Citizen journalism (An Indian Perspective), Notes for BJMC students, India

CITIZEN JOURNALISM 

(An Indian Perspective)

Sr P. Michelle Mathias

The advancement of gadgets that can capture Data in an instant and transmit the same through various social media networking or Blogging platforms has led to a unique genre of journalism that is called Citizen Journalism. Citizen Journalism has led to Citizens of any given country capturing an incident and disseminating it on their Blogs, Vlogs, YouTube, Instagram Posts, Facebook Posts or WhatsApp Posts.

Sonny Albarado writes in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (www.britannica.com) that Citizen journalism is a type of “journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information using Web sites, blogs, and social media. Citizen journalism has expanded its worldwide influence despite continuing concerns over whether citizen journalists are as reliable as trained professionals”.

Nah (2008) defines Citizen Journalists by saying that these are Individuals who are not considered to be professional journalists, but who produce, disseminate, and exchange a wide variety of news and information, ranging from current topics to common interests to individual issues.

Mortensen, Keshelashvili, & Weir (2016) define Citizen journalist as a participant who has produced either a photo, a video, or a writing piece that has been submitted for inclusion by mainstream or citizen journalism outlets, or has been intentionally or unintentionally published by a mainstream or citizen journalism outlet.

Citizen journalism is also known as "participatory journalism", "civic journalism," "democratic journalism", "public journalism,"  "stand-alone journalism," "networked journalism," "open source journalism," "crowd-sourced journalism," "grassroots journalism," "community journalism," and so on. These forms of journalism are related to "citizen journalism",  (Baase, 2008; Cohn, 2007; Noor, 2017).

Citizen Journalism has managed to find a niche in journalism for the reason that Mainstream News channels or Journalists are unable to reach at certain spots at a certain time. Many incidents such as Natural disasters, major Hazards, accidents have been captured on mobiles and footage uploaded on Social Networking forums which led to creating of footage data.

For e.g. The London Bombings, the Tsunami in India and other such incidents were primarily conquered on their smartphone cameras by citizens and this was then taken by News Channel who played these footages.

The origin of Citizen journalism is traced to an individual named Oh Yeonho and his three South Korean colleagues who found it beyond their means to hire Traditional journalists due to their massive charges for the printing of a paper in the year 2000. In order to tackle this resource crunch they started a website called ‘Ohmynews’ that used volunteers to generate content. The firm established itself with a low budget and had an overwhelming reponse. At one point, ‘Ohmynews’ had 727 Citizen reporters, and has  grown to an overwhelming 50, 000 contributors from over 100 countries. Thus, Citizen journalism received a boost.

Citizens today have realised that Video or pictorial footage matters and this is one of the reasons why such captures have become quite prominent of News Platforms who too have realised the value of these shots and footages. During the Corona Virus scare, Nature has started reclaiming its space. And much of the footage on this topic are shots captured on their smartphones by people and circulated.

In India most of the National News Channels have become hubs of Political Discussion where prominent faces of Journalism often cantankerously rattle out words and enable debates. This has often led to very little news and more of debates and personal mouth pieces being highlighted as news. There are a few channels who air proper News, albeit in short to represent atleast a little bit of every state. However, Desktop journalism is currently at its height and Paid News at its peak. On the other hand, Local News Channels are doing the noble job of bringing news of Local areas to the people. which is a considerable deal of Information.

Despite this, often a news that goes viral is brought to the main forum due to Citizen Journalism. CNN IBN too has a dedicated channel to Citizen Journalism issues called the Citizen Journalist Show. It also teamed up with Eyeway, (a forum dedicated to help Blind people),  that committed to help specially-abled people with a series of Radio Programmes that were also shot as Vlogs for YouTube to highlight the plight specially abled people have to undergo through several Citizen Journalism series.

When something goes viral it catches the frenzy of news channel. For instance, when the prices of vegetables drastically dropped and the farmers were being driven to suicide- the video of a farmer, Premsing Chavan, from Pohegaon village of Jalna district, destroying his cauliflower became viral. The video was shot by another farmer, who while shooting the video kept on telling Premsing not to do so. Premsing was barely able to secure any money for his crop, and was worried as to how he would sponsor his kids education. He and his family would have to starve. This video went viral and all news media carried this video footage. Premsing Chavan was then invited by Udhav Thackeray who met him at his residence and handed him a check of Rs 1 Lakh from a private sponsor. In India, Citizen Journalism has often played the role of Rural journalism in being able to reach out and garner help in such cases.

