Citizen journalism is a form of journalism where the public is the reporter, editor, publisher, and reader that has the intention of being a public good. To quote Robert Putnam, “frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity. Civic engagement and social capital entail mutual obligation and responsibility for action.” Citizen journalism, when done right, should evoke action.
Global Voices is one such example of citizen journalism. They describe themselves as “a borderless, largely volunteer community of more than 1200 writers, analysts, online media experts and translators. Global Voices has been leading the conversation on citizen media reporting since 2005. We curate, verify and translate trending news and stories you might be missing on the Internet, from blogs, independent press and social media in 167 countries. Many of the world’s most interesting and important stories aren’t in just one place. Sometimes they’re scattered in bits and pieces across the Internet, in blog posts and tweets, and in multiple languages. These are the stories we accurately report on Global Voices—and translate into up to 30 languages, including Malagasy, Bangla and Aymara.”
Appropriately named, Global Voices is a collection of voices from citizens all over the world, including citizens from marginalized and misrepresented communities. By translating articles in over thirty languages, more readers can be contributors and more contributors can be readers; strengthening the community.
Curation is at the heart of successful citizen journalism because it separates citizen journalism from simply an aggregation of large amounts of unfiltered content. Emily Bell writes about the consequence of bad journalism, “the problems the press creates when it works badly, errors of fact and interpretation, opacity, carelessness- are amplified by new technology and new capabilities.” As new technologies like smart phones allow people to take photos, capture video, record audio, and instantly share content to their friends, family, and to the greater public, there is room for both beneficial and harmful effects. At Global Voices, the curation process requires the collaboration of leaders, advisors, contributors, and volunteers to make sure the stories are poignant and worthwhile.
I believe that in the future, there will be no separation between journalism and citizen journalism. All jouralism will be citizen journalism. Journalism will look more like Global Voices than the New York Times. Martin Shubik, a professor of Yale asked in the 1960’s: “How much time can the man on the street devote to politics? As population grows and the world becomes more complex, how can society keep the individual supplied with the right information for making political decisions and preserving his dream? The problem is not the speed of generation of transmutations of bits of raw data per second. It lies at the far more fundamental level of interpretation and understanding.” In order to get to the level of intepretation and understanding needed to inform citizens, citizen journalism will require collaboration, connection and participation from all sectors of society.
Sonya