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| An Editor's Perception of Citizen Journalism |
| Interview with former OMNI editor Claire George |
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Rajen Nair (rajennair)  |
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Published 2007-08-19 15:57 (KST) |
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At the recently held International citizen reporters forum at Seoul organized by OhmyNews International I was privileged to hear the various views points put forth by the assembled citizen reporters and the expert panelist who had arrived from all corners of the world. So much was said, debated and articulated on citizen journalism at the forum that my own perception of citizen journalism grew.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| In this whole business of writing and posting our article to the editors, they become the sole arbiter in deciding the fate our labored article, whether to accept or reject it. The editor's scrutiny becomes an important job component in judging our report's veracity and accuracy.
I decided to get an insight in to the working mind of an editor. This was when I remembered the former assistant editor of OhmyNews Claire George and decided to have an interview with her touching on different aspects of Citizen reporting and Editing.
Hailing from the U.K., Claire George, 30, started off as a history researcher and then began a journalism career with OhmyNews between June 2006 and June 2007. She thinks that history is the news of yesterday, so believes that journalism and history are well matched.
Here is the text of the interview which was conducted August 17 via the Net.
How did you become an editor at OhmyNews?
I was a citizen reporter in the beginning. To cut a long story short, OMNI decided to expand the editing staff and I got the job of assistant editor. I was told that being a citizen reporter helped my application because I could put myself in the reporters' shoes.
Explain the challenges you faced as a citizen reporter and then as an editor working at OhmyNews?
As a citizen reporter I didn't face any challenges because I wrote about my own experiences most of the time. As an employee of OhmyNews the greatest challenge (and excitement) was the relationship between editor and reporter. I had to keep on friendly terms with the reporters but also reject their stories and tell them when they had problems with their writing. It could be emotionally difficult at times.
What was your initial experience working with OhmyNews in Seoul? Did you face any cultural differences and how did you overcome them?
South Korean work culture is very different to British work culture. Management styles are quite different because Korean society is hierarchical and younger people are much more submissive to older people than in the West.
Koreans tend to treat their colleagues like family members. If someone's father dies, everyone in the company goes to the wake. If someone gets married, everyone in the company goes to the wedding. From a British point of view that can be overwhelming.
I'm used to Korean work culture now. I'm not completely at home in it, but I can see that it has a lot of good points.
As a citizen reporter you had certain perceptions of citizen journalism and did they change when you became an editor?
I would definitely say that working as an editor opened my eyes to the potential of citizen journalism. When I was a citizen reporter I just thought of it as a kind of blogging.
The biggest thing for me as an editor was seeing how many people from the developing world were writing for OMNI. I was very excited about the number of South Asian women and I thought that OMNI had huge potential as a vehicle for feminists in the developing world.
Do you think that citizen journalism can be used by disadvantaged women to fight discrimination?
Certainly it can. Western women are already using the internet to share stories and spread messages that don't receive enough attention in the mainstream press. One of my favorite citizen journalism initiatives is the British contemporary feminist website the F-word. I've never seen the writers there describe themselves as citizen journalists, but that is what they are.
Only one-sixth of the world's population has access to the internet. The most disadvantaged women are unlikely to have access to a computer and in many cases won't be literate enough to state their point of view in writing. They desperately need to be given a voice and I hope that NGOs are thinking of ways to help them.
What were the parameters or guidelines you set for publishing a citizen reporter's article?
When the story came in the first thing we did was check for plagiarism and factual accuracy. We also wanted to be certain that the story was relevant to the readership. Personal stories were always welcome but they had to have something that the reader could identify with, like your article about your tinnitus and some articles that have been written recently by a British reporter about her dogs. Sometimes we received stories that were just too personal and wouldn't have been understandable or interesting to the readers so we had to reject those.
How did you check for plagiarism and factual accuracy?
If a reporter copies internet sources word for word it's not too difficult to catch them out. Even if they attempt to hide their crime by changing sentences here and there, there is usually enough evidence left to find the original article on Google. I had no respect for plagiarizers and there were times when I spent an hour working on a citizen reporter's piece and then had to reject it because I discovered that it had been stolen.
The process of fact checking depended on the nature of the story itself. If somebody wrote about a political incident at national level, we read the English papers from that country and checked the facts in newspapers like the International Herald Tribune. Less timely humanitarian stories were harder to check but NGO websites were usually a good source. Personal stories, like your tinnitus article and the above mentioned lady's dog articles can't be fact checked. I mean, what could we do Rajen? Ring your wife to check that you really do have tinnitus?