Newspapers too carry columns for Citizen Journalism stories. In India this trend has been given a boost by certain newspapers, who carry special columns of Citizen journalism when they want to cater to a cause. The Times of India despite being popular for its advertorials has a regular space dedicated to Citizen Journalism in many parts of India. Thus, Citizen Journalism gave a forum for citizens of the country to voice their inconveniences of Bad roads, Garbage ridden vicinities, Pot holes which can cause accidents etc,. Tribals are rarely represented in main stream media. Citizen journalism has given the tribals a platform to speak and the demand their rights. Such reports led to actions being taken by Responsible Government machinery.

While there are many benefits of the same, Citizen Journalism has been also accused of Unprofessionalism, fake content or made-up content. Often in India fake news has led to many lynchings too. This can be a cause of alarm. Therefore, a Professional media house, who picks up a Citizen story should make sure that the story is verified, analysed, cross-checked and then disseminated. While, Technology is a boon, it has also turned out to be a bane as there are many people who in order to make a quick buck spread false information.

Citizen Journalism is often considered to be logger heads with Main stream Journalism. However, on a personal note, a professional journalist cannot be everywhere at all times. In such cases, teaming up is the best solution to provide news for all citizens, based on facts not fiction and with proper audio visual footage that is verified. Citizen Journalism and Main Stream Journalism should work hand in Hand, while one provides data the other could verify the truth and present it in the best possible manner to educate the citizens of the country and highlight issues that often get negated. 

Notes on Sting Operation for students of BJMC

Sting Operations

By Sr P. Michelle Mathias

A Sting operation is an operation implemented by undercover investigators in a covert manner to apprehend a person committing a crime through hidden or clandestine ways or through means of deception. Sting operations has led to many big-time criminals being caught red-handed. In some other cases, those doing undercover agent jobs have also lost their lives.

Sting operations are often accompanied by agents using false identities, hidden cameras in pens or buttons on clothes or in purses, etc.

The very nature of a sting operation is deception. A criminal is caught or proof is sought using deceptive means or pseudo identities. The intention of doing good using a sting is foreshadowed by deceptive means to achieve the goal, which is why, Sting operations often create an ethical and moral dilemma.

In India, there are two diverse opinions. In the article titled, ‘Are sting operations legal and moral’ by Vappala Balachandran for outlookindia.com (2019), she writes that  in India, a lawyer by name R.K.Anand was found guilty in connection with an expose case through a sting operation in July 2009. The Supreme court declared him guilty of criminal contempt. On the other hand, in another case in India, in April 2014, the Supreme court declared that Sting operations were not a legal method of law enforcement. The Court was of the opinion that perhaps the victim who could be otherwise innocent of a crime, lured into doing the crime by others. In the Unites States of America however, law is favourable towards sting operations as viable means of crime prevention.

The Supreme Court’s verdict has truth in it. There are many cases, wherein Sting operations have exposed criminal conspiracies, money rackets and bribery. However, there are also undercover investigators who do sting operations in order to derive sensational news and invade the privacy of citizens. This is an uncalled for act of deception. Given these happenings, Sting operations are categorised into two types. They are Positive Sting Operations and Negative Sting Operations.

Positive Sting Operations:

A Positive Sting operation does benefit to society by exposing the truth and eventually leading to the path of justice. For instance, the latest sting operations by Cobrapost, a non-profit news website that is known for its investigative journalism venture showed how around 36 Bollywood celebrities were willing to opine in favour of Political parties on their social networking platforms which have huge followership for huge sums of money.   

In another sting operation called Operation 136, they exposed many leading corporate News channels and Newspaper owners were willing to compromise with content, introduce communal content and speak on an issue for a price. This amount was huge. It was a serious piece of good sting operation.

