A dissertação teve como objetivo delinear o perfil de dois grupos: aqueles que mantêm a estrutura, como voluntários, do CMI site da Rede Indymedia representante nacional do jornalismo cidadão ou open source e também os que postam conteúdo nele, sem necessariamente ser voluntário. Como método, foram realizadas duas pesquisas empíricas, uma levantando dados mais objetivos do segundo grupo, e outra, baseada em entrevistas abertas, com o primeiro. Dos usuários foram obtidos dados como profissão, gênero, idade, orientação política, hábitos de navegação e postagem; e dos voluntários, valores, crenças, histórias de vida e atividades dentro do grupo. Também foram pesquisados os assuntos e formatos de texto mais recorrentes postados na seção aberta do site. O material obtido e o recurso a um referencial teórico apropriado propiciou como resultado uma análise do veículo e seus participantes à luz das teorias que tematizam: o papel das novas tecnologias na comunicação, e numa possível democratização de seu espectro; os conceitos de jornalismo; jornalismo cidadão, colaborativo ou open source; e jornalismo alternativo; as abordagens sociológicas do ativismo e dos movimentos sociais contemporâneos de uma perspectiva estratégica e cultural; e das relações dos movimentos sociais com a comunicação principalmente em relação às mídias que eles mesmos produzem, e que, fundamentalmente, por não se enquadrarem nos parâmetros do mercado, e focalizarem a luta por mudanças, podemos chamar de alternativa. / This work aims to outline the profile of two groups: those who maintain the structure, as volunteers, of CMI site of Indymedia Net, nationally representative of citizen and open source journalism and also those who post content on it, without necessarily being a volunteer. As a method, we carried out two empirical studies, raising a more objective data from the second group, and another based on open interviews with the former. Users\' data were obtained as: profession, gender, age, political orientation, browsing and postage habits; and from volunteers: values, beliefs, life stories and activities within the group. We have also researched the subjects and text formats more applicants posted in the open section of the site. The obtained material and the use of an appropriate theoretical reference provided as a result an analysis of the vehicle and its participants, using the theories that work with: the role of new technologies in communication, and a possible democratization of its spectrum; the concepts of: journalism; citizen, collaborative or open source journalism; alternative journalism; sociological approaches of the activism and the contemporary social movements from a strategic and cultural perspective; and relationships between social movements and communication, especially referring to the media that they themselves produce, that not fit the parameters of the market and that focus the fight for change and thats why we call it alternative.

In this study we examine five selected media organisations with different forms of production platforms that all appear in Stockholm's southern and western suburbs, which are part of the million-construction project. Their stated ambition is to present an alternative image of the suburbs than that found in mainstream media. They want to portray themselves instead of constantly being described by others. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of the reason for the emergence of these media, their visions according to the media producers themselves, and how they relate to mainstream media. The study is based on a theoretical framework that focuses on diverse approaches of alternative media and the journalists' role in a democratic society. The wide data analysis from qualitative informant interviews, with small observations as a complement, showed results indicating criticism against the misrepresentation of Stockholm suburbs in mainstream media. Furthermore the results show that the overall dissatisfaction of this misrepresentation is one of the main reasons why the different media, which are both represented by citizens and journalists, were founded. The founders saw their work either as a reaction to this misrepresentation or as a way to fill a gap in their community. The local papers we visited embraced the notion of citizen journalism, which proved to be a part of filling the mentioned gap, while other organisations expressed political goals. In summary, there were similarities between the media organisations in terms of problem definition as well as differences in how they approached these problems. Furthermore the analysis confirmed the democratic shortage that is experienced in these areas, and that these media therefore are trying to oppose. They provide the local community they operate in with news, information and opinion, but they also aim to be a platform for participation and discussion.

Honors Project--Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-52).

