Are Ethics Missing in Citizen Journalism?

Do citizen journalists have a responsibility to ethics? Yes. The problem is some citizen journalists do not realize they have that responsibility, because they do not even know itexists.

What is Citizen Journalism?

Citizen journalism, also sometimes referred to broadly as user-generated content, is when anyone can participate in the gathering, writing, reporting, and even the publishing of news. Citizen journalism can be published on a site like Associated Content, on a blog, or any other venue online.

Citizen journalism is a way for everyone to be involved in the media, and of fulfilling their first amendment right of freedom of expression. The founding fathers would be proud.

As publishing platforms become easier to use, and more versatile, citizen journalism will only grow, much to the chagrin of the traditional press.

As citizen journalism grows, and more writers produce news and content, so does the need for a citizen journalist code of ethics.

News and Ethics

One aspect of reporting that journalists and news writer learn in formal settings is ethics. Responsible journalists research, interview and report through a lens of ethics. The emphasis is on responsible journalist. Some journalists do not take ethics to heart, and are concerned more with their byline, their own 15 minutes of fame, and yes, the payday.

Because journalists and news reporters are struggling for our attention, they sometimes forget they have a responsibility. The responsibility is to produce honest, well-researched, thought-provoking information.

Just because ethics exist does not mean they are always considered to the same extent in various forms of media. There is a scale of how ethics tame the news and news reporting.

For the most part network news is usually on the low end of ethics when it comes to reporting. What is newsworthy for TV focuses heavily on fires or any other visually exciting event. Human tragedy is also high on the list.

Some print publications also don't care much for ethics when reporting tragic news. One such example is the Boston Herald. They take news items to the sensationalist extreme, with blaring headlines that slap the reader across the face to grab their attention.

Unfortunately, with such an overload of information coming at us, people often respond to the extreme, the unbelievable, and gravitate towards accounts that border on gory.

Applying Ethics to Citizen Journalism

Where does that leave citizen journalists who for the most part have no formal training in regards to ethics? Is it possible to cover tragic news stories without sensationalizing them and, most importantly, without re-victimizing the victims and families?

How do citizen journalists know what they should write about, or what they should avoid?

"Necessarily we are all fond of murders, scandals, swindles, robberies, explosions, collisions, and all such things, when we know the people, and when they are neighbors and friends, but when they are strangers we do not get any great pleasure out of them, as a rule. Now the trouble with an American paper is that it has no discrimination; it rakes the whole earth for blood and garbage, and the result is that you are daily overfed and suffer a surfeit " - Mark Twain

Twain recognized, even in an age when newspapers were the only formal vehicle for news, that there is such a thing as an excess of tragic news. Just because it happened does not mean we need to saturate all forms of media with it.

How exactly then should the citizen journalist approach tragedy and tragic events?

In journalism, including citizen journalism, it is not so much what you write about, as it is why and how you write about it.

Why Write About Tragic Events?

We all want to jump on the back of tragedy, like a wild bull, and ride it until it tires out and the next tragedy takes center stage.

Citizen journalists who are drawn to news, to tragedy, and to outrageous events need to ask themselves one question before sitting down to write: "Why do I want to write this story?"

If the only reason the citizen journalist can come up with is "because it happened," that may not be reason enough. When an event is tragic enough it will get coverage. Citizen journalists need to remember that news reporting is about an obligation to the people, and to convey news to "the people." Large tragedies will not suffer from lack of news coverage, so a citizen journalist should have a more compelling reason to write up well-covered news events.

One of those reasons could be money. If a citizen journalist is writing about the event simply to profit from it, that citizen journalist should take extra care to not only be accurate, but not to re-victimize the victims. There are ways to be specific without being gory. Accounts of tragic events that include numbers, or other impersonal details can add to a the tragic level of a new story. Detailed accounts that replay thetragedy step-by-step can be traumatic for survivors.

Instead of stepping back from the story when writing about tragedy, citizen journalists need to take a step closer. Re-read the story you wrote and ask yourself how you would feel if this were about one of your closest friends, a sibling, a parent, and even if it were about you. Is there anything you would change?

Another reason to write about tragic news events may be because the citizen journalist has something to add to the story. When a citizen journalist has actual first-handexperience with an event, that citizen journalist can add unique information to the story which may not be read elsewhere.

In addition to first-hand knowledge, a citizen journalist can also add to the story by writing from a unique perspective of opinion of a tragic event.

When writing about a news event or tragedy, the citizen journalist should think about the following:

Am I just repeating what has already been said? Again, from Twain: "By habit you stow this much every day, but you come by and by to take no vital interest in it--indeed, you almost get tired of it."

Think of how many times you saw footage of the person jumping out of one of the twin towers on 9/11. With each viewing, did you become more appalled, or did the repeated showings somehow desensitize you?

Am I adding something new to the story?

Does my story generate debate and discussion?

Does my story provide a historical, political or social analysis of the event?

Is there a local angle to the story? " As a rule, forty-nine-fiftieths of it concerns strangers only--people away off yonder, a thousand miles, two miles, ten thousand miles from where you are. Why, when you come to think of it, who cares what becomes of those people? I would not give the assassination of one personal friend for a whole massacre of those others. And to my mind, one relative or neighbor mixed up in a scandal is more interesting than a whole Sodom and Gomorrah of outlanders gone rotten. Give me the home product every time" - Twain

Citizen journalism is based on the very idea of writing local, writing about our neighbors, and writing close to home.

How to Be an Ethical Citizen Journalist

Knowing that ethics should exist in citizen journalism, and having read the reasons to write about events, the question that remains is, "how?" How does a citizen journalist write about news and tragedy without

It is possible to write about tragic events and be compelling without being sensationalist, and without re-victimizing the victims and theirfamilies.

Tragic events can be written about with taste, sympathy, compassion, and a sense of propriety. Only when citizen journalists have definedtheir intent, acknowledged the need for ethics, and keep the victims in the forefront of their minds, citizen journalism will retain its integrity.