Journalism is the fourth Pillar of the Indian Society. This pillar is to lead the way. However, the need for monetary gains has led most of them to compromise with the content. This is injustice to the millions of readers who watch these channels or read these newspapers as authentic sources of Information. Sting Operations like those done by Cobrapost are beneficial to the citizens of the country who deserve to know the truth.

 Negative Sting Operations:

A negative Sting Operation does harm to Society and particularly to the individual whose name gets dragged into controversy. There are cases where TV channels have gone to extremes to gain mileage by using Sting Operations for sensationalised Journalism.

For instance, In India there was the case of a teacher named Uma Khurana, who was allegedly “exposed” by a TV channel named ‘Live India’ for a sex racket which she ran by luring her pupils. Yogendra Aldak in his article, ‘Sting Operation-to be or not to be in India’ on legalserviceindia.com writes that this accusation turned out to be totally false and The Delhi High Court issued notices to the Delhi Government and City Police after taking suo motu cognisance of media reports alleging that a sting operation carried out by a TV channel. The poor teacher had a threat to life and was totally robbed of her dignity. This was a grave harm done to her by the TV channel and the State and Police who permitted this to happen.

Emerging trends in Journalism

Emerging trends in Journalism
Sr P Michelle Mathias

 

A kind request to those of you using my notes for your researches. If you find them useful, please do cite me. Thank You.

Journalism in India has had a deep-rooted history. Journalism is the fourth Pillar of democracy that keeps the three other pillars of the Judiciary, the Legislative and the Executive in check. It was the backbone during the freedom fight struggle and the dark days of the Emergency which saw the suppression of the Press. It has been the steer leader to bring the notice of Governments to hard hitting facts of Poverty, Unemployment, Bad administration, Violence, etc and has also paved the way for development through encouraging articles.

Historically, it was the Printing Press that went through the test of fire and survived the dark days when various Press Acts were brought in by the British to suppress opinion and stoke feelings of Freedom. However, the Press survived and grew in large measure. The Radio and the Television then came in. However, in its initial stages the Government had strict control over the Public Broadcasting services and still continues to do so. Gradually, the Government opened the doors to Privatisation.

With the arrival of Privatization in India many channels jumped in with variety and were boosted with foreign investment. To rake in the moolah and survive, these channels also needed advertisement revenue. So, News and the way News was being communication went through a drastic change. Newer styles and techniques were introduced. Breaking News became an everyday issue. Globalisation too brought in a new way of looking at and doing things. In order to vie for higher ratings and provide content 24/7, channels resorted to various ideas and content. There were news debates, people’s opinion pieces, interviews, infotainment through animated series of political issues and entertainment through Qawwali styles debates by certain channels.

Technology has also paved the way for newer means and styles of Journalism. Social Media began contributing in a large way to Journalism. Technological advancement made recording expensive and so, bars were raised. More advertisement revenue was sought. However, this thirst to keep afloat also led to hobnobbing and manipulation of TRP ratings. Furthermore, News and Journalistic practices are being sacrificed at the altar of Commerce as most channels are backed by Corporates who are interested in the monetary business that these news channels bring in and not the content that can actually uplift the people of the country. There are a few channels however, who are active in good Journalism.

Furthermore, Social Media today has made news available on the go and has led to massive changes in the way people consume news today.  Emerging trends have shown, that while India has a high sale of Newspapers, both Newspapers and TV channels are in need of revenue and have resorted to paid news on one hand and have also gone online for subscribership on various Social networking platforms. A new bunch of Social media personalities have developed who not only out up videos, hey have turned into informative Opinion Leaders. While, there is a large clutter on the Social Media platform, there is also a wave of genuine journalism that has surged that depend on subscriber-ship and not on paid news.

Given this background we look at the varied trends that are emerging in journalism in India and the world at large.

 

Convergent Journalism:

Digital Technology has changed the scenario in the journalistic world. A newspaper cannot remain a printed sheet anymore. Digitalisation has led to the concept of Convergent Journalism. A concept wherein one uses more than one media platform for transmitting news. In a technologically developed arena, with a generation that is growing up with digital devices, it has become a challenge for traditional media to survive like in the yester years. Hence, many Newspaper channels are simultaneously running websites and have e-papers with subscribers. These Newspapers also tie up with various search Engines and other Social media platforms to garner viewership and hits. 

