Water For Justice

Citizen journalism – threat to conventional journalism?
By Mzimkhulu Sithetho

GRAHAMSTOWN – The advent of new technology has ushered in new ways that even ordinary citizens can use to fully participle in the production of news.

Use of mobiles, internet and other new communication gadgets has completely changed the communication sphere and has shifted the news production format by making inclusive of citizenry.

This shift will gradually put to rest old practices where media set the agenda on behalf of society and also shaped public opinion since the citizens now dictate what they want in terms of news content.

The direct benefit on media users on the receiving end is that they will no longer be consumers of media content but its producers.

The old style of media dictating content by determining what is newsworthy and what is not had turned the audiences into passive objects on whom abstract courses were poured.

Media consumers who are now producers had no control over reporting lapses such as misrepresentation or under-representation and other shortfalls of media reportage.

The 21 st century should be hailed for its advances that have accidently made practical the theoretical aspect of the communication concept as a two-way process.

A guest speaker at this year’s Highway Africa Conference currently taking place in Grahamstown and Author of the book, We the Media, Dan Gilmore says readers are no longer satisfied with being on the receiving end of the news. “These readers-turned-reporters are publishing in real time to a worldwide audience via the Internet,” says Gilmore.

However, a prudent question is: ’is conventional media on its way out to be overtaken by citizen journalism or so-called participatory or public journalism?

With the emergence of mobile phones, ordinary citizens input into media production by writing their own articles.

A popular journalism practice that involves people; blogging is taking centre-stage in the general communication sphere and offers citizens an opportunity to write their opinions, comments and stories in the manner they want.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.

A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.

The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art ( artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts.

With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.

On the other hand, journalists can chat on their mobile for more than an hour to anyone anywhere on Mixit, is what many young people do these days.

The Highway Africa Conference also explored ways in which this phenomena links with journalism.
On a positive note, technology seems to have transformed the traditional media landscape as well as newsrooms.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens”. The advent of citizen journalism means that audiences not only consume media, but are able to generate and publish it too, using popular online platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube.

Over the past few years ordinary users of the World Wide Web have taken advantage of the increasing popularity of new media.

Instant messaging sites such as Skype, MSN and yahoo along with many others, have shifted the function of the internet by enabling internet uses to generate content.

Mobile technology has not been left behind, with mobile chat systems such as “Mixit” enabling more citizens to access and generate information.

The Conference seeks to ask questions relating to the goals of journalism in society and how the ordinary citizen fits within those goals as a consumer and producer.
The programme is a mix of keynote addresses from top-notch international speakers - such as Dan Gillmor, Adam Clayton Powell and Georgia Popplewell- plenary sessions, seminars, short skills training workshops, book launches, exhibitions, demonstrations of technology and a variety of networking events.
The Highway Africa conference has become the largest annual gathering of African journalists on the continent, with 701 delegates in attendance at the 2007 conference. The conference has been at the centre of Africa’s debates on journalism and new media for eleven years.