An Evolving Media: Consumers as Creators

Below is my research paper. It is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License as this blog, so feel free to use it however you want, so long as you attribute it properly.

An Evolving Media:

Consumers as Creators

Since the technology boom began in the late 20th century, a plethora of cutting-edge news media and distribution methods have appeared, creating a consumer’s market for journalism. Consumers have more choice than ever before in where and how they get their news. As a result, news providers are experiencing increased competition for speed, quality, and reader interest. A photographer working in India can send his images to New York in seconds. A British reporter in Africa can file his story on a tight deadline with only a cell phone and a laptop. A videographer in Indonesia can send live footage to viewers around the world. These advances are amazing in their own right, but the truly revolutionary thing is that anyone can participate.

Using the power of the Internet, almost anyone can create and view content in a variety of media from anywhere in the world. This capability does several important things to the news industry. With the aid of these so-called “citizen journalists,” the industry now has infinite and inexpensive access to places that may have been inaccessible before. With hyperlocal blogs, news organizations may now cover markets as small as a single neighborhood in great detail. Spurred on by consumer desire and enabled by technological advance, mainstream media organizations have also begun implementing the same multimedia features used in other sectors of the internet. These features have allowed them to further explore the art of storytelling, creating a “portfolio” of media and interactivity around a core product, usually print, to tell stories in the most engaging and informative way (Smolkin, 2006). The Internet arisen as an entirely new, empty playing field for journalism, where established media organizations and everyday people work together to find the most effective methods for communication and distribution.

While citizen journalism can trace its roots to the alternative press of the 1960’s and to centuries-old political movements around the world (Vargas, 2007 p. C8), it has come into its own on the internet, both as an alternative and complement to mainstream media. Whether you look at counterculture magazines like Rolling Stone or the political pamphlets of Thomas Paine, you notice that populations underrepresented in mainstream media tend to find their own less conventional outlets for their opinions. Today, a few groups in the United States are active in citizen journalism due to mainstream underrepresentation. For the most part, however, citizen journalism thrives today because the audience as a whole, thanks to their sheer numbers and readily available technology, feels that it can do a better job of reporting than a small group of trained professionals.

Citizen Journalists in the Spotlight

In the past, mainstream media have taken on the role of the observer, relaying information to those who cannot gain it firsthand. Collectively, however, the audience has more knowledge than the reporter can feasibly get (Glasser, 2006 ¶ 5). Eventually, ordinary citizens witnessing newsworthy events realize that they can simply cut out the middleman-the mainstream media- and use their cell phones, cameras, and computers as personal distribution platforms. Aggregated knowledge is key to citizen journalism. Professional bloggers agree that comments are one of the few formal requirements of a blog (Conniff, 2005). Using this aggregated knowledge, ordinary citizens have been able to get access where mainstream media cannot. Citizen journalism has given the world a unique perspective on tragic disasters like the London subway bombings and the 2004 tsunamis in Southeast Asia and a view inside oppressive authoritarian states like Burma and Pakistan.

Disasters can strike at anytime, anywhere in the world, often in places where mainstream media cannot send reporters quickly enough to catch the story. In cases like these, citizen journalists assume the responsibility of telling the rest of the world what is occurring. The 2004 tsunamis in the Indian Ocean were a devastating example of this kind of disaster and became a turning point in the history of citizen journalism (Outing, 2005). In the wake of the destructive waves, people around the world were eager for information about the events. Thanks to the internet and eyewitnesses armed with camera phones and video cameras, curious observers now had a more personal alternative to traditional, third-party mainstream media.

Images such as Figure 1, a video still, gave audiences a more intense, up-close, and emotional view of the chaos than what the mainstream media was able to provide. This video, taken by tourists, depicts the initial surge of the tsunami as it struck Koh Lanta, Thailand. First, they stare in awe at the retreating sea, then begin to run in fear when they see the wall of water rushing toward them. Even the most committed professional videographers would likely try to avoid a situation this dangerous, leaving citizen journalists to present these compelling images. Bloggers like Rick Von Feldt, an American living in Thailand, set up websites for survivors to tell their own stories, and these quickly became forums to share experiences. Von Feldt’s initial detailed response to the disaster came in the form of a long blog post:

The second – and most deadly SWELL came. And this one was the life taking swell. Larger. More fierce. Taller by 10 feet – this one just came so strongly – and pushed everything in its path towards the town. People were but leaves going under. This swell pushed all of the 200 cars on the beach forward (2005).

