Mount Dora Citizen asks – What does it mean to be a citizen journalist, and how does it differ from opinion? (The first of an occasional series.)
Too often, when communities lose their newspaper, they lose a sense of identity. They can become information deserts. Neighborhoods separate from each other. The playing field grows uneven. Minority voices on issues can disappear. Far-reaching decisions about the community get made with minimal public scrutiny. The outlet that led to a collective voice, once belonging to a city fades and may disappear altogether.
Just as media giants tend to crowd out the smaller, local outfits on dominant platforms like Facebook, so can the local political conversation become dominated, or out-shouted, by harsh voices that seem more intent on scoring hits rather than bringing good results to the community.
Journalistic opinion must always be based in fact. As C.P. Scott, former editor of The Manchester (Great Britain) Guardian, put it, “Comment is free but facts are sacred.” Opinion is fine. All citizens have opinions. But when the work is providing news, opinion needs to be clearly labeled so. Journalism, the task of informing a public, is different than punditry, which is telling a public what opinion is held by the writer, or speaker.
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write in The Essentials of Journalism:
It has become fashionable in recent years to wonder who is and isn’t a journalist. We think this is the wrong question. The question people should ask is whether or not the person in question is doing journalism. Does the work proceed from an adherence to the principles of truthfulness, an allegiance to citizens, and to informing rather than manipulating—concepts that set journalism apart from other forms of communication? (144)
Let’s hope this Mount Dora election season will not repeat the disastrous atmosphere of the four-seat election of 2013, when mailboxes were flooded with attack mailers reeking of brimstone. Who paid for all that negative advertising? It was an obscure PAC called “Committee to Protect Florida Seniors,” based out of a private home in Pensacola. Also, an out-of-town developer pumped huge amounts into the campaigns of challengers. With another election on the horizon, that developer may again be seeking wider council support, as he is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the City of Mount Dora.
In a media vacuum, the loudest voices carry, for there isn’t anything to restrain or measure them. Do local voices have sufficient means to let their concerns (and success stories) be known to the community? Shouldn’t communities be grateful that the Lake Sentinel and Leesburg Commercial both help cover events related to our city?
Unfortunately, it isn’t likely that, given the current media landscape, we will see full-time, paid (with benefits) journalism return to Mount Dora as there was with the Mount Dora Topic in the ‘50s under editor Mabel Norris Reese, or in the ’70s as we had to an ever greater degree with publisher Al Liveright. (The Topic ceased publication in 2006.)
What that means is that if we want local news reported by locals, citizens will have to step in—without funding and limited training.
Fortunately, digital tools (like WordPress for publishing and Facebook for helping to promote it) make it technically possible to do this work at low cost. But delivery platforms are only that; the substance is the news, and reporting it to the community is neither easily learned nor held to sufficient standards.
And as government is kept transparent with open government laws, so citizen journalism benefits from clear principles. So too, as government accountability is enforced by Sunshine Laws, so local media should be judged by its journalism.
In their book Essentials of Journalism (revised and updated 3d edition, 2014). Bill Kovach and Tom Rosensteil write that, in order to provide a community with the information it needs to be free and self-governing, journalism must adhere to following principles:
1. Its first obligation is to the truth.
2. Its first loyalty is to citizens.
3. Its essence is a process of verification.
4. Its practitioners must maintain and independence from those they cover.
5. It must serve as a monitor of power.
6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
8. It must present the news in a way that is comprehensive and proportional.
9. Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience.
10. Citizens have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news as well—even more so as they become producers and editors themselves.
All clear enough, but what does it mean to be a citizen journalist? That’s a thorny, hybrid term. How to uphold the naked accountability of journalism with its first responsibility to citizens, while at the same time being a citizen with painfully and sometimes contradictory local ties (it’s hard to rock the boat you sleep in)? And with opinions as evident as the campaign signage one puts in one’s yard?
Are these loyalties divided, or can there be a compromise, an uneasy truce, in the name of important work to be done? Serving as citizen journalist is no different than serving on city council (lots of work, less pay) or sitting on a contentious city committee: in every situation, people with opinions and differences work together to achieve what’s best for Mount Dora. There may be plenty to argue about the cost of waste treatment facilities or what to do with oak trees, but no one disputes the intense pride people take in living here.
There doesn’t appear to be any corporate influence, or big money among the current local citizen media – no big advertisers, no special interests or communities to serve more than others. (Right?) Not if the local media is truly serving its community. And as servants of the public trust, there is a responsibility for citizen journalists to serve honestly, openly and well.
And much as we’d all like more money for what we do—who doesn’t struggle, these days—it’s also a good argument for why citizen journalism should ever remain volunteer work.
Taking up the responsibility of citizen journalist must be driven by the desire to serve an entire community, providing the news and information that enables all of its members to enjoy the benefits. A community that is widely aware of itself is capable of making informed decisions about the best and wisest course for its future.
According to the Knight Commission Report on Informing Communities,
What engagement means to a democratic community is that citizens genuinely participate in self-governance. Communities thrive when citizens are motivated to accept responsibility with respect to community issues. Communities are sustained when people feel themselves empowered to organize in order to achieve positive outcomes either through their own actions or the responsiveness of their elected representatives. Information is essential to this empowerment process, and personal involvement in community issues can provide the critical context in which information becomes active. (KCRIC, 80)
Saul Bellow once said that a writer is a reader moved to emulation. Mount Dora Citizen started up because some of us were really dissatisfied with the quantity, quality and bent of our local news.
A citizen is a resident who decides that living some place is more than scenery and comfort. A citizen journalist takes up the job of communicating all that’s worthwhile and newsworthy about his or her community to neighbors. To contribute to the lasting record of our history.
David Cohea, Writer (david@mountdoracitizen.com)
Postscript
Mount Dora Citizen could sure use more voices, more writers. There are so many stories to tell— about neighborhoods, schools, businesses, city projects; about people of faith and color and origin who exist side by side here; about what it was like to live here in days past; about where the fresh faces of tomorrow are to be found. If you’re interested, email editor Mel DeMarco. (editor@mountdoracitizen.com).