Electronic media meet professional and citizen reporters

Internet-based electronic media platforms open new resources for professional journalists and provide a platform for citizen journalists to report newsworthy events via social media and blogs. Digital sites are agile and cheap to maintain.

Innovative platforms like Ushahidi can deliver lifesaving news during crises. The idea of a few tech-savvy journalists who created a website — later an app — Ushahidi allows citizens to report and map incidents in real time via email and text messages. Ushahidi helps journalistsmap the Syrian conflict and track the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

Since 2005, Global Voices has curated trending news and feature stories submitted by more than 1,200 mostly volunteer writers, analysts, media experts and translators in 167 countries. Global Voices covers stories that may get little attention from mainstream media, for example, “Malaysian Cartoonist Vows to Continue Fighting Government Abuses Despite Sedition Charges,” or “New Internet Rules in China Target Usernames, Avatars as Subversive Tools.” The Global Voices team verifies and translates reports before publishing them in 43 languages. Global Voices also advocates for online rights and press freedom, and it trains and provides tools for citizen journalists in underrepresented communities.

The ability to convey information through compelling videos is a real advantage of the new electronic media. Organizations such as WITNESS help disseminate the necessary skills, with internationally experienced filmmakers and tech-savvy human rights journalists educating citizens about safe, ethical video reporting. Journalists can find online tips in the Society of Professional Journalists’ “Journalist’s Toolbox.” And the Knight Foundation funds various partners to enhance digital journalism skills.

Keeping journalists safe

Funding and Internet savvy go only so far. No press is truly free if professional and citizen journalists must fear for their physical safety.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) counts more than 72 journalists killed because of their work in 2015. Countries on nearly every continent are represented on CPJ’s annual Impunity Index, “Getting Away with Murder.”

ne key protector of a free press is a free and strong judiciary. Agnes Callamard, director of Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression initiative, observes that courts have upheld free speech rights even in nations whose governments do not generally protect free speech, or journalists. Her organization has honored courts and legal groups in Norway, Turkey, Zimbabwe, and Burkina Faso for protecting a free press though the courts.

Freedom of the press is a group effort, and when individuals, organizations and governments come together to preserve it, everyone benefits.

 

Choose the best answer (or answers) for each question.

1. Malaysiakini, a news source in Malaysia, stays independent in several ways. Which of these ways were NOT mentioned?

 

Its audience subscribes, or pays money, to access the online news outlet.

 

It gets money from internet ads

 

It gets grants or gifts from nonprofit organizations and foundations

 

It gets financial support from local sports teams and universities

 

Which organization reports on the deaths of journalists in countries around the world?

 

Krautreporter

 

Ushahidi

 

Global Voices

 

WITNESS

 

Committee to Protect Journalists

 

Which organization helps German-speaking journalists raise money from many different people?

 

Krautreporter

 

Ushahidi

 

Global Voices

 

WITNESS

 

Committee to Protect Journalists

 

Which organizations lets people report on emergencies through text and email?

 

Krautreporter

 

Ushahidi

 

Global Voices

 

WITNESS

 

Committee to Protect Journalists

 

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