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Power to the People The rise and rise of Citizen Journalism

Micha Barban Dangerfield

The advent of the Internet, new technologies, social platforms and grass-roots media has heralded a significant shift in collecting, disseminating and sharing information. Citizen journalism can be considered as the offspring of this evolution - an alternative form of news gathering and reporting, taking place outside of the traditional media structures and which can involve anyone. We live in the age of image consumption and data absorption. Everyday, a fresh wave of information reaches our computers and phone screens, but not only are we the recipients of this constant flow, we are now the creators. The liberalisation of information allows anyone to share and spread their personal experience of an event, in real time. This new form of reporting takes place ahead of or outside traditional media structures and can function as a firewall - holding media accountable for any inaccuracies or lack of news coverage. 

The birth of citizen journalism is often attributed to South Korea where the first platform of amateur generated information, OhMyNews , was created. The principle was simple; anyone can take part in the process of creating information - as the notion of participatory  journalism (another term for citizen journalism) implies. From reader to participant, citizens have now changed their status as a mere recipients of information, to providers. It is not necessarily something new, however. When Abraham Zapruder took his amateur film-camera and decided to go and record John F. Kennedy’s rally in Dallas, he inadvertently captured images of his assassination, which could be considered a proto-form of citizen journalism - as what really defines it is its inexpert nature. Zapruder supplied his film to the Secret Service to assist in their investigation. Whilst is was not the only film of the event, it was the most complete.

Film still from Abraham Zapruder's home-movie camera footage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, November 22, 1963 © The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

Participatory reporting allows storytelling. Personal experiences of an event reinforce their impact, with each testimony offering a new dimension. We can also argue that it resituates the individual within history and the way it is constructed. We have a tendency to think of history as a natural course of events that we automatically hold in our collective memory as ‘fact’ - but it is very much an artefact. History is about selecting and defining events, much like journalism does. 

By engaging in the process of creating information, disseminating and consuming it, we could also argue that the era of information has promoted citizens to not only reporters but also as neophyte historians - making a moment matter.

Still from video footage of Ian Tomlinson immediately before being struck by police as he made his way home through the G20 protest in Central London, April 2009 © Ian Tomlinson Family Campaign

There are countless examples of this. The amateur video footage of Ian Tomlinson’s death during G20 demonstrations in London in 2009 brought a whole new explanation of the incident to light and a week later the true account of what actually happened was made public for the world to see , vastly contradicting the Metropolitan police claims of a natural death. A year later, in December 2010, when the death by immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia went viral on the internet, not only did it weave a new event into the net of history, it changed history’s course when it became the trigger element of a whole revolution, lighting the touchpaper for unrest and uprising. Angry and frustrated citizens in other regions of the Middle East watched things unfolding on social media, and Syria and Egypt would soon to follow suit. 

Protesters in Tahrir Square Cairo 2011 © Ramy Raoof - via Flickr

Beginning in 2010, the Arab Spring displayed a new level of citizen engagement in reporting news, gathering live front-line footage and imagery, the monitoring of mainsteam media (over which there are often strict controls) and government authorities. Following the results of presidential elections in 2009, The Iranian Green Movement presented a new face of Iran to the world. In international media, Iran had been depicted as a deeply theocratic and extremist country. But when people around the world saw the Iranian youth discontent and collective unrest, a new image was formed, in stark contrast to the one that had prevailed for decades. More recently, the reports of police violence in Baltimore have triggered massive protests, and eye witness accounts have become a powerful watchdog challenging sovereign powers. 

Hong Kong students clashing with police during the 2014 protests © @hongkongprotester

But if citizen reporting has reshaped collective action and mobilisation, it can also be a new space of control and governmental interference. When citizen reporting flourished in Hong-Kong during the last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations, the Chinese government intimidated bloggers by threatening them with a 3-year sentence. In Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has increased censorship of the internet and went as far as temporarily blocking access to certain social platforms such as Twitter and YouTube used by the Turkish youth to critique and denounce politicians and gather for protests. In Iran, smart filtering systems allow the authorities to control some online content while in other places; citizen journalism has remained a way to hijack censorship protocols in conventional media. In Syria for example, citizen reporters have become the only source of information on the frontline, which journalists can no longer access.

