Seeking truth via citizen and embedded journalism
When I talk to my students about the truth and journalism, I always ask them about whose truth. I use embedded journalism in war zones as an example of journalism skewed by the journalists’ limited point of view. It is one thing to be inside a tank and writing about the war and another to be on the receiving end of the tank’s armaments.
A video at CyberJournalist.net entitled Citizen Journalism at War provides nice insights on how citizen journalism is changing war coverage, and perhaps helping us all find a more complete truth.
January 5th, 2008 at 3:35 am
This is a wonderful point. There are multiple sides to a story but truth is truth whether people report it, or believe it.
I definitely love reading a news story in english and then checking a mexican newspaper and see how numbers are reported differently. For example, when a natural disaster strikes, you can see bigger numbers on US websites. Mexican newspapers tend to play it down. You can also get a glimpse by checking a european newspaper and comparing that to CNN. One Truth…different stories.
Citizen reporting has the promise of bringing us closer to the story.
January 8th, 2008 at 6:13 am
The complete truth in all its shades. This is what Citizen Journalism can give us. But I see now a tendency of the mainstream media sourcing the stories from citizens and branding it Citizen Journalism for there own benefit. This again tends to bring back picture to black and white with one shade of grey thrown in for appearances.