Citizen Journalism:
Improving Public Services
Module
Module
Citizen Journalism: Improving Public Services
Developed by:
Firmansyah S. Hamdani and Imam Prakoso, 2014
Translated by:
Kate Walton, August 2016
Contents
Foreword ... 1
Overview ... 3
Chapter One: Identifying Potential Citizen Journalists... 5
Chapter Two: Citizen Journalism Training ... 14
Module 1: Introduction to Citizen Journalism ... 19
Module 2: Characteristics and Elements of Journalism ... 26
Module 3: Facts, Opinions, and the Three Stages of News Coverage ... 33
Module 4: Field Observation ... 38
Module 5: Interviewing ... 41
Module 6: Ideas, Angles, Leads, and Plots ... 47
Module 7: Writing News for Social Media ... 51
Module 8: Writing ‘Straight’ News ... 57
Module 9: Radio Journalism ... 59
Module 10: Covering Public Service Issues ... 61
Module 11: Journalistic Code of Ethics ... 66
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Foreword
Citizen journalism is a core part of Kinerja’s media strategy. Kinerja aims to support the media to increase their coverage of public service issues and to increase the variety of perspectives and opinions. More coverage of public services will strengthen the position of service users, and more citizen journalists will ensure a bigger range of topics will be covered. Citizen journalists have the potential to influence not just mainstream media but also government decision makers, leading to improvements in public service delivery.
A number of strong examples of citizen journalism have already been influential in Indonesia. In 2004, a young woman by the name of Cut Putri recorded the moment a huge tsunami hit the city of Banda Aceh. Her videos helped to show the world exactly what happened during the tsunami and the devastation it caused. Another example is the Indonesian student in Australia who posted on Kompasiana about his meeting with a number of members of the Indonesian parliament. Multiple mainstream media outlets quoted his blog and it led to further investigation of the issue. This shows that journalism done by ‘ordinary people’ can indeed have a significant impact.
Kinerja’s aim is not to cause national outrage or concern. Kinerja is more focused on local service delivery issues in the fields of education, health, and business licensing. Through supporting citizen journalism, Kinerja hopes that these sorts of topics will be paid more attention to, because they are problems that people experience in their everyday lives. Yet the mainstream media rarely covers these issues because they are not seen as important or interesting. With more people reporting on public service delivery, and on a wider range of issues, public perception will begin to change and will start to recognize that there remain many problems with public services in twenty-first century Indonesia. It should also be noted that ‘good stories’ of effective programs and policies should also be covered in the media to show that good public service is indeed something that is possible.
This module was developed by staff at Kinerja USAID in Indonesia. Since 2011, Kinerja has run citizen journalism programs in five provinces across the country: Aceh, West Kalimantan, East Java, South Sulawesi, and Papua. Developed by first Imam Prakoso and then Firmansyah S. Hamdani, this module aims to provide ideas on how citizen journalists can be selected, strengthened, and supported.
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other issues. The module covers the entire citizen journalism process, from selecting and training citizen journalists to supporting them in their work.
Thank you to all those who provided their input during the development of this module, especially Marcia Soumokil and Bahtiar Fitanto.
Jakarta, October 2014
ELKE RAPP
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Overview
The quality of public service delivery is something that still needs to be criticized, even one decade after the beginning of the reformasi period in Indonesia. Public services are services that are provided by a country’s government to its citizens; it can be provided directly via government bodies, or indirectly through private companies funded or subsidized by the government.
All citizens have the right to quality public services that are free or affordable. Services must be made available for all citizens regardless of their job or income. Services should not discriminate between the rich and the poor.
From time to time, public services require changes and improvements to be made. To ensure that service quality keeps getting better, the involvement of outsiders (that is, people who are not the service providers or the government) is necessary. One type of outsider role is that of a watchdog. This role is often played by the media. Unfortunately, public services are often overlooked by the media because they are seen as not very interesting, particularly when there are competing hot topics like politics, elections, conflicts, and so on.
The public is also reluctant to consume stories on public services. Many find the stories boring and dull, not to mention not relevant to their interests. This could be said to be because the journalists reporting on such issues do not truly understand the importance of public services and how they relate to politics, economics, and other aspects of life. In reality, it is not just the media that needs to play a bigger role in overseeing public service delivery – the public, too, must step up. Through citizen journalism and social media, the public can help realize much-needed changes. In fact, in celebration of the International Press Day on 3 May 2011, the United Nations shone a light on the positive impact that social media, mobile phones, and the internet can have in terms of bringing together people’s voices. During the Arab Spring, for example, citizen journalism was influential in bringing about change. Amateur videos of protests that followed the deaths of pro-democracy activists in Syria and Lebanon were key in showing the breadth of the opposition movement in those countries, especially when mainstream media was
unable to reach the cover the story.
In Indonesia, the high rate of penetration of mobile phones brings with it a big
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In addition to internet- and phone-based media, citizen journalism can also be broadcast through conventional channels such as print and radio, including through simple methods like posting broadsheets on walls and information boards. In
communities with lower literacy rates, stories can be effectively spread by oral story tellers.
If this approach is taken to covering public service delivery issues, it will assist in speeding up improvements because of increased transparency and open access to information. However, it is important to ensure that the information that emerges does not consist of only complaints or insults that are only individual opinions and not based on fact. This is not journalism.
To reach the point where citizen journalists are able to accurately report on issues, they need training and support. They need to be able to interview sources, undertake field research, and observe. This module aims to help with this. It should be used as a guide book on how to carry out training for citizen journalists, especially in relation to reporting on public services.
Jakarta, October 2014
Firmansyah S. Hamdani
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Chapter One: Identifying Potential Citizen Journalists
Before you can begin training citizen journalists, you must select potential candidates that are suitable for training. We can call this process ‘identification’, and we should start by developing a list of criteria relating to what we are looking for in our citizen
journalists. For example, if the training will be focusing on how to improve public health care or public education, then one criteria should be that the candidates have a strong interest or background in the topic. This will mean that, after training, they will be able to competently write about such issues, especially with regards to efforts to improve
service quality.
What is citizen journalism?
Technological developments, transparency, and increased freedom of expression has led to people with journalistic skills and access to technology to take up issues they see around them. It’s not really clear when this started, or who started it, but it is suspected that citizen journalism began as the attempts of individuals to balance what mainstream media was saying.