History has shown the capacity of governments to control the production and distribution of information. Artists have long been entrusted to illustrate historically signifcant moments, though of course many were commissioned by victors with a story to preserve. War artists throughout history have been officially sanctioned by governments to faithfully record conflict and battle, but what do we know about the elements that were omitted? Can reporting ever be truly impartial?  Citizen journalists are certainly not devoid of an agenda. How, then, can being both participant and reporter allow journalistic objectivity and neutrality? 

Jeremy Deller The Battle of Orgreave 2001 Colour video Still frame Photo: Martin Jenkinson © Artangel

The limits of citizen journalism lie in its innate freedoms; some essential yardsticks of traditional journalism can be neglected in favour of real-time reporting. The verification of facts and sources and the objectivity of a report don’t necessarily come in to play with hastily gathered material. Official news agencies and press outlets are increasingly relying on ordinary people on the ground most of whom can buy and operate a smartphone cheaply and with ease, but with this scenario comes challenges. These limitations also affect the free interpretation of images, but this is certainly no different in the mainstream media. Someone has made the call over how to frame, compose, caption, and distribute. When looking at a painting of a great historical battle, a viewer can perhaps visually differentiate the two camps involved in the conflict, as those differences were carefully rendered by the artist’s hand to aid the composition, such as in John Singleton Copley ’s The Death of Major Peirson (1783). The lines become more blurred when fighting begins amongst neighbours who have live side-by-side in a community torn apart by differing political allegiances. More often than not in these live, raw images, we identify the warring factions as military and civilian. Uniform vs t-shirt and jeans. Authority vs man on the street. 

John Singleton Copley The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783) Tate

But things are less obvious today. Without accountability of sources, images can be adopted and reused according to a specific agenda. Another problem rises to the surface: How can we track a source? How can we credit amateur generated imagery? Many sources get lost in the viral flow of clicks and shares and some apps such as Tagg.ly are trying to reinstate image attribution. This will become more vital the more legitimate this method of news gathering becomes. Citizenside , the French organisation set up to monitor, protect and verify material, also seeks to protect the sources – though in many cases people would rather remain anonymous if their safety is at risk, or a reprimand inevitable. It is open to anybody, and is now partnering with Getty Images and AFP , so that your iPhone snap may now make headlines. 

The enthusiasm that citizen reporting arouses can also become a serious issue. This sudden engagement in public matters and current affairs sometimes blurs the lines between the role of simple reporter and a righter of wrongs. After the bombings during the Boston marathon, a manhunt was led by a small group who subverted their initial role as bystanders and established themselves as vigilantes on a hunt for the perpetrators of the bombings - which resulted in the false accusations against missing student Sunil Triparthi , who through the lens of social media was wrongly identified as a prime suspect in the attacks. If citizen journalism has emphasised the creation of a new counter-power, it can be argued there is a responsibility to self-regulate - to restrain the role to that of eye-witness, and not to descend into a simplified form of collective justice.

Through participatory journalism, the individual gains a new position in the course of an event, media, history and in the political sphere. By taking responsibility and power over information, citizen journalists question the centralisation of information. In America, six corporations control 90% of the media. In the UK, 70% of the national media market is owned by three major companies. It is now important for the potential and limitations of this new type of journalism to be highlighted and acknowledged. It has induced a renewal of media structures and places individuals at the centre of information gathering and history making, whether as a passive witness or a savvy auteur, citizens are making - and breaking - their own news. 

Fighting History

This Tate Britain exhibition focuses on the conflict, martyrdom and catastrophe found in history painting from the eighteenth century to the present day. In England, history painting first emerged in the eighteenth century.