This thesis critically examines the nature and purpose of a series of four town-hall-like meetings, the Community Dialogues, held in the townships and suburbs of East London, South Africa, in 2009. They were undertaken by a mainstream, commercial newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, under the banner of the worldwide public journalism movement. Following Christians et al (2009), the thesis sets out a normative framework of media performance in a democracy, including a detailed and critical normative theory of the ‘facilitative role’ proposed and developed by Haas (2007), one of the public journalism movement’s key advocate-theorists. It also draws on a variety of theoretical frameworks and perspectives in the fields of Political Studies and Media Studies to provide an analytical overview of the complex matrix of political and media contexts – at the macro (global), meso (national) and micro (local) levels – that have helped give impetus to the Community Dialogues and also shaped their ongoing operation as a public journalism strategy in the South African context. Following a critical realist case study design, the thesis goes on to provide a narrative account of the Dialogues based on in-depth interviews exploring the motivations, self-understandings and perceptions of those journalists who originated, directed and participated in this project, as well as observation of a Community Dialogue, and an examination of some of the journalistic texts related to the Dialogues. This primary data is then critically evaluated against normative theories of press performance, especially Haas’s ‘public philosophy’ of public journalism. The thesis found that apart from their undoubted success in generating a more comprehensive and representative news agenda for the newspaper, the Dialogues often fell short of Habermas’s (1989) proceduralist-discursive notion of the ‘deliberating public’, which sees citizens share a commitment to engage in common deliberation and public problem solving. This can be attributed to a number of problems, including some important theoretical/conceptual weaknesses in the Community Dialogues’ project design, the relative immaturity of the project, the domination of civil society by political society in the South African political context, and a number of organisational constraints at the Daily Dispatch. On the other hand, the newspaper’s editorial leadership has shown clear commitment to the idea of expanding the project in the future, establishing a more a more structured programme of community engagement, and nurturing a more sustainable public sphere, including the building of a more dialectical relationship between the Dialogues and civil society.

Submitted by Aline Santiago da Silva Santos (aline.santos@fgv.br) on 2011-05-17T17:57:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CPDOC2011AdrianaNascimento.pdf: 1843300 bytes, checksum: b26db63d0773f64893a300c1c6cd597d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Renan Castro(renan.castro@fgv.br) on 2011-05-19T17:20:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CPDOC2011AdrianaNascimento.pdf: 1843300 bytes, checksum: b26db63d0773f64893a300c1c6cd597d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-24T18:35:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CPDOC2011AdrianaNascimento.pdf: 1843300 bytes, checksum: b26db63d0773f64893a300c1c6cd597d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-04-29 / Featuring a historic showing the configuration of journalism as a professional activity and business, this study develops a discussion about the journalistic open to participation from individuals with no formation as a journalist to reach at a model of citizen journalism in which news are guided by the public interest and contribute to the strengthening of public visibility and access to information that promotes deliberation. Through analysis of the news site Eu-Repórter, it is observed that the exercise of citizen journalism model is not viable in a movement within a vehicle for communication of traditional media, as news goes through filters constructed by a market logic that foresees economic and political interests outside the media's role as a space for public debate broadened. / Apresentando um percurso histórico que mostra a configuração do jornalismo como atividade profissional e empresarial, o presente trabalho desenvolve uma reflexão sobre a produção jornalística aberta à participação do indivíduo sem formação de jornalista para se chegar a um modelo de jornalismo cidadão no qual as notícias são pautadas pelo interesse público e colaboram para o reforço da visibilidade pública e do acesso à informação que fomenta a deliberação. Através da análise do canal de jornalismo aberto Eu-Repórter, observa-se que o exercício do modelo proposto de jornalismo cidadão torna-se inviável em uma iniciativa ligada a um veículo de comunicação da mídia tradicional, porque a notícia passa por filtros construídos através de uma lógica de mercado que prevê interesses políticos e econômicos alheios a um papel da mídia como espaço de debate público ampliado.