Citizen journalism can be seen as a reaction to what is called ‘market-driven journalism’ – that is, journalism that covers only what the market deems to be important. Readers are seen as consumers rather than citizens, and this has caused a shift in what is reported. This has left a gap in coverage, creating opportunities for citizen journalists to jump in.
There are a number of definitions for citizen journalism. Two of them are:
1. Citizens’ activities that involve taking an active role in collecting, analyzing, reporting, and spreading news to broader society (Shane Boyman and Chris Willis);
2. Journalism done by ordinary people who can plan, investigate, organize, and present information in the form of writing, illustrations, photos, oral reports, videos and other formats (Pandan Yudhapramesti).
6 Who can be a citizen journalist?
Can anyone be a citizen journalist (CJ)? Can students, factory workers, farmers, fisher people, civil servants, women, men, young people, old people all be CJs? Yes, of course! Anyone can be a citizen journalist; after all, citizen journalism is the journalism of ‘ordinary people’. As Oh Yeon-ho, the founder of OhMyNews, South Korea’s most popular citizen journalism website, says: “Every citizen is a reporter.”
In short, what you will do as a citizen journalist is collecting data, writing, editing, and spreading information to the public. You will do this independently and not for profit, and will not depend on anyone.
So anyone, wherever and whenever, can cover the news and broadcast stories through social media or mainstream media. Below are a few examples of citizen journalists.
One of the top news stories in Indonesia in November 2011, especially on television, was a case of robbery that took place in Pulomas, East Jakarta. The case was not an especially interesting robbery. What was unique was that the owners of the house that was robbed decided to spread the CCTV footage of the robbery on social media before reporting it to the police. The footage was posted on YouTube and spread by messaging services before it was taken up by mainstream media outlets. The police acted quickly and caught the thieves soon thereafter.
The Pulomas robbery is one example of how citizen journalism can create ‘noise’ on social
media and influence mainstream media. The story captured the attention of the community, who in turn demanded action from the police. The mainstream media followed up on the case and produced multiple stories about the robbery, even interviewing the police themselves.
The sorts of stories covered by citizen journalists certainly cannot be said to be trivial. Many people would still remember the amateur video footage of the Pacific Ocean Tsunami hitting Banda Aceh on 26 December 2004. A young woman by the name of Cut Putri recorded the video, which went on to be broadcast all over the world as the first footage of the tsunami.
Cut Putri, a graduate of the Medical Faculty at Padjajaran University, Bandung, said this about her video:
“I didn’t want to just stand there. I wanted to be productive even if those were going to be the last moments of my life. So, I tried really hard to keep recording everything that happened, for as long as possible and keeping the camera as steady as possible. As long as I was still alive, I was not going to turn that camera off. I kept praying, “God, if I die now, [my life will have been] sincere. I only ask for one thing: please save this recording so that
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The role of citizen journalists in Kinerja s public service program
If you read the stories in the boxes above, you can see that many people become citizen journalists because they are interested in certain issues or because they care about what happens in their area. Citizen journalists can take up any issue they want. In Kinerja, the approach is a little bit different. Kinerja wants to encourage people to be more interested in issues surrounding public service quality, so naturally the program wants to support CJs who care about public services.
Fransiskus Pehan (33 years, junior high school graduate) is a farmer from Adonara Island, East Flores. He is a citizen journalist who regularly covers what happens in and around his village. His friend, fisherman Daud Usman (also 33 years and a junior high school
graduate), does the same for his village nearby.
Using just cheap pens and notepads, Frans and Daud cover their villages. If there are no particular occurrences to write about, they look for problems through simple research techniques such as observation and interviews. Frans and Daud were trained how to do this by Oxfam/AusAID from November 2009 to January 2010. Neither of them owns a computer, so they write up all their work by hand.
On average, Frans and Daud write two stories every week. On Saturdays, which are market days on Adonara Island, they head down to Waiwadan, the capital of West Adonara
sub-district, to sell their produce. While in Waiwadan, they give their week’s work to the editor of a local citizens’ bulletin and to the producer at a local radio station.
Although Frans and Daud are not paid for their work, they are both happy to do their reporting because it means that the issues their villages experience are talked about at the district level or at least the sub-district level. They hope that this will help their problems be solved faster.
Frans and Daud mentioned that once they’d even been called by a reporter from the Kupang Post, the region’s biggest newspaper, to further investigate something they had
reported on. They say they are always also very happy whenever they hear their voice on the radio, or if their village is talked about on the radio.
In Central Aceh, Aceh Province, a 25-year-old woman called Hayati works as a part-time teacher at an early child learning centre. She lives and works very far away from Takengon, the district capital. Around three times a week, Yati sends news about education services to Amanda FM Radio in Takengon. Amanda FM has a special citizen journalism program that is supported by IOM and USAID where they broadcast news from citizens like Yati.
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Kinerja works in the following areas, so aims for its CJs to cover similar issues: - Health care, particularly maternal and child health care (safe delivery, and
immediate & exclusive breastfeeding).
- Basic education (proportional teacher distribution, school operational costs, and school-based management).
- Business-enabling environment (business licensing simplification, and the establishment/improvement of One Stop Shops).
This means that the candidates must be closely involved with or at very least have a good understanding of the topics above. Kinerja-supported CJs are also encouraged to take up other issues in addition to these topics.
If CJ candidates already have the basic understanding needed on key thematic issues, they are trained on how to identify stories and take them up. The CJs receive training on journalistic skills, and are given the contact information for media that will broadcast or print their work.
After being selected as a potential CJ, candidates are trained and mentored on journalistic skills. In short, they learn how to do simple research by using the internet and archived magazines and newspapers, and how to use this information to identify
Derwes Jikwa is 31 years old and works for the Community Relations Office in Tolikara District in the central highlands of Papua Province. Derwes was a participant in a SERASI USAID training on citizen journalism in December 2011. He immediately began putting his new skills to work in 2012.
Just one week after the training finished, Derwes had already written three stories about issues in Karubaga, the capital city of Tolikara District. His stories covered important political and economic topics, including the district’s annual budgetary reports and the
citizens’ demands for a local election to be held soon.
Derwes sent his articles to four media outlets –Cenderawasih Pos, the province’s largest newspaper; Sinar Pergunungan, a local thrice-weekly newspaper; RRI Wamena, the radio station with the largest broadcast range in the highlands; and VBC – Voice of Baliem Children FM, the largest community radio in the region. Three outlets agreed to publish
Derwes’ work. The editor of Sinar Pergungungan,Jan Rico, said that Derwes’ work already
met basic journalistic standards and ethics, so his articles did not require much editing. His work was also easy-to-understand and factual.
