By The People:: The Rise of Citizen Journalism

By the People:
The Rise of Citizen Journalism
A Report to the Center for International Media Assistance
By Eugene L. Meyer
December 16, 2010

The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), a project of the
National Endowment for Democracy, aims to strengthen the support, raise
the visibility, and improve the effectiveness of media assistance programs
by providing information, building networks, conducting research, and
highlighting the indispensable role independent media play in the creation
and development of sustainable democracies around the world. An im-
portant aspect of CIMA’s work is to research ways to attract additional U.S.
private sector interest in and support for international media development.
CIMA convenes working groups, discussions, and panels on a variety of

topics in the field of media development and assistance. The center also
issues reports and recommendations based on working group discussions
and other investigations. These reports aim to provide policymakers, as
well as donors and practitioners, with ideas for bolstering the effectiveness
of media assistance.
Marguerite H. Sullivan
Senior Director
Center for International Media Assistance

National Endowment for Democracy
1025 F Street, N.W., 8th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 378-9700

Fax: (202) 378-9407
Email: CIMA@ned.org
URL: http://cima.ned.org
About the Author
Eugene L. Meyer
Eugene L. Meyer is an award-winning Washington, DC-based freelance journalist who worked

for four decades in daily journalism. For most of that time, he was a staff reporter and editor
for The Washington Post. Meyer serves on the board of the Freedom to Write Fund and is a
member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He is the author of two books
and numerous magazine articles for regional and national publications. His work has covered a
wide range of topics, including politics, real estate, urban affairs, police brutality, health care,
travel, agriculture, history, the environment, and the economy. He has been a writing coach and
taught journalism at Ohio State University as the James Thurber Journalist-in-Residence. Meyer
currently contributes to several publications and is the editor of B’nai B’rith Magazine.
CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism
Center for International Media Assistance 1

Table of Contents
Preface 3
Executive Summary 4
Methodology 6
What is Citizen Journalism? 8
The Middle East: Cats and Mice 10
Having an Impact 13
Mexico: Filling the Void Left by Self-Censored News Media 14
Belarus: Citizen Journalists’ Risky Business 18
Monetizing Citizen Journalism 20
Can Citizen Journalism Pay Its Own Way? 22
Conclusion 25
Recommendations 27
Endnotes 28
2 Center for International Media Assistance

Preface
The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for
Democracy commissioned this study about the rise of citizen news media. The report examines
both the opportunities and the challenges facing citizen journalism, especially in countries where
the news media is not free or where practicing independent journalism can be dangerous.
CIMA is grateful to Eugene Meyer, a veteran journalist, for his research and insights on this
topic.
We hope that this report will become an important reference for international media assistance
efforts.

Marguerite H. Sullivan
Senior Director

Executive Summary
Citizen journalism–it has an almost Norman Rockwell ring to it, something akin to his iconic
town meeting cover for the Saturday Evening Post, with citizens rising to speak their minds
in furtherance of the democratic ideal. Only now, citizens are speaking online, in many cases
helping to disseminate the information an informed electorate needs for democracy to exist and
flourish.
The phrase has become the talk of media circles. Along with its close cousins “citizen media”
and “crowd sourcing,” it is increasingly and approvingly invoked among communications
academics, researchers, media development implementers, and funders as a bright light in the
otherwise dimming environment of news gathering and dissemination that has marked the first
decade of the twenty-first century.
Citizen journalism is seen by some as an Citizen journalism is seen by

antidote to the widening information gap in
societies where traditional news media–print
some as an antidote to the
and broadcast–are in decline. The seeming widening information gap in
proliferation of citizen journalists has accelerated societies where traditional
with the growth of global digital technology
that has in many ways erased national borders,
news media–print and
resulting in worldwide media able to reach broadcast–are in decline.
citizens everywhere.
But there are two large caveats: Outside the democratized West, there is no consensus on how
to define the term. Further complicating the issue is the reality on the ground in societies that
could stand to benefit the most from such enterprise: Repressive, authoritarian regimes will
often stop at nothing to suppress freedom of the press, whether in the traditional “mainstream
media” or in the brave new world of citizen journalism. In such countries, traditional journalists
either engage in self-censorship or risk their lives in pursuit of the truth, and the ideal of citizen
journalism seems even more removed from reality.
As technology becomes more sophisticated, and platforms for transmitting news, information,
and opinion more diverse, governments of all stripes–even democracies, including the United
States–seek to monitor communications and obtain personal information.
Usually in the name of national security, governments want access to e-mails and social
networks, or to learn who is visiting which website. This chilling development was highlighted
by the United Arab Emirates’ August 2010 threat to ban BlackBerry e-mail unless its Canadian
manufacturer, Research in Motion Ltd., allowed it to monitor encrypted messages. The
UAE alleged that BlackBerry’s smart phones caused “judicial, social and national security
concerns.”1 Soon after, India–where the Mumbai terrorists were said to have used BlackBerry
devices–said it would shut down the service unless it was given access to the encrypted data.

This paper seeks to examine both the challenges and opportunities facing citizen journalism
in foreign lands, focusing especially on the so-called purple (not free) and yellow (partly free)
zones, as defined by the Freedom House Foundation’s Map of Press Freedom 20102, which ranks
196 countries and territories. In many such places, the definition between citizen journalism and
advocacy blurs, and traditional newsroom standards are a luxury if not entirely irrelevant. So any
discussion of citizen journalism in countries where the press is partly free or not free cannot be
separated from the governmental environment and atmosphere that limit its practice.

Methodology
This study is based on more than 20 interviews by telephone, e-mail, and Skype; primary and
secondary documents; commentaries; websites; blogs; and other sources. In a few limited cases,
anonymity was granted to protect the work of individuals and organizations operating discretely
in authoritarian countries.
The author is grateful to the following, who were consulted in the preparation of this report:
Blog del Narco – anonymous blogger in northern Mexico
Dawn Arteaga – Communications Director, International Center for Journalists
James Breiner – Director, Digital Journalism Center, Guadalajara, Mexico

Brenda Burrell – Technical director, Freedom Fone
Mona Eltahawy – writer and lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues
Hanzada Fikry – Country Director, Egypt, International Center for Journalists
Aki Hashmi – chief marketing manager, AllVoices
Susan Moeller – Professor of Media and International Affairs and Director, International
Center for Media and the Public Agenda, University of Maryland
Sharon Moshavi – Senior Director for new initiatives, International Center for Journalists
Eric Newton – John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Vice-President, Journalism

Program
William Orme – United Nations Development Program
Constance Phlipot, Senior Diplomatic Advisor, Community of Democracies
Kathleen Reen – Internews, Vice-President for Asia, Environment and New Media
Hans Staiger, program consultant, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)
Ivan Sigal – Executive Director, Global Voices
Amra Tareen – Founder and CEO, AllVoices Inc.

Elisa Tinsley – Director, Knight International Journalism Fellowship Program, International
Center for Journalists
Judith Torrea – journalist and blogger in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Natasha Tynes – Director, Middle Eastern program, International Center for Journalists
Douglas Wake – First Deputy Director, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
Mark Whitehouse – International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) Director of Global
Media Initiatives

