Far from an uncontested term, the potential definitions for citizen journalism span a number of gamuts. There is the affiliative range, along which examples of journalism range from the independent citizen to one publishing in partnership on a conventional news organization’s platform with their editorial review. There is also the range of professionalism, where an individual could have no experience presenting news to an audience (e.g. the bystanders who filmed the Charlie Hebdo attacks posting their videos to social media) or a professional journalist acting independently of any news organization.
There are many examples along these axes that are fairly defensible. An individual with some small amount of experience authoring and presenting information for public consumption posting on an open news platform falls well within most definitions of citizen journalism. Toward the edges however, we find cases that are more difficult to defend. Can a professional journalist ever be called a citizen journalist or do their background and professional affiliation exclude them from this label.
Another axis along which the definition gets fuzzy is the specific definition of journalism itself. How formal does the presentation of information need to be before one can call it journalism? Is posting a video with little or no accompanying text anything more than a share? At what point does it become journalism? Does intent matter? Is it simply news if the publisher specifies it as such?
Conflict Kitchen (http://conflictkitchen.org) lies on the edges of these axes. While the main identity of CK is a restaurant, without a doubt they publish current information (in the form of “disposable” paper wrappers for much of their food; far from an exalted format) researched, composed, and designed by the owners, addressing current events relevant to their patrons. (Format is of course another property of publication that may or may not fall within some definitions of journalism.) While some may argue that CK is an art project or simply an event, I would argue that it is very much a form, albeit a rare one, of citizen journalism. It is, in fact, a very rich form of journalism. Not only do the iterations of CK include textual reporting, included are interviews, visual designs inspired by the country of focus, and a number of viewpoints that are designed to promote debate and discussion.
One of the reasons I find CK so compelling as a citizen journalism effort is their ability to play with these very formats. Because they are not relegated to the stale forms typically reserved for conventional journalism, they are able to have much more impact. They can craft their media in such a way that it engages readers, contextualizing it with food, visual design, and even performance so that consumers are immersed in the issues being presented. In a way, they make the cultures they are reporting on undeniable. One must confront them as a people with history, politics, and art. A typical journalistic outlet may treat populations simply as a a collection of assumptions or as a weak representation of an otherwise rich and complex entity.
Along the spectrum of effort, Conflict Kitchen is quite far in the direction of heavily prepared (a far cry from a simple blog post or video share) and the definition is stretched by the fact that they operate with funding from supporters and post job opportunities. That said, they operate well outside of the traditional journalism industry, and provide alternative viewpoints not seen elsewhere. Their final product may be a beautiful, polished, nuanced presentation, but certainly we should not exclude projects from the citizen journalism space because they succeed at it.