Vineet Kaul (2013) in his article, ‘Journalism in the Age of Digital Technology’, writes that Scholars have begun calling reporters “gate-watchers” (Bruns, 2005) and information “monitors” (Deuze, 2003), insisting that they share authority willingly and embrace “citizen media” (Gillmor, 2004).

It is also a challenge for many news journalists today as news journalism requires a dynamism that can cater to both written press and online press. It is also a challenge, to learn a bit of videography and photography which is extremely useful in the current times, where jobs are being cut and downsized due to economic pressures. Given the fact, that today there are numerous gadgets which are tiny, portable and user friendly, it is not a difficult task. However, multi-tasking is not an easy job, especially when there is a constant demand for breaking news.  

 

News Infomediaries:

The Cambridge Business English Dictionary defines Infomediaries as a website that collects and provides information about products and the companies that supply them (dictionary.cambridge.org). The concept of Infomediaries is very applicable in the case of the present scenario, where one finds newsfeeds while one opens, Facebook, Google or Yahoo and other social networking forums or search engines. In this case, if one is interested one will click on the news to read and gather information. The technological advancement leads to similar news being shown to you or suggested to you based on the continual choices or searches you make. Based on the click and the choice of news, the algorithms that are employed in Facebook, Google or other platforms,  provide you similar content.

The book, ‘The Future of Journalism’, edited by Bob Franklin says that two kinds of distribution have emerged: one is based on the new infomediaries (Rebillard and Smynrnaios, 2010) social media corporations which are the news mediators of news and information, and the other is a social distribution based on user’s own networks. People tend to read what others have shared on their news feeds, and then share it further, comment and like it.

This concept is beneficial to Facebook and to the News Website who has employed the use of Facebook to promote its News website or Channel. The consumer or the audience is lured. The consumer of this news may find the piece interesting and share it on his/her personal Facebook platform or other social networking platform or on the status. This garners more views, comments, likes or dislikes which means more traffic on a particular website. This can cater to advertisement revenue. The dealing of Search Engines and Social Networking platforms is also based on Revenue generation.  

 

'Clickbait' Journalism:

While using search engines or social networking platforms or some online service, we come across pictures with catchy headlines. This has often lead to the user clicking on the particular link. The 'clickbait' journalism has often landed in controversy as the catchy headline does not make-up to the content that the user gets to read. Headlines are often constructed in a way that sensationalises a particular event. In India, we often see that many users get duped on platforms like YouTube when the title does not match the content that has been uploaded. However, these articles succeed in getting clicks and the necessary traffic as the person gets hoodwinked in reading and gradually realises that the content is bogus. This type of journalism, builds a wrong image in the long run about the website that hosts such news pieces.

 

Subscription Based Audience:

Many Newspapers have now released online newspaper versions and invite subscribers. Thus, garnering subscribers and getting subscription revenue has become important in order to survive the rat race.

On the international platform, popular journalistic stalwarts amongst newspapers, ‘The Guardian’ has managed to carve a niche for itself through subscribership. Nic Newman in writes in Journalism, Media, And Technology Trends And Predictions 2018 (The Reuters Institute For The Study Of Journalism) states statistics from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report. The report “showed a 7% increase in subscription in the US last year led by the New York Times and Washington Post.” He further added that ‘The Guardian’ has surged ahead in defying its critics to report 800,000 paying customers, which include half a million subscribers and 300,000 one-off donations. For the first time, the Guardian is attracting more revenue directly from readers than from advertising. However, the same cant be spoken in the Indian Context. News is still at the mercy of Subscribership and most people still want to read News free.

Many News Channels, both with written content or News videos on YouTube request subscribers in view of non- biased news and to be free from political pressures or corporate pressure for advertisements in order to bring in genuine news. News channels like ‘The Wire’ have created quite a buzz in India with some good journalistic opinion and pieces. The Quint and others like Firstpost too are churning out many good articles. TV channels too have their websites and do massive news hour uploads on YouTube. Some of these channels are very popular and have a huge subscriber base.  

