BEARING WITNESS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

Authors: Stuart Allen, Prasun Sonwalkar and Cynthia Carter

Presentation: Muhammad Sheharyar Rana

What is Citizen Journalism?

The Answer• When ordinary citizens/people such as ourselves, start reporting/highlighting informative issues faced by the local masses•When ordinary people start performing the duties of a news reporter•When such duties are performed they become citizen journalists•And the process that involves these citizens reporting informative news stories is known as citizen journalism.

The main theme of the article revolves around how the concept and principle of citizen journalism has paved way in everyday life, demonstrating its effectiveness with regard to 3 situations: 2004 South Asian Tsunami Human Rights abuses in India’s north

east region Palestinian Crisis in Occupied Territories.

Palestinian Crisis in the Occupied Territories. Impact of Citizen Journalism.

Bloggers creating a platform for ordinary Palestinians to give an account of the atrocities they have to face in everyday life.

Electronic Intifada (EI) http://electronicintifada.net/blog

Diaries: Live from Palestine

Part of the Citizen Journalism section of EI

Active since 2002 and has become a regular feature.

Highlights striking updates and stories of Palestinians under military invasion.

Citizen journalist reports almost each day.

Dream of Returning Home

Our Day Will Come (Soon)

Citizen Journalism in India India’s Widening

MediaLandscape.

The Internet: Essence of Citizen Journalism in IndiaWith the ever increase

usage of internet in India, citizen journalism is on the rise.

India’s bloggers have become more active than ever and continue to grow in number talking on a range of issues.

Internet is giving average ordinary people a chance to transmit information globally.

Headlines Today Blogs

www.merinews.com

Established in 2006 – India’s website dedicated to citizen journalism.

Over 50,000 citizen journalists.

News by normal people, not “journalists”

Anyone who would like to become a citizen journalist  can submit their contributions on merinews.com.

Activity: Compare and Contrast

How is merinews.com different from a professional news web site such as Headlines Today or CNN IBN?

Tweet your findings to #mdia5003

Human Rights Violations: reporting online in India.

Evolution of online media helps students understand the power of news media (Beers 2006)

Some regions and their issues are being neglected by mainstream politically powerful media.

Citizen Journalists highlight these issues without bias and fear of mainstream media.

‘Beers, D (2006), ‘The public sphere and online, independent journalism’, Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l'éducation, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 109-130.

Irom Sharmila ChanuPoet from Manipur who

protested against the AFSPA.

Manipur part of the seven states that have been in some form of conflict or the other since independence.

Irom decides to “fast unto death” as form of protest.

Her efforts commented and reported by many citizens in blogs on Manipur websites.

Manipuronline.com 30 Minutes: Irom Sharmila

Special

Two Online Articles of Interest

Citizen Journalism Sucks

Future of Citizen Journalism?