1. BEARING WITNESS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM
AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Rihab Alniyadi
2 August 2012
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, „ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human
rights issues‟, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
2. AGENDA
Citizen journalism VS Mainstream journalism
Three cases of citizen journalism
Further examples
New media landscape
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.
3. THE “OTHERING CULTURE” IS CHALLENGED
CJ challenges the ―othering culture‖ by:
Breaking down the ‗us and them‘ dichotomies in
reporting.
Creating spaces allowing the people to report
their own suffering to the world
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
4. THE 2004 SOUTH ASIAN TSUNAMI
55,000 tsunami related blogs appeared over the
first three days:
Great contribution to tell stories.
Supplementing the mainstream media by
providing a bottom-up coverage
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
5. MJ: “US”: AMERICAN RELIEF
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human
rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
6. CJ: “THEM”: BOXING DAY, PEOPLE SUFFERING
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
7. Few online news organizations like
MSNBC.com and CNN, took advantage of
citizen journalists to gather information by
creating booth for ordinary people to report.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
8. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA
“Us”: “Them”:
politics, Muslim/Hindu, human rights violations
Celebrities. in north-eastern states.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
9. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA
Sources of news
Raising awareness of events and evoking
reactions in other parts of India; citizens used the
Internet as a way to respond to the human rights
violations in north-eastern states.
Linking Indians to organize a protest.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.
10. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
“Us”: US-Israel efforts “Them”: Palestinian
to achieve the peace suffering
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
11. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
Palestinian used the Internet to gain international
attention through:
Electronic Intifada website: an English website
that challenge the lack of critical media coverage
of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
Personal blogs
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.
12. EXAMPLE OF ONLINE REPORTING:
Ushahidi.com:
Ushahidi.com is a CJ site that was set up to
inform people about violence incidents reported
throughout Kenya and to create open-source
platform where citizens from all over the world
can report on events.
http://lnicolegates.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/citize
n-journalism/
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.
13. CITIZEN JOURNALISTS AS EYEWITNESS:
Pakistan floods in 2010
September 11
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.
14. CONCLUSION: NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE
―The tsunamis changed the media
landscape. It is now is the time
when citizen reporters will begin to
join the ranks of journalism‘ in
informing the public — not as
professional equals, yet in some
ways as important in the grand
Steve Outing
Media Expert
scheme of news‖
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.
15. EXERCISE
In groups, discuss the following questions and
tweet your answers to #mdia5003:
1. Considering the concepts we looked at, who is a
journalist in today‘s media?
2. Have you ever experience being a citizen
journalist? In what way?
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.
16. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‗ Bearing
witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues‘,
Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.
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