 

News in Snippets:

The generation of millennials seem to be waning away from Newspaper reading towards reading news on the Net especially in shorter snippets. Primarily because of the many portable devices they use which make news accessible on the go. The Internet also makes it possible to verify other news pieces that are similar. The concept of Google news and other major newspaper forums today provide news both in newspaper format for subscribers and in short snippets to garner readership, subscribers and revenue for the hits as it rakes in advertisement. Jorge Vázquez-Herrero writes that mobile adopters are searching for short-up-to-date news, media should produce native formats adjusted to these usage information patterns characterized by faster access and greater timeliness (Wolf & Schnauber, 2015, Vázquez-Herrero 2019).

The concept of News in Snippets on a Mobile or a Smartphone has encouraged the use of Algorithms that trace your liking for particular kind of news based on your scrolling or reading habits on the smartphone and bring you more content of similar types. This concept is at time a bit dangerous as Media brings you what you desire or like and not what you really need to know.

Furthermore, this concept of reading News in snippets has garnered terms like Ephemeral Journalism, Micro-journalism, Glance Journalism or for that matter Instagram stories. We will also take a quick look at these emerging trends.

I have explained each terminology in short for the convenience of students referring to this blog. Often different terminologies may indicate the same or almost similar concept. I have tried to define various terminologies that indicate almost the same concept, perhaps in different format. So that you become aware of these concepts.

 

Ephemeral Journalism:

The word ephemeral means something that is transient, short lived or that which lasts for a short while. Ephemeral journalism is the product of a generation that relies on smart watches and other digital devices that provides news in short snippets, news in images or in a few words. With the trend of Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram stories, that do not have a very long shelf life and are short-lived, News channels too have begun using these platforms to create such stories and reach out to newer audiences and the millennials. News Channels also lure leaders through hyperlinks.

Jorge Vázquez-Herrero (2019) writes in his research paper, ‘Ephemeral Journalism: News Distribution Through Instagram Stories’ that these new incidental and ephemeral users’ consumption habits are the reason for the different “know-how” of the media (Larrondo et al., 2017), as these intensify their efforts to produce native formats (Newman et al., 2017). For instance, adaption to the web would require ‘Short videos for web and Facebook profiles’ (Kalogeropoulos et al., 2016) or the creation of journalistic microformats (Silva-Rodríguez et al., 2017).

Given the fact that most people access news or other information and OTT content like videos or films or micro films through Social networking platforms or streaming platforms on gadgets like a Notepad, digital watches or Smartphones, Vázquez-Herrero (2019) adds that the shape of the news changes to accommodate navigation through them (Newman, 2018), thus. prioritizing the use of “horizontal storytelling mode” and Snapchat’s “tap to advance mode,” Twitter moments, Facebook and WhatsApp status, as well as Instagram Stories (Online Journalism Blog, 2017). Instagram stories, Glance journalism, etc are outcomes of such Ephemeral trends in journalism.

 

Instagram stories:

Researches have shown that today’s generation, especially the urban lot is prone to use Instagram. While Facebook was a choice, today, Instagram (IG) stories are taking over with their huge audience amongst the millennials. Many News channels are today building their brand on Instagram by creating Instagram stories.

For instance, Channels like BBC produce Instagram stories, which when swiped leads you to the hyperlink of the BBC website. Mark Frankel, the social media editor from BBC News said in an interview with Caroline Scott, "There is a young, vibrant audience for BBC News that doesn't necessarily come directly to our website, television channels or radio stations to consume new stories, so we need to find ways to capture their imagination, bring them in, and encourage them to explore more." (www.journalism.co.uk, 2017) Furthermore, BBC also engages its viewers on IG with tags, hashtags and quizzes.

In India, too, we see a trend among the youngsters to create IG stories. Many actors and actresses are constantly uploading videos and pictures on their IG accounts. It is also known that they get paid for it. Meanwhile, these posts also generate news and advertisement revenue for many News channels, who use IG posts of actors and actresses to write Entertainment news pieces. The articles are short in nature and primarily interspersed with the IG post pictures and loaded with advertisements.

 

Micro  Journalism: 

The term Micro Journalism is similar to what is called Ephemeral Journalism or Glance journalism. The term indicates the use of wearable devices which allow you to take a quick look at the headline or news in short.  (Silva-Rodríguez et al., 2017: 187) writes that ‘technology producers and users, have both welcomed smartwatches as a new device for total communication’.  

