Modul Mata Kuliah Journalisme Online - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

Andrew Keen’s Fear Of Citizen Journalism
In today’s Washington Post is an article audaciously titled Storming the News Gatekeepers. The author
apparently meant to explore the nature of “citizen journalism” and its impact on conventional media
and society. The end result however is far less significant than its ambitions as it focuses on a single
Brooklyn blogger and fails to embrace the broader new media influence on the blogiverse.
At one point though, the article takes a noticeable dip in IQ by quoting Andrew Keen, author of The Cult
of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture:
“The term ‘citizen journalist’ has an Orwellian ring to it. People are becoming Big Brother, either with a
camcorder or a keyboard, and following the candidates around. It’s ridiculous. You can’t just be a great
journalist, the same way you can’t be a great chef or a great soccer player.”
Journalists, he continues, “follow a set of standards, a code of ethics. Objectivity rules. That’s not the
case with citizen journalists. Anything goes in that world.”
For Keen to associate citizen journalism with Orwell is…well…Orwellian. Big Brother, as illustrated in
“1984″ is the personification of an all-powerful and controlling government. The notion that the people,
acting on their own behalf, could be characterized as such tyrannical overlords is preposterous to the
point of idiocy.
Likewise, Keen’s dismissal of citizen journalists as distinct from the conventional variety, who are
supposedly objective and have standards and ethics, is as insulting as it is naive. Sure, there are bloggers
who fly fast and loose with facts, but the same is true for pundits on TV and in newspapers. The best of
the online reporters actually have greater transparency and include live links to sources and
documentation.
Keen obviously prefers media that is certified by corporate boards and is fearful of media that emanates
from the streets. He would likely have denounced James Madison’s pamphlets as irresponsible and
amateurish. On page 68 of his book he exposes his disgust for real people who have the temerity to
engage in democratic discourse:
“The YouTubification of politics is a threat to civic culture. It infantilizes the political process, silencing
public discourse and leaving the future of government up to thirty-second video clips shot by
camcorder-wielding amateurs with political agendas.”
Contrary to silencing public discourse, YouTube and other web communities have expanded political
dialog by including voices that previously were shut out of public debate. And the irony of Keen’s
criticism of thirty-second video clips, without reference to the grandfathers of the genre - campaign ads
- is the height of intellectual dishonesty.
Keen would like to leave the future of government up to news bites produced by the professional
propagandists in Corporate Media ivory towers. Apparently the political agendas of the old-school
media hacks are superior, in Keen’s mind, to those of average Americans. With any luck the future of
government will continue to benefit from greater participation and diversity, and will keep as far away
from Keen’s nightmarish abomination of democracy as possible.