Learnings On Citizen Journalism
Mahinda’s Facebook page from the short-lived Fake Facebook Drama of 2007
Teaching social media is a bit like teaching people to be social. Most people just learn when they’re young. Greg Berger had sessions on YouTube and stuff but for me they were not especially useful. For most activists this is stuff they pick up on the street, as it were, or type in to Google as needed. For some people I think those sessions were new, which was good. I’ve found that this type of information can seem obvious but have a major effect on people who are just discovering it. By the end of the session everyone could pretty much make a YouTube mash-up, which was cool. Zenga Zenga.
Al Giordano did some sessions on safety which were not especially useful, if only because it was the wrong audience. He was talking about fitting in with local people and following local customs and stuff which is not especially relevant to citizen journalists. It is important for foreign correspondents or journalists who are visiting, but most citizen journalists are by definition local. Some of the Israeli/Palestinian participants had tips about not running when shot at and the Egyptian Ahmed Salah had some interesting tips for avoiding state security off session.
The broader insights into social media were valuable. For one, Anne Marie Codur situated social media within the broader ecosystem of the whole range of social media and showed, basically, different strokes for different strokes.
For me the most striking insight came from the Egyptians who basically said that it wasn’t a Twitter/Facebook revolution at all. They said that social media was an important part of what they did, but what Ahmed was talking about off-session was really old-school street teams. IMHO, social media is a force multiplier more than a force in itself.
It seems most relevant in getting information out to the media and the rest of the world, but it’s questionable how relevant either of those is to actually affecting change. That still seems to happen on the street, in real-time, largely unmediated.
Here is some citizen journalism which people may or may not agree with due to blind patriotism or the lack of a sense of humour…but underneath the humour there is something uncannily true about what is happening to the media in this country. (that is the bought and paid for media and the bowed, cowed and very afraid media as well).
THE TRUTH…THE WHOLE TRUTH & NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!
Newspaper Headlines From Sri Lanka
Sai Baba resigns from captaincy.
Sanga on life-support with chest and lung infection.
Step motherly treatment for Manmohan Singh at World Cup finals.
MR to step down from PresiDuncy after 2015 World Cup.
My World Cup career is over says fast bowler Namal Rajapaksa.
SL deserved to win says Indian captain Dhoni.
News editor of Lanka E News takes police chief into custody.
Human rights group demands release of police chief.
Sri Lanka press India to amend constitution.
Sri Lanka says future cooperation with India depends on improvements in its human rights record.
Lankans gave up joy for Indians : Manmohan Singh.
Sri Lanka release US$ 218m to IMF.
MR to promote democracy in Switzerland.
US navy fire on Tamil Nadu fishermen.
Tourists misguide SL tour guides.
Milk powder price hike accepted joyfully by SL consumers.
Ruhunu University students brutally attack innocent police with bicycle chains, daggers and rods.
Elections Commissioner says SL only country in the world to hold free and fair elections.
Legal action to be filed against spectators by SL cricket Board over ticket sale rules.
International jubilation over killing of Lasantha Wickramatunga.
Come and witness semi final match with me – Gaddafi invites MR.
Ban Ki Moon and his supporters’ stage protest in front of minister Weerawansa’s office.
Ban Ki Moon in fast unto death to protest UN interference in SL affaires.
Professor G.L.Peries seeks political asylum in Libya.
Consumers plead for bakery product price hike before Sinhalese and Tamil New Year.
“Step motherly treatment for Manmohan Singh at World Cup finals.”
That was really funny!