Visual truths of citizen reportage: Four research problematics

Allan, Stuart ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-0470 and Peters, Chris 2015. Visual truths of citizen reportage: Four research problematics. Information, Communication & Society 18 (11) , pp. 1348-1361. 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1061576

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Abstract

In striving to better understand issues associated with citizen contributions to newsmaking in crisis situations, this article identifies and elaborates four specific research problematics – bearing witness, technologies of truth-telling, mediating visualities and affectivities of othering – in order to recast more familiar modes of enquiry. Specifically, it provides an alternative heuristic to theorize the journalistic mediation of citizen imagery, and the myriad ways this process of negotiation maintains, repairs and at times disrupts the interstices of professional–amateur boundaries. Rather than centring analysis on how crisis events highlight change, it discerns the basis for a critical tracing of the material configurations and contingencies shaping journalistic imperatives towards generating visually truthful reportage. In seeking to move debates about how best to enliven digital journalism's future beyond the polarities of new media advocacy and criticism alike, we emphasize the importance of developing a collaborative, co-operative ethos of connectivity between journalists as citizens and citizens as journalists. Accordingly, each proposed problematic is examined in a manner alert to pinpointing its prospective value for theory-building, and in so doing elucidating its potential utility for scholarship in the years ahead.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Journalism, Media and Culture
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	citizen journalism, crisis reporting, digital imagery, visual communication, social media, witnessing
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1369-118X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Date of Acceptance:	8 May 2015
Last Modified:	04 Dec 2024 05:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/74532

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