Recording what I witness: News as a conversation

“It’s not a matter of being an activist or a journalist; it’s a false dichotomy. It is a matter of being honest or dishonest. All activists are not journalists, but all real journalists are activists.” – Glenn Greenwald

Key Points

• Journalism = communication tool
• Journalism Traditionalists: formal; value objectivity; ethical duty to report the truth
• Activist Journalists: informal; monitoring, commenting or even criticising events/issues/journalism in real-time across media and traditional platforms; may or may not be subjective/objective; strive for truth
• Factors leading to activists as journalists
• Decentralisation of technology and communications – networked journalism
• Globalisation
• Social media
• Benefits/Drawbacks:

Evaluating Activist Journalism
BENEFITS	DRAWBACKS
-          Real time documentation with or without editing	-          Reporting: lack of knowledge over journalistic formalities, such as conducting interviews, putting events into context, etc.
-          More perspectives on every story	-          More perspectives on every story
-          Increased transparency	-          Exposure of the truth at what cost?
-          Access to non-journalist locations, better knowledge of localities	-          Formal settings (newsrooms), training and resources
-          Inherent prejudices	-          Inherent prejudices, despite training
-          Collaboration of professionals/amateurs	-          Collaboration of professionals/amateurs

• Future: global phenomenon of the journalist landscape; necessary for balance; requires traditional and new media

The Argument

In my opinion, activist journalism is nothing new. For example, Abraham Zapruder captured the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy, and George Holliday used a Sony Handycam to record the 1991 beating of Rodney King. More recently, in 2015, Feidin Santana recorded a South Carolina policeman shooting and killing Michael Scott, while Kevin Moore documented Freddie Gray’s request for medical help while under police custody.  

What these examples have in common is a dissemination of information across and within public audiences. Activist journalism has since developed into a fluid and shifting manifestation of communication that takes on many forms. Several components that demonstrate the transition of activists taking on the role of a journalist include:

• Commentary: both on social media and through person-to-person contact
• Open-source reporting: professional journalist-public collaboration
• Incorporation of readers’ advice as part of the 2013 #openjournalism The Guardian “Witness” program: ‘The Guardian’ Calls for Citizen Journalists Via App
• Blogs
• Citizen-journalism sites: theconversation.com/us
• Wiki journalism: Online encyclopedia as news and readers as editors

While the shape and volume of activist journalism practices vary widely across the world, they share a common power in socio-political agenda-setting. For example, journalism during the Arab Spring uprisings illustrated a revolution in the gathering and the reporting of news. These revolutions provided a space for individuals to amplify protesters’ messages – the suicide of street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia, believed to have sparked the movement, was filmed – through mainstream media to reach both large and niche audiences. While original reports were very subjective, grassroots reporting across the region has developed a middle ground. For instance, in 2012 the Egypt Journalism Project was launched to teach social media and interview skills. A regional citizen journalists’ website was also established.

It is clear that there is a strong correlation between political and activist journalism, and vice-versa. I believe, however, that it is also possible to have activists taking on journalistic roles without specific political agendas. For example, blogger Eliot Higgins helped to uncover information on the missing flight MH17, an intelligence feat that major powers around the world were unable to produce: The Group of Bloggers Unearthing MH17 Intel Quicker Than U.S. Spies. Moreover, the Weather Channel benefits from citizen reports of extreme weather: In Severe Weather, Experts Look to You for Ground Truth. Videos, photos and narratives, among others, help formal news sources to lend truth to their arguments and provide real-time coverage in locations that may be otherwise inaccessible or not reported on.  

Don Gillmor makes an important argument here: “If journalists won’t take a stand for core liberties like free expression – and then be leaders in the campaign to save or restore them – we’ll be fit to call ourselves entertainers, and not much else.” Gillmor sees journalists as enablers, and popularised the concept of citizen journalism. The idea here is that activists are individuals driven by uncovering information on behalf of the public. Key examples of Gillmor’s concept are Tim Pool and China’s Zhou “Zola” Shuguang, who report on protests and key movements/issues while remaining objective. As a result, activism and journalism can be seen as mutually exclusive, with both activism and journalism favouring the existence of the other; activism can comprise the journalistic ethic of balance and neutrality.

I think that the future of activist journalism will be incredibly important for both policy-making and communication. It is ultimately a debate between privacy and security, between truth and lies, and between objectivity and subjectivity. We need activists, we need journalists, and we should have journalists who are activists. I see the relationship as symbiotic: traditional media are the vehicles and the individual activist is the executor. We need both in order to cover the broad range of issues demanded of our societies, as well as for healthy conversations.

Discussion Questions 

• Can activist journalism become influential if there is no media component involved in the reporting/documentation?
• Should there be social media guidelines for journalistic reporting? Meaning, do activist journalists need to adhere to an ethical standards like traditional objectivity?

Works Cited

“Can Journalists Be Activists? A Conversation with Dan Gillmor” Deutsche Welle – English OnMedia. 24 June 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

Simon, Joel. “What’s the Difference Between Activism and Journalism?” NiemanReports. 2015. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.  

Sirota, David. “Grunwald vs. Greenwald: Who’s the “activist” Journalist, Now?” SALON. 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.