Citizens Reporting News

It was September 11, 2001, I was sitting at my computer in the office when someone said there was a freak accident in New York. We logged online to see the second plane hit the tower in the World Trade Center. Smoke and debris against a clean blue sky. Surely, we were not seeing what was happening. We had people on the ground that day. We lost contact with some staff for one whole day. Later, their reports were horrifying in their concreteness.

We were not removed from the scene anymore. We could see a sea of shoes at the foot of the towers. I could imagine the silliness of wanting to stay in control by going back inside the towers to get some work done for a client. Those who did, were lost forever. We could not get our arms around the scope of what was happening, but because we knew where to go to talk with each other, we could do something immediately.

At the time we had a very active network as part of Fast Company, Company of Friends. When all planes were grounded, people were left stranded in foreign cities for days. We got online and on the listserv started offering help, telling the stories of people who had driven to their local airport to offer support, a place to go. Clothing and food collections were started. In a manner of hours, from sharing and learning what others were doing, people self-organized. Everyone was reporting what they were seeing and doing. 

Our network was global, we were able to communicate with coordinators and groups across time zones and distance. I remember when bombings took place in Istanbul and I immediately checked with our community correspondent who was living there. We had access - and, most importantly, we had the connections, the network to support each other. That was probably the first time I felt my contribution was important to hold the connections together, to make things happen on a larger scale than self.

Citizens were the eyes and ears for the London underground bombings. We discussed how the crisis developed and how normal people were a vital part of the reporting - using their camera phones to shoot footage from the places near the blasts - at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) event in Vancouver, Canada. The head of public affairs for the London Underground at the time offered the inside story.

What they learned was that their own staff was battling on two fronts - personal and professional.

It happened again recently with the attacks in Mumbai. The victims are no longer just names, but members of a community. Within minutes of the events unfolding, bloggers and citizens with access to technology and learning from the earthquake and Tsunami of 2004, mobilized. Emily Gertz reports on the efforts and the great strides made by the community. Many known names from my own network are active in the direct reporting - Dina Mehta,Gaurav Mishra, Rohit Bhargava among them.

Some mentioned that their first knowledge of the attacks came not from TV, but from Global Voices online, then they followed the events via Twitter updates. The South Asian Journalists Association is hosting live discussions with journalists and experts (hat tip Amy Gahran), Sonia Faleiro gives a first hand account (hat tip Gavin Heaton). I could go on. Can you see the connections? 

I was watching the video recording of a recent talk by Robin Hamman, formerly of the BBC and now with consultancy Headshift, about how mainstream media can leverage the content produced by citizens in their reporting just a couple of days ago. Citizens are not watching paralyzed anymore - they are actively engaged in making things happen.

Although there have been discussions of rumors being passed on as news, and confusion on the ground as a result of citizens inexperienced in news reporting being involved, the images and reports spread from the scene made an impression.

When I posed the question on FriendFeed to my Italian network, one of the responses captured the sentiment of many "Terribili, dirette, vere. La maggior parte degli italiani non e' abituata a ricevere le informazioni in questa maniera, ci sono troppi filtri,"  wrote Gareth. Terrifying, direct, real. Italians are not used to this kind of information delivery, there are too many filters - there still are.

We all fight our individual battles - at work, with the economy, helping our families through an illness, etc. By virtue of knowing each other online, of developing relationships that span the globe, we are also one big community - reporting the news to each other, but also spreading useful information on how to get help through our networks.

We have a constant desire to stay connected. We are learning about the tremendous responsibility that sharing information and accounts entails. The reality is that we are already all connected in one very important way - our humanity. When one of us loses, we all lose. We report the news and we *are* the news. We're experiencing how things are interconnected with the financial crisis, we experience it more and more as what happens around the world affects what we are in our own backyard.

How can we continue to translate access into support? Turning seeing and reporting what is happening to taking positive steps to help each other through it?

[screenshots from Mahalo page tagged Mumbai Terrorist Attacks and from Twitter traffic]

Comments

[Anne Libby]

I think that some of it is having the presence of mind to know what you need, and to ask for it when you need it.

As a resident of lower Manhattan, I remember how surreal it was to hear about truckloads of clothing arriving on our shores. It was an outpouring of compassion and hope from all over the US that it is difficult to downplay in any way, and that I'll never forget. Yet WTC attacks hit one of the wealthiest zipcodes in the US. We didn't need clothing. But we probably couldn't and/or didn't articulate what we needed.

Chabad-Lubavitch is the community of the young rabbi and his wife who died in Mumbai. If you looked at their website very early on, there was a polite appeal to the press to leave them to process their loss. And a link entitled "What Can I Do?" While the actions listed pertained to their community, they were inclusive enough for me to feel connected -- and to offer me an action or two that I could take to help.

And today, Chabad.org's site also includes a board where people of every faith have posted condolences and remembrances.

What a brilliant and luminous response to such a sad series of events. A spot of such beauty, encouraging a purposeful and beneficial response.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Objects as social gestures. Sometimes I do wonder, it must be easier to give something material than to try and understand or share in the mourning, or be compassionate. You bring up a key point: that of being present to ourselves and simply ask for what we need.

I find that very hard to ask, but understand how important it is. I still remember the flowers in front of Buckingham Palace after Diane's death. The people's princess. We do need to feel connected - thank you for pointing out the example.

[Novryan]

"We have a constant desire to stay connected. We are learning about the tremendous responsibility that sharing information and accounts entails. The reality is that we are already all connected in one very important way - our humanity" , well thats right Valeria, in Bali blast what you said was proven, even tough people surely comes from difference background, races or religion - everyone here (Indonesia) hold the same responsibilities as human being , at the end of the day we are all connected.

Nice post Valeria, and nice to know you.

[Kate Brodock]

Valeria -

This entire concept is very interesting indeed. I've been working on a project concerning citizen journalism to be used, in some form, as an early crisis warning system (you can find more here: http://tinyurl.com/5l66pe ).

There are a lot of things happening in this arena that could be incredibly useful in the future.

Cheers,
Kate

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Novryan - the most remarkable thing happens when we are touched by someone or someone touches us emotionally.

@Kate - thank you for the link (I fixed it so the parentheses does not interfere). There are many early warning signs of trouble we can learn to listen to even inside organizations if we are paying attention to the groundswell.