What is Citizen Journalism?
The term citizen journalism “doesn’t mean very much,” contends Ivan Sigal,3 executive director
of Global Voices, which combines staff and unpaid volunteers to produce a website that is
both aggregator and originator of content. “There are a lot of sloppy definitions and a lot of
assumptions on where people are coming from, or whether or not citizen journalism is a good
thing, and a lot of anecdotal sorting without much data-driven or cluster analytics together.”
Definitions range widely across the spectrum. In Asia, writes Kathleen Reen, Internews vice-
president for Asia, environment and new media, “I’m not sure that the more widely understood or
shared definitions … reflect the U.S. perspective at all.”4
Eric Newton, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s vice-president overseeing its
journalism program and a strong advocate for citizen journalism, likes to cite the experience
of Deerfield, New Hampshire, (population 3,678 in the 2000 census) in defining what citizen
journalism is and can be.
Deerfield is “a small town without a paper, TV or radio station, a very, very modest civic website
done by the town hall,” he said.5 “Yet it’s an educated community with Internet access. Friends
of the Library five or six years ago were sitting around, bemoaning the fact that hardly anyone
wanted to stand for local election. And in fact only a couple of the many races were contested. So
they got a very small grant, through J-Lab at [American University],one of our grantees– $18,000
the first year, $7,000 the second year–to launch their volunteer [online] news and information
platform, the Deerfield Forum.6 They found in each subsequent year that the voter turnout
increased, the number wanting to stand for office increased, the number of contested offices
increased.”
All well and good in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and in other parts of the world that are free and
democratic. However, Newton adds, in countries such as Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, “it is quite
the opposite. A person could end up in jail, being chased by the law, and have to flee the country,
because they engage in what we call citizen journalism in the United States.
“So, citizen journalism is going to be effective in some areas and not in others. Each community
has its own micro-climate. There are some things you can write about in some parts of Mexico
and other parts you’d be killed. We are very far behind in our understanding of the cultural
microclimates and community microclimates and how they affect all kinds of news and info
flows.”
What, exactly, is citizen journalism? “I suppose it is any kind of information, publication, and
diffusion of information done by people not trained as professionals, who haven’t worked in
established media,” said James Breiner, director of the Digital Journalism Center in Guadalajara,
Mexico.7 “I really don’t know how to deal with that term. It’s all over the landscape.”
And when do social media become outlets for citizen journalists? “I don’t consider Facebook a

news medium,” said Breiner, “but it’s certainly a communications medium. More and more, you
are seeing Facebook being used as an outlet for news media and a way for non-traditional voices
to be heard.”

There is also this overriding question: Are citizen journalists, even in the best of circumstances,
real journalists? David Simon, former Baltimore Sun journalist and writer and producer of The
Wire and other successful cable television shows, thinks not. “You do not (in my city) run into
bloggers or so-called ‘citizen journalists’ at City Hall, or in the court house hallways, or at the
bars where police officers gather,” he told a Senate hearing on the future of journalism in May
2009.8 “You don’t see them consistently nurturing and then pressing sources. You don’t see
them holding institutions accountable on a daily basis. Why? Because high-end journalism is a
profession. It requires daily full-time commitment by trained men and women who return to the
same beats day in and day out.”
But, of course, in totalitarian states or countries that place restrictions on the free flow of

information, upholding such professional standards can be problematic. It may be little comfort–
but it also may help shape our worldview–that more
Internet journalists than those working in any other
medium were jailed as of December 1, 2008, according to
the Committee to Protect Journalists.9 In the December In the December
2009 survey, 68–or half of journalists in jail–were 2009 survey, 68–or
bloggers, Web-based reporters and online editors–a
numerical increase of 12 and a percentage jump of 5
half of journalists in
points.10 jail–were bloggers,
Web-based reporters
These twenty-first century bloggers are, of course,
merely the latest manifestation of a tradition that predates
and online editors.
the digital age. “I like to compare the bloggers here
and elsewhere to the underground writers and partisan
reporters of France during the World War II,” wrote Stephen Franklin, a Knight International
Journalism Fellow in Egypt, in praise of Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, recipient of the 2007
Knight International Journalism Award and the first blogger to be so honored. “They were
hardly perfect or well-trained. They were not observers but activists, because they rightly felt that
their lives and their futures were on the line. They wrote snippets of truth, not whole truths and
hoped that alone would help … A handful of today’s bloggers in various parts of the world have
inherited their proud legacy and costly responsibilities.”11
“It’s difficult to put your finger on the difference between a blogger and citizen journalist,” said
Mona Eltahawy,12 a New York-based, Egyptian-born writer and speaker on Islam and the Arab
world. How much “fact-checking and the ethics should be there?” Teaching a course in Egypt
on citizen journalism, she heard her students say they preferred blogging “because they didn’t
want to abide any anyone else’s codes. I don’t think that definition has been definitively worked
out. It’s something people struggle with.”

The Middle East: Cats and Mice
Citizen journalists in the Middle East walk a fine line between reportage and advocacy, and almost always
against a background of government intimidation or control, ranging from the deceptively benign to the
truly totalitarian.
In Iran, information posted on Facebook and Twitter and videos on YouTube told the world of the
government crackdown following the disputed election of June 2009. Most notably, the death from a single
bullet of a protesting student, Neda Agha-Soltan, was posted on YouTube, turning her into a martyr and
potent symbol for the cause of democracy.1 A George Polk Award went to the anonymous bystander who
took the video of her death that shocked the world. However, such citizen journalism seemed to have no
lasting impact in the so-called “Green Revolution” against the country’s regime and President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
On Facebook, Iran Citizen Journalism professes neutrality but provides a platform for information that
reports alleged government abuses and atrocities. A typical posting, from June 7, 2010, reported, “The Islamic
Republic is preparing another round of mass executions in an effort to terrorize the Iranian people into
submission in advance of the one-year anniversary of the ongoing Iranian uprising, June 12. Urgent action is
required by all concerned people to pressure the regime to refrain from implementing these executions.”
It is unclear from the site who administers it or where it is hosted, but many of the posts are in German. “Iran
Citizen Journalism is NOT affiliated with any political party, nor do we have any political agenda,” the site says.
“Our sole interest is to gather information that can be used to help the people of Iran. ALL viewpoints and
political parties are encouraged to post. The goal of Iran Citizen Journalism is to create a safe and informative
environment for EVERYONE.”
However, in its mission statement Iran Citizen Journalism says its purpose is “To start discussions that will help
keep lines of communications among all freedom fighters open.” Straight journalism, or advocacy, or perhaps
some of both? This is the dilemma and reality in the Middle East.
In Syria, a law has been drafted to regulate online media, requiring them to register and to submit their
writing for government review. This restrictive atmosphere pervades the Middle East, but there are some
limited openings.
In Egypt, citizen journalists are being trained by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ),2 without
apparent interference from the tightly-controlled government of President Hosni Mubarak. A recently-
completed program trained 60 citizen journalists and 30 professional journalists in the basics of news
gathering. “There are always [censorship] issues and everyone’s aware of that, but Egyptian citizen journalists
are known for crossing these boundaries and red lines,” said Natasha Tynes, Washington-based director of
ICFJ’s Egypt project.3 One of ICFJ’s citizen journalists managed to interview eyewitnesses to a fatal police
beating of a blogger, leading to an official investigation of the incident.
But the pressures, if more subtle, still exist, and sometimes they are not so subtle under an “emergency” law
in effect since 1981 that allows an errant journalist–independent or traditional–to be arrested and detained
without charges.
Mona Eltahawy, a New York-based writer and lecturer on Islam and the Arab world, has taught the
subject of citizen versus traditional journalism in her native Egypt. There, she said, students struggle with
differentiating between the two.4 “What came out most is the reason they started to blog was they didn’t
want to abide by anyone else’s codes,” she said. “But they realized it can’t just be a free for all, that they have
a responsibility. They see themselves as activist journalists providing services other journalists aren’t. In many
cases, these citizen journalists put on the news agenda things that the mainstream media ignore.” In 2006,
she noted, there was a “rash of wilding and sexual assault” in downtown Cairo the authorities had ignored.
Bloggers posted photos, “forcing independent and foreign media to report what happened.” This lead the
Egyptian parliament to address the issue, by defining and criminalizing sex harassment in public. An Egyptian

rights group undertook a survey and mounted a public awareness campaign, “all thanks to the bloggers,”
Eltahawy said.
“Bloggers in Egypt operate under tremendous pressure,” Eltahawy said, citing the case of a blogger arrested
without charges and then jailed for four years after being convicted of insulting the president on his blog. The
emergency law was invoked in the arrest of another blogger, Mosaad Abu Fagr, who wrote about the state of
Bedouin life in Sinai. He has been detained since February 2008, despite 18 judicial orders to release him.5
“YouTube has become a clearing house for police brutality” in Egypt, she said. A video of police sodomizing a
man in 2009 was used to convict the officers who were then sentenced to two years in prison.
Egyptian Wael Abbas became the first blogger to receive the Knight International Journalism Award, in 2007.6
He considers himself both journalist and blogger. “The bloggers in Egypt are the last independent voice,” he
has written.7 Abbas receives and posts videos from many sources. “Whenever someone has footage, they send
it to Wael,” Eltahawy said.
In September 2010 in Syria, where online journalists use pseudonyms for their own security, a video of teachers
beating students made it onto Facebook, which is officially banned in Syria.8 Bloggers piled on, and Arab

