Mapping Citizen and Participatory Journalism in Newsrooms, Classrooms and Beyond

Mapping Citizen and Participatory Journalism in Newsrooms, Classrooms and Beyond assesses citizen journalism within the context of hyperlocals, non-profits and large global news organizations, critically examining various forms of participation by citizen contributors to the news. The essays included within the book answer questions such as: Does citizen journalism close the news participation gap between the Global North and South? How can citizen journalism enable the socially excluded to overcome marginalization? What are the obligations of professional news outlets to citizen reporters in war zones? Furthermore, some contributors critique the ways traditional journalism makes use of non-professional content, while others propose new analytical frameworks such as reciprocal journalism, connective journalism and the Appropriation/Amplification Model. The book also investigates efforts to teach ordinary people journalism skills in Europe, the Middle East and both North and South America. Some of the programs scrutinized here instill under-represented groups with semi-professional news values. Other projects support citizen journalism infused with activism such as the photographers of the favela-based jornalismo popular or the volunteer digital humanitarians covering global crises and, in doing so, demonstrate new ways to respond to the rise of grassroots participation in the production of news. The chapters in this book were originally published as special issues of Journalism Practice.

Introduction: Mapping citizen and participatory journalism in newsrooms, classrooms and beyond, Melissa Wall 1. How participation is practiced by in-betweeners of journalism, Laura Ahva 2. Reciprocity and the hyper-local journalist, Dave Hart, Andy Williams & Jerome Turner 3. The social reporter in action; an analysis of the practice and discourse of Andy Carvin, Elvira García de Torres & Alfred Hermida 4. Looking after Ibrahim; how journalists network, develop and safeguard relationships with citizen journalists and activists in Syria, Lisette Johnston 5. Digital humanitarians; citizen journalists on the virtual front line of natural and human-caused disasters, Wendy Norris 6. Constructing cholera; CNN iReport, the Haitian cholera epidemic and the limits of citizen journalism, Joanna M. T. Krajewski & Brian Ekdale 7. The Appropriation/Amplification Model of Citizen Journalism; an account of structural limitations and the political economy of participatory content creation, Nikki Usher Chapter 8: Citizen journalism at the margins, Ann Luce, Daniel Jackson & Einar Thorsen Chapter 9: "Shared Photography"; (Photo)journalism and political mobilisation in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Alice Baroni &Andrea Mayr 10. Helping Syrians tell their story to the world; training Syrian citizen journalists through connective journalism, Mohammad Yousuf & Maureen Taylor 11. Citizen health journalism; negotiating between political engagement and professional identity in a media training program for healthcare workers, Stuart Davis 12. From audience to reporter; recruiting and training community members at a participatory news site serving a multiethnic city, Daniela Gerson, Nien-Tsu Nancy Chen, Andrea Wenzel, Sandra Ball-Rokeach & Michael Parks 13. Training or improvisation? citizen journalists and their educational backgrounds—a comparative view, Michal Kus, Tobias Eberwein, Colin Porlezza & Sergio Splendore

Melissa Wall is a Professor of Journalism at California State University – Northridge, USA and the author of two previous books about citizen journalism, Citizen Journalism: Practices, Propaganda, Pedagogy, and the edited volume, Citizen Journalism: Valuable, Useless or Dangerous? She is the founder of the Pop-Up Newsroom, a temporary, virtual newsroom for citizen and student journalists.