Citizenship in Citizen Journalism

What is it about?

Citizen journalism is an increasingly important global phenomenon. Most academic studies have concentrated on its implications for what journalism is and does, to the exclusion of thinking about implications for citizenship. This article explores how citizenship is conceptualised in academic and professional discussions of citizen journalism

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Why is it important?

The article shows that the meaning of citizenship is often taken for granted in discussions of citizen journalism whereas it is really a very fluid concept, that means different things in different contexts. Quite often Western liberal democratic notions of citizenship underpin discussions of citizen journalism in a wide range of different contexts, including non-Western, non-democratic contexts where citizenship means very different things. The article also shows how even within liberal democracies, notions of what citizenship is and does, and its relationship to what journalism is and does, varies from one country to another as well.

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