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the root causes of occurrences or problems. The CJ is then taught how to carry out field observation and how to interview sources. CJs learn how to use all their senses to get the full picture of what is really happening, and how to use this information to help them ask important questions that get to the bottom of the issue.
Following this, all that remains is to put together their findings into a news story. CJs must follow the journalistic codes, however – their stories must be factual, accurate, balanced, and fair. Stories should also cover all sides of an issue.
Finally, CJs share their stories on social media or send them out to mainstream media outlets. If the quality of the story is high, plus the topic itself is interesting, many outlets will be happy to publish it. This can be of great assistance in advocating for public service improvements, as it will bring the problem to the attention of public officials (and will hopefully be solved).
The potential strength of social media should also be kept in mind. If a certain
occurrence or topic is discussed constantly on social media over a long period of time, mass media outlets are more likely to pick up the story. Creating public concern on social media over a particular issue is a very useful method of ensuring media coverage.
Criteria for selecting citizen journalists
Luwi Ishwara, in his Indonesian-language book ‘Basic Journalism’ from 2011, says that there are three main criteria that need to be considered for journalists and citizen journalists.
1. Know what’s interesting
Journalists must have a strong understanding of what the public will find interesting and/or unique.
2. Desire to know
Journalists need to have a desire to know. This will help them significantly in pushing them to uncover stories.
3. Good at observation
Journalists must be good at observing and using all of their senses. It can be said that observation makes up the first 30 per cent of finding a news story.
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1. Citizens who are concerned about, interested in, or have knowledge about Kinerja’s programmatic areas in health, education, and business licensing. For example, issues relating to budget use and transparency, community
participation, or informal costs.
2. Citizens who are familiar with writing on computers.
3. Citizens who are familiar with using mobile phones, SMS, and mobile internet. 4. Citizens who live in areas with good access to the internet. This makes it easier
for them to research, to access information, and to share their work. If no internet is available, there should at least be easy access to radio stations.
5. Citizens who are familiar with using the internet, email, and social media. 6. Citizens who enjoy and have experience in writing. Previous samples of writing
should be examined, if possible.
7. Citizens who work in radio or who enjoy listening to the radio and who have a good speaking voice.
8. Citizens who live in the area in which they were born. This generally means that they will have a better understanding of the local context and issues than
outsiders.
9. Citizens who represent a certain community or group of people. For example, teachers who are members of the Teachers’ Union, or midwives who are part of the Midwives’ Association. Such people will generally have better access to information and better understanding of the sorts of problems facing their community.
10. Citizens who work at local government offices or public service delivery units, such as community health centers and schools. They have good access to information and can report on what the government’s activities are. This is especially useful for awareness raising. They will also benefit from journalism training because it will improve how they interact with the community.
11 Selecting citizen journalists
It is important to select the right candidates for citizen journalism candidates. There are many different ways of identifying candidates – through one-on-one conversations, through gatherings with community members, through meetings with government staff, or through talking to mainstream media outlets.
The following steps outline the process of how to best select citizen journalists:
1. The training organization should meet first with government partners (e.g., health office, education office, and one stop shop) at the district level to explain the aim of citizen journalism and why it is useful.
2. The training organization can work together with partners to identify potential CJ candidates, based on the criteria outlined above.
3. The training organization should request the personal information and CVs of potential CJs. The organization will explain what citizen journalism is and what CJs do to each candidate.
4. The training organization should inform the project about the progress of selecting CJs at regular intervals.
5. The training organization can develop a short questionnaire to help them better understand the CJ candidates, their interests, and their training needs. Questions can be about the project’s focus topics (e.g., health, education, business
licensing); about the candidate’s experience in writing and radio; about the equipment they regularly use (e.g., mobile phones, computers, recording devices); about their computer skills and their social media experience; and so on. The questionnaire should also request the candidate to write a short article or two about a relevant issue, so that the trainers can evaluate their writing skills. 6. The training organization should plan to hold an informal meeting with all of the
identified candidates. An ideal group size is between three and ten people. a. At the beginning of the meeting, the trainers should explain the aim of the
event.
b. CJ candidates are then asked to fill out the questionnaires.
c. The trainers and the candidates can have a question-and-answer session to validate the personal information and experience of the candidates. This session can also be used to gain a better understanding of the candidates and their skills.
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7. The training organization should not be too strict or inflexible in how they evaluate the candidates.
a. Simple scoring systems are sufficient to examine the experience, skills and writing ability of candidates.
b. Candidates can then be ranked by overall score.
c. Candidates should also be evaluated in terms of their location, gender, and background. A wide range of locations is important to ensure that different news is covered. A minimum composition of 60:40 or 70:30 of women to men also helps women gain access to opportunities that may not previously have been made available to them. Prioritizing non-government employees is also worthwhile.
d. Alter the rankings as needed based on priorities, and provide a list of candidates to government partners for feedback. The aim of this is to gain input from the government as to how active candidates are in community forums and public meetings.
8. The training organization can inform the CJs of their successful selection by email or phone. It is also important to let the unsuccessful candidates know that if they are still interested in becoming a CJ, they should keep trying and that more opportunities for training will come up in the future.
Building commitment among citizen journalists
Ensuring that CJs are committed to their role is important, and needs to be done prior to training CJs on journalistic methods and principles.
Below are a few ways which training organizations can help build CJs’ commitment:
1. CJ candidates should give a photocopy of their identity card or driver’s license and sign a letter that states they are committed to attend the full CJ training. 2. CJs should agree to produce at least one or two news stories a month. This will
help them learn and evaluate their progress at the same time.
3. The training organization and the CJ candidates should jointly develop a kind of social contract to agree to support citizen journalism in their local area.
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inaccurate or false news, and should be careful around issues of personal privacy and anonymity.
5. The organization and the CJs should develop a list of CJ rights and duties, to ensure that any legal issues that may arise can be dealt with clearly.
6. The training organization should consider giving incentives to CJs who are active in developing news stories. For example, a reward could be provided every time an article is published or a radio news story is broadcast. This does not need to be in the form of money, as it can cause a dependency on the organization that will be problematic when the program eventually ends. One method that worked well in Adonara, Flores, in 2009 was that the CJs’ full names and villages were always mentioned whenever their news was published. The CJs were very happy with this, and said that it encouraged them to publish more news.
