I'm very happy that a few of the articles and chapters I've worked on throughout the year are now coming close to publication. One of them is a chapter in Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard Times, a book edited by Megan Boler for MIT Press; my contribution is based on one of my papers for the AoIR conference last year and explores the possibilities for citizen journalism beyond the tactical moment, as it transcends the industrial journalism/citizen journalism two-tier structure first described (though not exactly in those terms) by Herbert Gans so many years ago. Will citizen journalism remain tactical, and thus perhaps excuse itself from attempting to exert a more permanent, strategic influence on public life? Will it 'sell out' and go mainstream? Or is there a third, hybrid option which retains its strengths as a bottom-up movement while developing more permanent, sustainable forms?
My suggestion in the chapter (which I've called "Gatewatching, Gatecrashing: Futures for Tactical News Media") is that we may see a development of citizen journalism that's not unlike the trajectory charted by the evolution of extra-parliamentary opposition groups in 1970s Europe into credible political alternatives (and here especially the Greens parties). As a German, the obvious case in point for me is the career of Joschka Fischer from street protester to German Foreign Minister, ultimately commanding grudging respect even from old political enemies - and in citizen journalism, I think we're beginning to see the potential for similar transformations. In the chapter, I do go so far as to call OhmyNews' founder Oh Yeon-ho "the South Korean Joschka Fischer of journalism", though with tongue in cheek - guess you'll have to wait for the book to come out to see whether you agree with me on that one. It's now listed for pre-order on Amazon.
Also coming up in a few months' time is International Blogging, a collection edited by Adrienne Russell and Nabil Echchaibi that will be published by Peter Lang (an earlier working title was Accented Blogging). I've co-written a chapter called "Mapping the Australian Political Blogosphere" with Debra Adams for this book, examining the role of the Australian political blogosphere in the current federal election campaign through a series of studies using IssueCrawler. No prizes for guessing that Australian political blogs are currently leaning markedly to the left, much in contrast to the commercial mainstream media - and it will be interesting to see whether this continues beyond a (very) possible Labor win on 24 November, or whether such a reversal of political fortunes will encourage newly-oppositional Coalition supporters to start becoming more active online.
Adrienne has now posted a draft of her editorial for the collection on her blog - and it looks like our chapter will be in very good (and very diverse) company. As we wait for an official release date, check it out to see what's coming up...
A few other articles are also slowly making their way through the publication system. I'll say more about those as they come out - keep your eyes out for the "Beyond Broadcasting" issue of Media International Australia and the next issue of Information Polity, anyway. There's also the long-awaited book from the Sonic Synergies conference in Adelaide in 2003, and I'm about to start writing on a couple more chapters on citizen journalism for a German and an Indian collection. Those should keep me busy until the end of the year...