media reported the story. The teachers were reassigned. Said the New York Times: “The episode was a rare
example of the way Syrians using Facebook and blogs can win a tenuous measure of freedom within the
country’s tightly controlled media scene, where any criticism of the government, however oblique, can lead to
years in prison.”9
But the need to use pseudonyms, the Times account said, prevents these citizen journalists-cum-bloggers
“from developing professional standards.” And there are no certain ways for them to know their audience.
One Web journalist said his readers consisted of “my friends and the secret police.”
“None of these young people who are citizen journalist-bloggers are going to overthrow any regime next
week,” Eltahawy said. “But these regimes may underestimate” them.
In the global age of the Internet, she added, “Social media have become incredibly important. In the Middle
East, the idea that these young people who form the bulk of the opposition are able to watch themselves
being able to challenge authority is very important. We are not going to see the effect for a while, but we are
going to see it have a very important and vital effect.”
With the new technology, said Hanzada Fikry, who trained citizen journalists in Egypt for the ICFJ, “Nobody can
really hide. With independent media now so common and popular … everything is spoken about. Some see it
as a way of democratization, and others believe it is psychological therapy, a relief of tension.”10
1 “Neda Agha Soltan, killed 20.06.2009, Presidential Election Protest, Tehran, IRAN,” YouTube, June 22, 2009, http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=76W-0GVjNEc&skipcontrinter=1
2 ICFJ website, http://www.icfj.org/
3 Natasha Tynes, interview with author, August 31, 2010
4 Mona Eltahawy, interview with author, August 8, 2010
5 “CPJ Urges Egypt to Free Blogger With 18 Release Orders,” Committee to Protect Journalists, April 8, 2010, http://cpj.
org/2010/04/cpj-urges-egypt-to-free-blogger-with-18-orders-for.php
6 “Wael Abbas, 2007 Knight International Journalism Award Winner,” Knight International Journalism Fellowships,
International Center for Journalists, http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/WaelAbbas/tabid/807/Default.aspx
7 “Wael Abbas, 2007 Knight International Journalism Award Winner,” Knight International Journalism Fellowships,
International Center for Journalists, http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/WaelAbbas/tabid/807/Default.aspx
8 Worth, Robert F. “Web Tastes Freedom Inside Syria, and It’s Bitter,” The New York Times, September 30, 2010 http://
www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/world/middleeast/30syria.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Online%20Media%20Taste%20
Freedom%20Inside%20Syria%22&st=cse
9 Ibid.
10 Hanzada Fikry, interview with author, September 3, 2010

Is this new platform for content performing a public service if so-called citizen journalists are
spreading–along with occasional truths–rumors and half-truths? Or is it contributing to the
cacophony of unreliable sources with axes to grind?
Said one American diplomat, who requested anonymity in order to speak frankly: “I see it as
great tool but not a panacea, and it does have this dark side. There’s no fact-checking, and it can
be used to ridicule people that don’t need to be. In these democracy movements, there’s a lot of
in-fighting. This [citizen journalism] can be misused. There’s no control over content, so that can
be good and bad.”
To which Natasha Tynes, Jordanian-born director of the International Center for Journalists’
Egypt project, which trains citizen journalists there, replies, “It’s really hard to distinguish,
especially in places where they have oppressive regimes, between citizen journalists and
activists. In repressive countries, it’s hard to get two sides.”13
Internet contrarian Evgeny Morozov, a native of Belarus and a Stanford University scholar, raises
even more basic questions about the utility of social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook,
to serve as conduits of useful information much less be transformative agents of reform in
authoritarian societies, whose regimes may use the new technologies to propagandize. “It is
safe to say that the Internet has significantly changed the flow of information in and out of
authoritarian states,” he wrote in 2009. “But drawing conclusions about the democratizing nature
of the Internet may still be premature.”14

Having an Impact
Yet, there are instances where citizen journalism in inhospitable places clearly has had a direct
impact on the course of events. The question is whether such online activism is advocacy or
straight journalism, and how much the distinction in such countries actually matters.
OhmyNews, launched on February 22, 2000, with the mantra “Every Citizen Is a Reporter,”
is widely credited with influencing the 2002 presidential election in South Korea. The
citizen journalist website provided an alternative news source, and successful candidate Roh
Moo-Hyuan benefitted from counter-arguments his supporters posted on OhmyNews.
In Mexico, through an Internet-generated

campaign spurred by dissatisfaction with “The great thing about
corruption in government, voters protested the
citizen participation is

July 2009 elections not by staying away from
the polls but by making an “X” across their you can publicize stuff
ballots. The “voto nulo” campaign came out of that formerly wouldn’t get
the blogosphere and videos posted on YouTube.
It was a powerful use of the Internet to galvanize publicized, and in a medium
citizens into taking action. Not citizen that is mass distributed.”
journalism, precisely, but powerful nonetheless.
— James Breiner
Underscoring the importance Mexicans place
on access to the Web was “InternetNecesario,”
a movement to protest a 3 percent internet service provider tax proposed by the administration
of President Felipe Calderón. After the movement generated 35,000 tweets from more than 7,000
Twitter participants and more than 8,300 members on Facebook, the Mexican Senate voted to
overturn the tax in October 2009.15
In Guatemala, also in 2009, Jean Anleu urged followers on Twitter to withdraw their money from
banks associated with corrupt politicians. Anleu was identified and arrested on the grounds he
was inciting the collapse of the economic system. Within hours, the online universe was ablaze
with indignation, and funds were raised to bail him out.
“Something like that never would’ve happened without Twitter and Facebook,” said James
Breiner. “It used to be you could just arrest anybody and disappear them. Case closed, they’re
gone. You can’t do that now. The great thing about citizen participation is you can publicize stuff
that formerly wouldn’t get publicized, and in a medium that is mass distributed.” 16 Social media
are also credited with turning out 10,000 anti-government street protestors in Moldova in the
spring of 2009.
Citizen advocacy or citizen journalism? Whatever one chooses the call it, the news got out—and
had consequences.

Mexico: Filling the Void Left by Self-Censored News Media
On Sunday September 19, 2010, the day after one of its photo interns was gunned down
emerging from a mall where he had eaten lunch, the daily print voice in the embattled border
city of Ciudad Juárez offered to hit the mute button in order to continue to publish with
impunity. In a front-page editorial1, El Diario appealed to the drug lords for a truce, offering to
withhold information in return for peace.
It was an odd twist to the credo, “publish or perish.” In Ciudad Juárez, the new mantra seemed
to be, “publish and perish.”
In the drug war-torn country of Mexico, a nation with a democratically elected government, it
appears that self-censorship is the only way for a “free” press to survive–by becoming, in effect,
less free. The consequences of publishing are clear: More than 30 journalists killed or vanished
in the last four years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.2
For most print journalists, the subject on everyone’s mind is off-limits. “Cartels are very
conscious of what kind of coverage they are getting,” said James Breiner3, director of Digital
Journalism Center at the University of Guadalajara. “They’ll call the paper, tell you they
don’t want you to publish the names or photos of our people, and if you do there will be
consequences. And there are.”
In theory and law, Mexico has a free press. But the reality is that there is self-censorship.
With the drug cartels more than threatening journalists who seek to report the truth, the
mainstream media often pull their punches. Violent incidents, even murders, go unreported -
and unprosecuted.
And then there’s www.blogdelnarco.com. This fearless, if anonymous, citizen journalism

website has, since it began on March 2, 2010, gone where others fear to tread, posting reports
it receives from other anonymous sources. Blog del Narco, according to its anonymous creator
and administrator, answering questions by e-mail, “is a site where we try to collect all the
information about drug trafficking and war in Mexico. Its main purpose is to help the Mexican
people take the necessary measures against the insecurity.
”The blog, its originator says4, arose from the government and media “trying to pretend that
nothing happens, because the media is threatened and the government apparently bought.”
The blog is “a means of communication with which we inform people what happens, write the
events exactly as they were.” Only stories that can be verified are posted, he says.
The blog has attracted approximately 3 million hits a week. “It has become so successful
because the Mexican media threatened not to publish reports of clashes,” says its creator, who
describes himself as “a twenty-something college student” in computer systems. He spends at
least four hours daily working on the site and lives somewhere in northern Mexico.
“I have no relationship to drug traffickers, as many have said,” he adds.
The website carries news stories and grisly homemade videos and images– not shown
in the mainstream media–of executions juxtaposed on the computer screen with video
advertisements for “Easy Off” kitchen cleanser. The site invites visitors to “send photos, videos,
notes, links or information. All 100% Anonymous.”

