August 02, 2008

Thanks to citizen journalism, now you can even know what your neighbour ate for dinner last night, writes Umair Mohsin

Citizen journalism is on the rise in Pakistan much like food and oil prices and there seems to be no means in sight to restrain either of them. It is the latest, hottest buzz words around. In fact in the moment that you read this paragraph, it just got even hotter. From people with tiny digital cameras to videophones — the average citizen can now make news and distribute it globally, an act that was once the province of established journalists and media companies.

The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. This, for example, will let people cover their own stories and articles such as “Man throwing crackers from a moving W-11 bus on Shahrah-i-Faisal.” This form of journalism will allow them to post details online on how the man got so much money to throw the crackers, given that we are in the midst of a spiraling food inflation, his motives, and even a picture of the man throwing a cracker with a mobile camera, which will let you make out something that looks like a frog about to catch a fly.

Commentary on the impeccable balancing by an expert from the Irani circus amidst the racing… . errr… the driving of the bus (which can incidentally be covered by a Crash Test Dummy) can also be covered. The subsequent arrest of the person can be covered in later posts. These tools of citizen journalism might even let you video tape the throwing act and link it to all other things thrown that week such as parties, bombs and women throwing out shoddy husbands for nincompoop-ness.

You can then post all this to a site such as YouTube for further comments from other would-be throwers, die-hard traditionalists who can talk about how great the crackers throwers of the past were and telecom companies who might even sponsor the video and build a marketing campaign on ‘greatest cracker throws ever’ with applicable song and dance routines. Who knows, you might even get a chance to get a time with a major news channel after the story’s dated and read to death.

The main reason for the spread of citizen journalism is the belief that mainstream media reporters and producers are not the exclusive centres of knowledge on a subject — that they are over-paid stooges who work for foreign governments and their agenda for the country. Reality check: WE ARE NOT OVERPAID. In fact, we are barely paid (As a side note, one quick question: How many reporters does it take to change the light bulb. Three. One to report it as an inspired government programme to bring light to the people, one to report it as a diabolical government plot to deprive the poor of darkness, and one to win a President Medal for reporting that the local electric company hired a light bulb assassin to break the bulb in the first place … or to go to jail depending on the ‘enlightenment’ policy of the government. But I digress.

Citizen journalism scares media companies because the editors in charge do not know how to react to this oncoming revolution. Traditionally, a Pakistani editor covers a story by screaming at the reporter, uttering threats, providing little to no guidance or research and expecting miracles to happen. In the case of ad hoc citizen journalism, a blogger or observer might see something happening that is newsworthy and bring it to the attention of the blogosphere or the online public. The editors in-charge in this case does not know how they will continue to scream here.

However, there is no doubt now that the tools of broadcast media have gone from owning paper mills, presses, million-dollar transmitters and broadcast licenses, to having a cheap PC or a mobile phone in one’s pocket. Ultimately, I believe it is a positive thing for journalism, because it enables something that journalism lacked: competition from the very public we serve and finally someone whose willing to cover the story on how camels can now travel the Gulf states without visas or even what I ate for dinner last night, with commentary, insights and even a video…