Sociology Group: Welcome to Social Sciences Blog

Citizen Journalism: Meaning, History, Types, Pros and Cons

Imagine what happens when a news medium fails to cover or report an important incident due to critical situations? The medium tends to lose its credibility and trust. To avoid this, the concept of citizen journalism was brought in. Earlier, when the news media came into existence, it was the leaders and businessmen who played a major role in news making. Slowly, the citizens started making news, and in today’s date, citizens have started to report the news. The rapid growth of the internet also contributed to the evolution of citizen journalism. Today, there are news media who highly support citizen journalism as it helps them retain their credibility.

Read: Emergence of Journalism

citizen journalism image

What is Citizen Journalism?

The concept of citizen journalism is based on citizens who play a dynamic role in the process of news collecting, reporting, editing, and distributing it to other public. It is different from professional journalism and traditional reporting. This kind of journalism needs no graduation from a professional course. The requirements are simple. The citizen has to have a camera or good writing skills and more importantly a social media account.

In simple terms, Citizen Journalists:

  • Are not professionals, but they produce and publish news
  • Are people outside the mainstream media organizations
  • Are people who were “audience” yesterday
  • They simply write the news from their perspective.

Citizen journalism is also called as:

  • Personal publishing
  • Networked journalism
  • Participatory journalism
  • Open source journalism
  • Citizen media
  • Grassroots media
  • Bottom-up journalism
  • Hyperlocal journalism
  • Stand-alone journalism
  • Distributed journalism
  • Nonmedia journalism
  • Guerrilla journalism

History of Citizen Journalism:

With high-quality cameras and the fastest internet facilities, citizen journalism has become easier today. But, it all started with 727 citizens in South Korea. Being dissatisfied with the traditional media and their reporting, the Korean entrepreneur, Oh Yeon Ho’s declared that “Everybody is a reporter” in the year 2000. Unable to bear the costs of hiring reporters for a professional news medium, OhmyNews, a news website was started. The speciality of this website was, any person could write and report the news. Gradually, the count of the citizen reporters and the news started to increase and it was noted that the reporters count touched 50,000 plus in the year 2007. Citizen journalists from 100 countries reported.

Also, Read: Investigative Journalism

Later, this practice was brought into existence in every country which had the growth of the internet. As technology grew, the issues, the crime scenes, and also other newsworthy events started to grow. Also, citizen journalism was a great help during terrifying happenings such as attacks and natural calamities. It is continuing to contribute to the aspect of receiving information from every corner of the world.

Types of Citizen Journalists:

There are two different ways where a citizen journalist can work:

  • Working on their own
  • Working with organizations

Working on their own:

Citizen Journalists working on their own means that they create something by themselves. Instead of adding something to the existing publications, they create something and publish it on their own. Not being affected or influenced by the traditional media, these people publish their works with the help of new media. Again, there are two ways to use new media:

  • Social Media – The creative creators actively use their social media accounts like twitter, instagram, facebook or others to publish their comments, photographs, or opinions. This helps in drawing the attention of the public to what is going on in the world. For, instance, the Tamil Nadu Jallikattu protests happened widely with the help of the news spread on social media. Their motive is “I shoot, I write, I edit and I publish it”.
  • Creating a blog or a website – When a person feels the urge to comment on an issue or tell it out, that is when that person creates their own blog or a website in order to share their opinions with the public. The person can take this opportunity to write more on the same topic or explore other topics to disseminate information. With a blog or a website, a citizen journalist can use different types of media such as photographs, audio or video publishing to spread news.