The administrator of Blog del Narco says he plans to continue the site as long as the news goes
unreported elsewhere.
Does it matter that print newspapers are intimidated in an environment that is increasingly
online? In a country of 110 million people, about 30 million have Internet access and 14
million are on Facebook, compared to 2 million and shrinking for newspapers, notes Breiner.
“Newspapers are elitist here, in that they are read by very few people. The Web reaches much
more people.”
In addition to the anonymous Blog del Narco, there is Spanish journalist, Judith Torrea, who
blogs under her own name from Ciudad Juárez and New York about the city en la sombra5 (in
the shadow) of the drug traffic.
“My work is very different than the Blog del Narco,” Torrea wrote6 in an e-mail. “I am a
journalist. My blog is [done for] free ... and I am not giving publicity to the narcos. I risk my life
to do it. For me, the important thing are the victims and what is exactly is happening in Ciudad
Juárez.”

Juárez citizens also rely on Twitter reports7 to learn about what’s going on locally, Breiner said,
“because the mainstream media is not reporting a shootout in their neighborhood. It is just like
information you would hear on the street corner, in the barber shop, in a restaurant.” Blog del
Narco is also on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter (with 1,842 tweets and 16,592 followers, as of
September 23, 2010).
Blog del Narco’s author says he does not take sides in the drug war, but, according to an
Associated Press report on August 13, 2010, one posting may have resulted in the arrest of a
prison warden who allegedly freed inmates at night to murder for a drug cartel.
But what if the information is unreliable, inaccurate, or one-sided? “Journalists underestimate

the ability of people to evaluate this stuff,” Breiner says.
“Obviously,” he adds, “there’s a lot of misinformation all the time all around us, whether it’s
on the Web or not. You listen to it, evaluate it, make a judgment. In the past, there was this
[newspaper] monopoly.” You read it in the paper, “therefore it’s true. [Now] we don’t have that
monopoly.”
1 Archibold, Randal,, “Mexico Paper, a War Victim, Calls for a Voice,” The New York Times,
September 20, 2010 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/world/americas/21mexico.
html?_r=1&hpw
2 “Calderón to Support Federalization of Anti-Press Crimes,” Committee to Protect Journalists,
September 22, 2010, http://cpj.org/2010/09/calderon-to-support-federalization-of-anti-
press-c.php#more
3 Breiner, James, Centro de Periodismo Digital, in interview with author, August 17, 2010.
4 Blog del Narco,email message to author, August 19, 2010.
5 Ciudad Juárez, en la Sombra del Narcotráfico Blog, juarezenlasombra.blogspot.com
6 Torrea, Judith, Ciudad Juárez, en la Sombra del Narcotráfico Blog, email message to
author, September 23, 2010 9
7 JuarezAwareness Twitter website, http://twitter.com/juarezawareness

A more direct expression of citizen journalism is underway in Panama, where major media
have been working with Transparency International to create a website based on Ushahidi’s
technology.17 The project, begun in the summer of 2010, asks citizen journalists to text or e-mail
information about crime and corruption. That information, after being checked for accuracy, is to
be aggregated and posted in map form on the website.
As media development advisor in the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the West
African country of Sierra Leone, Bill Orme had a front row seat to watch citizen journalism at
work in a troubled land.
“It’s kind of remarkable,” he said. “Here was this nation that had undergone a tragic, brutal
horrific nearly dozen years of civil warfare with a huge number of casualties, followed by a large
United Nations presence, 35,000 troops at the peak. Despite all those divisions, it has now had
two sequential national elections, very hard-
fought and very close, and the populace at large
accepted the results immediately and without

Platform is an increasingly
any question and challenge.”18
important and varied
factor in any discussion Orme attributes the peaceful elections directly
to the role citizen journalists played via the
of citizen journalism. In
medium of radio, which the UN instigated. “If it
some areas, the Internet wasn’t for that radio coverage, everyone agrees
rules. In others, lacking that wouldn’t have been the case,” he said.
broadband, cellphones and
“Radio is really the only medium” in Sierra
text messaging dominate. Leone, he said. “TV exists in very rudimentary
form in the capital city. The combined
newspaper circulation in the country is 40,000 to
50,000, if that, divided between 15 or 20 papers, almost all in Freetown [the capital],” in a country
with a population of 5.3 million in 2010.19
Orme’s office recruited volunteers to gather news to be broadcast. “Part of the strategy was to
ensure that the actual vote count and processes all went according to international norms, and also
that the public had a chance to follow the news in real time and believe in the credibility of the
process. So all the independent radio stations created a joint national coverage network.
“Local reporters in most places weren’t professionals. They were volunteers given training and
tape recorders and cellphones and told how to cover elections. It’s kind of remarkable.”
Cellphones are used to text to radio stations, and they are “the revolutionary change, approaching
100 percent in Sierra Leone,” Orme said. Texting is cheaper than voice calls, and it is anonymous.
“You text, the radio station gets it; you can ID the phone number but not the person. In politically
or ethnically charged situations, people are a lot feel freer to be more candid in their messages or
questions they send to radio programs.”

Use of cellphones for citizen journalism is still in its infancy in Sierra Leone, he said. However,
in much of Africa, cellphones and radios are “the two dominant media, overwhelmingly.”
While much of the continent lacks newspapers and broadband, Africa is in some ways light years
ahead of the more developed world. “You’re really starting from scratch,” he said. “They never
had land line phones; cellphones are the first they ever hand. They leapfrogged that old-fashioned
technology. In some ways, they’re more in the vanguard than we are, figuring out how to use
these tools in very affordable, inclusive ways. If we’re interested in where journalism is going
globally, it’s one of the more interesting laboratories.”
To observers like Orme, platform is an increasingly important and varied factor in any discussion
of citizen journalism. In some areas, the Internet rules. In others, lacking broadband, cellphones
and text messaging dominate. Elsewhere, radio remains the primary interconnecting medium.
“There’s a cautionary tale here for Americans, to understand that the way much of the world

engages with the media, they not only do not see a bright line but no line between social media
and journalism,” said Susan Moeller, director of the University of Maryland’s International
Center for Media and the Public Agenda. 20
“Sitting in Washington,” she added, “it’s very hard to see how blurred the line is between news
and information. “If you are a fisherman off the coast of Africa, you’re coming to three different
ports and you can use social media to figure out which port will give you the best price for your
catch. Is that information or is that news?
In Morocco, a blogger filmed and posted traffic police asking for bribes. “The Moroccan public
became much more aware; police became accountable,” said Eltahawy. “At the beginning, they
would arrest the blogger, but it became his protection.”
In Saudi Arabia, bloggers offered first-hand accounts of flooding in Jeddah on the west coast in
which several died. “Eyewitness accounts from bloggers forced the Saudi royal family to form
a commission to look into what had happened and why services were lacking,” Eltahawy said.
“They never felt the need to answer to the public in the past. But here they were conducting
investigations …
“I think it’s important to remember in the case of some of these absolute dictators who’ve
controlled everything forever, they allow these openings because they don’t think it will lead
to much,” said Eltahawy. “None of these young people who are citizen journalists or bloggers
are going to overthrow any regime next week. But these regimes may underestimate what they
are doing over time. They are the first generation to answer back and question online and show
everyone things in ways other generations could not.”