A dissertação teve como objetivo delinear o perfil de dois grupos: aqueles que mantêm a estrutura, como voluntários, do CMI site da Rede Indymedia representante nacional do jornalismo cidadão ou open source e também os que postam conteúdo nele, sem necessariamente ser voluntário. Como método, foram realizadas duas pesquisas empíricas, uma levantando dados mais objetivos do segundo grupo, e outra, baseada em entrevistas abertas, com o primeiro. Dos usuários foram obtidos dados como profissão, gênero, idade, orientação política, hábitos de navegação e postagem; e dos voluntários, valores, crenças, histórias de vida e atividades dentro do grupo. Também foram pesquisados os assuntos e formatos de texto mais recorrentes postados na seção aberta do site. O material obtido e o recurso a um referencial teórico apropriado propiciou como resultado uma análise do veículo e seus participantes à luz das teorias que tematizam: o papel das novas tecnologias na comunicação, e numa possível democratização de seu espectro; os conceitos de jornalismo; jornalismo cidadão, colaborativo ou open source; e jornalismo alternativo; as abordagens sociológicas do ativismo e dos movimentos sociais contemporâneos de uma perspectiva estratégica e cultural; e das relações dos movimentos sociais com a comunicação principalmente em relação às mídias que eles mesmos produzem, e que, fundamentalmente, por não se enquadrarem nos parâmetros do mercado, e focalizarem a luta por mudanças, podemos chamar de alternativa. / This work aims to outline the profile of two groups: those who maintain the structure, as volunteers, of CMI site of Indymedia Net, nationally representative of citizen and open source journalism and also those who post content on it, without necessarily being a volunteer. As a method, we carried out two empirical studies, raising a more objective data from the second group, and another based on open interviews with the former. Users\' data were obtained as: profession, gender, age, political orientation, browsing and postage habits; and from volunteers: values, beliefs, life stories and activities within the group. We have also researched the subjects and text formats more applicants posted in the open section of the site. The obtained material and the use of an appropriate theoretical reference provided as a result an analysis of the vehicle and its participants, using the theories that work with: the role of new technologies in communication, and a possible democratization of its spectrum; the concepts of: journalism; citizen, collaborative or open source journalism; alternative journalism; sociological approaches of the activism and the contemporary social movements from a strategic and cultural perspective; and relationships between social movements and communication, especially referring to the media that they themselves produce, that not fit the parameters of the market and that focus the fight for change and thats why we call it alternative.

This presented work deals with crowdsourcing tools for mapping and filtering of data that are created by the Ushahidi, Inc. and ways of their use. Ushahidi and SwiftRiver platforms and hosted version of Ushahidi called Crowdmap are counted among the tools for crisis mapping; however, more and more they are also used for other topics or issues. The aim of this work is to subject to a critical point of view not only the Ushahidi platform as a tool, but also a number of significant or interesting projects in which it was used. Presented is also the recommendation, how to use Ushahidi to create a successful project and the other way round what to avoid, when you work with Ushahidi. The basic building elements of Ushahidi are crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, geospatial information, and in particular the work of volunteers. This work describes the role of these building elements in Ushahidi, and subjects to critical reflection also the problematic sides, which Ushahidi is struggling with. Following is the analysis of selected sample of Ushahidi and Crowdmap deployments, which deals with the thematic, geographical and time stratification of the maps in the sample. Some significant uses of Ushahidi with humanitarian and non-humanitarian purpose of the deployment are examined in the end.

The aim of this study is to explore how one citizen journalist, Joakim Lamotte, reflects on codes of journalistic standards and ethics. Lamotte is a Swedish citizen journalist who publishes texts reporting on events in society on his Facebook-page. From the Facebook-page, five texts have been sampled for analysis in this study. This is done through using Norman Fairclough's critical discourse analysis as a methodology. The analysis is supported by Erving Goffman's theory of self presentation and Rom Harré and Luk van Langenhove's positioning theory as theorethical frameworks, to explore Lamotte's self presentation and how he is positioning in his role as a citizen journalist. Some of the main results of the study are that Lamotte uses the term independent journalist in the self presentation of his role, but at times includes himself in the group of the public (his audience). Throughout the samples he positions himself against professional journalists and mainstream media, as a way to reinforce his position as an independent journalist. While doing so, he criticises their choices and justifies his own choices relating to codes of journalistic standards and ethics. The study is an example of one citizen journalist with a large audience, in a Swedish context, reflects on codes of journalistic standards and ethics.