Working with News Organizations:

A lot of citizen journalists work with news organizations and help them publish news with a proper source. They can

  • Comment on the articles published – These journalists can go to a news article published on a news website and comment on the articles. This will catch the reader’s eyes and they get to give more attention to the article. The readers or other journalists can also comment on the articles as well as reply to the existing comments thereby giving a new perspective to the news.
  • Crowdsource – Crowdsourcing is done by professional journalists as well. Crowdsourcing means getting sources and information from the crowd to complete an article. The citizen journalists check facts, analyse, and re-send it to the news organizations. This usually happens when the work is more but the people working on it are less in number.
  • Live Vlogging – Video blogging is live when there is something great or unusual happening in an area. For example, it can be a concert or it can be a lengthy power cut due to heavy rains. People talk about how they feel or what has affected them throughout the happening. Protests and riots are also bravely covered through live blogging and vlogging. Sometimes, the reporters report with a photograph or an audio recording that becomes the source of the news update.

Why do we want to share everything on social media?

Advantages of Citizen Journalism:

Citizen journalism has more advantages than disadvantages.

  • There are first-hand contributors during a critical instance
  • Offers an opportunity for talented people who are not professionals
  • It offers a good amount of space for marginalized groups
  • It talks about the problems that mainstream media forgot to throw the spotlight on
  • Low cost but easy access to a large set of audience.
  • Simply, threats don’t play much of a role here.
  • It empowers local communities
  • Citizen journalists who speak for their public work for the betterment of their community.

Disadvantages of Citizen Journalism:

Even though there are less disadvantages, the impact is more.

  • Citizen journalists sometimes tend to work unethically
  • It confuses the audience on what to believe as there are a lot of opinions
  • Sometimes, the news reported are untrustworthy
  • Conflicts of interests and differences in opinion
  • At times, people tend to get diverted by the wrong news.

In Today’s Scenario:

Today, citizen journalists are taken more seriously than the mainstream media. This is because the mainstream media sometimes fails to cover what is important and loses its credibility. Moreover, citizen journalists have started producing news with proper fact-checking and the right sources. They cover a lot of events and critical happenings in their day to day life. They focus more on the issue and disseminate the information possible. In today’s scenario, citizen journalists are becoming more trustworthy and are being followed more by the audience. Also, they are fearless most of the times.

Even though citizen journalists are more live, active, and report the wanted news, there is some sort of lack of self-control on publishing news that seems to be missing. Also, the authenticity of reporting is becoming less in one in ten news. But the future is also in the hands of citizen journalists now. The more people are becoming educated and are exposed to technology and its growth, the more is the emergence of citizen journalists.

Also Read: Photo Journalism

References:

https://www.govtech.com/em/training/-Emergency-Management.html

https://www.amu.ac.in/emp/studym/99995031.pdf

citizen journalism essay

Sociology Group

The Sociology Group is an organization dedicated to creating social awareness through thoughtful initiatives like "social stories" and the "Meet the Professor" insightful interview series. Recognized for our book reviews, author interviews, and social sciences articles, we also host annual social sciences writing competition. Interested in joining us? Email [email protected] . We are a dedicated team of social scientists on a mission to simplify complex theories, conduct enlightening interviews, and offer academic assistance, making Social Science accessible and practical for all curious minds.

Understanding Citizen Journalism

  • Writing Essays
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  • English Grammar
  • M.S., Journalism, Columbia University
  • B.A., Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Citizen journalism involves private individuals, who are normally the consumers of journalism, generating their own news content. Citizens collect, report, analyze, and disseminate news and information, just as professional journalists would, creating what is known as user-generated content.

These amateur journalists produce news in many forms, ranging from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog, and is usually digital in nature. It can also include text, pictures, audio, and video. Social media plays a major role in disseminating news and promoting citizen journalism content.

Since the general public has 24/7 access to technology, citizens are often the first on-scene for breaking news, getting these stories out more quickly than traditional media reporters. However, unlike professional journalists, citizen journalists may not have conducted the same background research and source verification, which can make these leads less reliable.