Belarus: Citizen Journalists’ Risky Business
When the editor and founder of Charter97, a citizens’ human rights organization with a Web presence,
was found hanging in his home near Minsk on September 3, 2010, authorities ruled it a suicide. But Oleg
Bebenin left no suicide note, and friends and supporters were skeptical.
Within three weeks, the site had carried 598 comments, mainly expressing outrage and condolences.
Citizen journalism, or opinion? Or was the torrent of reaction itself the news, conveyed by citizens?
Prior to the suspicious death of Bebenin, the Charter97 site had been attacked and made inaccessible to
users. Distributed denial of service “attacks against charter97.org have been organized very often in the
last months,” the website reported. “Earlier attacks were carried out during opposition demonstrations
and elections, when people can take to streets in protest against rigging elections results.”
On July 16, 2010, Charter97’s site1 was temporarily disabled by “the strongest” cyber-attack after showing a
documentary not otherwise available in Belarus accusing authorities and President Alexander Lukashenko
of “implication in disappearances and killings of famous Belarusian politicians, public figures and
journalists.”2
Such is the climate in the increasingly autocratic former Soviet republic of Belarus that journalism–
whether practiced by citizens or professionals–can be a risky affair. So risky in fact that outside funders
and supporters work discretely and would speak about conditions only if they and their organizations
were not identified.
“We have a media assistance project in Belarus, but due to the sensitivity and the potential danger to our
local partners on the ground,” said one such person3, “we do not publicize this at all.”
His organization is working well under the radar to support citizen journalists. The modus operandi is
reminiscent of darker days but with a new technological twist.
“The only way to communicate is by Skype,” the source said. “Because it is encrypted, they feel a little bit
safer. Citizen journalists don’t want to communicate by phone or e-mail. They have good reason to feel
intimidated.”
Traditional media are subject to frequent tax inspections. Media must register, and the address must be
an office building, at commercial rental rates, and not a private residence. Outside funding organizations
cannot make payments directly to Belarus. Instead, grants are made to local organizations in Vilnius, in
neighboring Lithuania, and the recipients get paid in person and return to Belarus with cash.
“We are training young people, establishing informal journalists’ schools, usually at a private address,
limited to one day because after two or three days running, the secret police figure it out,” the source said.
“This is primarily for young people who want to get involved in citizen journalism. They are using their
cellphones, the Internet. We are helping them develop websites and platforms for chat rooms.”
There is a lot of texting on cellphones, he said, but use of the Internet has become “very, very difficult,”
especially since a new law known as Decree No. 60 went into effect on July 1, 2010. It requires all websites
to register with the government, and, according to Euroradio,4 “Providers of services of websites have to
limit the access of their subscriber equipment to information considered to be deleterious.”
Even before then, on January 4, 2010, President Lukashenko signed a law5 giving the Operating and
Analytical Center, which reports to him, the right to control online correspondence and monitor website
browsing, all under the guise of clamping down “on criminal activity.”
Under another government resolution,6 adopted in April, Internet cafes are required to collect personal

information about users, including names and which websites the user visited.
These restrictions went into effect in the months leading up to the fall 2010 elections—a time when the
government would be most active in silencing its critics or negative news reports, and a time when the
free flow of information is critical to a functioning democracy. How can citizen journalists function in such
an environment?
One way is for websites to be hosted outside the country.
Charter97.org, the “oppositional” website, is hosted on a server located in Houston, Texas. According to
Pastebin, which tracks Web traffic, the site has an estimated 61,312 visitors a day, which generates $196
daily in advertising income.7 Charter97 contributors get paid but “not very much,” according to a U.S.
government source who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the situation. The organization is
“propped up by donations from Western countries and foundations.”
The blocking of the site led Charter97 to post other stories, including “How to circumvent site blocking?”,
“Dictator vs. Internet: who will win?”, and “Dictator says Internet is a ‘dump,’ but is going to regulate it.”

Charter97.org is named for a 1997 declaration calling for democracy in Belarus and echoing Charter 77, the
Czechoslovak human rights declaration issued 20 years earlier. It characterizes itself as non-partisan, but
is clearly in opposition to the government. Is it journalism, or is it advocacy, or independent citizens’ voice?
And in a country such as Belarus, does the distinction matter?
“In Belarus, its website is the main independent source of human rights and free expression activities
in the country,” said Human Rights House8, of the United Kingdom, giving it an Index on Censorship
Freedom of Expression Award in March 2010. “The site comes under constant attack by hackers thought to
be working for the country’s secret service … Along with her team, head of press Natallia Radzina works to
bring to light the cases of arrest, detention and harassment of critical journals and human rights activists,
despite being arrested on a regular basis.” 9
Journalists in Belarus–professional or otherwise–are not alone in their struggle to report the news.
Supporting organizations meet twice a year, in the spring and fall, and usually in Vilnius, which Belarusians
can visit without a visa.
At the Belarus Media Sector Coordination Meeting in May 2010, this one held in Warsaw, a representative
from the Belarus Association of Journalists noted, “Access to information is still a big problem in Belarus.”10
1 Charter97 website, http://www.charter97.org

2 http://charter97.org/en/news/2010/7/19/30699
3 Interview with author, September 7, 2010
4 “Belarusian Internet Functions According to Decree #60 Starting from July 1,” Euroradio, July 1, 2010,
Http://udf.by/english/main-story/31767-belarusian-internet-functions-according-to-decree.html
5 “Lukashenka Has Created Secret Service for Internet,” Charter97, January 15, 2010, http://udf.by/
english/soc/6585-lukashenka-has-created-secret-service-for-internet.html
6 “Internet Cafes to Collect all Information on Customers,” Euroradio, May 5, 2010,http://udf.by/english/
soc/30507-internet-cafes-to-collect-all-informaton-on.html
7 Pastebin website, http://pastebin.com/d/charter97.org
8 Human Rights House website, www.humanrightshouse.org
9 http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/13720.html
10 Minutes from meeting in Warsaw 10-11th May 2010, Belarus Media Sector Coordination Meeting,
Tuesday 11th May. No on-line citation.

Monetizing Citizen Journalism
They don’t call it the news business for nothing.
The experiences of OhmyNews and AllVoices–global operations based in South Korea and San
Francisco, respectively–strongly suggest that private investment and online advertising alone
cannot pay for citizen journalism. OhmyNews’ business model failed, and AllVoices, its founder
acknowledges, is still far from financially secure. [See Sidebar on Page 22.]
“Some initiatives have virtually no financial model at all, or are entirely volunteer run, and
others are elaborate attempts to create that option from traditional media platforms,” Reen, of
Internews, said via e-mail.21
OhmyNews fit into the latter category, and it seemed to succeed, at first. “Eight years ago, it
fit into the constellation of existing newspapers, filled a niche the mainstream media were not
responding to because of existing political affiliation,” said Ivan Sigal, of Global Voices.22 “It
helped to bring a political party into power. It evolved as a model, with citizen journalists and
staff. It tried different things over the years. It allowed people to participate as piecework, and the
editing process was guaranteed.”
But, ultimately, OhmyNews was a financial flop and ceased to generate original content. It did
a re-set in September 2010 with a new site that would be merely a forum for unpaid posters to
discuss the present and future of citizen journalism.
“Nobody’s figured out yet how to pay for this,” said Breiner, of the Digital Journalism Center in
Mexico. “I think it’s going to become stronger as this develops. When they figure out how to
commercialize that audience, when they figure out the business side, I think a lot of these sites
will be fine.”23
Breiner cites the experience of a Mexican freelance journalist Cesar Angulo, who also blogs
about the environment at http://bionero.org. “He’s got day job and he’s got this other thing he’s
trying to develop so can quit his day job. It’s a work in progress.” The website generates about
$9,000 a year in advertising revenue.24
In Panama, the joint venture of traditional media and citizen journalists to identify and map
crime on the Internet is being underwritten in part by the Knight Foundation–as are many other
citizen journalist efforts.
Said Sharon Moshavi, senior director for new initiatives at the International Center for Journalists
(ICFJ): “Citizen journalists do not replace professional journalists, but the two together have
incredible value, and experimenting with that in a variety of ways is hugely important, and
donors need to be responsive to that. There is a need right now for a lot of experimentation. We
don’t have the rules written. There’s huge potential to achieve donor goals by supporting these
kinds of projects.”25

