Civic Journalism and Citizens

"History of civic journalism and the other forms of citizen's participation" has been the theme of Tuesday morning session on the section History. This parallel session began with Thomas Birkner from the University of Hamburg, Germany, with a paper about “Civic Journalism as a challenge for the journalist profession around 1900”. He presented a brief history of German journalism, discussing the 19th and 20th century with examples of newspapers and wondered about the future of civic journalism in the 21st century.

Sarah Lewison from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA, presented “The Land: Stabilizing the soil with words and pictures” with many illustrated examples. Her study case was “The Land”, a US independent newspaper from 1939 to 1954. She discussed its relationship with the corporate agricultural media and explained how the journal helped the education of farmers.

From the Kasembundit University, Thailand, Chanette Tinnam presented “Citizens' Consciousness of Thai Women and Thai Mass Media during the Era of Democratic Bloom”. Focusing on the years of 1973 to 1976, she presented illustrations and political cartoons, including women as a social problem and as sexual objects. She also presented the resistance of discourse in showing women as active citizens. She believes that there is no reference in the media on citizen’s consciousness of women as self reliant.

Shi Li from Indiana University, USA, presented “The April 5th Movement: Birth of China's Citizen  Photojournalism and New Social Documentary Tradition”. She showed the historical background on the April 5th Movement and explained how journalists and citizens protected their photos from Chinese authorities. “This paper, based on interviews with several of the photographers and an examination of their photographs from that time, on existing memoirs and other archival materials, intends to reconstruct the event on Tiananmen Square, and address many still unanswered questions: What prompted ordinary citizens to pick up their cameras to document what would be remembered as such a significant historical event, and this at great personal risk?”

Diogo Soza e Renata Freitas