Studien syftar till att, ur ett medieetiskt perspektiv, analysera vilka oetiska och etiska metoder som organisationen Dumpen använder samt att granska hur individer som söker kontakt med barn i sexuellt syfte andrafieras. Detta för att bidra med kunskap till forskningen kring journalistik och medieetik. För att uppnå studiens syfte genomförs en kvantitativ innehållsanalys med ett totalurval som omfattar 255 konfrontationsvideos som publicerats på hemsidan Dumpen.se. Studiens teoretiska ramverk består av medieetik, reglerad medieetik och andrafiering.    Studiens resultat visar att organisationen Dumpen inte använder oetiska metoder i stor utsträckning, bortsett från de oetiska metoder vars förekomst beror på det empiriska materialet konfrontationsvideos. Resultatet visar också att organisationen i stor utsträckning använder den etiska metoden får försvara sig och att andrafiering i form av avvikande beteende är vanligt förekommande. Andrafiering i form av behov av vård förekommer däremot sällan. Resultatet visar också att vid de tillfällen som andrafiering förekommer, sker det inte i samband med oetiska metoder. Vidare föreslås forskning där allmänhetens åsikter kring medborgarjournalistik och organisationer som Dumpen studeras, samt olika jämförande studier. / The purpose of this study is, from a media ethics perspective, to analyze the ethical and unethical methods used by the organization Dumpen, as well as examine how individuals that are seeking contact with children for sexual purposes are othered. To achieve this study´s purpose, a quantitative content analysis was conducted with a total sample of 255 confrontation videos published on the website Dumpen.se. The theoretical framework of the study includes media ethics, regulated media ethics and othering.   The study´s results indicate that the organization Dumpen does not extensively employ unethical methods, except for those unethical methods whose occurrence is linked to the empirical material of confrontation videos. The findings also reveal that the organization largely utilizes ethical methods to defend itself, and othering in the form of deviant behavior is commonly observed. However, othering in the form of a need for care is rarely present. Furthermore, the results show that when othering occurs, it is not associated with unethical methods. The study suggests further research on public opinions regarding citizen journalism and organizations like Dumpen, as well as various comparative studies.

Map Kibera project and it’s Voice of Kibera reporting initiative present an example of new media applying the principle of crowd sourcing to foster social change and provide voice to community of Kibera, Kenya. The aim of this study was to analyses, firstly, how the concept of participatory communication has been applied during the implementation of the project. As a basis for this approach an Integrated Model of Communication for Social Change was applied during the analysis of articles being produced on two project blogs to identify what steps have been implemented and what new aspects could be brought. Secondly, it was important to understand what social change the implementation of such project could bring to community it serves for. Finally, in order to develop a strategy for sustainability possible barriers/limitations of citizen/actor engagement were identified. Research tools used for this analysis were qualitative semi-structured interviews with project team members as well as participants/non participants of the project combined together with quantitative content analysis applied on articles produced on Map Kibera and Voice of Kibera blogs.Most important findings indicate that the application of IMCFSC took place almost fully but was applied on a particular community – project team. At the same time the use of crowd sourcing platform and reporting gave citizens of Kibera an opportunity to create their own agenda and provide a real picture of the area thus gaining a “voice” and possibility to speak out loud to broader communities. Nevertheless it is important to mention that the access to information created during the project was possible mostly in the offline form (printed materials, maps) and via mobile phones thus indicating to such barriers as the lack of such ICT tools as computers and also to the need to co-operate more closely to broader community of Kibera to avoid possible misconception of the work of the project. These findings are important to consider when planning implementation of similar projects in other communities located in different geographical, political and social settings.