Internet-mediated information: strengths and risks of citizen journalism

Summer School for Journal ists & M edia Pract i t ioners

2013

Andrea Calderaro

CMPF/European University Institute

@andreacalderaro

Ben Wagner

European University Institute

@benwagne_r

Internet-mediated information: strengths and r isks of ci t izen journal ism

Outline

Framing Citizen Journalism

Opportunities (?)

Threats of online communications

Citizen Journalism ?

Citizen Journalism (2004)

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press

tools they have in their possession to inform one another” (Jay Rosen,

2012)

Citizen Media (2001)

Media allowing citizens to speak with their own voice (Clemencia

Rodriguez, 2001)

Media Activism (1999)

Being Active in Spreading grassroots information+

Internet-Mediated Communication

The networked infrastructure of the Internet offers the

opportunity to change traditional models of

communication making easier for people to be active

speakers and to shape new multidirectional information

flows (Lee et al. 2005)

In politics, people become spreaders of information and

producers of contents easier than in the past (Benkler,

2006)

The proliferation of participatory media creates a self-

organizing mesh of public communications (Etling & Kelly

2008)

Spreading of information over Geography and Time

..for Cr isis M anagement

Agenda Setting

Agenda Setting is the ability to address the attention of people by

clustering the focus of the media landscape around specific topics

(Cohen 1963)

Tree steps internet-mediated agenda building (Kim & Lee, 2006):

1) Internet-mediated agenda-rippling: citizens spreads an opinion or information

online

2) Agenda diffusion in the Internet: online news or web-sites report the

important agenda in the Internet that in turn leads to spreading the

agenda to more online publics

3) Internet-mediated reversed agenda-setting: traditional media report online

agenda to the public so that the agenda spread to both offline and online

publics.

“If journalists read blogs, then the agenda setting is possible”

(Davis 2009: 13)

Professional journalism Vs Citizen Journalism

Controlling the content of online journalism?

http://prezi.com/xpxektw7tr4b/controlling-the-content-of-online-journalism/