How can a citizen reporter improve his or her writing skills and what are the qualities you seek in a citizen reporter?
If they have the money to buy books or access to a library, I would suggest that they look for titles written by writing teachers. "The Pyramid Principle" by Barbara Minto is heavy going but useful for people who have trouble organizing their thoughts on the page. "So you want to be a journalist?" by Bruce Grundy is a lighter read and explains the efficient communication methods used by trained journalists. They can also find information on the internet by checking out the websites of writing schools and university English and journalism departments.
In terms of qualities, well ... they need to be able to put themselves in the reader's shoes. If you don't think about the best way to interest and communicate with the reader, then your article won't be the best that it can be. I used to get emails from reporters living in very interesting places who thought that they had nothing to write about. I would tell them that the readers would be interested in hearing about their home town, but they usually wouldn't believe me. I think it was lack of confidence. They thought that news stories had to be about big issues like national politics. I used to get really frustrated about that because those reporters were missing a chance to tell a story that was unique to them. Instead they would write about a big issue that had already been covered in thousands of acres of news print.
Can you explain what the editorial policy was while you were working at OhmyNews?
There was no political standpoint, we were happy to publish stories from people of all opinions as long as they weren't offensive or prejudiced in some way. Stories that got rejected tended to be racist, prejudiced against a particular religious group, misogynistic or just plain misleading. Of course we weren't neutral in the objective sense of the word, one man's bigot is another man's hero, but I would say we tried to be as tolerant and inclusive of all opinions as possible.
Unlike a professional journalist a citizen reporter is at a big disadvantage when it comes to collecting first hand information as he doesn't go out in search of news. So he has to depend on newspapers. That means it is second hand reporting and lacks originality?
There are times when second hand reporting is good. For example, someone in Peru might read about an issue in the Peruvian press that doesn't get international coverage. So they use the Peruvian newspaper articles as a basis for their article and in doing so they bring the news to a wider audience. Our hypothetical Peruvian citizen reporter should make sure that they put their own thoughts and experiences into the article, otherwise it will just be clever parroting. They should also make sure that they name the newspapers that they got the story from.
I know citizen reporters can't access the same sources as professional reporters but that shouldn't be an excuse for relying on newspapers for stories. There are fascinating stories all around us. All citizen reporters need to do is talk to the people in their local communities, find out if anything interesting is happening and then write about it.
If you were to compare a citizen journalist with a professional journalist, what would be your say?
Professional journalists are trained communicators. They have been taught how to deliver information in the most efficient way. A citizen reporter hasn't been trained. Many citizen journalists are great communicators but many aren't. This can be overcome with good editing and coaching from citizen journalism editors and writing teachers.
A common criticism is that citizen journalists' reporting lacks accuracy. As an editor how did you take care of this?
Well, the common practice is to write to the reporter and tell him or her to redo the problematic part of the article. If it's just a minor inaccuracy, the editor removes it or fixes it.
Citizen journalism websites still don't have a sound business model. How can citizen journalism websites attract advertisers?
Anyone setting up a citizen journalism website should think about their target readership. They should think about the age group they want to appeal to and what sector of the community. Citizen journalism websites, like other media publications, need to have a strong theme. Targeting readers will help to attract targeted advertising.
Do you think that citizen journalism is here to stay?
I'm going to be awkward here and skirt around the question. The world's media is dominated by big institutions like AP and Reuters. Citizen journalist is a label we use to describe reporters who are operating independently outside the big institutions. You can also call them grassroots journalists. Citizen journalism has developed in response to the dominance of the big media institutions and the unfortunate fact that many things happen but go unreported.
So when we use the term citizen journalist we are referring to a concept that developed in the particular circumstances of our period in history. However, citizen journalists can also be simply described as individuals who like to transmit news outside the control of larger organizations. People like that have been around for centuries and always will be around.
I'm sure that citizen journalism in the 21st-century sense has a long life ahead of it and like all forms of media will evolve and adapt with the times.
What would be your word of caution and advice to citizen reporters?
There is always room for improvement. A writer who is able to accept constructive criticism is the best kind there is. I'm sure nobody enjoys being told that their writing has weaknesses but it's the only way for a writer to maximize their potential. The same goes for citizen journalists who use video and audio to report their stories.
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©2007 OhmyNews
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