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THE RISE OF
CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The concept of citizen journalism
has been variously called "public", "participatory",
"democratic", "guerrilla’ or "street" journalism.”
Bowman and Willis (2003) define this brand of journalism as “the act of a
citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of
collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information, the
intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate,
wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.” Radsch
(2013), vividly captures the spirit and essence of citizen journalism in his
definition of the concept as “an alternative and activist form of newsgathering
and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a
repose to shortcoming in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar
journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and
relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream
journalism."
Citizen journalism is the reverse of
the straight-jacket, near unilateral top-down communication system of the
mainstream media. Bowman and Willis (2003) state that, “Participatory
journalism is a bottom-up, emergent phenomenon in which there is little or no
editorial oversight or formal journalistic workflow dictating the decisions of
a staff. Instead, it is the result of many simultaneous, distributed
conversations that either blossom or quickly atrophy in the Web’s social
network.” They observe that “the fluidity of this approach puts more emphasis
on the publishing of information rather than the filtering. Conversations
happen in the community for all to see. In contrast, traditional news
organizations are set up to filter information before they publish it.” In its
true nature, citizen journalism allows no room for gate keeping. In this brand
of journalism, information gets to the members of public, who are directly
involved in content creation, raw, ‘naked’ and undiluted.
Over the years, there seems to be
some confusion regarding the meaning and nature of citizen journalism. This is
evident in the numerous names it has been called, as enumerated above.
Pondering on this, Meyer (2005). observes that “one measure of the discomfort that
journalists feel over the concept of public journalism is the great variety of
names given it, e.g. civic journalism, citizen journalism, community
journalism, or communitarian journalism.” He further states: Part of the blame
for the confusion must go to the early promoters of public journalism who have
steadfastly refused to give it a definition or anything more than a vague
theoretical structure. Because it is an idea in development, they say, a
definition would needlessly limit it. Maybe so. But one consequence is that
debating public journalism is like arguing over a Rorschach test. Each sees in
it the manifestation of his or her fondest hopes or worst fears.
The confusion is apparently fuelled
by uncertainties about what constitutes citizen journalism and who citizen
journalists are. This explains why Glaser (2006). notes that “There is some
controversy over the term citizen journalism, because many professional
journalists believe that only a trained journalist can understand the rigors and
ethics involved in reporting the news. And conversely, there are many trained
journalists who practice what might be considered citizen journalism by writing
their own blogs or commentary online outside of the traditional journalism
hierarchy.”
The seaming confusion and misconception
notwithstanding, citizen journalism is simply the emerging brand of journalism
in which the content is user-generated, unedited, uncensored and comes
real-time. The definition by Professor Jay Rosen, cited in Moller (2012), gives
an insight into the nature of citizen journalism concept: “citizen journalism
is when people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have
in their possession to inform one another.” With this, it is obvious that a person
does not necessarily need a former training in journalism to be a citizen
journalist, especially in this era of astounding ubiquity of the social media.
What one needs to participate in the growing citizen journalism spectrum is
just a fair knowledge of the operations and manipulations of the social media.
Mark, (2006), a freelance
journalist, explains that, the idea behind citizen journalism is that people
without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology
and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check
media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might
write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you
could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out
factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a
newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might
videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube. All these
might be considered acts of journalism, even if they don’t go beyond simple
observation at the scene of an important event.
At a time when Nigerians used the
internet to mobilise protests against the removal of fuel subsidy, the findings
of a recent academic research released by Oxford University found that citizen
journalism is on the slow but gradual rise in Nigeria and that the traditional
media is waking up to it. The study, which had Sahara Reporters as its case
study placed Sahara Reporters, the citizen journalism website, as Nigeria's
first leading citizen website.
The academic research conducted by
Sunday Dare, a Nigerian Journalist, who earlier had studied media and public
policy at Harvard University took a first objective stab at the theory and
practice of citizen journalism in Nigeria, how far it has come, what impact it
is making in terms of advancing democratic rights and institutions, and how it
has given the people voice and a platform to query their government. The study
revealed that Sahara Reporters scored high in blazing the trail, especially exposing
corruption and combining advocacy journalism with mainstream journalism.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Citizen
journalism has been criticized by its opponents in Nigeria. Some of the critics
believe that citizen journalism lacks veracity. Most Nigerians do not believe
stories from citizen journalists. It is believed in some quarters that they
spread false hood. Citizen journalism fuels civil unrest, political instability
and ethno-religious crisis. This angle of criticism peaked during the nationwide
protests that greeted the removal of fuel subsidy in January 2012. It was
believed in some quarters that citizen journalists misinformed the activists,
making them to gang up against the government. However, that was perceived, the
aim of the protest was partially achieved as there was a huge reduction in the
pump price of fuel.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The
objective of this study is therefore stated as follows:
i. To find out the role of citizen
journalism in Nigeria.
ii. To determine the extent to which
Nigeria have embraced citizen journalism.
iii. To assess the impact of citizen
journalism in promoting good in Nigeria.
iv. To find out the challenges of
citizen journalism in Nigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
In this
study, an attempt will be sufficiently made to answer the following questions.
i. What role does citizenship
journalism play in Nigeria?
ii. To what degree have Nigeria
embraced citizen journalism?
iii. How has citizen journalism help in
promoting good governance in Nigeria?
iv. What are the challenges of citizen
journalism in Nigeria?
1.5 Scope of Study
The study will be centered
basically on ‘Audience Perception of Citizen Journalism in Nigeria – A Case
Study of Sahara Reporters'. The study will examine audience perception
considering the demographic factor of Auchi people such as, education
background, age, sex, marital status e. t. c
1.6 Significance of the Study
Citizen journalism offers
professional and non-professional journalists alike opportunities to be active
participants in news content creation. With it, members of the public are no
longer helpless passive consumers of news. They are now content creators.
Citizen journalism has broken the hitherto seemingly endless monopoly of the
mainstream media. As such, journalism is today democratic and participatory.
According to Educause Learning Initiative (2007), by granting access to just
anyone to cover the news, citizen journalism presents a more personal, nuanced
view of events and has the potential to cultivate communities of people with a
common interest. The fluidity of this approach puts more emphasis on the
publishing of information rather than the filtering. Conversations happen in
the community for all to see. In contrast, traditional news organizations are
set up to filter information before they publish it.” In its true nature,
citizen journalism allows no room for gate keeping. In this brand of
journalism, information gets to the members of public, who are directly
involved in content creation, raw, ‘naked’ and undiluted.
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