ABSTRACT

Mapping Citizen and Participatory Journalism in Newsrooms, Classrooms and Beyond assesses citizen journalism within the context of hyperlocals, non-profits and large global news organizations, critically examining various forms of participation by citizen contributors to the news.

The essays included within the book answer questions such as: Does citizen journalism close the news participation gap between the Global North and South? How can citizen journalism enable the socially excluded to overcome marginalization? What are the obligations of professional news outlets to citizen reporters in war zones? Furthermore, some contributors critique the ways traditional journalism makes use of non-professional content, while others propose new analytical frameworks such as reciprocal journalism, connective journalism and the Appropriation/Amplification Model.

The book also investigates efforts to teach ordinary people journalism skills in Europe, the Middle East and both North and South America. Some of the programs scrutinized here instill under-represented groups with semi-professional news values. Other projects support citizen journalism infused with activism such as the photographers of the favela-based jornalismo popular or the volunteer digital humanitarians covering global crises and, in doing so, demonstrate new ways to respond to the rise of grassroots participation in the production of news.

The chapters in this book were originally published as special issues of Journalism Practice.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction: Mapping Citizen and Participatory Journalism

In newsrooms, classrooms and beyond

chapter |18 pages

The Social Reporter in Action

An analysis of the practice and discourse of Andy Carvin

chapter |18 pages

Looking After Ibrahim

How journalists network, develop and safeguard relationships with citizen journalists and activists in Syria

chapter |16 pages

Digital Humanitarians

Citizen journalists on the virtual front line of natural and human-caused disasters

chapter |18 pages

Constructing Cholera

CNN iReport, the Haitian cholera epidemic, and the limits of citizen journalism

chapter |19 pages

The Appropriation/Amplification Model of Citizen Journalism

An account of structural limitations and the political economy of participatory content creation

chapter |17 pages

“Shared Photography”

(Photo)journalism and political mobilisation in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas

chapter |17 pages

Helping Syrians Tell Their Story to The World

Training Syrian citizen journalists through connective journalism

chapter |17 pages

Citizen Health Journalism

Negotiating between political engagement and professional identity in a media training program for healthcare workers

chapter |19 pages

From Audience to Reporter

Recruiting and training community members at a participatory news site serving a multiethnic city

chapter |19 pages

Training or Improvisation?

Citizen journalists and their educational backgrounds—a comparative view