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Chapter Two: Citizen Journalism Training
Aim of Training
The training for citizen journalist candidates as carried out by Kinerja lasts for two full days and consists of 11 modules. This book includes detailed materials for the training, as well as guides for facilitators. Other materials can be used as necessary.
The aim of this training is to build the skills of the citizen journalists already selected during the previous stages. Kinerja aimed to have at least five CJs trained in each district in which the program was active.
This training focuses on writing and audio production. Nevertheless, audio visual news can be used as examples and supporting material.
Facilitators and trainers are free to modify the material as necessary. Not all modules will be relevant to all groups. The initial modules in particular may not be needed if the participants already have a good understanding of basic journalism.
Participants in CJ training will still need to be mentored and monitored after the training has completed to ensure that they are able to put into practice their new skills and knowledge.
Approach and Methodology
This training uses an adult learning approach where active participation is important. For this reason, we recommend a maximum number of 25 participants, as it will be hard for the facilitators to interact with everyone if there are more. Around 80% of the total training time should be dedicated to interaction between participants – that is, through methods such as group discussions, group work, and group presentations. The
remaining 20% of the time should be used by the trainers to give presentations and provide clarifications to what has been discussed.
Training methods that can be used include: - Sharing experiences
- Watching video tutorials
- Reading case studies and lessons learned - Group discussions and group work
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Overall training goal
At the end of the training, participants understand and can put into practice citizen journalism. They will have the skills required to find information and create news stories in line with journalistic principles and ethics, in order to support the media in advocating for public service improvements.
Specific training goals
At the end of the training, participants will:
1. Understand the role and functions of citizen journalists, especially within the context of Kinerja’s programs.
2. Be able to find information relating to Kinerja’s areas of activities (health, education, business licensing) that are appropriate to be covered in the media and/or social media.
3. Have experience in how to research, observe, interview, and report. 4. Understand how to present news in different formats – articles, vox pops,
features, social media, and non-journalistic media such as public service announcements.
5. Have experience in writing and editing for publication, social media, and broadcast.
6. Have experience in how to use different media for different purposes.
Training topics
1. Introduction to Citizen Journalism
2. Characteristics and Elements of Journalism
3. Facts, Opinion, and the Three Stages of News Coverage 4. Field Observation
5. Interviewing
6. Ideas, Angles, Leads, and Plots 7. Writing News for Social Media 8. Writing News for Traditional Media 9. Radio Journalism
10. Covering Public Service Issues
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Personal Data and Pre-Test
Before beginning the training, facilitators should provide all participants with a personal data form and a pre-test to be filled out. This is to ensure that all participant data is accurately recorded, and to evaluate the participants’ improvement in knowledge and skills after the training.
Below is an example of how the form and pre-test can be combined into one document:
PERSONAL DATA and PRE-TEST
Citizen Journalism Training
[place], [date]
Full name Place of birth Education
Current workplace
Previous work history
Home address Telephone number Email address
Please give us a short description of your career and where you currently work:
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Please tell us about your experience with journalism, writing, and radio broadcasting:
______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
What would you like to get out of this training?
______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
What can you share with others during this training? (For example, writing skills, interviewing skills, etc.)
______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
Have you ever written on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or blogs? If so, what do you write about?
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Have you ever written or responded to something on a wall newspaper, bulletin, newspaper, or magazine? (For example, letters to the editor, call-in radio talk shows, vox pops on television, etc.)
______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________
What do you know about citizen journalism?
19 Module 1: Introduction to Citizen Journalism
Aim of training
1. Participants understand the role CJs can play in creating noise about an issue 2. Participants understand how to create noise
3. Participants can identify the different kinds of forms of citizen journalism.
Topics
1. The importance of citizen journalism in creating noise 2. The process of creating noise
3. The forms of citizen journalism that can contribute to public service improvements.
Method
1. Presentation 2. Short film 3. Case studies 4. Sharing opinions 5. Discussion
Materials and equipment
1. PowerPoint presentations 2. LCD project and laptop
3. White-board and white-board markers / flip-chart and permanent markers 4. Examples of citizen journalism (writings, videos, radio broadcasts)
5. Case studies of citizen journalism successes
Time needed
60 minutes.
Facilitation process
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2. A short film or two can be shown at this point, about the role of citizen journalism in the twenty-first century. (15 minutes)
3. Facilitators can then organize a sharing experiences and discussion session to discuss the films and the material. (30 minutes)
Reading materials
Article One
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism – also called public or participatory journalism – is when citizens are active in collecting, reporting, analyzing, and sharing news and information. Citizen journalism is a special kind of media because it originates from the community itself. Citizen journalism is a form of resistance. Resistance to hegemony through formulating and interpreting the truth, and resistance to the domination of information by the elite. It is also resistance to the increasingly impersonal nature of society. But more than that, it is a rediscovery of humanity, friendship, and family. Everybody can be a subject of news and formulate their own opinions.
Let the public make their own news
The growth of citizen journalism has led to some controversy. Many professional journalists believe that only trained journalists can carry out proper journalism. At the same time, other professional journalists are trying to break down the journalistic hierarchy by writing on their own blogs.
One of the key basic principles of citizen journalism is that mainstream media producers and reporters are not the sole source of knowledge about subjects. This is now widely-accepted, and is evidenced by the fact that many online media outlets now allow readers to comment on their articles.
Types of citizen journalism
In an article in Online Journalism Review from 2003, J.D. Lasica classifies CJ media into five kinds:
1. Audience participation, such as comments, blogs, photos, and videos; 2. Independent news and information websites;
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Nicholas Lemann, a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York, USA, notes that the birth of citizen journalism was probably in the lead-up to the 1988 US presidential election. At that stage, the public were losing trust in
mainstream media with regards to how they were reporting on the election. OhMyNews, an online South Korean news outlet, experienced a similar boost of growth during a presidential election there, too, and Lemann points out that it is now one of the world’s biggest citizen journalism websites.
Article Two
The Future of Citizen Journalism in Pushing for Social Change
Background
In Kuningan District, Pedro, a resident of Babakanmulya village, oversees his own fish pond. The pond contains a wide variety of young fish and fishlings – cat fish, gold fish, tilapia, and gourami. The local area provides around only 40% of citizens’ needs for fresh fish; the remaining 60% has to be imported from other areas. Pedro chose to focus on fishlings because he thinks this is the cause of the fish shortage – there are simply not enough high-quality fishlings in his region.
