citizen journalism and blogging in asia: what role for media development organisations?
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Citizen journalism and blogging in Asia: What role for media development organisations?TRANSCRIPT
Citizen journalism and blogging in Asia: What role for media development organisations? Sanjana Hattotuwa
Old Media in Sri Lanka
New Media in Sri Lanka
Growing recognition
Sanjana with Iresha Dilhani at “Can Bloggers be taken seriously?” session at Galle Literary Festival, February 2008
Blogging in Sinhala
CPA’s new media initiatives
First and only citizen journalism website in English
First citizen and only journalism website in Sinhala and Tamil
First and only mobile phone citizen journalism video initiative
First and only YouTube Video Channel
First and only podcast (Internet radio) station in English, Sinhala and Tamil
First and only Twitter channels (micro-blogging) for election violence updates
Vikalpa
VOR Radio
Vikalpa YouTube Video
Advocacy online: Google Maps
Election violence http://tinyurl.com/5rxbda
High Security Zone mapping http://tinyurl.com/5s3rx3
Groundviews
Groundviews Started in 2006
The first citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka
700+ avg. readers a day
Over 530 submissions, almost all original, through text, photos, videos
SNCR Award of Excellence in 2007. The first ever international award won by any news website in Sri Lanka.
No funding since February 2007
Working journalists, civil servants, NGO workers, HR activists, diaspora, civil servants, students, lawyers, diplomatic corps, political parties and more contribute and comment
Vital statistics
"For ongoing analysis of the conflict, the citizen journalism site groundviews.org provides interesting and often tragic reporting” Freedom House
Groundviews got over 144,280 page views and close to a million hits in 2007.
Groundviews is currently referenced on 65 other blogs globally and has a Technorati rank of 131,962 out of the over 70 million blogs.
Groundviews is the only citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka to be directly indexed on Google News and ranked Number 1 on Google by keyword.
Articles on the site are regularly republished in other local media, including media websites such as InfoLanka News, Tamil Canadian and Tamilnet
JasmineNewswires
After the tsunami
The web is littered with examples on how SMS helped in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
“I'm standing on the Galle road in Aluthgama and looking at 5 ton trawlers tossed onto the road. Scary shit.”
“Found 5 of my friends, 2 dead. Of the 5, 4 are back in Colombo. The last one is stranded because of a broken bridge. Broken his leg. But he's alive.”
“Made contact. He got swept away but swam ashore. Said he's been burying people all day.”
“Just dragging them off the beach and digging holes with his hands.”
Regime change in Thailand
Bloggers helped overthrow Thaksin by galvanizing public opinion.
Thailand has a minimum of seven hundred blogs—most written by young, university-educated urbanites—that feature daily reporting and commentary on domestic politics.
Life under a military government was worse than Thaksin’s regime. The junta, in a sign of how seriously it took the citizen journalists, made it a priority to block hosting sites.
Project mumbaiVOICES.com
It is an endeavor aimed at capturing the voices of the city’s survivors - so that the citizens of Mumbai can have their own say in the protection of their beloved city.
The project offers ordinary citizens an opportunity to reflect on the disaster response in the aftermath of the blasts, examine the strengths and weakness, and collectively discuss desirable next steps to strengthen our response in the future.
This project was piloted among 160 citizens of Mumbai – their testimonies are posted here.
First Online Free Expression Day
Burma, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt amongst others
Green with envy?
In June 2007, bloggers in Sri Lanka reacted to plagiarism by a leading Editor of a English newspaper.
Bloggers formed a united front
Violent, abusive reaction by Editor
Plagiarism continues – stories, photos taken without attribution
Proves the significant appeal of new media!
Lessons learnt
If you work in journalism, you work for an online news organization whether you want to or not.
News is a conversation
Product vs. place
Blogs represent the most open public communications platform for political discourse.
The peer-to-peer architecture of the blogosphere is more resistant to capture or control by the state than the older, hub and spoke architecture of the mass media model.
Guidelines on Groundviews
Guidelines proved invaluable
Please treat others with respect. Flaming and trolling will not be accepted on Groundviews. Attack the issue, not the person. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved. Comments that seek to inflame tensions on the ground, or are of a defamatory nature, will not be approved, or will be taken off the website as soon as possible.
Groundviews is a place for original and creative writing, not repetition or regurgitation.
No Potentially libelous statements.
Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
Personal attacks, insults, or threats.
Commercial product promotions.
Information taken from another source without permission.
Private personal information published without consent.
Comments unrelated to the topic of the forum.
Nothing from CPA or NGO press releases!
Staying sane, going insane!
Dealing with hate speech psychologically draining
Increasingly dangerous – “providing solace and relief to terrorists”
Time consuming and generally thankless
Transference of skills problematic
English knowledge ESSENTIAL even if blogging in the vernacular (interfaces, tags, content management)
Old media waking up
Daily Mirror evolution
2003
2008
The Observers: France24
Yahoo
CNN iReport
Challenges for New Media growth
UNICODE in Sinhala
Cost of access even though footprint of wired / wireless broadband expanding apace
PC based mentality of Government’s ICT Agency
Voters not citizens in Sri Lanka
Communications illiteracy in civil society / NGOs
State of the News Media 2008
In the absence of revenue, most appear to be running on the owners’ blood, sweat and tears. (I can personally attest to this!)
In the midst of the uncertainty that surrounds the business model for citizen journalism sites, NGO funded initiatives have become a more visible presence in online journalism.
This is especially true at the hyper-local level, where nonprofits have contributed money to encourage and support citizen reporting.
Barack’s dilemma
“His website was thus a vast social networking site (one of his chief organisers was a founder of Facebook)—a mechanism not just for translating enthusiasm into cash but also for building a community of fired-up supporters.”
About turn on wire-tapping Bill
Bloggers revolt on his own website!
Limits of free speech online?
Limits of free speech online?
Earlier this year, 22-year-old IT professional Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid based in Haryana was arrested by the Indian Police because he had said he hated Sonia Gandhi in Orkut, Google’s social networking site.
In 2007, the International Federation of Journalists hit hard against Google for its censorship deal with the Thai government.
Five-month ban on YouTube after Google installed filters to block Thais from accessing any videos deemed “offensive” to the monarchy.
Limits of free speech online?
Funding for media in 2008
$794,103 Sri Lankan Rupees 85,564,598
Funding for new media
?
Funding for new media
0
Imagining the future
Print still important
Complementarity not competition
Mobiles (11 million SIMS in Sri Lanka / Population 20 million)
Vernacular content growth
Citizens report the news. Journalists analyse the news.
The distinction between new and old media will disappear.
Why support?
Put your money where your mouth is!
It’s already proven to work
Traditional approaches to media reform under repressive regimes don’t work
Journalists under attack can still publish using new media
Leverage the growth of web media for development, democracy, human rights, good governance, transparency, accountability and peacebuilding
Hope
“I don’t agree with what you say, but I see why Groundviews is there. Keep it up!”
Thank you!