I joined a small audience tonight at the Main Branch of the Ottawa Public Library to learn about Citizen Journalism.
The event was hosted by an independent media group. “Becoming a Citizen-Journalist”, was their first event. I knew this because they started nearly fifteen minutes late and organizers took another 10 minutes promoting their upcoming events.
Although the MC clearly stated that the purpose of the evening was to empower people to get their messages out and to report on stories they care about, it seemed to get lost in the tidal waves of self promotion and mainstream media bashing.
I was hoping the evening would give answers to the clearly misinformed activists about how the stories get covered in the media or something in that vein. (A friend was angry when an organized event didn’t get any media play. Because it is “important” doesn’t make it news.) Instead it was another evening of anti-everything jokes and patting eachother on the back.
The three speakers, Kanina Holmes, professor at Carleton University; Ewart Walters, editor, publisher of The Spectrum; and Giacomo Panico, host of CKCU FM’s Monday Special Blend, were all over the map in terms of the evening’s theme. At least this is what I thought.
I didn’t stay around for the question period. I recognized several of the faces in the audience. I knew audience members would ask futile questions just to hear themselves speak.
What I did learn tonight is that Citizen journalism is not new. Witness the Rodney King beating, videotaped by a bystander; blogs,just about anything on the Internet and more recently the tasering of Robert Dziekanski.