Stories like this are what you can read on Suara Komunitas (Community Voice), a citizen journalism website from Indonesia. Writers from 28 different areas upload their stories here; most of them live in small villages in remote parts of the country.
The emergence of citizen journalists
That people have an increased desire to share and use information is a happy development. Citizen journalism can actually be seen as part of the process of
information decentralization – previously, information management was centralized and held only by mainstream media. Now, citizens can become sharers of information themselves, acting as watchdogs when mainstream media fails.
Dewi (2008) believes that citizen journalism can have a positive impact. Firstly, citizen journalism provides space for citizens to participate in information management.
Secondly, for mainstream media outlets, citizen journalism has the potential to increase trust between media and readers. Citizen journalism thus helps citizens to demand that their right to information be fulfilled.
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are able to share information and skills amongst themselves, they would be able to solve their own problems. Additionally, citizen journalism began changing the way the mainstream media sees the community – citizens were no longer just objects of news but were producing the news themselves.
In Indonesia, citizen journalism has been strongly influenced by radio. In 1983, Radio Suara Surabaya (Voice of Surabaya Radio) began a traffic information program, which soon became interactive. This changed the way radio programs were seen in Indonesia – before, they had been seen as one-way methods of communication, from the radio to the listener, whereas now, listeners can actively interact with radio broadcasters and provide their own information. Anyone can give their opinion or comments. Suparyo (2008) calls this democracy through radio broadcasts.
This type of program was popularized by Radio Elshinta in Jakarta. The station is open to listener information, and frequently broadcasts comments and news from listeners who are stuck in traffic. This style of sharing information has become popular for all types of occurrences and events now, from small local issues to national ones. Advances in technology have greatly assisted citizen journalists. Anytime and anywhere, anyone can record and report on what is happening around them. Using digital cameras, mobile phones, handy cams, and voice recorders, information is easily captured and shared.
So what kind of impact can citizen journalism has? Hermanto (2008) offers the following story as an example:
“Sukiman, a member of Across Merapi Community Radio, looks happy. He has just received an email from a number of Indonesian citizens living in Japan who say they want to send him money to plant trees in his village, Sidorejo, to replace the ones destroyed by hot clouds and mud when Mount Merapi erupted in mid-2006.
Sukiman didn’t actively search for these donations. Originally, he simply wrote about his plans to plant trees in Sidorejo in order to save the village’s water source on the side of Mount Merapi. He published his writing on the Across Merapi website, but had no idea it would receive such a response. People were offering money, seeds, and even their own physical labour.”
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Sometimes, information from citizens is more reliable than information from mainstream media outlets. This can especially be the case when citizen journalists are not
encumbered by fancy or expensive equipment, as they are freer to choose where to go and when. Citizen journalists can record on-the-spot or spontaneously if something happens where they are. Mainstream journalists, on the other hand, tend to get images only after they already have the news.
There are some people who worry that citizen journalists cannot be relied upon to report the truth because they do not have proper journalistic training and knowledge.
Hermanto (2008) rejects this idea. Although he agrees that the technical know-how and thus packaging of reporting may not be as high-quality, citizen journalists are very able to capture the reality of situations. The following story is a good example of this:
“In July last year, Radisem left her home country of Indonesia feeling proud. She was going to work in Malaysia, and would bring home a large amount of ringgit. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen; a few days ago, Radisem returned home in tragic circumstances, her fate a terrible one.”
This news story was written by a citizen journalist who was also Radisem’s neighbor. Mainstream media were not talking about what happened to Radisem, so her friend took it upon herself to do so.
Another example of local news ignored by mainstream media came from a citizen journalist in Southeast Sulawesi:
“The students of grades one to three at this junior high school don’t study
mathematics. Their teacher has gone hunting for gold in the local riverbeds. The class has been taught instead by five casual teachers. To this day, the local government has done nothing about this shortage of teachers. The government needs to increase the number of teachers and convert the status of casual teachers into permanent teachers.”
Stories like these can change the way people see the world. Not only that, citizen journalism ensures that those in power are closely watched. “Watching power is important if democracy is to keep progressing,” says Sutawijaya, a CJ with Suara Komunitas.
Mainstreaming local knowledge
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of major rivers in other countries but not the name of the river that runs through their village.
CJs supported by Kinerja’s program have written about a wide variety of topics, from traditional foods and culture to new methods of picking neighbourhood heads. They cover these sorts of stories because they want to spread their knowledge to other areas, hoping to sustain traditions or support new developments.
Maintaining political memory
Events and occurrences are often quickly forgotten by society. Community members end up becoming like donkeys, falling into the same holes over and over again. Citizen journalism is one way of ensuring events are documented and not forgotten. CJs act as community memory, able to critically assess events for similarities and trends. This is known as political memory.
On the suarakomunitas (community voice) website, a group of citizen journalists has come up with a smart way of ensuring the memory of one particular event remains strong. A huge mudflow erupted in the region of Sidoarjo in 2006, and has not stopped since. Many thousands of people have been forced to move out of the area. These citizen journalists were some of them of them. They work with a community radio station and have developed a program with the same name as the company that is believed to have caused the mudflow – Lapindo. On the radio, however, Lapindo stands for Lagu Pop Indonesia, or Indonesian Pop Songs. Lapindo broadcasts every workday morning from 8am to 10am.
Objectivity in citizen journalism
Can citizens who do not possess journalistic skills and knowledge report balanced and objective news? This question is frequently asked by journalists from mainstream media outlets, implying that specialist skills are needed to accurately report on events.
However, this overlooks the fact that even mainstream journalists will inevitably take different angles to stories and often report stories differently.
According to Ishwara (2005), objectivity in journalism is dynamic in nature. Journalists were originally seen as merely observers, with their job defined as simply presenting what happened. They were not expected to dig to find or analyze facts; they were expected to be neutral. In the 1950s, this understanding began to be questioned.
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Objectivity is journalism is one way of ensuring fairness in news. Objectivity can be fulfilled if 1) the news is complete and no important facts are left out; 2) the news only reports relevant information to the story in question; 3) the news is honest; and 4) the news is simple and straight-forward, without accusations or emotions confusing the meaning of what is said.
Take this as an example. A CJ wrote about the poor quality of healthcare in his village, arguing that the local community health center’s services were far from ideal. He quoted citizens as saying that the center’s staff were frequently absent, resulting in a lack of services. Additionally, the costs of services were too high. The story did not include interviews with the health workers themselves.
