Abstract
In this new edition of the series Global Crises and the Media, Einar Thorsen and Stuart Allan allow the reader more than ever to travel around the world to explore different forms of what is mostly, conveniently, and superficially called “citizen journalism” in the coverage of all types of crises. In doing this, the contributors highlight the limits and the controversial use of the term citizen journalism to represent the different forms of citizen communication. Furthermore, they contextualize the impact of global crises reporting on both “new” and “old” media, clarifying the relationship between online and offline communication. Finally, they analyze the disruptive capability of citizen journalism on the flow of communication power.
The major strength of this book resides in the different perspectives taken from many different countries, political systems, and levels of freedom of expression. Indeed, this diversity of case studies allows examining both the positive and negative repercussions that citizen participation in news coverage may have.
In their introduction, Thorsen, a senior lecturer at the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK, and Allan, a professor in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK, state that online and mobile technologies enable people affected by conflicts and repressive regimes to speak their truths. The dynamism that these channels allow opens new possibilities for fast news disseminations, pluralized voices in reportage, and extended audience reach.
Through her case study on the Mumbai terrorist attack of 2008, Yasmin Ibrahim demonstrates that social media becomes places for both bearing witness and engaging with events (Chapter 1). In particular, during natural disasters such as the Christchurch earthquakes (Chapter 7), Hurricane Sandy (Chapter 8), or acts of terrorism such as in Norway (Chapter 9), citizen communication becomes vital for delivering practical information and documenting events as they unfold. This close view on events from direct witnesses has the potential to increase solidarity between distant others. To prove this point, Lilie Chouliaraki takes the examples of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the Arab Spring (Chapter 4). And through a case study on the Russians’ use of social media, Chapter 18 shows that these channels engender a novel sense of civic society, responsibility, and consciousness.
Similarly, Clemencia Rodrìguez’s analysis of armed conflicts in Colombia (Chapter 14) illustrates how citizen journalism is “a practice of resistance that emerges as social movements; activists and other social justice collectives” do not accept that only professional news organizations can practice journalism and provide information to support democratic processes. In line with these findings and based on the 2012 Shifang environmental protest in China, Chapter 23 reiterates that social media can draw nationwide attention on an event not widely covered by mainstream media and effectively affect government decisions.
Different forms of citizen journalism enter the mainstream news arena, contributing to the revitalization of news formats and, sometimes, challenging elite definitions of events. In particular, Chapters 10 and 11 insist on the increasing role of eyewitness images on the reporting of crises. The interconnectedness brought by alternative platforms and new technological devices helps bring to light new narratives on events (Chapters 3 and 21). However, it can also amplify the sensationalism in the way events are framed. In addition, Chapter 1 shows that the immediacy of these channels may lead to misinformation or lack of authenticity, which underlines the vulnerability of these tools. The blurred boundaries between citizen journalism and activism as well as the abuse of these same tools by governments or authoritative regimes make them a channel for empowerment (Chapters 5 and 16). Last Moyo asserts in Chapter 19 that even though civil society and alternative media represent a counterhegemonic power against the state, they are a contested ground where domination and market hegemony can be extended. Similarly, Firuzeh Shokooh Valle asserts that the Internet is not a “power equalizer” but it can create opportunities for “power redistribution” only in specific historical and cultural contexts (Chapter 15).
To some extent, this book supports the importance of the journalism profession in delivering general information and reporting verified facts as a safeguard of freedom of expression. This is exactly the argument of Graham Meikle who posits that the paradox of citizen journalism is that rather than challenging professional journalism, it emphasizes its key role in today’s society (Chapter 12).
One potential weakness of this collection of studies is that as most contributions are based on specific case studies, it is quite hard to trace a global trend or theory of citizen journalism and its impact on journalism and broadly on society. In addition, Thorsen and Allan do not include an overall conclusion and synthesis of the major findings of the different contributions, contextualizing them in a more general perspective. It seems that this work is left to the reader. Following the dark sides of citizen journalism, I would have probably liked to know more about cyber-activism, the use of social media by repressive governments to promote their causes, and, at the opposite, social media as a vehicle to promote peace and reconstruction.