A traditional news article would likely contain a few witness accounts, and the newspaper might publish a letter or two on the topic. On popular blogs like this one, however, posts have a strong, emotional tone and often garner many comments, all of them published. Comments on this entry range from supportive condolence to similar accounts of the tragedy to students asking to use his story in projects. Consumers now had the opportunity to see what happened as it happened from the people who experienced it (Glasser, 2005). Naturally, thousands of people were eager to see this new, up-close and personal view of the tsunamis, and the small independent blogs hosting the videos were swamped with traffic and unable to pay for the massive amounts of bandwidth required to host popular videos. Von Feldt, for example, refers to pictures that he has since had to remove from his site due to bandwidth concerns. Fortunately, mainstream media stepped in with their established infrastructure to help host the citizen-shot video. From that point forward, mainstream media organizations were far more eager to work with citizen journalists to deliver stories as quickly and effectively as possible.

Sometimes, it is not an event’s location that makes it inaccessible but the speed at which it unfolds. When such events occur, professional journalists often cannot make it to the scene on time to cover them in real time. As in remote disasters, citizen journalists play an important role here in informing mainstream media. The most vivid recent example of such an event was the July 2005 London subway and bus bombings. Here, survivors of the blasts quickly began recording the scene (Bell, 2005). Like witnesses of the tsunamis, these impromptu citizen journalists began sending their images and footage to the BBC and other mainstream media outlets for distribution. Citizen journalists armed with camera phones gave the entire world a first person view of a terrorist attack.

These grainy photos of little technical merit (Figure 2) will go down in photojournalism history. The emotions they convey are as strong as those in any famous Pulitzer-winning shot, and the level of access is unprecedented. Ordinarily, news photographs of an underground bombing would depict rescue workers above ground, not victims still trapped underground. Here, the cellphone-wielding photographer captures his fellow commuters trapped in and around a train after an explosion. In the foreground, we see a man shielding his mouth from the smoke and dust produced by the blast. In the background a crowd huddles in the relative safety of the train, conjuring images of Londoners seeking refuge in the Tube from German bombs during World War II.

While many eyewitnesses submitted their footage almost as visual interviews, others worked with local bloggers to provide constant coverage of events (Hinchcliffe, 2005). One popular blog, Londonist, maintained an 8-hour “liveblog,” one entry that was continually updated as events unfolded. The day of the bombings, Londonist took a break from its ordinary blogging about simple local news to give readers updates every few minutes ranging from casualty estimates like “10:56 – at least 90 casualties at Aldgate station” to transit status like “16:26 According to commenter Polly, mainline rail services have now resumed”. Although they were horrible disasters with untold casualties, the 2004 tsunamis and the London bombings served to bring citizen journalism into the eyes of the average news consumer (Glasser, 2006).

Authoritarian governments have traditionally retained power through strict control of the flow of information. They do this under the assumption that they can keep foreign journalists out and knowledge of repression and atrocities in. Now that ordinary citizens can act as journalists, this has become much harder to do. In the past, a few reporters have been able to sneak in and out of countries like Burma, posing as tourists and performing espionage-like journalism in an attempt to show the world the horrors of authoritarian rule (Cooper, 2007). But this method has proved far too slow. There have been two recent uprisings in Burma. One occurred in 1988 and was hidden from the outside world largely due to a lack of access for journalists. In the Fall of 2007, another uprising took place, but this one was far more visible to the international community. The people of Burma have since gained access to computers, the internet, and cell phones. In the early days of the movement, the international community was shocked by shaky footage of peaceful protesters being arrested, attacked, and killed by military personnel. Unfortunately, the Burmese government realized the political power of citizen journalism and cut off all internet and cell phone communication after several days. Niknayman, one of the last remaining bloggers in Burma, maintained a liveblog similar to Londonist’s. The Guardian Unlimited translated several of his entries, including them in their own more internationally focused liveblog of the events. They used his dramatic, detailed realtime account to narrow the scope of their more politically focused coverage of the events on September 28:

13:13: About 10,000 people are gathering at Sanpya market.14:35: At Anawratha street in downtown, people and soldiers got into brawl and now shooting started at Sanpya market. 14:36: Soldiers beaten the teachers in North Ukkalapa who organized the crowd for demonstration. 15:01: It is hard to communicate now as some of the telephone lines were cut off (Sturcke, 2007).