Discerning readers do not expect citizen journalists to be as skilled as mainstream journalists in unpacking stories. Readers are aware that CJs do not have the same access to equipment and knowledge. Consequently, readers put themselves in the position of having the duty to fill in the gaps. Readers can ask themselves how to cover what was missed – for example, they can ask if they themselves know what the quality of services for poor people are like at the health center. So she can become a CJ herself, writing about the reality of what it is like for poor people to access healthcare. Alternatively, if she has received quality healthcare somewhere else, she can write about the steps that might need to be taken to ensure that level of care is also available at the community health center. After publication, the local District Health Office (DHO) itself can respond to the news and fill in other gaps if needed.
This is one of the interesting elements of citizen journalism. Readers must follow the development of a story over time to ensure they get the full picture. Objectivity is functional and can change with event dynamics. Truth can change with time, and convicted people can be freed and pardoned. Whole histories and sciences can be proven wrong.
Truth comes in layers, and this is also the case for citizen journalism. Take the story of a car crash. On day one, the crash might be reported with just the basic information – where, when, who. On day two, more information might be made available, perhaps from the police or a victim’s family. On day three, a correction might be published, or a letter to the editor might shed new light on the event. And so on.
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Module 2: Characteristics and Elements of Journalism
Aim of training
1. Participants will understand the five characteristics of journalism and their importance in journalistic work.
2. Participants will understand the ten elements of journalism and how to implement them.
Topics
1. The five characteristics of journalism
2. The ten elements of journalism as researched by Kovach and Rosentiels.
Method
1. Presentations
2. Sharing experiences 3. Discussion and Q&A.
Materials and Equipment
1. Presentations and case studies 2. LCD projector and laptop
3. Colored sheets of cardboard (half-A5) with the five characteristics and ten elements of journalism written on them (enough for one set per group) 4. Large sheets of paper (butcher’s paper/craft paper)
5. Easel or whiteboard for writing on 6. Permanent and/or whiteboard markers.
Time
60 minutes.
Facilitation process
1. Divide participants into four or five groups. (5 minutes)
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3. Each group arranges their sheets into two sections – one of the five
characteristics of journalism, and one of the ten elements of journalism. Each section should be stuck with tape to a large sheet of paper and put on the wall. (5 minutes)
4. Each group presents their results. (10 minutes)
5. Give a presentation on the five characteristics and ten elements of journalism, while re-arranging the group’s papers into the correct sets at the same time. (20 minutes)
6. Discuss any remaining issues, and hold a question-and-answer session. (15 minutes)
Reading materials
Five characteristics of journalism
According to Luwu Ishwara’s 2005 book Basic Journalism, there are five important characteristics of journalism that must be paid attention to.
1. Be critical/skeptical
Being critical means you are always asking questions, doubting what you learn, and being careful to ensure you are not tricked. The key part to being critical is doubt. Journalists should not be satisfied with statements alone; they need to go to the field and dig for information.
2. Act
Journalists shouldn’t just sit around waiting for news to come to them. They should be actively searching for it.
3. Change
Change is a major part of journalism. Journalists are no longer simply bearers of news, but facilitate, sort through, and give meaning to information.
4. Art and Profession
Journalists can look at events with fresh eyes to capture their unique aspects. 5. Role of the Press
28 Ten Elements of Journalism – by Iwan Yulianto
Let’s learn about reading and writing for the media…
When reading the Indonesian media, we often come across differences in how the same stories are presented. Some media outlets even break journalistic ethics when writing about events, and attack certain groups or individuals. The falseness of such news is often caused by the outlets’ interests, meaning that that particular outlet cannot any longer be called ‘independent’. Some readers are capable of identifying mistakes, gaffes, and errors; the majority, however, are unable to do so, and end up being influenced by the media’s own opinions, even though the media has been breaking codes of conduct. This situation is worsening thanks to a media oligopoly run by just a handful of people, and leads to the marginalization of opinions.
This means we need to understand the principles of journalism. One group of principles has already become standard amongst journalists; they are known as the ten elements of journalism. One of the best books for learning about this is Bill Kovach and Tom
Rosentiel’s The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. The elements of journalism discussed in this section originate from Kovach and Rosentiel’s book.
The summary of journalism’s most important elements was developed over three years by the Committee of Concerned Journalists, involving 1,200 journalists. The ten
elements identified by the Committee represent one set of elements – they cannot be separated from one another, none can be prioritized over others, and they all must be followed by all journalists.
1. Truth
Truth in journalism is not just about accuracy, but about truth that is practical and
functional. That means journalists must be truthful in how they tell stories to ensure that readers can obtain the information they need to be independent decision-makers. 2. Loyalty to the public
News outlets have a number of interests they must serve: the outlet’s head company and shareholders, community organizations, local interest groups, advertisers, and many others. However, the number one loyalty must be to the public.
3. Verification
Kovach and Rosentiel begin Chapter 4 of their book by quoting Thucydides, a historian of the Peloponnesian war in 5 CE:
With regard to my factual reporting of events … I have made it a principle not to write down the
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was present myself at the events which I have described or else heard of them from eye witnesses whose reports I have checked with as much thoroughness as possible. Not that even so the truth was easy to discover: different eye witnesses gave different accounts of the same events, speaking out partiality for one side or the other, or else from imperfect memories.
This principle from thousands of years ago is what we today call verification. Verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, and art.
Entertainment focuses on taking whatever angle will best capture the attention of readers. Propaganda selects or manipulates facts to persuade readers. Journalism is different because it focuses on what actually happened.
Verification happens through finding eye witnesses, listening to and reading accounts from multiple sources of news, and asking for comments from a range of figures. The aim of verification is to ensure the journalist can report what really happened. This is similar to how objectivity is employed by journalists – it is not the journalist who is objective, but the way she tells the story.
Kovach and Rosentiel argue that verification is being left behind in the age of the internet and social media. Information appears faster and is shared faster. Journalists must ask themselves two questions to ensure they are properly verifying their reporting:
- Am I not biased towards my sources?
- Will any sides in this story be upset with my reporting?
There are also five key principles that journalists should remember while verifying: - Do not add something that did not happen or was not said;
- Do not trick or deceive your readers;
- Be as transparent as possible with regards to your method and motivation for reporting on the story;
- Rely on your own original reporting as much as possible;
- Be modest and humble, and do not assume you are the person who knows the most about the story.
Kovach and Rosentiel offer a number of concrete methods for verification of news. Firstly, edit with skepticism. Edit line by line, sentence by sentence, and always with skepticism.
