Following the vicious murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldier, in London on 22nd May 2013, many viewers witnessed a video that showed one of the suspected killers, Michael Adebolajo, addressing the onlookers. The video first aired on ITV News. The footage was not an example of professional journalism, but was rather shot on a BlackBerry by an onlooker on his way to a job interview.
Citizen journalists’ are beginning to make their presence felt in the new media landscape, says Dr Vincent O’Donnell, a Media Commentator from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Audiences do not shun “shaky footage,” but relish in its authenticity, says Claire Wardle of Storyful, a firm that specialises in finding and verifying user-generated content. News firms are attempting to outdo their competitors by developing systems that encourage readers to submit their material directly. CNN’s iReport is one of the oldest examples, with over 1.3 million contributors, up sixfold since its inception in 2008.
Civilian participation through the use of photographs, videos and tweets are improving and expanding news coverage, by creating work for journalists who know how to curate, authenticate and analyse their material. “To judge the whole story by 140 characters long is to say you can understand the story of Christianity by reading the front page of the bible,” O’Donnell stressed.
“A small lie can lay in waiting for an innocent party,” O’Donnell continued. Civilian journalism has the potential to jeopardise court cases, such as the murder of Jill Meagher.
Many Fear that social media will undermine the integrity of professional reporting. “I would trust citizen journalism as much as I would trust citizen surgery,” quipped Morley Safer a CBS correspondent. In a time when anybody can easily post news and information online, there is a greater need for a coherent system to correct errors, despite the digital practitioners’ assurances about the Internets self-correcting nature.
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