Citizen journalism taps into digital eyes and ears on Web

by Erin Cole

Montana Governor Brain Schweitzer talks to voters in Missoula following a gubernatorial debate in the fall of 2008. Small digital cameras have made it easlier for people to cover political and news events such as this debate held at the University of Montana. (Justin Franz/MJR)

In 1962, Abraham Zapruder purchased an 8mm color camera to record home movies of his grandchildren. On an early afternoon in November 1963, Zapruder captured footage of Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas. In what would have been the greatest citizen journalist coup of all time, WFAA, a local television station, had the chance to run the footage. However, the station could only process 16 mm black-and-white film. The footage wasn’t shown until 1975, when it ran on Geraldo Rivera’s “Good Night America.”

Today, because of advancing technology, television stations and newspaper photo editors no longer need to play the part of the middleman. Securing airtime on YouTube or submitting photos to a news agency takes only a few keystrokes.

Technology has armed ordinary citizens with portable and unobtrusive devices, elevating them to the status of watchdogs and spies. Their constant observance makes it more difficult for governments, companies and figures of authority to alter history. Multimedia produced by citizen journalists has the power to affect legislation, court cases, war and even public policy.

Some view citizen journalists as being an ungoverned band of free speech renegades. While these critics may be vindicated in scoffing at the amateur prose produced by some of these do-it-yourself journalists, few would argue against the power wielded by the images of the smoldering Twin Towers in New York, just one of the many moving scenes recorded by these “amateurs.”

In the past six years alone, at least one major world event has been captured each year. In 2004, vacationers in Thailand recorded the tsunami that pummeled the nation’s beaches. Six months later, in July 2005, London commuters captured terrorist attacks on the city’s Underground using cell phones. Amateur images of the huge earthquake that struck Java in 2006 were sent around the world. In 2007, a student at Virginia Tech used the same technology to record police response to the school’s shootings. In 2008, vacationers, in Mumbai, India, recorded terrorist attacks made on local hotels. The peak of citizen journalism came in 2009 when a video of Neda Agha-Soltan bleeding to death on a Tehran street hit YouTube.

Neda’s death, a result of the protests over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, helped spark a change in the public’s attitude towards multimedia produced by citizen journalists. People realized that the best news updates on the situation in Iran did not come from news professionals, but rather from footage obtained by Iranian citizens in the thick of the tumult. Twitter had previously planned site maintenance that would have shut down the communication. The U.S. State Department stepped in and asked the company to postpone it, which it did.

Iran is not the only country to have been thrust into the spotlight by its own citizen journalists.

“The best original Internet journalism happens much more often by accident, when smart and curious people with access to means of communication are at the scene of a sudden disaster,” Nicholas Lemann wrote in a 2006 New Yorker article.

Russia is infamous for being a dangerous place for journalists. Global Journalist magazine reports that 19 journalists have been killed in the line of duty since 2000 and that only one perpetrator has been brought to justice.

Keeping in mind that Russia has fostered a tradition of squelching free speech, the International Center for Journalists has partnered with the Glasnost Defense Foundation to offer ordinary Russians lessons in reporting. Their hope is that citizens will go and report where reporters fear to tread.

Sergey Brin, one of Google’s co-founders, was born in Moscow where he spent his early childhood years. He was instrumental in creating Google’s motto, “Don’t be evil.” When Google entered the Chinese search engine market in 2006, he and co-founder Larry Page entered into a tango with the Chinese government by allowing it to block results it found objectionable. But after Google claimed Chinese-based cyber attacks hit the company’s servers, the tango turned into a murky bullfight.

Citizen journalists made an effort to report from China, but often met disastrous results. In early January 2010, a man in the rural Hubei province attempted to film a confrontation between law enforcement agents and local citizens. After being spotted, he was pulled from his car and beaten to death, his tape confiscated.

Even if he had been successful in leaving the scene unscathed, uploading the footage without repercussion was another hurdle to jump. Censorship in China includes patrolling search engines, and reporting questionable online activity to the government’s Public Security Bureau. Internet service providers are also not privately owned, erasing that buffer.

Public figures are increasingly under siege by citizen journalists. Celebrity fodder and updates fill many of the world’s blogs, and, judging by their popularity, the public doesn’t seem to mind when the privacy of the famous is invaded.

Intruding on what was once the domain of the paparazzi, citizen journalists are catching more and more celebrities behaving badly. An audience member with a cell phone recorded actor Michael Richards (Kramer of “Seinfeld”) delivering a racist rant to an audience member at the Laugh Factory, a comedy club in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, another cell-phone wielding patron caught singer Ashlee Simpson’s drunken escapade at a Toronto McDonald’s. While some stars may welcome the spotlight, it’s a beacon most politicians hope to avoid.

Citizens in possession of salacious texts and e-mails sent from former Rep. Mark Foley to congressional pages released them to news outlets. As a result of the ensuing maelstrom, Foley resigned.

In other cases, citizen journalists literally record a politician’s actual downfall. For instance, the 2006 execution of Iraq’s former leader, Saddam Hussein, was caught on a guard’s cell phone.

Realizing that more people were jumping on the watchdog bandwagon, new businesses and nonprofits have sprung up to cater to the trend.

WITNESS, a New York-based organization whose motto is “see it, film it, change it,” gives video cameras to various human rights groups around the world and helps get the footage released to media outlets.

Cell phone companies are also taking advantage of the trend.

Fromdistance, an Estonian software company, has developed a smartphone app for Nokia called Mobile Citizen Reporter. The app gives anyone at the right place at the right time the ability to send pictures and video to a news organization.

Does this spell the end of traditional professional multimedia? No, a filter will always be needed — someone to edit and package the material.

Lauren McCullough, manager of social networks and news engagement for the Associated Press, believes the two can coexist.

“AP has always recognized the value of citizen journalists,” she said in an e-mail interview with journalist Steve Myers. “Some of the most iconic images have been captured by eyewitnesses whom the AP worked with to distribute the images to our customers.”

Citizen journalists and the traditional media will continue to have a solid relationship; although strained at times, it can be mutually beneficial.

There are still critiques, however.

To hear The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart wax philosophic on CNN’s iREPORT, citizen journalism is yet another cost-cutting measure of news organizations.

“CNN wants you to spare them what is currently the most arduous part of what they do: reporting,” he said. “Apparently they want you to get as close as possible to an exploding building during a hurricane. ‘Gee, this assignment looks dangerous. You know who would be good for that story? John Q. Schmuck!’”