International Association Of Independent Journalists Inc.

[IAIJ]

CITIZEN JOURNALISM IN SLOVAKIA


By Akintayo Olugbenga Adewale

The rise of new media technology such as the Facebook, Twitter, CNN iReport, Youtube and the prevalence of cell phones, digital cameras and so on have brought citizen journalism closer to the people of Slovakia. One interesting thing about being a citizen journalist is that one does not have to be a trained journalist to be involved in citizen journalism as it is enough to have a penchant for information gathering and dissemination. To borrow from Mark Glaser, “the idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact check media on their own or in collaboration with others”.

Here in the Slovak Republic though, the concept of participatory journalism is not a new one even though it is not yet well organized. Citizens without any formal training in journalism write for online forums, discuss national issues, politics, religion and economy among other subjects. Unlike in Nigeria (my home country where I come from), the explosion of all sorts of photographic cameras, video recording devices, mobile phones and appliances of all sorts has brought just a little change to the way citizens get involved in the newsgathering and dissemination process. Slovaks are a little bit relaxed when it comes to participatory journalism. In my opinion, this could be due to (among many other reasons) the fact that the nation was closed for many years under communism. The people were led by communist regimes under the old Czecho Slovak pact and were ‘forced’ to always be in silence. The scar of communism, I believe, still remains fresh in their memory such that harnessing the power of the social media in bringing about desired change even in situations where violence has not been effective is not as common as it ought to be. This I believe partly explains why when a black man like me goes into the streets to cover events and ask for interviews, most people get shocked and look like
- ARE YOU A JOURNALIST? Seeing a person of colour at polling booths during an election with a camera or mobile phone recording and asking questions looks so strange to the majority of the people here. The Slovaks themselves do not expect to see non journalists (whether white or not) taking up the roles of journalism.

Be that as it may, Slovaks and other foreign nationals living in this country are being bitten by the bug of “we journalism”. There is a gradual increase in citizens’ participation in journalism especially with the introduction of CNN iReport. Information is gathered, processed and reported on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. The people here are beginning to see the mainstream media as part of the old communistic system. There is a slow but steady increase in the number of people taking the profession of journalism into their own hands without necessarily going to a journalism school to learn the “5W’s and H” of news writing and reporting.