Collaborations vs. Independent Reporting

Citizens are able to contribute content, in one form or another, to existing professional news sites. This collaboration can be seen through readers posting their comments alongside stories written by professional reporters, like a 21st-century version of a letter to the editor. To prevent obscene or objectionable messages, many websites require readers to register in order to post.

Readers are also adding their information to articles written by professional journalists. For instance, a reporter may do an article about disparities in gas prices around town. When the story appears online, readers can post information about gas prices in areas not covered in the original story and even offer tips on where to buy cheaper gas.

This collaboration allows both citizen and professional journalists to craft a story together. Reporters might even ask readers with expertise in particular areas to send them information on that topic or even do some of their own reporting. That information is then incorporated into the final story.

Some amateur journalists operate fully independent of traditional, professional news outlets. This can include blogs in which individuals can report on events in their communities or offer commentary on the issues of the day, YouTube channels where citizens give their own news reports and commentaries, and even unofficial print publications.

Revolutionizing News

Citizen journalism was once hailed as a revolution that would make news-gathering a more democratic process — one that would no longer solely be the province of professional reporters. It has had a significant impact on today's news, with many believing that citizen journalism is a threat to professional and traditional journalism.

Social media has played a vital role in revolutionizing news. Many citizens are the first to report on breaking stories, with eye-witness videos, first-hand accounts, and real-time information, all using social media. Even news outlets will share breaking stories on social media before traditional means, but they have to still follow up with larger stories quickly or risk being outdated with their material in this fast-paced news environment.

Social media doesn't just play a role in disseminating citizen-generated news; it also stands as a source for professional journalists to identify the stories they need to cover. A 2016 study by Cision indicated that more than 50% of professional journalists used social media to find and build stories.

Despite its vast impact on our daily news, citizen journalism is not without its flaws. The biggest concern is the reliability of news, including fact-checking and the risk of incorrect information being disseminated.

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The Role of Citizen Journalism in Social Media & its Impact on Journalism

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The Rise Of Citizen Journalism

By Brian Montopoli

September 21, 2005 / 9:42 AM EDT / CBS News

"Citizen Journalism" is one of those phrases that sounds pretty straightforward, but when you get right down to it, most people aren't entirely sure exactly what it means. Basically, a citizen journalist is someone from outside the news business who engages in the kind of journalism that is traditionally the purview of the professionals.

A citizen journalist might send pictures of a significant event into a news outlet. They might share stories about newsworthy experiences they've had. Or they might analyze, report and even disseminate the news themselves. Both MSNBC and CNN have been tapping citizen journalists to augment their coverage – they've used their websites to solicit and post photos from private homes in New Orleans, audio and videos of how people are responding to Katrina, and stories about how high gas prices are affecting peoples' lives, for example.

Are bloggers citizen journalists? Well, yes – and no. Those of us at Public Eye, for example, most certainly are not – after all, we're paid employees of CBS, and that puts us in a different position than someone who starts a blog on their own. But many independent bloggers can certainly be considered citizen journalists: They report from war zones, do the kind of analysis one might find on opinion pages, and post photos of news events on their sites, despite the fact that they're not affiliated with news organizations.

There are, however, reasons for news organizations to be skittish about relying on citizen journalism. The benefits are clear: There are immeasurable positives in having someone who happens to be on the scene of a developing story take pictures or call in a report. But there is also a chance that those reports won't be reliable. (There's that chance with the professionals, of course, as well – Jayson Blair being the most obvious example – but at least, with professional journalists, their jobs depend on their truthfulness.) As David Carr wrote Monday in the New York Times, "I was at the World Trade Center towers site the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001. People had seen unimaginable things, but a small percentage, many still covered in ash, told me tales that were worse than what actually happened."

