Citizen Journalism in Brazil

Seattle.
The next speaker at AoIR 2011 is Raquel Oliveira, whose focus is on citizen journalism. The very definition of that term remains disputed, of course, and discussions over what citizen journalists are able to contribute continue apace. Citizen journalism is a phenomenon rather than a fully defined concept. Individuals use journalistic – and especially online – tools to make contributions which are of journalist interest to other. A related question is whether the Net is able to advance democracy by making possible practices such as citizen journalism.

What such practices do is to change traditional news production models, shifting the balance of power further towards news users. Raquel’s work examines the use of two citizen journalism communities which do this – Viva Favela and Índios Online: the former of these was greated in July 2001 and focusses on issues of interest to poor communities; the latter started in 2004 as a project coordinated by an NGO, and is now run autonomously by native Indio communities.

In both sites, contributors are able to cover their and their communities’ daily lives; while the address different groups, they are nonetheless comparable in what they do. They do differ in the level of support and partnerships they have been able to attract; Viva Favela has been more successful here. Both also address different existing media stereotypes associated with the societal groups whom they serve, of course.

User participation in these sites can be described as citizen journalism, but that definition is not of importance to the participants themselves; they simply aim to describe their own life experience, and pursue the freedom to communicate openly about their lives without mass media interference. Viva Favela also has professional staff directing content coverage, however.

Both aim to overcome digital and social divides; both provide technical support and training. Both also deal with general interest topics; Índios Online takes a more obviously political activism approach, however. Both also utilise a range of online social networks and other platforms. Viva Favela is able to motivate a greater range of citizen journalist participants; this may also be because of the greater diversity of favela communities, and the greater range of topics it addresses. There are significant gains for citizens from both sites: both promote minority voices, provide access, and organise communities; in doing so, they also promote the formation of a stronger common identity.