Secondly, analyze the news’ accuracy. Kovach and Rosentiel have created an accuracy checklist for this purpose:
- Is your news’ lead supported by strong data?
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- Is there enough background information in the story that allows readers to fully understand what happened?
- Have all those involved been given the chance to speak about what happened? - Does the story support or positively judge one side of what happened? If so, who
might disagree with or be upset by the story (beyond accepted boundaries)? - Is there anything missing?
- Are all quotes accurate? Are their sources mentioned and accurate? Do the quotes accurately represent the relevant sources’ opinions?
If the journalist does not have direct knowledge of an event described by eye witnesses, they should consider making this obvious. For example, the example of a headline reading ‘Helsingfor says Lenin is dead’, compared to ‘Lenin is dead’ (as the journalist has probably not seen Lenin’s body for herself).
Thirdly, do not assume anything. Do not automatically assume that news from formal sources is accurate. Journalists must get as close to the source as possible. David Protess, a professor from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in the United States, uses a three concentric circle system. The outer circle is for
secondary sources such as news clippings. The middle circle is for official documents such as court reports, police reports, financial reports, and so on. The innermost circle is for eye witnesses.
Fourthly, journalists must fact-check. Tom French, a 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner, uses his own method for fact-checking, called Tom French’s Coloured Pencil. His method is simple – French goes through his articles one line at a time, using coloured pencils to highlight which are facts from sources and which are his own opinions. He then checks the background of all sources – what is their motive for giving information? What are their interests?
The editing and fact-checking process should be done by the reporter and editor
together whenever possible. In fact, the two should physically sit together. If they are far apart and have communication issues, this can cause problems, as experienced by the Java Post in 2005.
Rizal Husein, a journalist from the Java Post, interviewed Nur Aini, the wife of the
alleged mastermind behind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, Dr Azahari bin Husin. He claimed that he interviewed her by telephone, as she was in Malaysia at the time. One month later, the Java Post published her interview after her husband was killed in a raid in East Java. The Post mentioned that Nur Aini spoke with a thick Malay accent.
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The Java Post fired Rizal Husein after discovering the falsification of his report. The editors apologized for what happened on the front page of the newspaper. Rizal Husein claimed that he did not have bad intentions; he simply wanted the Java Post to be the best at covering terrorism.
4. Independence
As much as possible, journalists must be independent. Journalists should not act out of fear or pressure, or because of conflicts of interest. However, in many cases, some journalists have never been able to be truly independent – perhaps their boss is
powerful and rich, or they have a relative who is in a powerful position. Or if their outlet is funded by a foreign donor, can they claim to be independent?
Sometimes journalists can be independent of political influence, but are not free from business interests. Kompas, for example, is owned by the Gramedia Group, while Metro is owned by Surya Paloh, who is not just a businessman but is now a political figure, too.
Bill Kovach offers a solution to this dilemma: if journalists or media outlets have conflicts of interest, or can be perceived to have conflicts of interest, they are required to give full disclosure about their relationship.
This is to ensure that readers are aware that there is the possibility that what they are reading is not truly independent.
5. Monitor Power and Give Voice to the Voiceless
Journalists function as oversight for the government and other strong institutions. The press’ existence encourages officials and leaders to do the right thing and use their power well. Journalists thus give voice to the voiceless and the powerless.
6. Public Forum
Whatever media form they use, journalists create a forum where they can remind the public what is important. This enables people to evaluate the news and develop their own opinions on an issue.
7. Engagement and Relevance
Journalists must be able to make news stories as interesting and as relevant as possible to ensure they are read, watched, and listened to. Audiences will remain interested as long as the writing is good.
8. Make the News Comprehensive and Proportional
32 9. Have a Conscience
All journalists, including editors and news directors, must have strong moral guidelines and ethics, along with a sense of personal responsibility. Independent journalists can exercise their conscience and not be subject to external pressure. If a journalist is certain about the truth of a story, but is afraid to publish it because they worry they will lose their job, then they are not truly independent.
10. Journalism by Community Members
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Module 3: Facts, Opinions, and the Three Stages of News Coverage
Aim of training
1. Participants understand the basics of journalism and news reporting. 2. Participants can differentiate between opinion and fact in news.
3. Participants can identify and put into practice the three stages of reporting – initial research, field observation, and interviewing.
Topics
1. The basics of journalism
2. The difference between opinion and fact 3. How to report on a news story.
Method
1. Presentation
2. Sharing experiences between participants
3. Practice of new skills (research, observation, interviewing) 4. Presentation of results
5. Discussion.
Materials and equipment
1. PowerPoint presentations 2. Large sheets of paper
3. Small pieces of coloured cardboard 4. Markers
5. LCD projector 6. Laptop
7. Internet connection
8. Newspapers from the last week.
Time needed
34
Facilitation process
1. Facilitator begins by discussing the differences between facts and opinions, and shows a number of examples. (5 minutes)
2. Facilitator asks the participants to share their thoughts on facts and opinions. (5 minutes)
3. Facilitator presents the three stages of reporting – initial research, field observation, and interviews. (10 minutes)
4. Facilitator asks participants to do some initial research using newspapers and the internet on a certain issue. For example, the quality of education in the local area. (10 minutes)
5. Facilitator asks participants to observe what is going on around them in the room, and to write about what they see. Facilitator asks a few participants to present their results. (15 minutes)
6. Discussion and question-and-answer session. (15 minutes)
Reading materials
Understanding fact and opinion
Every day, we come into contact with many different facts and opinions. It is especially easy in this information age to become confused over the accuracy of information, and opinions are frequently put forward as facts.
To explore the difference between fact and opinion, have a look at the following sentences:
1. Ms Imin is poor, but she is just one of West Nusa Tenggara’s 1,031,600 poor (one-quarter of the province’s total population of four million).
2. Her house is a picture of poverty, measuring just eight by four metres.
3. “If it rains, we have to sleep sitting up – we cannot roll out mattresses because the roof leaks,” Ms Imin says.
4. Quantitative data does not align with the reality of Ms Musniah’s life, a resident of Datar village, West Lombok, or with Ms Raidah’s life, who lives in Karang Bucu village, also in West Lombok.
5. The fate faced by Ms Imin, Ms Musniah, Ms Raidah, and many others must force the government to act and overcome structural poverty faced by rural people in West Nusa Tenggara.
