Egypt’s ‘citizen journalists’: whose voice do you want to hear?

I don’t normally take an interest in international conflicts as much as I have in the one happening now in Egypt.

It piques my curiosity because a country which I had previously thought to be relatively stable is now erupting in chaos.

I’m also amazed at how organised the protestors are in getting their message out and how quickly they adapt to different mediums when the Internet and cell phone service is shut down.

When the Internet is up, however – look out! It seems to me this whole event is increasing awareness of how powerful social media is beyond the pointless status updates (something that, of course, us CreComms have studied and known all along).

CBC did a feature this past week on the role of social media in the Egyptian crisis which gives a good summary on the topic. What's really interesting is the host's comment right at the end of the feature: “It’s incredible – the technology has made almost everyone into citizen journalists.”

I’m not a journalism major, but I did my time learning the ways for a year, and I’ll admit a part of me cringed at the comment coming from none other than a professional journalist.

This is a subject we’ve broached many times in some of my classes – whether social media is weakening the quality of journalism and turning anyone with an opinion and an Internet connection into a ‘citizen journalist’.

I recently started following Nahla Ayed (CBC), Sonia Verma (G&M), and Nick Kristof (NYT) on Twitter – all of them professional journalists accredited by their respective media stations to provide reports from Egypt.

I suppose I chose to follow them because they were easily accessible (I found Sonia Verma’s account after reading about her detainment on the G&M site) – I wouldn’t know where to find an English-language Twitter feed from an everyday Egyptian (suggestions?).

But I also realise that in the unrelenting chatter that is today’s social media, I still rely on the ‘real’ journalists: those who know how to keep an ear to the ground and are trained to filter out the most important stories from the many that are out there (an arguable point, obviously). It is also these abilities that, among other things, are currently making journalists targets for the country’s pro-government supporters.

As the situation escalates in Egypt, whose voice do you want to hear reporting it?