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"The most recent uprisings in the Middle East have brought citizen journalism back into the limelight, but bloggers and independent reporters have been breaking stories that major media outlets never could for some time. Janis Krums' iPhone snapshot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 emergency landing on the Hudson River, George Allen's infamous \"macaca\" incident, or the continuing reports of protests from Syria in the face of violent oppression are just a few examples.\nThis new source of information fills a void left by a diminished traditional media corps. In some cases, the media have openly embraced citizen contributions, most notably CNN with its iReport features.\nTo help foster this new trend, several non-profits and social enterprises are actively working to improve the strength of that citizen media across the world.\nNon-Profits Back Citizen Media\nCitizen media is seen as a benefit to society and democratic principles. Many organizations are actively dedicating resources to improving citizen journalism, including the venture capital-backed AllVoices, three organizations (Global Voices, Internews and startup Small World News), and the U.S. State Department.\nInternews, Small World News and the U.S. State Department provide various training programs, grants and technical resources to citizen journalists. For example, Small World News, which focuses on conflict and post-conflict situations, is in Benghazi training Libyans to report stories using video. Its team of citizen journalists has been so successful that it is now breaking footage that no mainstream media outlet has been able to capture.\n\"We believe it takes more than a citizen and a media creation device, such as a smartphone, camera, or video camera, to make an impact,\" said Brian Conley, director and cofounder of Small World News. \"User generated content or 'citizen media' often lacks context and fails to tell a story. We believe by combining the ubiquity of media creation devices with training, it's becoming possible for nearly anyone to become not just a 'citizen journalist,' but a journalist in their own right.\"\nAllVoices and Global Voices both seek to provide a platform for citizen journalists to be heard. Their communities represent voices from all over the world. Both organizations believe that providing a platform is as essential to citizen journalism as training.\n\"Cultivating readership of citizen media is probably just as important as cultivating citizen media itself,\" said Solana Larsen, managing editor of Global Voices. \"People could be typing away in Egypt but if no one inside or outside the country were reading what they were saying or taking them seriously, it would have little effect.\"\nThe Citizen Watchdog\nSome experts see citizen media as a sidekick to traditional journalism, covering stories that the media cannot get to or inaccurately reports. \"We see it as very complementary \u2014 filling a void for other points of view, for events not covered and fostering engagement largely lacking in conventional media,\" said Aki Hashmi, general manager of AllVoices.\nOthers see it as a more intertwined relationship. Media theorist Stephen D. Cooper dubbed bloggers and citizen journalists the Fifth Estate, a play on the media's watchdog moniker of the Fourth Estate. Cooper believes that bloggers and other voices hold the media accountable when they misreport or completely drop news stories. However, as social media has evolved, the relationship has become much more complex.\n\"It\u2019s not an either/or thing,\" said Jeanne Bourgault, president of Internews. \"Journalists are using social media tools to integrate community-driven information into their newscasts and citizen journalists are learning the principles of accurate, fact-based journalism to use in their reports.\"\nGlobal Voices' Solana Larson sees citizen journalism almost as an ombudsman to traditional media: \"When media misreport, there is often a strong motivation to correct and improve. Many see themselves as watchdogs.\"\nWhat is clear is that the two \u2014 traditional and citizen journalism \u2014 have become permanently intertwined. Whether it is reporting earthquake damage in outlying areas of Japan or leaking news out of autocratic Syria, citizen journalists have become a critical source for news in general.\nThe Global Picture for Citizen Journalism\n\n\n\n\nThe Middle East has dominated the recent discussions on citizen reporting. But in actuality, citizen journalism is a global phenomena. For example, AllVoices says it has almost 500,000 citizen reporters on its network from 191 different countries.\nHotbeds of citizen journalism are developing across the globe. \"We see citizen media everywhere,\" said Internews' Jeanne Bourgault. \"In Kenya we\u2019ve piloted a project with Google to map Korogocho, a Nairobi slum, where residents plotted their local landmarks. Ultimately, residents and health workers will connect health information to community radio stations in the area, and it will be broadcast out to the community 'traditionally,' you could say, but the information gathering is all collaborative between citizens and professionals.\"\nThere is also citizen journalism blooming in Korea. \"The Korean site OhmyNews comes to mind as an international leader,\" said Small World News' Brian Conley. \"There are many nascent projects now in Libya including our own Alive in Libya. India also has quite a variety, from the work of Breakthrough.tv to ... 'India Unheard,' which empowers community correspondents all over India to tell stories about their lives.\"\nChallenges\nThere are still many challenges facing citizen journalists. For example, they struggle to rise above writing the many \"day in the life\" stories that unfortunately categorize the field. Teaching would-be journalists how to create quality, reliable information continues to be a focal point for non-profits cultivating these voices. Even getting access to social technologies for publishing is still an issue, particularly in oppressed countries.\nThe latter issue is so challenging that the U.S. State Department is now funding independent wireless networks in foreign countries so would-be journalists can escape reprisal.   Those countries include Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Libya.\n\nHow citizen media continues to impact global news and information sources remains to be seen. What is certain is that the trend of citizen journalism is only strengthening with each new success thanks to the help of organizations seeking to foster new and better independent voices.\n\n\n\n\n\nImage courtesy of Flickr, RandomThawts"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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