Bruce on Glaser

WEEK 5 : My Reaction to Mark Glaser

I agree with Glaser’s article and descriptions of citizen journalism – there is a struggle between “trained journalists” and those working for “actual” news outlets versus those who are “ad hoc journalists” who write for free. The tenants behind this debate deals primarily with the fact that those who are not “professionals” do not have the know-how or proper technique to report news. That is, they don’t know how to make news balanced, nor do they use the proper structure.

Glaser argues that “mainstream media reporters and producers are not the exclusive center of knowledge on a subject – the audience knows more collectively than the reporter alone.” From my own personal experience working as a journalist in Thailand, most journalists – both print and broadcast – started in this profession without having ever been trained in this craft.

With the advent of the Internet and a more participatory audience, people want to take part in conveying what they see, hear and know. Just because something is published in the paper does not mean that it is 100% error free. Numerous stories have to be retracted, even in the world’s major papers. A newspaper journalist does not mean he/she is superior to a citizenship journalist.

I believe that citizen journalists learn through trial and error. If they have a heart to present the truth and a true desire to disseminate information to those who want to hear what bloggers have to say, for example, it only provides the public with more choices.

While governments can censor and block news coverage of sensitive issues, people from outside Thailand were able to gain inside information from those witnessing and living in the capital city as the coup d’état unfolded on September 12,2006. The information gained on citizen journalists’ websites was faster and more accurate than various papers' morning editions. Also, news develops so quickly now and it has such a global dimension that it’s impossible for there to be a journalist and/or cameraman everywhere simultaneously. In conclusion, citizen journalism is not only for the “average joe” anymore, but for serious journalist who wants to write without any boundaries, or “unfiltered” as the New West puts it. Citizen journalism is actual news, when it happens and as it happens.