 

Glance Journalism:

Glance Journalism is a concept that arose from the Apple’s concept of ‘Glance’ technology in their smartwatches. This is another concept in the Micro-format genre of journalism. Those using smartwatches have a unique way today of reading news at a glance. The news is brought to you through a picture with a caption, a headline and few words of narrative. The Times of India, India’s largest selling English newspaper has actively employed this concept of Glance Journalism to reach out to the millennials along with al the other concepts running simultaneously.

Bilge Narin, (2018) in her research paper, ‘Less is More or Less is Biased: Glance Journalism’ that was presented at the Proceedings  of the 16th International Symposium Communication in the Millennium defines “Glance journalism as a new storytelling form on smartwatches which is fundamentally based on the news headline with an instant update. She further adds that Glance journalism is a new way to spread the news quickly with solely the keywords and audible and/or vibrating alerts via smartwatches as a type of wearable technologies.”  

The idea is to get an instant update on the go. One can decide looking at the instant update, whether or not, one is interested in reading the entire article. ‘These stories are basically “microsummaries” of major stories and contain bite-size news being directed at consumers.’ (phys.org, 2015) The entire concept is based on the fact that people will constantly be glancing at news and getting updated with the addictive format of the smartwatches.

Glance Journalism has led to corporate who run newspapers vying for it as a new means to attract the attention of an audience to its app thus increasing its subscriber base or viewership base.

However, Glance Journalism may or may not be the way to a very informed journalism. A well-researched piece with verified data is educative and informative. The glance journalism keeps one upbeat of incidents occurring across the world but need not necessarily be educative in approach. In a country like India with a large population, the Press plays an important role of being informative and educative by nature. However, the concept of Glance Journalism is the new trend that is catching up. And news at a glance may not ideally be educative, it could be updation and awareness of the occurrence of an incident.  

 

Mojo Journalism:

In a world of portable devices like Notepads, iPhones or Smartphones along with wireless or broadband technology, journalism has discovered a new way of transmitting news at a lower cost and instantly. Many journalists today carry their smartphones to record videos, pictures and interviews which is transmitted instantly using wireless technology. These portable, gadgets are lighter and user friendly as compared to the heavy cameras used in yester years. So, many reporters and journalists make use of Mobile Technology to communicate or transmit news which they have recorded, edited and revamped using mini gadgets and devices like smartphones.

NDTV has an entire series called Gadget 360 which was shot on a Samsung notepad 10. Hosam El Nagar in his post, Mojo: from periphery to the mainstream of journalism’ writes about how Nicholas Garnett from BBC who was among the early adopters of mojo and its benefits recalled how during an earthquake in Nepal, when the infrastructure collapsed, he was able to shoot, go live and transmit the message because of his mobile. Hosam further adds that a similar experience was narrated by Siobhan Heanue of ABC Australia when her mobile provided coverage of the earthquake and its aftermath. (www.thomsonfoundation.org)

 

Paid News:

On the negative side, India is also seeing a surge in Paid news and bias in news production and news transmission. In an arena of severe competition and deteriorating revenue packages, Journalism has stooped down to a level where news is presented with a bias towards the corporate or the political party funding the same. This has become a trend. In the bargain, to support the opinion or create an opinion which at times has severe bias, journalists turn rogues on screen indulging in verbally violent debates. This is a trend that has caught up in India.

Amidst the cantankerous cacophony of words that many big channels are doing today by bringing an esteemed panel to the table for debate. Often the journalist turns into a subjective accuser pinpointing fingers, shouting allegations, making incessant demands of the guest and heading to the point of insulting the guest and even showing them the door. Print on the other hand can be considered more stable, trustworthy and informative. However, the need to survival has over the years gradually led Print journalism too, to becoming a victim to Paid news, Advertorials and advertisement. 

Artificial Intelligence

Conclusion:

Journalism is a must in this country who depends on it for information, news and education. There is a constant battle of choices between the genuine News Channels and those that crop up in large numbers to make money through views on videos often at the cost of truth. There emerging trends are to lead a nation to an informed public and not an ill-informed Public.