Book Review: Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, edited by Einar Thorsen and Stuart Allan

Abstract

Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. Vol. 2. Einar Thorsen and Stuart Allan, eds. New York, New York: Peter Lang, 2014. 406 pp. $44.60 pbk.In this edition of the series Global Crises and the Media, Einar Thorsen and Stuart Allan allow the reader more than ever to travel around the world to explore different forms of what is mostly, conveniently, and superficially called in the coverage of all types of crises. In doing this, the contributors highlight the limits and the controversial use of the term citizen journalism to represent the different forms of citizen communication. Furthermore, they contextualize the impact of global crises reporting on both new and old media, clarifying the relationship between online and offline communication. Finally, they analyze the disruptive capability of citizen journalism on the flow of communication power.The major strength of this book resides in the different perspectives taken from many different countries, political systems, and levels of freedom of expression. Indeed, this diversity of case studies allows examining both the positive and negative repercussions that citizen participation in news coverage may have.In their introduction, Thorsen, senior lecturer at the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK, and Allan, professor in the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK, state that online and mobile technologies enable people affected by conflicts and repressive regimes to speak their truths. The dynamism that these channels allow opens possibilities for fast news disseminations, pluralized voices in reportage, and extended audience reach.Through her case study on the Mumbai terrorist attack of 2008, Yasmin Ibrahim demonstrates that social media becomes places for both bearing witness and engaging with events (Chapter 1). In particular, during natural disasters such as the Christchurch earthquakes (Chapter 7), Hurricane Sandy (Chapter 8), or acts of terrorism such as in Norway (Chapter 9), citizen communication becomes vital for delivering practical information and documenting events as they unfold. This close view on events from direct witnesses has the potential to increase solidarity between distant others. To prove this point, Lilie Chouliaraki takes the examples of the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the Arab Spring (Chapter 4). And through case study on the Russians' use of social media, Chapter 18 shows that these channels engender novel sense of civic society, responsibility, and consciousness.Similarly, Clemencia Rodriguez's analysis of armed conflicts in Colombia (Chapter 14) illustrates how citizen journalism is a practice of resistance that emerges as social movements; activists and other social justice collectives do not accept that only professional news organizations can practice journalism and provide information to support democratic processes. …