There was a time when the 8 oclock Doordarshan News was all that we had in terms of mainstream media. Those days seem very far away now. With the advent of satellite TV and the explosion in Indian news media, news has gained a new meaning in Indian television with 24/7 news channels screaming from the rooftops about breaking news and exclusives. But even that is seeming old now. The newest phenomenon is citizen journalism. India saw the power of it, during the Mumbai terrorist attacks where before traditional media could break ground, the average man on the street armed with a cell phone did a commendable job. From Twitter to Flickr, there was an astonishing amount of user generated news content which was topical, from location and engrossing, keeping the entire nation hooked. The “watcher” has now gained the power to become the “broadcaster” ushering in a revolutionary change in which journalism has been conducted in this country till now. And the media is taking cognizance of it.
Mainstream media is increasingly willing to integrate citizen journalism in its news coverage. News organizations are not only promoting citizen journalism platforms like IBN Live’s Citizen Journalist, but also engaging with platforms like Twitter (see @DNAIndia, @LiveMint, @BangaloreMirror, @IndiatimesNews). These trends are set to continue in 2010. More news organizations are set to experiment with citizen journalism, both by creating citizen journalism platforms on their own websites and by actively tracking social media for stories and sources.
As PR professionals we need to aware of such changes. The common man is driving the mandate today and people are listening to him. It’s not good enough for us to engage with just the media. We need to find ways to engage with the common man as well and for that we need to know how we can do so.
IBN LIVE'S citizen journalist's page