Relatively few Burmese blogs were presented in English, so they largely served as a source for mainstream media While it lasted, bloggers were able to report brutal atrocities, and ordinary citizens were able to broadcast footage taken on their cell phones on international news networks (Cooper, 2007).

In November 2007, the New York Times began aiding citizen journalists in another country in crisis. On November 9, the Times put out a request for “eyewitness accounts of protests [in Pakistan] in photographs, video or text” (Mackey, 2007). While Pakistani authorities have blocked protests and tightened restrictions on the media (Rohde & Perlez, 2007), a quick glance at the comments on this page suggests that this may have only emboldened ordinary citizens. The first commenter, an anonymous university faculty member, embodies the principles of citizen journalism (Mackey, 2007, comments). He provides his account of events and even criticizes the Times’ reporting on the situation. Since the Times issued this request, almost one hundred people have responded, each with unique experiences to share and unique analyses to offer. Photos submitted as part of this initiative, however, are much more difficult to come by. After an exhaustive search, the photo used in Figure 3 to introduce the program is the only published submission. This is not to say that the Times is not adding submissions to their archive, but that they are simply not choosing to publish them for one reason or another. Unlike past news events that relied heavily on images produced by citizen journalists, this instance of collaboration between citizen journalists and mainstream media seems to include only the written word.

The most locally relevant implementation of citizen journalism by mainstream media organizations does not come in the form of first-hand accounts of events from around the world or even from around the country. It comes in the form of hyperlocal news ventures, websites and blogs that cater to an extremely small and specific group of people-those who live near Stanton Park in Washington, DC, for example. These hyperlocal sites can be seen as a fusion of two common neighborhood communication methods. They are at the same time a more accessible evolution of neighborhood listservs and a more community-based version of small local newspapers (Schaffer, 2007, section 1.4). Either way, it must be noted that hyperlocal blogs are far from the one-way information delivery systems that newspapers tend to be. While they usually have staff reporters, hyperlocal blogs tend to serve more as aggregators of community information, covering anything of interest to their small audiences-from high school graduations to house fires.

Without citizen journalism and the internet, the hyperlocal model would not be a feasible undertaking for mainstream media organizations. By its very nature, a hyperlocal blog caters to an extremely small audience. Until recently, such specific audiences have been of little use to newspapers who set their advertising rates based on subscription numbers and who must hire enough reporters to cover a wide range of news from around the world. If any publication was devoted to hyperlocal audiences, it was often no more than a small weekly supplement. The internet has changed the model drastically. Unlike a printed newspaper, a website costs little to distribute. Rather than relying on a full staff of reporters to cover a given hyperlocal market, websites can easily draw upon their users for content and ideas, employing far fewer professional journalists. These cost reducing factors presented by the internet have made the hyperlocal market increasingly more attractive to newspapers in recent years.

Increasingly, mainstream media organizations have begun realizing the value of the hyperlocal market (Schaffer, 2007, section 6.4), In many cases, newspapers are implementing user-driven hyperlocal sites integrated with their weekly local publications. The Washington Post, for example, recently launched a hyperlocal project focused on Loudoun County, Virginia (Ahrens 2007) at LoudounExtra.com. The site is based on collaboration between Post reporters and editors and the citizens of Loudoun County. Upon first visiting Loudoun Extra, one is shocked with how bustling Loudoun County appears. The website serves as a hub for local news and community interaction. Within seconds, users can research local schools, find Little League schedules, and decide where to eat dinner. More impressive is the fact that most of the information users find about local businesses is either written or suggested by fellow users. Of course, content is not simply thrown up on Loudoun Extra without approval. Like most similar sites, users first submit content or ideas to Post editors working on the site, who in turn polish and publish it. The Post, like many other publications (Ahrens 2007) uses this website to feed their weekly print Loudoun Extra. “The hyperlocal model is a goal” of the Post (McCullough, personal conversation, December 4, 2007), and with the success of the Loudoun Extra website, plans to expand the hyperlocal website model to its other Extra publications are sure to follow.

