Citizen Witnessing
Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis
Key Concepts in Journalism
1. Auflage Januar 2013
254 Seiten, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
What role can the ordinary citizen perform in news reporting?
This question goes to the heart of current debates about citizen
journalism, one of the most challenging issues confronting the news
media today.
In this timely and provocative book, Stuart Allan introduces the
key concept of 'citizen witnessing' in order to rethink
familiar assumptions underlying traditional distinctions between
the 'amateur' and the 'professional'
journalist. Particular attention is focused on the spontaneous
actions of ordinary people - caught-up in crisis events
transpiring around them - who feel compelled to participate
in the making of news. In bearing witness to what they see, they
engage in unique forms of journalistic activity, generating
firsthand reportage - eyewitness accounts, video footage,
digital photographs, Tweets, blog posts - frequently making a
vital contribution to news coverage.
Drawing on a wide range of examples to illustrate his argument,
Allan considers citizen witnessing as a public service, showing how
it can help to reinvigorate journalism's responsibilities
within democratic cultures. This book is required reading for all
students of journalism, digital media and society.
1 'Accidental Journalism' 1
2 The Journalist as Professional Observer 26
3 Bearing Witness, Making News 56
4 Witnessing Crises in a Digital Era 92
5 News, Civic Protest and Social Networking 120
6 WikiLeaks: Citizen as Journalist, Journalist as Citizen 152
7 'The Global Village of Images' 174
Notes 207
References 220
Index 246
that it will change the way academics and the wider populous use
the various terms associated with what has generally been labelled
or mislabelled as citizen journalism and that the term citizen
witnessing, as Allan conceptualises it, takes hold."
Digital Journalism
"Drawing on a wide range of relevant work, Allan shrewdly rethinks
the idea of the "citizen journalist" by examining the
"journalist as citizen" as well as the "citizen
as accidental journalist". Allan's intelligent analysis
of both classic and bang-up-to-date examples makes this a key
contribution to understanding how journalism should best
develop."
John Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London
"An important book that moves the current debate about the
future of journalism into a new domain. A must-read for journalism
scholars, students and practitioners alike."
Pacific Journalism Review
"Stuart Allan reminds us "'war zones' are also people's
homes." He critically documents how mobile and digital tools in the
hands of billions around the world have opened up a radicalizing
public service of "citizen witnessing" - a
phenomenon that is invigorating journalism and forcing democratic
(and not so democratic) institutions to greater accountability and
responsibility."
Susan Moeller, University of Maryland
"Allan's Citizen Witnessing invites readers to think more
deeply about the everyday materialities that define acts of citizen
journalism in times of crisis, the very real risks and losses it
can entail, and the reasons why we will continue to rely on the
courage of its documentarians, and the contingencies of
happenstance they face, in the years to come. Citizen
Witnessing will be essential reading in journalism studies and
beyond."
Carrie Rentschler, McGill University
"This combination of historic contextualization, theoretical
analysis, empirical research, and news case studies (citizen and
journalist) makes what could have been an impenetrable academic
text, a lively, inspiring, and thoughtful read accessible to
scholars and students alike."
Lily Canter, Sheffield Hallam University
