A couple of days ago, the University of British Columbia campus was under lockdown following a threat against students in the Bio Sciences building.
I was on campus at the time and, like others here, wanted to find out more. One of the best sources turned out to be not mainstream media, but the citizen media site, NowPublic.com.
One of its contributors, ScienceDave, happened to be in the building at the time as he is a graduate science student. He provided a detailed account of what was happening, including little touches like:
Students in my office are currently playing pictionary…team 2 is winning.
This showed the potential of a site like NowPublic – the ability to tap into an account from someone at the scene of breaking news. The coverage by mainstream media, with the tendency to rely on official statements, was nothing compared to the snippets of information trickling out from ScienceDave.
A blogger caught on campus also recommended NowPublic, saying, “Sick and tired of being told nothing? Nothing susbstantial (sic) in the media? Try this.”
I am not saying that there is no role for professional journalists, far from it. They can help to put events like these in context and give the news meaning.
But this example highlights how members of the public at the centre of the news can play a role in reporting the news.
(As a former journalist, I could not resist contributing to the story, in a very minor way, with a slightly blurry photo of the police helicopter circling over.)
Technorati Tags: UBC, NowPublic, citizen+journalism
Site Search Tags: UBC, NowPublic, citizen+journalism
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Hi Alfred,
Thanks for siting my blog. I believe NowPublic is popular because of its real-time and real-place updates, and MSM which relies on the administration and officials can never win the battle on that front. There is a level of dependability and sophistication expected of the MSM, which can be both a plus and a minus. The minus: they cannot update as fast as bloggers, and they cannot include everything they hear. The plus: people still look towards the more carefully written articles of the MSM for official and perhaps more reliable information.
*Siting as in citing
[...] University lockdown showcases power of citizen media. From UBC, where an email threat led to a lockdown, comes a post from Alfred Hermida showing how NowPublic led the early coverage, thanks to people on the scene. [...]
This showed the potential of a site like NowPublic – the ability to tap into an account from someone at the scene of breaking news. The coverage by mainstream media, with the tendency to rely on official statements, was nothing compared to the snippets of information trickling out from ScienceDave.
I’ve spoken with staff at NowPublic, and they often cite what you’ve brought up as their primary goals: to provide an unmatched source of information during breaking news events, while providing a more humanistic point of view to the events themselves.
Interestingly, I was somewhat hesitant of posting to NowPublic when I first became aware of the lock-down. How might my actions both commit myself to the actual event (i.e. do I want to become more involved than I am already forced to be) AND possibly wrongfully persuade others if I accidentally post false information? I caved (obviously), took the experience in stride, and decided to put on my CJ science hat: exactly how much more might I become involved if I post this experience?
As it turned out, I experienced relatively little involvement past the blog shout-out and silently engaging the +14,000 people that read the post.