Citizen journalists, citizens' pictures

Citizen journalism and its increasing prominence during breaking news events is something we noted in the days following the 7/7 bombings in London (see e.g., the "Guardian's London bombing media coverage" and "More attack coverage" posts). It is also the subject of a recent piece, "From the editor's desktop", by editor and acting head of BBC News Interactive, Pete Clifton. Clifton notes:

One of the features of the appalling attacks in London this month has been the extraordinary range of material we have received from our readers. Many of the defining images of the bombings on 7 July came originally from users of this site who were caught up in the incidents in some way. . . . In the weeks since then we have received tens of thousands of e-mails, bringing pictures, video, eye-witness accounts and sometimes valuable tip-offs about alerts in various parts of the capital.

The contributions of our readers have not been a sideshow, they have been at the heart of our coverage. It's hardly something to celebrate at a time of such alarm and uncertainty, but there has without question been another step change in the relationship we have with our readers, their comments and pictures.

(Clifton points to some examples of the images received by the BBC here).

Clifton is also quoted by Mark Glaser, writing in Online Journalism Review (published by USC Annenberg). The article generally praises online news sources, which, Glaser says, "were at the top of their game on July 7 and beyond." But the BBC receives a special mention for its coverage. The BBC Web site, according to Clifton "experienced its most trafficked day ever on July 7 and was inundated with eyewitness accounts from readers - 20,000 e-mails, 1,000 photos and 20 videos in 24 hours." Replying via email Clifton told OJR : "It certainly did feel like a step-change [on July 7] . . . We often get pictures from our readers, but never as many as this, and the quality was very high. And because people were on the scenes, they were obviously better than anything news agencies could offer. A picture of the bus, for example, was the main picture on our front page for much of the day."

Glaser also posts as a sidebar the Nielsen/NetRatings figures for the most-visited news websites on July 7, 2005, in thousands of [U.S.] unique visitors, with the percentage change from the day before." Note that the BBC doesn't make it into the Top 10, by this measure - but it does show easily the largest day-on-day increase.

1. Yahoo! News . . . . . . . . .6,888 (+21%)
2. MSNBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,437 (+45%)
3. CNN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,162 (+24%)
4. AOL News . . . . . . . . . . . 3,173 (+22%)
5. NYTimes.com . . . . . . . . 1,855 (-1%)
6. Fox News . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,787 (+55%)
7. Internet Broadcasting . . 1,643 (+12%)
8. drudgereport.com . . . . . 1,491 (+11%)
9. Gannett Newspapers . . .1,453 (+26%)
10. washingtonpost.com . . 1,378 (+7%)
11. BBC News . . . . . . . . . . 1,314 (+138%)
12. USATODAY.com . . . . . . 1,289 (+53%)
13. Tribune Newspapers . . . 1,279 (-11%)
15. Google News . . . . . . . . . 1,125 (+13%)
16. Knight Ridder Digital . . 1,026 (+12%)

Glaser's piece also has a mention for the Guardian web site, which didn't make it in the U.S. Top 15. He points out that "the BBC and Guardian both had reporters' blogs that were updated as events unfolded, and group blogs such as BoingBoing and Londonist became instant aggregators of online information." Also of interest, Glaser notes: "both the BBC and MSNBC.com gave particular citizen journalists who survived a bit more room to tell their story on instant diaries set up for the occasion." (However, he also notes that "the diarist on the BBC, a woman who would only identify herself as Rachel (previously just "R"), was not totally thrilled about becoming a media sensation herself.")