6. It is not enough to just make arguments based on numbers, as this does not solve the problems people are facing.
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Opinion sentences can be split into two kinds: individual opinions, and general opinions. For example:
1. According to experts, Indonesia’s population will grow to 300 million by 2010. (individual opinion)
2. Smoking will negatively affect not just your life, but the lives of those close to you. (general opinion)
So, what can we conclude about facts and opinions?
How do tabloid newspapers mix fact and opinion?
“The fate of this old widow was really so sad. While cooking instant noodles at home, she fell, accidentally nudging the pot on the stove and causing boiling water to pour all over her body.” (Pos Kota [City News], Jakarta, 27 July 2004)
The first sentence is the journalist’s own opinion. It is only in the second sentence that he begins to write using facts. The same can be said for the following piece from Meteor on 1 August 2008:
“A group corruption scandal now involves all members of Parliament’s Commission IX (1994-2004), and it is quite concerning. Members of Parliament are literally scrawled all over with indications of corruption. Their acts are unclean, their bodies are unclean – they even paid for women with the money. It is time for them to take a bath and wash away their sins.”
In this paragraph, the journalist becomes the judge. In fact, he should not include his opinion at all in an article like this. His job is to write facts, not op-eds.
Mixing of fact and opinion can be found anywhere in a newspaper – in the headline, in the lead, or in the body of an article. This article explores the way one of Jakarta’s most popular tabloid newspapers – Lampu Hijau (Green Light) – confuses fact and opinion.
Lampu Hijau’s headlines often use a combination of fact and the editor’s opinion. Many headlines also blur the facts with opinions. Here are a few examples:
- Don’t Hang Out Alone in the Field at Mega Kuningan – Girl Invited to Drink with Men, Gets Drunk, Raped by Five Labourers (Lampu Hijau, 4 August 2008) - Four Years of Work but Tangled in Debt, Neighbourhood Government
Staffmember Becomes a Burgler (Lampu Hijau, 3 August 2008)
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Lampu Hijau’s leads are often written as generalisations, and without supporting data or relevant evidence. Sometimes, they even present the journalist’s opinion as though it was the opinion of the subject him/herself. Here are some examples:
- That man really didn’t have any capital. Except for his long hair. He thought that with his long hair, his girlfriend – a domestic worker – would be happy. Turns out it wasn’t that simple. She got tired of having to pay for their food every time they went on a date, and wanted to break up with him. In fact, she had already got a new boyfriend. But the long-haired man was angry. So he raped her! (Lampu Hijau, 9 August 2008)
- DS, a 25-year-old from Sasak village in Bogor, has got an interesting nickname: King of Hearts. How did he do it? He slept with a 10-year-old girl. Let’s call her Melati. Ironically, the girl was his own cousin. Melati’s parents must have been disappointed – they reported him to the police. (Lampu Hijau, 8 August 2008) The body of articles in Lampu Hijau are not much better. They continue to mix fact with opinion, generalise, and even switch the word ‘some’ for ‘all’. Have a look at this
example paragraph:
- And maybe, Raden Ihlas Radesa (34), became addicted to the microphone. So that he ended up looking for ‘microphones’ [penises] owned by his students. Funnily enough, even though this case was examined by the police, Ihlas Radesa was never detained. (Lampu Hijau, 1 August 2008)
The following paragraph illustrates how the newspaper blurred the motif of the perpetrator and generalised about the case:
- This reckless act happened because DS had been watching pornographic films. His desire overtook his brain and thoughts, and he didn’t know what to do. In the midst of his confusion, he saw Melati leave her house. Dirty thoughts
immediately sprang to mind. (Lampu Hijau, 1 August 2008)
In general, Lampu Hijau uses syntax that is based on opinions. Many words and phrases they use blur what actually happened: “maybe”, “it seems”, “indeed”, “it looks like”, “it appears”, “presumably”, and so on. Conjecture is also common in Lampu Hijau, with phrases like “Why not?”, “What else could be done?” and “Between belief and disbelief” used frequently.
Below are a few more examples of how Lampu Hijau mixes fact with opinion:
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Mega Kuningan, Setiabudi, South Jakarta. Este’s body was limp, and she was left all alone, just like that, by the men who used her. (Lampu Hijau, 4 August 2008)
- It’s all over for the perverted traditional healer, Darsipan (45), a resident of Kasmaran. Darsipan was caught by the police while he slept comfortably at his home. He was reported to the police for sexual assault. (Lampu Hijau, 24 August 2008)
38 Module 4: Field Observation
Aim of training
1. Participants are able to carry out field observation that results in strong and information-rich reporting.
2. Participants are able to use the results of their observation to strengthen news stories.
3. Participants are able to evaluate the quality of other participants’ reporting.
Topics
1. How to carry out field observation to produce credible and interesting news. 2. Field observation that uses all of the five senses, and takes notice of things
that might influence a story or provide good background detail.
Method
1. Presentation
2. Field observation at a public location, such as a health centre, school, or market 3. Presentation of observation results
4. Discussion.
Materials and equipment
1. Audio recorder or mobile phone with recording capability 2. Notebook and pens
3. Camera 4. LCD projector 5. Laptop.
Time needed
120 minutes.
Facilitation process
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2. Facilitator explains the practical elements of the observation that will be done by the participants: the object of observation, where, and when. (5 minutes)
3. Participants undertake their observation at a chosen location, and prepare their notes. (60 minutes)
4. Participants present what they observed in the field. (20 minutes)
5. Discussion and Q&A. (20 minutes)
Reading materials
Field observation – by Yossy Suparyo
Observation is when citizens see something happening in front of them. They are
physically at the location of an event or occurrence. Citizen journalists can use all five of their senses to assess what is happening and to support facts – sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste.
Describe the person you are interviewing. Describe the smell in the air. Describe the taste of the food.
However, you must remain factual, and avoid subjective assessment. For example, you should not describe someone as beautiful, handsome, or quick to anger, as these are subjective. Only write based on fact.
Observation in journalism – by Sisca Setyowaty
Observation is not only used by scientific professionals such as psychologists and doctors. Journalists also use observation as one way of gathering data and information on stories.
In journalism, observation takes on an important role. It allows us to see something for ourselves (such as an event, occurrence, or object), and enables us to optimally use all our senses.
At the sight of a building fire, for example, we can feel the atmosphere, watch how people try to put out the fire, feel the heat of the flames, see how the owner reacts, smell the smoke, and hear the yells of people asking for help.
