User:Shellykowalski/sandbox

This assignment is a part of the citizen journalism wikipedia article.

2014 Ferguson Unrest
On August 9, 2014 police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. After the shooting, protests erupted in the streets, with citizens using their mobile devices to report events on happening on the ground. Shortly after protests began, the U.S government deemed the 37 square miles of airspace surrounding Ferguson as a no-fly zone. This affected the ability for news outlets to report from helicopters. Citizen journalism became a way for Ferguson residents to report on the protests and unrest through the uploading of pictures, video and audio recordings to social media networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Vine: "When the first round of protests broke out in August, it was through social media that reporters first got out the news of their arrests and tear-gassing by riot police, some of whom ordered the reporters–as well as protesters in the crowds–to “stop videotaping” with camera-phones."Citizen journalism played an important role in creating a conversation that mainstream media had to address when it finally began reporting the unrest that was happening well after reports had already been posted to social networking sites. "'The push of these topics from citizen journalists, many whom are Gen-Xers and millennials and who are quick to post information online, has shaped mainstream coverage in that mainstream journalists had to respond, at least to some extent, to the issues being discussed in social media.'"Under the hashtag #Ferguson, users were able to search for eye-witness accounts and other multi-media uploaded during the unrest: "'On #Ferguson, you could watch six simultaneous live streams. You could read what protestors were tweeting, what journalists were reporting, what the police was announcing, and how observers and analysts interpreted the unfolding events. You could also learn how thousands of users were reacting to the numerous posts. In the era of transistor radios and television sets, one did not necessarily know what listeners or viewers yelled back at their machines, but on Twitter one can get a sense of individual responses to mediatized events.'"

Key citizen journalists
The reporting of the 2014 Ferguson unrest through citizen journalism has been praised by many to have filled in where traditional journalism and mainstream media outlets failed. One of the first accounts of the shooting of Michael Brown was a tweet posted by a user who had witnessed the incident occur. Twitter user @TheePharoah uploaded a string of tweets claiming to have witnessed the police shoot a man, attaching an image of the scene and the body. Some suggest that the use of citizen journalism in the reporting of this unrest has taken the power from the police and given a voice to citizens: "'Because of social media, the police don't have control of this story,' said David Karpf, assistant professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. 'It's opened everything up, changed how the media decides what's worthy of coverage — and who to trust,' Karpf said."Mustafa Hussein, a 38-year-old master’s student, documented the unrest from the streets of Ferguson during the protests. He streamed unedited footage of what was taking place live to the internet and had over one million viewers on his first night of streaming.

Another citizen journalist, Antonio French, used his mobile device to upload photos and videos of protests as they happened to his Twitter account.

Criticisms of Ferguson citizen journalists
The name of the suspected officer who shot Michael Brown was released by Anonymous, a hacker activist group. The name was incorrect, however, and the family of the man whose name was released expressed fear over the possible repercussions of this mistake.

The Guardian's Guardian Witness
Guardian Witness is an app created by The Guardian that allows anybody to upload video, pictures and text. Users are able to contribute content to three categories: assignments, live news tie-ins and open suggestions. All contributions are unpaid and while the content owners retain the copyright, The Guardian reserves the right to use the contributions elsewhere and allow third-parties to use the content.

102.1 The Edge's Citizen Edge
In 2015, Toronto’s alternative radio station 102.1 The Edge launched a program calling for non-paid volunteer writers to report on and write about a variety of topics, including local news and music events. All content once submitted is property of Corus Radio.

CTV News My News
Through a plug in on the CTV News website users are encouraged to upload any pictures or videos captured at the scene of breaking news to the My News website.