The Shadow of Citizen Journalism

I wanted to post the following youtube video from The Nation's Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist. Scahill wrote the book Blackwater, which is about the rise of private security contracting in Iraq and the wider implications of this, and is widely considered to be an expert on private military companies.



One of the things I found intriguing about this post is the extensive amount of both praise and criticism it has received on youtube (at the time of posting it had received 9782 comments after being live for over a year - true not huge by youtube standards, but still worth noting).

One recent comment states:
"Oh look more biased youtube videos. YAY FOR FAKE JOURNALISM! Just because he wrote a book means he must know something right? We'll see, but don't always believe what you read."
While another replies:
"Fake Journalism? Do you even know who this guy is? His book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army" is VERY well cited. VERY WELL! Read it, and then comment on this author's work... The sources are excellent. He is very respected as an investigative journalist. And it isn't easy to find 100 sources, FYI. You don't just go looking on the internet, it would take a VERY long time to do."

For me this sort of thing encapsulates what citizen journalism is all about, and demonstrates exactly how online communities evaluate content and information (such as in this instance through commenting). I love that technologies like the internet have enabled us with the power to put our opinion out into the world, releasing it for others to pick up and toy with and do with what they will. The rise in citizen journalism gives me hope that the future of media will be a collective forum where everybody has the opportunity to openly evaluate and contribute, rather than a platform from which we are fed the majority views that often remain unchallenged.

I'm not arguing that we are passive recievers of media. I also understand that citizen journalism does have negative potential, such as a loss in quality (but then what is quality?!), particularly with the growing breadth of available information and content available to us. I know quantity does not always equal quality, but I am of the opinion that I would rather have access to a greater and more diverse range of information sources that I can evaluate myself, rather than have access to only a limited number of sources that have already been pre-evaluated for me. The second option might make life easier but it also makes it easier for your life to be controlled.

On the actual content of the clip, I'd heard of private contracting in the US for the war in Iraq but didn't realise that it is potentially this extensive. Ofcourse what I have heard has come from sources like Scahill, never the mass media. I loathe to think what sort of world we would live in should citizen journalists not exist! Hallelujah for alternatives! Hallelujah for choice! Hallelujah that not everybody takes things on face value or just because somebody says they are so!

INVITATION TO COMMENT PLEASE!