Lecture 02 | Activities of citizens

Well, when we are taking about civic journalism, at that time citizens are our main concern or focus. Civic journalism does not exist without citizens. And we also must keep in mind the amount of leverage acquired by citizens is dependent upon the advent of modern technologies. Sophisticated technologies have enabled common and previously voiceless citizens to raise their voices with pride. 

Likewise, with a great deal of leverage and facilitated by technology, a great number of people have been engaged in civic journalism. Today we intend to talk about the activities of citizens on the internet. Every common and sane person can talk about the activities of citizens on internet: such as creating, sharing, and commenting on information etc.  But with that I intend talk about the advantages acquired by citizens with the advent of internet technology.

1. The degree of independence from professional media:

So first of all, we should start from the degree of independence we acquire from the professional media. The very word independence smells and seems very intriguing and indeed it is so. The advent of modern technologies has facilitated common person a great deal in providing him his voice for raising his problems and concerns. Previously, people like us were dependent upon the mercy of media in covering us and our issues/problems. But now the situation has completely changed. 

In today's environment of technology, we, laymen, can also raise our voice and show our concerns to whoever we want by writing our blogs, making vlogs, creating a site for raising social issues and share information about our area problems and issues by sharing and commenting on social media. In this way, we civic journalists may also attain the attention of decision-makers by tagging them in the posts.

2. The extent or duration of involvement

Before, we launch on to this topic, let me explain the terms extent and duration. The extent (the degree to which government or authorities concerned are held responsible or are criticized) and the duration (time and space of coverage allotted to civic sources) were previously were in the control of mainstream media. The media used to decide which issue to cover and how much space is to be allotted to which sources.

In the previous media atmosphere, common people always depended upon mainstream media for raising their issue. Previously, we were always looking forward to receiving media attention and coverage in raising our social, political, cultural and other issues. Most of the time those issues were not covered or were overlapped by other more pressing issues. The point is extent and duration was determined by mainstream media. Still mainstream media enjoys this luxury.

Now with the degree of liberty acquired by civic journalists, we as a civic journalist have got control over extent and duration being allotted to us. With exponential growth in the technology every passing day, we can give ourselves the extent and duration as we please. Now if, because of any reason, mainstream media does not give us desired coverage or cut our stance, we as a civic journalist are in position to clear our complete stance and do not depend upon media. In the same way if mainstream media censors our stance because it seems stronger than they can handle, we can relay it on our own blog, vlog or social media handle.  

3. The degree of coordination with others (from individual to mass crowdsourced)

Before the advent of modern technology, we always waited for the right and likeminded people to become acquainted with us for sharing our social and political ideas and thoughts. It was very difficult to find such persons.

Advent of civic journalism facilitated by sophisticated technology has enabled us to find likeminded people on internet and more specifically on social media. Many times we see comment on our friend’s post and send friendship request to comment maker and become his virtual friend. Thus we find a great deal of opportunities on internet to coordinate with many likeminded people across the globe.

4. The level of effort required

Think of a reporter who has a five-kilo heavy camera and five miles to reach his destination for a story. And after completing the story, the reporter has to file it to head office of his organsation. It used to take a whole day and a lot of energy.

And finally, the internet has benefitted us all a great deal by lessening the efforts required to accomplish various tasks. Now, not only a reporter but all the citizens have been greatly benefitted by internet because they have acquired a vast variety of opportunities to express themselves. Availability of devices and internet at lower cost has lessened the efforts required for citizens.

Lecture 01 | Civic Journalism: An overview

Much of the attention to civic journalism has been paid by the scholars of media studies in the start of current century. This focus of study peaked by 2010. Despite of it, it is still a challenge to define civic journalism. Because the definition is somewhat unclear and fluid. Definitely a valid question arises here why the definition of civic journalism is still unclear and fluid.  With the passage of time and advent of modern technologies, the concept of civic journalism is applied to a wide variety of activities. And some times, even most of the times it becomes difficult to distinguish among those activities. In his famous blog PressThink, media critic Jay Rosen states civic journalism as "“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism.”

When we think of civic journalism in the way Rosen has stated we must keep in mind that this context encompasses a wide range of activities such as citizens sharing content on their own, citizens' mobilization for sharing a particular content on a given date, citizens sharing content as part of a project coordinated by professional journalists, sharing of contents by citizens through a site with professional editors filtering content, to linking to content produced by professional journalists, to individual blog posts or personal posts on social media that may only be of interest to a limited audience.

However, a most important part of the definition of citizen journalism is 'the involvement of citizens' in journalism process which is meant to distinguish it from the work done by a professional journalist. 

Civic journalism includes everything and every act of journalism provided it is done by a citizen not by a professional   journalists. For instance, a spontaneous, one-time act based on a citizen’s presence at a newsworthy event, citizen as as a witness of police misconduct/brutality. Or a regular endeavour to disseminate information to general public via a blog, Twitter feed, or other medium. Makin comments on news/news stories, tagging, mentioning others and rating content are perhaps the lowest-stakes ways of participating in the process of civic journalism. 

Rosen, J. (2006, June 27).The people formerly known as the audience. [Blog post]. PressThink. Retrieved from http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html