But wait, you might say – can't people exaggerate when they're talking to a reporter looking for a quote? And the short answer is that they can, and do. But reporters go to great lengths to authenticate information whenever possible, as the standards and practices of their news organization requires. Citizen journalists don't play by the same rules. Larry Kramer , President of CBS Digital Media, says he's loves the idea of using certain kinds of citizen journalism – like a cell phone camera video of a major event no one else has captured – but argues that it should always go through a filter. "If you want us to use it, you have to subject it to our standards," he says. "Let us see it and evaluate it." He adds that CBS News has to maintain its editorial authority, and that providing an unfiltered forum could compromise that. Citizen journalism, he says, is not necessarily "first-tier journalism."

And while most citizen journalists want to disseminate honest information, some may well have less noble motives. What if a partisan wants to portray a politician in a negative light, for example? He or she could create a photoshopped photograph of that politician in a compromising or embarrassing position. (It's not that hard to do – check out this doctored shot of President Bush seemingly fishing while on vacation in flooded New Orleans.) If such a photo appears on a blog, that's one thing, but if CBS publishes it on its website, the organization is putting its editorial authority behind it. And a citizen journalist with strong feelings about the environment or gay marriage, say, could consciously color their coverage of the issue while feigning objectivity. (Many media critics, it should be noted, say the mainstream media already does this – which means there's no reason to consider citizen journalists any differently.)

Despite the potential pitfalls, there are plenty of reasons to welcome the rise of citizen journalism – as long as news consumers understand what they're dealing with. Current TV, for example, a new cable channel, solicits video submissions from viewers about news in their daily lives that one would rarely see from traditional news outlets. OhmyNews , a collaborative online newspaper with the motto "Every Citizen is a Reporter," has become an influential news resource in Korea and elsewhere. Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere , focused on the Bay Area, is providing a model of citizen journalism on the internet. And blogs, chat rooms and message boards of all stripes provide a range of opinion and reporting far beyond what traditional news outlets can offer.

Brian Montopoli is the national reporter and political analyst for CBSNews.com.

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Local journalism is a critical “gate” to engage Americans on climate change

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Last year, Pew Research Center data revealed that only 37 percent of Americans said addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Furthermore, climate change was ranked 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Pew survey . 

But in reality, it’s not that Americans don’t care about climate change, says celebrated climate scientist and communicator MIT Professor Katharine Hayhoe. It’s that they don’t know that they already do. 

To get Americans to care about climate change, she adds, it’s imperative to guide them to their gate. At first, it might not be clear where that gate is. But it exists. 

That message was threaded through the  Connecting with Americans on Climate Change webinar last fall, which featured a discussion with Hayhoe and the five journalists who made up the 2023 cohort of the MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship. Hayhoe referred to a “gate” as a conversational entry point about climate impacts and solutions. The catch? It doesn’t have to be climate-specific. Instead, it can focus on the things that people already hold close to their heart.

“If you show people … whether it’s a military veteran or a parent or a fiscal conservative or somebody who is in a rural farming area or somebody who loves kayaking or birds or who just loves their kids … how they’re the perfect person to care [about climate change], then it actually enhances their identity to advocate for and adopt climate solutions,” said Hayhoe. “It makes them a better parent, a more frugal fiscal conservative, somebody who’s more invested in the security of their country. It actually enhances who they already are instead of trying to turn them into someone else.”

The MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellowship provides financial and technical support to journalists dedicated to connecting local stories to broader climate contexts, especially in parts of the country where climate change is disputed or underreported. 

Climate journalism is typically  limited  to larger national news outlets that have the resources to employ dedicated climate reporters. And since many local papers are already struggling — with the country on track to  lose a third of its papers  by the end of next year, leaving over 50 percent of counties in the United States with just one or no local news outlets — local climate beats can be neglected. This makes the work executed by the ESI’s fellows all the more imperative. Because for many Americans, the relevance of these stories to their own community is their gate to climate action. 

“This is the only climate journalism fellowship that focuses exclusively on local storytelling,” says Laur Hesse Fisher, program director at MIT ESI and founder of the fellowship. “It’s a model for engaging some of the hardest audiences to reach: people who don’t think they care much about climate change. These talented journalists tell powerful, impactful stories that resonate directly with these audiences.”