It is difficult to determine precisely how much public and foundation funds are being funneled
into citizen journalism. “A tremendous amount of money is going to fund those projects,” said
Moeller, of the University of Maryland. “Some are very much under the radar. They just don’t
appear in public view.”
But what happens when the money runs out?
In pre-conference notes for the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Santiago, Chile, in May
2010, Anne Nelson, Columbia University professor of journalism, described “the lifecycle” of a
citizen journalism project from a funding perspective.26 “A good project emerges, donors offer
seed money, the project grows. The crunch arrives at the next phase: grant expires, next proposal
is submitted. Now the bar is raised–it’s not enough to have an interesting idea. The project must
either make the leap to being sustainable … or
develop a business model.”
“Citizen journalists do

With finite funds available, donors might also
ask themselves whether their financial support not replace professional
of citizen journalism–sometimes unedited and journalists, but the two
un-fact checked–is preferable to helping online
news operations professionally staffed and paid, or
together have incredible
even traditional print and broadcast media whose value...and donors need
coverage has declined along with their revenues. to be responsive to that.
However, for private ventures that seek to play in — Sharon Moshavi
the online citizen journalism arena, the future is
now … or perhaps never.
“We need to grow, raise more money, build brand, add more people and monetize this sucker,”
is the blunt assessment of AllVoices founder Amra Tareen. “That’s why either AllVoices will
become big to that scale and monetize or it won’t. We’re at that point. We haven’t figured it all
out. We’re still figuring it all out. That’s what start up businesses are. Citizen journalism is a
start up business, it absolutely is … it’s not mainstream.”27

Can Citizen Journalism Pay Its Own Way?
What does it take to “monetize” citizen journalism?
Apparently, no human editors. Instead, leave it to algorithms to separate the wheat from the chaff. And even
then, with exceedingly low overhead resulting from minimal paid staff, the bottom line is far from assured.
OhmyNews and AllVoices1 are two global efforts at Web-based citizen journalism that offer lessons in the
challenges that even funded organizations face in a world where the notion that “information wants to be
free”2 is often uttered.
OhmyNews, founded by Korean journalist-activist Oh Yeon-ho, first launched in beta version on December 21,
1999, and fomally at 2:22 p.m. on February 22, 2000. Its motto, from lectures he had given promoting the idea:
“Every Citizen Is a Reporter.”
Under the OhmyNews model, citizen reporters would be paid up to $20 per article, depending on its
placement on the site. In addition, the reporters could receive up to $54 from readers as “tips” for particularly
good stories. By September 2000, OhmyNews had 5,000 citizen reporters; by November 2001, it had 15,000,
and 42,000 by May 2006.3
The citizen journalist website provided an alternative news source leading up to the 2002 presidential
election.4 Successful candidate Roh Moo-Hyun benefitted from counter-arguments his supporters posted on
OhmyNews. But that may have been the high point for OhmyNews and citizen journalism in Korea.
Critics faulted OhmyNews for not reporting Roh’s failings in the areas of high unemployment, the economy,
and lack of diplomatic progress with North Korea.5 Financial problems developed by mid-decade, with the
Los Angeles Times reporting on June 18, 2007, that OhmyNews had lost money in fiscal year 2006, despite
ad revenue of $6 million. Also troubling was the rise and demise of OhmyNews Japan, which Yeon-ho had
launched with high hopes.
By 2009, Yeon-ho was resorting to soliciting donations, asking that 100,000 “members”6 each contribute
10,000 won ($8.86 a month) to keep the site afloat.
Months later, however, OhmyNews had attracted only a little more than 5,800 financial donors. “Time running
out for OhmyNews’ members’ club,” a British journalists’ website noted. 7
“One of the world’s oldest ‘citizen journalism’ experiments in trouble. Is this the future?” tweeted “ryanscribe”
in the comment section. “Wasn’t this the future for journalism two years ago?” asked “paddyhoey,” in another
comment.
In July 2009, Oh Yeon-ho disclosed that OhmyNews was losing 700 million won a year ($6.02 million) and
appealed for more contributions.8 “Let us change the course of media once more,” he urged readers.
“Together with you, we would like to become the first model of citizen participatory internet media that
becomes financially self-reliant through the power of the people, awake and acting with their conscience.
“In the past, about 70 to 80 percent of OhmyNews revenue came from corporate advertising and
sponsorships. In contrast, contributions from readers only totaled five percent of total revenue. I have always
believed that if we are truly a citizen participatory Internet media than the contributions from readers should
be at least half of the total revenue.
“OhmyNews has about 70 employees on staff. Every month, about 450 million won is spent to pay wages,
article submissions and server costs. Every day, over 4 million readers read our content. However, only about
2,000 freely contribute financially. That is why we have relied on corporations, large and small, for their
advertising revenue.

“However, with the international financial crisis at hand, corporate advertising dollars have dropped
dramatically. We are grateful for the remaining advertisers that have stayed with us. But we cannot continue
to ask our advertisers for further support … At the half-way mark this year, we are 500 million won in the red.
Last year, we initiated salary cuts and we have lost 10 employees since, however with the situation as is, it
would be impossible avoid another deficit …
“Next February, OhmyNews will celebrate its 10 year anniversary. Let us declare the following for the 10 year
anniversary: that we have enabled financial independence for citizen participatory internet media. If we
can realize this hope, then the world will once again focus on OhmyNews and the Korean citizens. And our
democracy will flourish.”
OhmyNews did indeed mark its first decade in February 2010, but the hoped-for financial bailout did
not materialize. On September 10, 2010, OhmyNews ceased to publish reported news on its website and
relaunched with a new website9 devoted solely to an open-ended discussion of citizen journalism and its
future, a “blog dedicated to covering and discussing the world of citizen journalism itself.”10
San Francisco-based AllVoices also has a global reach. It was launched in 2008 by Amra Tareen, a native of
Pakistan educated at the University of New South Wales and who holds an MBA from Harvard University.

“My whole goal was regardless of where a person was, whether Baghdad, Lahore [Pakistan], or San
Francisco, they could share with rest of world what was going on where they were,” she said in an
interview.11 “The whole concept was people would write it, our system would categorize and post, others
would add or create their own report. We don’t give assignments. It’s whatever they want to write about.”
The site also blended its citizen journalist reports with links to stories from traditional media, acting as an
aggregator-plus.
Tareen, a former investment fund executive, launched the site with an initial $4.5 million infusion from
VantagePoint Venture Partners, of San Bruno, California, which invested $3 million more in January 2010.12
There would be a skeleton staff, focused largely on marketing and technology, and no editors. Instead
stories would be vetted and ranked in importance through a proprietary algorithm that could even detect
copyright violations.
“We have 410,000 citizens posters, reporters, CJs, whatever you want to call them. From 180 countries,”
Tareen said in the interview in September 2010.13 “The assumptions in the model are keeping cost low, using
technology and citizens. When you do it that way, it makes sense from a model perspective, but have we
proven it out? No we haven’t.”
This was “citizen journalism” at its most basic, but there were incentives. “Start reporting, reach millions,
and make money!” the AllVoices site boasts.14 AllVoices promises royalty payments two times the “industry
standard.” Payment is based on the number of hits, and there is a graduated scale, in which contributors can
rise from stringer to reporter to anchor. Aki Hashmi, AllVoices’ chief marketing manager, however, says the
site’s top earners “are making $2,000 a month.”15 But not all contributors have felt fairly compensated, some
going so far as to call AllVoices a scam.16
“We’ve seen people who’ve complained in past, gone elsewhere, they eventually come back to us, become
more active than before. And they come back and stay,” said Hashmi. Added Tareen: “My goal was not for
people to make money. I wanted them to write because they wanted to write. Not to make income, but to
share with rest of the world. We got suckered into this incentive program.”
Still, AllVoices has grown rapidly,17 with 3 million unique visitors by May 2010, of whom 730,000 were from
the United States. The content is not all straight news; it includes blogs, images, and videos. “Over the past
few months, AllVoices has been ramping up its the presence of its platform internationally, launching global
news desks18 in 30 different cities around the world, where both professional and citizen journalists will

