Modul Mata Kuliah Journalisme Online - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

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ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)
Exploring the use of information and communications technology for conflict transformation
Auteurs and amateurs: The debates on citizen journalism continue…
April 15, 2007
I find it interesting how a lot of discussions on citizen journalism are informed by what is possible (or
not) from a US perspective. What is more disturbing is that authors both for and against citizen
journalism rarely take into account developments outside the US (and the oft quoted examples of
Europe and South Korea) that have resulted in mobiles, blogs and new media in general being used to
create alternative voices that critique the sickening bias and partiality in mainstream media.
Clearly, this new journalism has its problems – an inherent parochialism being one of them. The
subjective, partial and provincial nature of citizen journalism, if we recognise it for what it is, isn’t
necessarily proof that it is useless. As I’ve argued earlier, it’s precisely these individual viewpoints of
citizens that the mainstream media, controlled often by interests that have their own parochial agenda,
seek to marginalise and over time, erase. Standards matter – and the same standards that we ask for
and seek, but rarely find in mainstream media, need to be instilled in citizen journalism that aims to be a
cut above the dross that often colours individual blogs. However, the visceral and unpolished nature of
citizen journalism is to me what gives it an edge over that which we generally see, hear and read in
mainstream media – in stories that are raw and unsanitised by the cynicism, partisan bias or sheer
boredom of journalists and Editors who have for too long controlled what we should consume, and how.
To this end, it is necessary that we engage not just with citizen journalism as it is evolving in the US and
more developed nations, but also how through mobiles, the growing availability and use of wireless
internet and the increasing availability of PCs either through personal ownership or through cybercafes,
citizens have access to platforms and media through which even if they are illiterate, they can share
their stories.
I’ve noted in an earlier post that it only takes one story – a single photo, a single podcast, a single mobile
phone video – to change a regime and hold those responsible for abuses of human rights, and
corruption, accountable. Initiatives such as Witness have shown us the way. This is citizen journalism in
support of conflict transformation, good governance and democracy – a far cry from the essentially
communitarian notion of citizen journalism prevelent in the US that is more about strengthening local
voices. Citizen journalism in failing states, or in those that exercise repression, is also about securing and
strengthening local voices, but is also about a restoration of civil order, the Rule of Law and democracy.
This nuanced and global perspective is that which I find lacking in much of the online discussion I read
on citizen media. Clearly, both sides have much to offer to the debate, and a naiveté of citizen
journalism can get one into serious trouble (I should know). There are also significant challenges to