Opinions on Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalists and mainstream media companies often work together to create informative and engaging content, but some media experts warn against the phenomenon of unchecked citizen journalism. The great majority of journalists see great potential in citizen journalism. While their opinions on specific aspects of the concept may differ, professionals generally agree on one thing. For better or for worse, citizen journalism has and will continue to change the face of media. There are three major schools of thought among professional journalists regarding citizen journalism. One group believes that journalism as we know it will vanish, giving way to a highly collaborative form of citizen journalism. They feel that with everyone capable of creating news, “everything traditionally professional about journalism is gone,” as Lindsay McCullough, photo and multimedia editor at WashingtonPost.com put it (personal communication, December 4, 2007). Another group believes that traditional media organizations will retain most of their control, providing their consumers with interactive content and calling upon citizen journalists when necessary. The third school of thought is by far the most conservative. Its adherents firmly believe that non-professionals are incapable of producing acceptable content. They insist that we eliminate discourse between providers and consumers to mild-mannered letters to the editor. User generated content, Andrew Keen argues as early as the title of his 2007 book, “is killing our culture”. While some journalists and scholars fall on the extremes, the majority believe that citizen journalism and mainstream media can and will coexist largely through the implementation of interactive content and content designed to involve the community as a whole.

Most professional journalists take the middle road when it comes to citizen journalism. They believe that it is an important phenomenon that old media must recognize and work with. Their opinion is largely supported by the many instances in which citizen journalists have worked closely with professionals to report stories, from Indonesia to London. They argue that, while citizen journalism may give unprecedented access, professional journalists will always lend a sense of credibility to stories. An ideal world for those in this camp is in many ways an ideal world for both news consumers and producers. Citizen journalists will help provide large news organizations with content when needed. The mainstream media will then review and distribute this content, giving it as much credibility in the eyes of the everyday consumer as any other news piece.

The other two groups, those who think citizen journalism will dominate and those who think it will fade away, make up a small but vocal minority of the communications circle. Scholars of journalism, usually former journalists themselves, are often of one of these two opinions. Unlike professional journalists, they do not stand to lose much either way, so they are less afraid of making drastic predictions about the future of journalism. Interestingly, the supporters of these two ideas often draw on the same examples as those who support cooperation when arguing their theories. Those who believe citizen journalism will dominate see those events as signs that citizen journalism is reaching maturity and, once it finds an effective enough distribution method, will be able to exist without mainstream media. Those who believe citizen journalism will die out cite the spontaneity and poor technical quality of the work. They often claim that citizen journalists cannot be objective and cannot therefore be trusted to report news. While these two more extreme theories may represent a minority in the journalism community, their influence is not to be ignored.

The internet and the new media it has spawned will leave a lasting impact on the face of journalism. Twenty years ago the internet was a government project and a hobby for only the geekiest among us. At that time, newspapers, the first form of journalism, still dominated the field, with television and radio providing the shorter turnaround news. As the internet evolved, so did journalism. Newspapers and television networks began to develop websites. These sites started as simple pages with access to news snippets used largely for the purpose of promoting the paper or network. Slowly, however, they became more advanced, eventually evolving into entities of their own, with unique content that would be promoted in print editions rather than vice versa. Realizing the power of the internet, ordinary people also began to take advantage of its strengths as a publication method. Due to widespread use of the Internet and its accompanying technologies, news consumers are now playing a greater role than ever before in news production, both by reporting news themselves and through interactive components put in place by traditional media outlets. It may be impossible to predict the role of citizen journalists in twenty more years. After all, the internet as we know it may even be gone by then. One thing is for sure, though, this era of change and uncertainty in journalism will not be forgotten.

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