provide regular in-country reports from the ground,” wrote Leena Rao in July, on the TechCrunch website.19
Tareen said AllVoices’ primary income comes from advertising, but the venture has yet to turn a net profit.
“It’s very early in monetization stage, two years old from launch.”
At this writing, Tareen is looking for another investor with deep pockets, “to build the brand and improve
on monetization,” in part by adding to the sales force. But there are no plans to hire human editors.
“Investors,” she said, “want quick cash flow in this environment.” Can its business model of citizen
journalism succeed?
“I do believe citizen journalism is in its infancy,” said Tareen. “What scares me is we may be a little too early.
From an investment perspective on the value of citizen journalism … it’s not a good time to have a start
up, unless you have very strong financial backers. We have a business model we haven’t fully executed.
Whether we have bright future, whether we can monetize it, those questions are still to be answered. Only
time will tell.”
1 AllVoices website, http://www.allvoices.com/

2 “Information wants to be free,” http://books.google.com/books/yup?hl=en&q=Information%20wants%20
to%20be%20free
3 Joyce, Mary, “The Citizen Journalism Website ‘OhmyNews’ and the 2002 South Korean Presidential Election,”
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, December 2007, 18, http://cyber.law.harvard.
edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Joyce_South_Korea_2007.pdf
4 Joyce, Mary, “The Citizen Journalism We site ‘OhmyNews’ and the 2002 South Korean Presidential Election,”
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, December 2007, http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/
sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Joyce_South_Korea_2007.pdf
5 Jennifer Veale, “Seoul Searching,” Foreign Policy, December 27, 2006,; www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.
php?story_id=3669&print=1>
6 Oliver, Laura, “Time Running Out for OhmyNews’ Members’ Club,” Journalism.co.uk, May 11, 2009, http://
www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/536382.php
7 Ibid.
8 “What Does OhmyNews Mean to You?” OhmyNews, July 9, 2009, http://english.OhmyNews.com/ArticleView/
article_view.asp?menu=A11100&no=385441&rel_no=1&back_url=
9 OhmyNews website, http://international.ohmynews.com
10 Meyer, J.D.,“OhmyNews resigning to become citizen journalism blog,” Digital Journal, August 10, 2010, http://
www.digitaljournal.com/article/295823
11 Interview with author, 9/17/2010
12 Rao, Leena, “AllVoices Raises $3 Million for Citizen Journalism Site; Takes CNN’s iReport Head-On,”
TechCrunch, January 26, 2010, http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/26/allvoices-raises-3-million-for-citizen-
journalism-site-takes-cnns-ireport-head-on
14 AllVoices website, http://www.allvoices.com
16 Russo, Juniper, “Allvoices: Another Freelance Writing Scam,” Associated Content, July 29, 2010, http://www.
associatedcontent.com/article/5627890/allvoices_another_freelance_writing.html?cat=31
17 Rao, Leena, “Citizen Journalism Platform Allvoices Growing Fast Thanks To Global Expansion,” TechCrunch,
July 2, 2010,http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/02/citizen-journalism-platform-allvoices-growing-fast-thanks-to-
global-expansion
18 Rao, Leena, “Citizen Journalism Platform Allvoices Sets Up News Desks In 30 Cities Around The World,”
TechCrunch, April 9, 2010, http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/09/citizen-journalism-platform-allvoices-sets-up-
news-desks-in-30-cities-around-the-world
19 Rao, Leena, “Citizen Journalism Platform Allvoices Growing Fast Thanks to Global Expansion,” TechCrunch,
July 2, 2010, http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/02/citizen-journalism-platform-allvoices-growing-fast-thanks-
to-global-expansion

Conclusion
Citizen journalism–or citizen media–didn’t begin with the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter, or with
the advent of cellphones. Even in societies ruled by authoritarian regimes, the word has historically
gotten out, whether from the mimeograph machines run in basements by the French underground
during World War II, or in self-published manuscripts replicated with carbon paper or photocopied
in countries of the former Soviet bloc.
But thanks to technology, today’s iteration offers a greater bandwidth of opportunity and the ability
to reach more people with both news and views, despite governmental efforts at suppression.
“Citizen journalism requires not just an environment where it is possible to use the Internet and
get the word out but also where there are enough activists willing to try. There is no place where
that is completely absent now,” said Douglas Wake, first
deputy director, Office for Democratic Institutions and

Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe.28 Should donors,
including governments,
Based on the evidence, such a bold assertion seems
correct. Questions arise, however, over matters of support citizen
definition and standards. journalism directly,
or indirectly?
“In many parts of Asia,” said Internews’s Reen,
“citizen journalists are unencumbered by legacy
media; initiatives start from scratch, and are often less
concerned with traditional newsroom models or whether or not they are linked to newspapers, or
TV or print. There’s a good deal of leapfrogging of experience going on.”29
Said Elisa Tinsley, director of the Knight International Journalism Fellowships at ICFJ,
“Citizen journalism takes different forms in different places, depending on the attitudes of
society. They can’t be advocates, and therein should lie the difference between professional and
citizen journalists. It’s difficult to hold citizen journalists to the same standards without [their]
understanding the rules and guidelines of professional journalism. I don’t think it’s easy to put a
definition. It can be a very gray area.”30
It can be a gray area not only for media thinkers and implementers but also for funders, who have
their own perspectives and agendas and are seeking to render assistance in a changing political and
technological landscape. One threshold question: Should donors, including governments, support
citizen journalism directly, or indirectly?
“It’s fine to support infrastructure–to build up broadband networks, support legal environmental,
education and training, digital media literacy,” said Sigal, of Global Voices. “But governments
should stay away from directly funding individuals because it looks like they’re buying them off,
and they are.”31

Sigal believes funders need more data-driven research to justify their investments.
“Funding governments have foreign policy and economic agendas; corporate funders, such
as the Gates Foundation, see citizen journalism projects as a means to an end and insist on
measurement,” he said.
“It’s now easy to measure Web traffic, clicks, and sales. It’s hard if not impossible to measure
democratization,” Columbia’s Nelson said at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit in Chile.
Amra Tareen, of AllVoices, believes that donors “should not fund local, small things. People
want to belong to something big. Small communities stay for a while but lose steam. All these
people funding local citizen journalism need to get together. That’s how this will become a big
movement–or it won’t.”32 Aki Hashmi, AllVoices chief marketing manager, thinks that funders
hoping to effect change “need a platform like AllVoices to enable the masses in parts of the world.
They need this to power this type of movement.” 33
Still, there is reluctance among funders to support citizen journalism in conflict areas, though
some do, covertly. So much of the focus, at least in public, has been on citizen journalism success
stories. Treading in more dangerous waters may be necessary.
“We are so intent on finding and celebrating successful citizen media projects that we might
be blinding ourselves to the lessons we can learn from failures,” Sigal said at the Global Voices
Media Summit.34
“I think a lot of the media training groups, the free press groups–when they are involved not
just in a place like Burma but in the Balkans, in Central Asia, and a good swatch of Africa–
understand that there is no way you can support an independent journalist without essentially
working against the current government,” said Moeller. “In so many of these places, the
[governments] are on record as trying to repress free and independent media. Is that advocacy,
activism, objective journalism? Or at once all of the above?”35
Such a question may not sharpen the focus on citizen journalism, but it necessarily widens the
lens through which such efforts must be viewed.

