{"id":72,"date":"2010-04-26T08:41:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/?p=72"},"modified":"2010-04-26T08:43:37","modified_gmt":"2010-04-26T11:43:37","slug":"citizen-journalism-do-they-really-understand-the-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"Citizen journalism: Do they really understand the situation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Reporters Without Borders issued a statement over the weekend about the situation in Thailand. <strong>(<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.rsf.org\/thailand-media-beset-by-both-violence-and-23-04-2010,37140.html\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Media beset by both violence and state of emergency<\/strong><\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">The statement discussed the massive censorship taking place by the government &#8212; more than 2,500 websites shut down and newspapers intimidated &#8212; and violence against journalists on both sides. (Two journalists killed while covering the demonstrations and demonstrators tossing bottles and other debris at journalists.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">But one portion struck me as a lesson about changes in journalism:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Unaware of the risks, foreign tourists have also been \u201ccovering\u201d the protests in the hope of being able to sell photos or video footage of the clashes.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">These citizen journalists are stepping into situations that could endanger their lives in the hope of selling material to news organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Even the seasoned journalists assigned to Bangkok are nervous about the situation. The RSF statement makes that clear:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Bangkok-based correspondents have little training in covering \u201cconflict zones.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Journalists understand that at any time we could be tossed into a dangerous situation. And I wonder how many of those currently covering the situation in Thailand ever expected to be in the middle of a series of war zones. (An explosion over the weekend killed a Japanese cameraman.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">But what we all bring to the story is the ability to provide context. That is what our profession requires of us. A picture of a demonstrator means nothing (other than showing anger, frustration, dedication) unless the reader\/viewer also knows the story behind the picture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">Pictures and videos help tell the story. By themselves, these graphics cannot tell the whole story.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial\">For more information about the situation in Thailand go to <a href=\"http:\/\/worldjournalism.wordpress.com\/2010\/04\/26\/thai-situation-dangerous-to-journalists-and-media-freedom\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Thai situation dangerous to journalists and media freedom<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reporters Without Borders issued a statement over the weekend about the situation in Thailand. (Media beset by both violence and state of emergency) The statement discussed the massive censorship taking place by the government &#8212; more than 2,500 websites shut down and newspapers intimidated &#8212; and violence against journalists on both sides. (Two journalists killed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1287,895],"tags":[1241,1837,199],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dkubiske.onmason.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}