The Rise and Rise of Citizen Journalism

Locating the Totnes Pulse experience within the wider frame of local media activism

“An emerging class of innovative and resourceful indie publishers is reimagining local news up and down the country. These outlets are the key to making our communities more informed, more democratically engaged, and more connected”  Public Interest News Foundation

Citizen journalism has been with us for as long as there has existed technology that has enabled it.  The proliferation in recent decades of smartphones, blogs and social media platforms has radically democratised the ‘news space’.  This has opened up qualitatively new forms of locally generated news and opinion on everything from hyper-local issues through to fomenting and recording revolutions, as in the Arab Spring.

In parallel, the business model for more conventional news media has been seriously eroded as tech companies have largely captured the advertising and subscription income on which they depend.  Many newspaper companies have collapsed and some communities have become, in the words of the Public Interest News Foundation, ‘news deserts’.

These parallel stories of corporate consolidation and community-driven innovation represent in microcosm wider trends and dynamics in the cultural evolution of our society.  A little more historical context is in order to get to the heart of the matter.   Stick with me as I try briefly to fill in some of the back story.

The mechanics

The French have a great expression for it – Les Trentes Glorieuses – the 30-year period in western Europe running from the end of the second world war through to the mid-1970s when one could suggest without being laughed out of town that there existed a healthy social contract between government and the governed.  Imperfect, but clearly identifiable in daily life nonetheless.  Top tax rates in the UK hit 90 percent, providing the financing for the creation of the NHS and the building of the welfare state.  In the quarter-century following World War II, local authorities in Britain constructed 3.1 million homes, peaking in 1968 when over 425,000 homes were built.

Key sectors – including medicines, food products and chemical compounds – were legally excluded from patent protectionism on the grounds that much of the wealth created was as a result of tax payer-funded research.  In short, during the trentes glorieuses in all sorts of ways the gap between the rich and the poor dramatically narrowed.

The recent past was a different country indeed!  But arguably the strangest thing in this culture shift is that none of it was especially controversial.  There was a broad cross-party consensus around the merits of a more egalitarian society and of a leading role for government, trade unions and cooperatives in its realisation.

These broad values were reflected in the world of media.  Post-war, media ownership was fragmented, with competitive markets in which locally-based and often family-owned publications held a prominent place.  Local reporters had the same kind of old-world respect and authority as the local doctor or bank manager, finger on the pulse, the one you would turn to find out the ‘inside story’.

No need to spell out in sorry detail the degree to which the post-war social contract has crumbled.  Corporate capture of the political process is no longer even disguised, with government representatives far outnumbered by business lobbyists in most official fora and a revolving door mediating the space between government and business.  In the UK, 90% of the national media market is today owned by three major companies.: DMG Media, News UK and Reach.

Moreover, professional standards in the journalistic industry have plummeted.  The Leveson report of 2012 revealed systemic, decades-long criminality by the tabloid press in order to get ever-more sensational ‘scoops’ to sell papers.’ In the face of these trends, the reputation of journalists has suffered badly.  They now rank consistently low on global veracity indices, generally sitting near the bottom of trusted professions alongside politicians and advertising executives, with a typical public trust rating of around 27% globally.

Where are we now?

This is the context in which we need to locate the emergence of citizen journalism.  It is part of a wider push-back against the commodification and corporatisation of society, representing a deep disillusion among a growing portion of the population with the cynicism and flagrant abuses of power at the heart of our politics. In this respect, it can be seen as one strand of a wider movement to enhance citizen engagement in the political process, including deliberative democracy in its many forms, the greater use of citizens’ assemblies, campaigns for the use of sortition and the push for electoral reform.

The politically progressive orientation of citizen journalism is made explicit in the mission statements of most of the growing number of independent, community-based media outlets.

To give just a couple of examples: ‘We are rooted in local communities, but we’re also a leader in the global movement to reinvent the media industry as a sustainable, democratic public service.’ – The Bristol Cable 

Our stance is progressive, pluralist and internationalist. Our objective is to be part of, and to influence, the debate at a community level. We aim to bring politics to life, giving global relevance to local stories, and vice versa. Bylines network

There is little reason to believe that the factors underlying the recent growth in citizen journalism – moral revulsion with the status quo, technological innovation and campaigning vigour – are likely to go into reverse anytime soon.  Indeed, the emergence in recent years of a number of support organisations aimed at locally-based media can only strengthen the sector.

Prominent among these support organisations is the Public Interest News Foundation that acts as a campaigning and information hub.  PINF has been active in convening conversations nationwide around the concept of ‘a co-creational’ approach to news gathering and dissemination; it has proposed that the BBC adopt ‘Engage’ as its newest public purpose, asking: ‘what would it take for the BBC to actually co-create the news with the public, not just listen to them?’

What we are witnessing here is much more than a series of scattered micro hobby projects.  The Totnes Pulse is part of a vibrant eco-system of citizen journalists, news outlets and independent media support organisations that has the potential to play a substantial role in informing, engaging and empowering the citizenry.

The Pulse aims to provide a forum for the sharing of stories from across this emerging network, helping to locate the work of its writers within the wider frame of media-driven engagement.

So share your stories!