Dangers of Citizen Journalism?

From Jon Garfunkel on April 16, 2007 at 9:23 PM

I'll share your skepticism about "CitJ" in general.

But I don't think you have a strong case here. People have been trying to picture and video of interesting and newsworthy live events going back to the days when you couldn't publish it on your own.

Obviously, it is perhaps thousands of times more likely that someone will have a video recording device these days than just five years ago. I think it's just a matter of numbers.

There's another worry, as Mark Glaser wrote in a July 2005 OJR piece, Did London bombings turn citizen journalists into citizen paparazzi?

From Mac Slocum on April 17, 2007 at 7:04 AM

I look at it this way: If was an editor or producer overseeing coverage of an event like this, I'd scold any reporter that engaged in such haphazard newsgathering. I would have absolutely no beef with this particular citizen journalist (Jamal Albarghouti) if he stayed in his original location behind a concrete wall, but moving toward armed officers is a horrible idea.

Albarghouti certainly can't claim ignorance in this either. CNN.com quotes him: "When I saw the policemen taking their guns out, then I knew that this was serious."

In a nice bit of self-publicity, CNN.com closes the piece with this bit:

... he [Albarghouti] often visited CNN.com and knew he could send his video to I-Report.

From Rhonda Shearer on April 17, 2007 at 8:29 AM

Since there is no combat training for ducking bullets in journalism schools or standardized lisc. required as in the legal or medical professions, I see no reason why a citizen can not chose to expose themselves to fire to capture video.

Unlike being a doctor or lawyer, where it means something to say "I am a doctor" or "I am a lawyer", saying "I am a journalist" would never send me to jail. The transformation from citizen to journalism can be immediate. No certification is necessary. "Presto chango I am a journalist"...oh, I don't need the presto chango.

So let's get real here. Doctors in earlier times got fed up with quacks thus a real profesion was born...liars went to prison. To make journalism a profession, you have to create one. You then have to sit in committees and regulate each other according to agreed upon standards.

All of this Pro journalists versus Am citizen journalists talk among journalists offers a false dichotomy.

Take for one example, an expert on fish. He or she is not a journalist, but is light years ahead of any journalist in the knowledge dept.The reporter spends only a little time on a fish report and then speeds on to the next assignment. Ahem. Who is more a danger to the public in this aforementioned case in regards to possible inaccuracy?

It can be argued that, in reality, it is journalists that offer the greatest danger for making errors. Citizens, all around them, have the expertise.They are also called sources and readers in addition to citizen journalists.

From Jon Garfunkel on April 17, 2007 at 8:36 PM

Your fishing analogy only works if the mobile phone videographer had some experience in a police standoff. But he didn't. And that was Mac Slocum's point. The concept of being a professional is that they're more likely to have been in these situations and less likely to make mistakes-- not the least of which includes miding their personal safety.

From Rhonda Shearer on April 20, 2007 at 6:56 AM

Actually, if you saw the interviews with this young man you would recall that he is from the Middle East. He compared living in peaceful Blacksburg to his experiences of violence in Palestine and Saudi Arabia. So he has some expertise so it seems. I have not verified it.

However, the majority of humans who know what to do in a police standoff are military, security and police who have training and experience. A few journalists have knowledge--certainly a small minority--from experience of gun fire.

When fire, military and police refer to civilians as less able to cope with a shoot out than they are; I buy it. Their training prepares them for the experience.

Are journalists safer? More able to take care of themselves by virtue of the fact they are journalists and not citizens in the Blackburg crisis?...not so much. The i reporter did just fine and got paid too.

Hey, just found this...from UK

"Journalism students to undergo 'hostile environment' training"

4/19/2007

By HoldtheFrontPage staff

"Journalism students at University College Falmouth are to undergo training to prepare them for reporting from hostile environments.

"Trainees on the one-year MA in International Journalism course will spend three days at the Penhale Military Training Camp near Newquay, learning life-saving skills through modules on personal safety, first aid, and kidnap and ambush avoidance.

"There will also be a number of scenario-based exercises to help them stay safe whichever part of the world they work in...."

See: http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/training/070419hos.shtml

Gee, maybe citizens should apply....