From March to June, the second cohort of ESI Journalism Fellows pursued local, high-impact climate reporting in Montana, Arizona, Maine, West Virginia, and Kentucky. 

Collectively, their 26 stories had over 70,000 direct visits on their host outlets’ websites as of August 2023, gaining hundreds of responses from local voters, lawmakers, and citizen groups. Even though they targeted local audiences, they also had national appeal, as they were republished by 46 outlets — including Vox , Grist , WNYC, WBUR, the NPR homepage, and three separate stories on NPR’s “Here & Now” program, which is broadcast by 45 additional partner radio stations across the country — with a collective reach in the hundreds of thousands. 

Micah Drew published an eight-part series in  The Flathead Beacon  titled, “ Montana’s Climate Change Lawsuit .” It followed a landmark case of 16 young people in Montana suing the state for violating their right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Of the plaintiffs, Drew said, “They were able to articulate very clearly what they’ve seen, what they’ve lived through in a pretty short amount of life. Some of them talked about wildfires — which we have a lot of here in Montana — and [how] wildfire smoke has canceled soccer games at the high school level. It cancels cross-country practice; it cancels sporting events. I mean, that’s a whole section of your livelihood when you’re that young that’s now being affected.”

Joan Meiners is a climate news reporter for the  Arizona Republic.  Her five-part series was situated at the intersection of Phoenix’s  extreme heat and housing crises . “I found that we are building three times more sprawling, single-family detached homes … as the number of apartment building units,” she says. “And with an affordability crisis, with a climate crisis, we really need to rethink that. The good news, which I also found through research for this series … is that Arizona doesn’t have a statewide building code, so each municipality decides on what they’re going to require builders to follow … and there’s a lot that different municipalities can do just by showing up to their city council meetings [and] revising the building codes.”

For  The Maine Monitor , freelance journalist Annie Ropeik generated a four-part series, called “ Hooked on Heating Oil ,” on how Maine came to rely on oil for home heating more than any other state. When asked about solutions, Ropeik says, “Access to fossil fuel alternatives was really the central equity issue that I was looking at in my project, beyond just, ‘Maine is really relying on heating oil, that obviously has climate impacts, it’s really expensive.’ What does that mean for people in different financial situations, and what does that access to solutions look like for those different communities? What are the barriers there and how can we address those?”

Energy and environment reporter Mike Tony created a four-part series in  The Charleston Gazette-Mail  on  West Virginia’s flood vulnerabilities  and the state’s lack of climate action. On connecting with audiences, Tony says, “The idea was to pick a topic like flooding that really affects the whole state, and from there, use that as a sort of an inroad to collect perspectives from West Virginians on how it’s affecting them. And then use that as a springboard to scrutinizing the climate politics that are precluding more aggressive action.”

Finally, Ryan Van Velzer, Louisville Public Media’s energy and environment reporter, covered the decline of Kentucky’s fossil fuel industry and offered solutions for a sustainable future in a four-part series titled, “ Coal’s Dying Light .” For him, it was “really difficult to convince people that climate change is real when the economy is fundamentally intertwined with fossil fuels. To a lot of these people, climate change, and the changes necessary to mitigate climate change, can cause real and perceived economic harm to these communities.” 

With these projects in mind, someone’s gate to caring about climate change is probably nearby — in their own home, community, or greater region. 

It’s likely closer than they think. 

To learn more about the next fellowship cohort — which will support projects that report on climate solutions being implemented locally and how they reduce emissions while simultaneously solving pertinent local issues —  sign up  for the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative newsletter. Questions about the fellowship can be directed to Laur Hesse Fisher at  [email protected] .

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Home / Essay Samples / Sociology / Journalism / The Impact of Citizen Journalism on the Traditional Media

The Impact of Citizen Journalism on the Traditional Media

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