”
So, in addition to their skills, it’s important for citizen journalists to be trained in media literacy. As recommended by the Centre of International Media Assistance, it’s important for them (citizen journalists) “to understand the roles and the responsibilities of media in civil society; and to recognize how they can best contribute to a fair, open, and pluralistic exchange of news and information”.
Knowing that the public is more often open to conspiracy theories mainly because young people use social media as their main source of information, many essential standards of journalism, such as verification of facts and sources, the objectivity of a report, mustn’t be neglected in favor of immediacy and real-time reporting.
In conclusion, the work of citizen journalists, citizen reporters, content creators, information disseminators, active and participatory citizens, is very important. These citizens have an active status in the course of daily events, media, history and in the act of shaping the political sphere nationally and, sometimes, even internationally. Acquiring media literacy will give them the ability to be ethically responsible, the ability to analyze, assess, fact check, critique and create information from different sources. This is the best way for them to be effectively empowered.
Noufel Bouzeboudja
