Citizen journalism has been a term constantly mentioned in the Creative Industries faculty. at QUT. In the Virtual Cultures subject, I have been introduced to open source software
and have learnt that both these terms (citizen journalism and open source software) are very similar and according to Bruns (2008, 69) directly related.
For some reason I have not completely been able to grasp the concept of citizen journalism; I’ve always have a vague idea, but I was never comfortable with its meaning. Of course I searched Wikipedia, and finally, I’m able to say I have an understanding of it. I also found a YouTube video, which also helped me to understand. So, for the purposes of this blog, I am going to focus on citizen journalism, however, open source software will be linked, as they are quite similar concepts.
Citizen journalism, also known as public or participatory journalism, is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," (Wikipedia 2008). The form of journalism that was "by the people" began to flourish (this was enabled by web 2.0 and the array of networking environments) and people began expressing themselves through weblogs, chat rooms, message boards, wikis and mobile computing (Wikipedia 2008).
Axel Bruns (2008, 71) identifies gatekeeping and gatewatching as important elements in controlling citizen journalism. “Gatekeeping selects the stories to be covered in the products of mainstream journalism from the totality of all news currently available in the world” (Bruns 2008, 71). Gatewatching on the other hand, relies on the user to determine what they find interesting and what they want to share with their peers (Bruns 2008, 74).
The concept of produsage is linked to citizen journalism. Bruns (2008, 74) notes that open news produsage reverses the conventional industrial production process.
“Industrial software production operates on a principle of ‘develop to marketable quality, then release,’ whereas open source often releases its projects in no more than embryonic versions, divides the production process into granular produsage tasks, and then engages in the open and communally organized development of software to what we continue to refer to as ‘commercial quality’ ” (Bruns 2008, 74).
So how does one become a citizen journalist? Bruns (2008, 74) suggests that similarly to open source software development, citizen journalists begin with an idea that interests them and that will interest their peers and starts developing. The wider community then evaluates and adds more information and views – thus showing produsage at work.
We are living in a world with multiple networked and online environments, all of which have different approaches. However, the citizen journalism movement has developed a “sophisticated array of processes, tools, and technologies” in order for it to take place across the many websites that make up the movement (Bruns 2008, 70).
As Axel Bruns (2008, 95) concludes, “Produsage-based citizen journalism is the first step towards restoring access to the public institution of journalism for a wide range of citizens-turned-produsers." Produsage-based citizen journalism has broken the commercial hold of industrial capitalism in the journalistic industry (Bruns 2008, 95).
Journalists must embrace produsage and realize that in order to succeed in an online environment, they must utilize their users as produsers as a way to explore other elements of the news.
Bruns, A. 2008. News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: Perpetual Collaboration in Evaluating the News in Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, 69-100. New York: Peter Lang. https://cmd.qut.edu.au/cmd/KCB201/KCB201_BK_163501.pdf (accessed April 30, 2008).
Wikipedia. 2008. Citizen Journalism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism (accessed April 30, 2008).
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3 comments:
I thought that this blog entry was a good comparison between open source software and citizen journalism. I did not think of citizen journalism with the characteristics similar to that of produsage in general. I like how you featured the definitions of produsage and citizen journalism for people to read over again, that way they have the definitions fresh in their mind as they read the blog entry. I also thought that I was quite relevant that you included the various forms that people are communicating and ‘produsing’. With these areas, in particular, wikis and web forums, there is the presence of moderators (or in the case of Wikipedia, there is community moderation.) I would have liked to have read an expansion on this topic of online community moderation but your blog is more about produsage than ‘gatewatching’.
I also felt that your blog entry was effective as it included many quotes from Axel about produsage and open news produsage, considering he is very knowledgeable about this. I had not heard about the term ‘open news produsage’ so I will have to do some research on the topic. Some of the blog entry kind of confused me – I wasn’t sure if you were talking about open source software anywhere at all, but I might not have read the entry thoroughly. I found this entry pretty informative. Well done.
Hey Elsye, I had a great time reading your blog as how you briefly described what Citizen Journalism is and its connection to open source software. Incidentally, I have been curious as to what exercises popularity for participatory users of the Produsage age (basically because I am quite unpopular with my blogs myself), and it seems you have suggested an idea that members that engage within a shared-collaborative environment must gain their social capital by ‘creating an idea that interests them and that will interest their peers which starts to develop, which soon leads to a wider community then evaluating and adding more information and views). So what you are basically stating is that users must distribute content that is relevant or of interest to a wide community – I definitely agree to what you propose. I also would like to draw out from 'There’s no money in the long tail of the Blogosphere', that basically a vast majority of blogs have zero views, meaning that as user-led contributors, we must focus more on the relevance, quality, usability of our user-led content (phew!).
You have obviously written this entry for a relatively uninformed readership. However, this is not so much a bad thing. Overall, your post provided me with the very basics in regards to the relationship between open source software and citizen journalism. Although you primarily focus upon produsage, I tend to think a more relevant topic of discussion would have been the quality (or lack of) in online user-generated content. As such, although you state ‘gatekeeping’ as the key to content control, as online consumers we must highlight the vast importance of relevance, quality and the overall usability of citizen journalism.
In terms of citizen journalism, communities may evaluate the quality of content in a variety of ways. What individual members of a community personally consider quality is there opinion. However, there are a couple of general checks to evaluate the quality of citizen journalism (and, online content in general). For starters, the credibility of the author is definitely a main contributor to quality. Citizen journalists with archives of previous, fact-base journalism will most definitely be a credible source of information. Citizen journalism allows authors to voice their opinion much more freely than in mainstream media, however those articles with the most 'quality' will generally be those that are supported by factual information and credible sources. I recommend you check out online citizen journalism such as http://indymedia.org, http://investigativeblog.net/, http://onlinejournalismblog.com/ and http://current.com/... these generally feature quality, reliable citizen journalists and information. This also leads to considering the accuracy of the information, not only in terms of facts and sources, but also in grammar and spelling. Generally, frequent bloggers will produce higher quality journalism and writing as they have more experience within the field. To answer the question of quality and control, perhaps apply the CARS checklist, looking at Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness and Support (see http://novella.mhhe.com/sites/0079876543/student_view0/research_center-999/research_papers30/conducting_web-based_research.html for more information).
Within your discussion, there is also an obvious lack of academic resources. Although you cite Axel Bruns – A well-respected media commentator, you have not conducted any further research within the field. After reading your post I found some extremely relevant information regarding citizen journalism and produsage. One of those was an article about citizen journalism and the BBC (http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/05-4NRwinter/Sambrook.pdf).
Another aspect I must critisise, is the fact that you hardly mention the impact of open source software upon user-generated content. Strong similarities between citizen journalism and open source include: opening out production process to all participants, the reconceptualisation and acceptance of content as always unfinished, constantly updated, the application of alternative licensing schemes to enable flexible update and distribution of products
Although I have been critical, I must agree with you that users must distribute content that is relevant or of interest to a wide community. This in fact, provides the producers of the content with both social and cultural capital by discussing issues that are of interest to others within the online community. I look forward to reading more of your posts.
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