a summary of Bearing witness: citizen journalism and human rights issues

1. BEARING WITNESS: CITIZEN JOURNALISM
AND HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
Rihab Alniyadi
2 August 2012
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, „ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human
rights issues‟, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

2. AGENDA
 Citizen journalism VS Mainstream journalism
 Three cases of citizen journalism
 Further examples
 New media landscape
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.

3. THE “OTHERING CULTURE” IS CHALLENGED
 CJ challenges the ―othering culture‖ by:
 Breaking down the ‗us and them‘ dichotomies in
reporting.
 Creating spaces allowing the people to report
their own suffering to the world
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

4. THE 2004 SOUTH ASIAN TSUNAMI
 55,000 tsunami related blogs appeared over the
first three days:
 Great contribution to tell stories.
 Supplementing the mainstream media by
providing a bottom-up coverage
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

5. MJ: “US”: AMERICAN RELIEF
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and human
rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

6. CJ: “THEM”: BOXING DAY, PEOPLE SUFFERING
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–

7.  Few online news organizations like
MSNBC.com and CNN, took advantage of
citizen journalists to gather information by
creating booth for ordinary people to report.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

8. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA
 “Us”:  “Them”:
politics, Muslim/Hindu, human rights violations
Celebrities. in north-eastern states.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

9. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN INDIA
 Sources of news
 Raising awareness of events and evoking
reactions in other parts of India; citizens used the
Internet as a way to respond to the human rights
violations in north-eastern states.
 Linking Indians to organize a protest.
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.

10. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
 “Us”: US-Israel efforts  “Them”: Palestinian
to achieve the peace suffering
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

11. CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES
 Palestinian used the Internet to gain international
attention through:
 Electronic Intifada website: an English website
that challenge the lack of critical media coverage
of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.
 Personal blogs
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.

12. EXAMPLE OF ONLINE REPORTING:
 Ushahidi.com:
Ushahidi.com is a CJ site that was set up to
inform people about violence incidents reported
throughout Kenya and to create open-source
platform where citizens from all over the world
can report on events.
http://lnicolegates.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/citize
n-journalism/
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.

13. CITIZEN JOURNALISTS AS EYEWITNESS:
 Pakistan floods in 2010
 September 11
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–
389.

14. CONCLUSION: NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE
―The tsunamis changed the media
landscape. It is now is the time
when citizen reporters will begin to
join the ranks of journalism‘ in
informing the public — not as
professional equals, yet in some
ways as important in the grand
Steve Outing
Media Expert
scheme of news‖
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism
and human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.

15. EXERCISE
 In groups, discuss the following questions and
tweet your answers to #mdia5003:
1. Considering the concepts we looked at, who is a
journalist in today‘s media?
2. Have you ever experience being a citizen
journalist? In what way?
Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‘ Bearing witness: Citizen journalism and
human rights issues’, Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp. 373–389.

16. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Allan, S 2011, ‗ Journalism and the culture of othering‘,
Brazilian Journalism Research, Vol. 6, Iss. 2, pp. 26-40,
accessed 28 July 2012 from UNSW library database.
 Allan S, Sonwalkarb P, and Carterc C 2007, ‗ Bearing
witness: Citizen journalism and human rights issues‘,
Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol. 5, No.3, pp.
373–389.
 Chan, H 2012, US Assistance after Indian Ocean
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17. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Collinson, S 2011, US President Barack Obama (C) walks with
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 Lnicolegates, 2012, ‗Citizen Journalism‘, WordPress, blog, 6
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<http://lnicolegates.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/citizen-
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18. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Outing, S 2005, ‗Taking Tsunami Coverage into Their Own
Hands‘, Poynter, 6 January, accesses 29 July 2012, <
http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/29330/taking-tsunami-
coverage-into-their-own-hands/>.
 Tritten, T & Sumida, C 2011, U.S. relief mission, image,
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tensions-over-futenma-1.140660>.
 Two year old Palestinian boy, image, accessed 31 July 2012,
<http://www.terisr.50webs.com/slides/Israel,Terrorist,state,At
tacks,to,Palestine.html>.