Recommendations
►► Funders should promote digital media literacy and support educational and training efforts
for citizen journalists, especially in emerging democracies and, to the extent possible, where
authoritarian regimes rule.
►► While supporting such enterprises in countries where merely to raise questions is

to challenge authority, media implementers should more expansively define “citizen
journalism” to include blogs and opinion pieces.
►► Foundations, think thanks and governments may need more data-driven research to justify
expenditures in this arena. Funders should support such efforts. What are the metrics,
platform by platform? They may vary from country to country, but once the numbers are
known, funding decisions can be more focused and perhaps have more lasting impact.

►► Funders should increase their support of “citizen journalism” efforts in conflict areas,
despite the obstacles, to inform citizens about the news that affects them, their communities,
and their daily lives.

Endnotes
1 Adam Schreck, “UAE and Saudi Arabia to Block BlackBerry Services, Citing Potential
Security Threat,” CNSNews, August 2, 2010, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/70341.
2 “Map of Press Freedom 2010,” Freedom House, 2010, http://www.freedomhouse.org/

template.cfm?page=251&year=2010.
3 Ivan Sigal (executive director, Global Voices), in interview with author, August 16, 2010.
4 Kathleen Reen (vice-president for Asia, environment, and new media, Internews Network),
in e-mail to author, September 1, 2010.
5 Eric Newton (vice-president for journalism program, John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation), in interview with author, August 23, 2010.
6 The Deerfield Forum, http://forumhome.org/index1.htm.
7 James Breiner (director, Digital Journalism Center, Guadalajara, Mexico), in interview with
author, August 17, 2010.
8 “David Simon (‘The Wire’) on Citizen Journalism and New Media: “The Parasite Is Slowly
Killing the Host,” The Catastrophist blog, August, 25, 2010, http://catastrophist.wordpress.
com/2010/08/25/david-simon-on-citizen-journalism-new-media/.
9 “CPJ’s 2008 Prison Census: Online and in Jail,” Committee to Protect Journalists,
December 4, 2008, http://cpj.org/reports/2008/12/cpjs-2008-prison-census-online-and-in-jail.
php.
10 “CPJ’s 2009 Prison Census: Freelance Journalists Under Fire,” Committee to Protect
Journalists, December 8, 2009, http://www.cpj.org/reports/2009/12/freelance-journalists-in-
prison-cpj-2009-census.php.
11 “Wael Abbas, 2007 Knight International Journalism Award Winner,” Knight International
Journalism Fellowships, International Center for Journalists, http://knight.icfj.org/Awards/
WaelAbbas/tabid/807/Default.aspx.
12 Mona Eltahawy, in interview with author, August 12, 2010.
13 Natasha Tynes (program director, International Center for Journalists), in interview with
author, September 3, 2010.
14 Evgeny Morozov, “Texting Toward Utopia: Does the Internet Spread Democracy?” Boston

Review, March/April 2009, http://bostonreview.net/BR34.2/morozov.php.
15 Ricardo Gomez, Sergio Javier Jiménez, and José Manuel, “Senado Frena el 3% a
Telecomunicaciones,” El Universal, October 27, 2009, http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/
notas/636122.html.
16 Breiner, in interview with author, August 17, 2010.
17 Ushahidi technology, developed in Kenya in the aftermath of violence from the 2007-2008
elections, helped to map incidents, http://ushahidi.com/about-us.
18 William Orme, in interview with author, September 15, 2010.
19 “Sierra Leone,” The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, December 7, 2010,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sl.html.

20 Susan Moeller (director, University of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the
Public Agenda), in interview with author, August 14, 2010.
21 Reen, in e-mail to author, September 1, 2010.
22 Sigal, in interview with author, August 16, 2010.
23 Breiner, in interview with author, August 17, 2010.
24 Jim Breiner, “Periodista Ambiental Capta a Audiencia Creciente,” “Environmental journalist

captures growing audience,” Director del Centro de Periodismo Digital en Guadalajara
blog, August 16, 2010, http://newsleaders.blogspot.com/2010/04/periodista-ambiental-capta-
audiencia.html.
25 Sharon Moshavi (director for new initiatives, International Center for Journalists), in
interview with author, September 3, 2010.
26 “Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010: Measuring the Impact of Citizen Media,”
Gauravonomics Blog, May 8, 2010, http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/global-voices-
citizen-media-summit-2010-measuring-the-impact-of-citizen-media/.
27 Amra Tareen (founder and CEO, AllVoices Inc.), in interview with author, September 17,
2010.
28 Douglas Wake (first deputy director, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), in interview with author, June
9, 2010.

29 Reen, in e-mail to author, September 1, 2010.
30 Elisa Tinsley (director of the Knight International Journalism Fellowships, International

Center for Journalists), in interview with author, October 19, 2010.
31 Sigal, in interview with author, August, 16, 2010.
32 Tareen, in interview with author, September 17, 2010.
33 Aki Hashmi (chief marketing manager, AllVoices Inc.), in interview with author, September
17, 2010.
34 “Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010: Measuring the Impact of Citizen Media,”
Gauravonomics Blog, May 8, 2010, http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/global-voices-
citizen-media-summit-2010-measuring-the-impact-of-citizen-media/.
35 Moeller, in interview with author, August 14, 2010.

Advisory Council
for the
David Anable Craig LaMay
Patrick Butler Caroline Little
Esther Dyson The Honorable Richard Lugar
William A. Galston Eric Newton
Suzanne Garment William Orme
Karen Elliott House Dale Peskin
Ellen Hume Adam Clayton Powell III
Jerry Hyman Monroe E. Price
Alex S. Jones The Honorable Adam Schiff
Shanthi Kalathil Kurt Wimmer
Susan King Richard Winfield

National Endowment for Democracy
1025 F Street, N.W., Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 378-9700

Fax: (202) 378-9407
Email: CIMA@ned.org
URL: http://cima.ned.org

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By the People:

The Rise of Citizen Journalism

A Report to the Center for International Media Assistance

December 16, 2010

CIMA convenes working groups, discussions, and panels on a variety of

Center for International Media Assistance

Phone: (202) 378-9700

Eugene L. Meyer is an award-winning Washington, DC-based freelance journalist who worked

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 1

What is Citizen Journalism? 8

The Middle East: Cats and Mice 10

Mexico: Filling the Void Left by Self-Censored News Media 14

Belarus: Citizen Journalists’ Risky Business 18

Monetizing Citizen Journalism 20

Can Citizen Journalism Pay Its Own Way? 22

2 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 3

Citizen journalism is seen by some as an Citizen journalism is seen by

4 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 5

Blog del Narco – anonymous blogger in northern Mexico

Dawn Arteaga – Communications Director, International Center for Journalists

James Breiner – Director, Digital Journalism Center, Guadalajara, Mexico

Brenda Burrell – Technical director, Freedom Fone

Mona Eltahawy – writer and lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues

Hanzada Fikry – Country Director, Egypt, International Center for Journalists

Aki Hashmi – chief marketing manager, AllVoices

Eric Newton – John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Vice-President, Journalism

William Orme – United Nations Development Program

Constance Phlipot, Senior Diplomatic Advisor, Community of Democracies

Hans Staiger, program consultant, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ)

Ivan Sigal – Executive Director, Global Voices

Amra Tareen – Founder and CEO, AllVoices Inc.

6 Center for International Media Assistance

Judith Torrea – journalist and blogger in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 7

8 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 9

10 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 11

12 Center for International Media Assistance

In Mexico, through an Internet-generated

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

Center for International Media Assistance 13

And then there’s www.blogdelnarco.com. This fearless, if anonymous, citizen journalism

“I have no relationship to drug traffickers, as many have said,” he adds.

14 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism

But what if the information is unreliable, inaccurate, or one-sided? “Journalists underestimate

Center for International Media Assistance 15

accepted the results immediately and without

16 Center for International Media Assistance

CIMA Research Report: Citizen Journalism