Mapping citizen journalism and the promise of digital inclusion: A perspective from the Global South

Introduction

This study, which follows a constructivist qualitative approach, examines the factors that inform the practice of citizen journalism and asks how individuals in poor and marginalized communities of the Global South report their realities. Researchers in the fields of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) and communication for social change (CfSC) recently issued calls for new models that would enhance our understanding of the wider context that frames the relationships and linkages commonly shared by those who practise citizen journalism (Carpenter et al., 2015; Rodríguez et al., 2014). Whereas much of the literature compares the norms and processes of citizen journalism to professional standards practised in mainstream newsrooms in advanced democracies, few studies examine how those same processes and practices are shaped by dynamics common to societies of the Global South. Given that communication technologies now connect us on a global scale, the absence of discourses that counter or complement our understanding of these practices constitutes a gap in the literature (Steensen, 2013). This study offers a contribution in that regard by mapping a set of considerations that impact the practice of citizen journalism in the Global South, yet are mostly absent from the literature. The topic is of interest insofar as the scholarship that compares and contrasts citizen journalism to institutionalized routines in professional newsrooms may not accurately account for structural and institutional challenges that impact those who practise journalism in precarious settings. The present research sets out to counter the dominant narrative by mapping structural and institutional factors that pose practical challenges to the agency of citizen journalists who report the news in the Global South, yet are seldom noted in the literature.

The state of the press in the Dominican Republic

The locus of this research is the Dominican Republic, a vibrant media market where state-owned and private broadcasters operate 25 television stations and more than 300 radio stations in an area smaller than the state of West Virginia. In this competitive space, freedom of expression is protected and journalists are, in principle, free to report without prior restraint. A constitutional amendment passed in 2009 enhanced protections for journalists, yet Dominican law 6132 restricts news media and places severe curbs on libel, which include criminal penalties in the form of fines and up to 2 years’ imprisonment for anyone found to insult or defame public officials. Another source for concern over freedom of the press are the rules that require reporters to obtain credentials from the regulatory National Commission on Public Performances prior to broadcast appearances. These curbs on a free press, criticized by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (1985), were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2013. Also troubling are instances of editorial pressure that flow from financial constraints imposed by government and corporate ad spending: such practices have long impacted newsrooms worldwide (Delorme and Fedler, 2005; Ekdale et al., 2015) and the Dominican press offers no exception. The 3465 journalists that comprise the membership of the Colegio Dominicano de Periodistas (CDP, 2015; the Association of Dominican Journalists) denounced threats of dismissal and pressure from advertisers that pose a chilling effect to investigative journalism in the nation (EFE, 2015). The announcement follows a wave of consolidation that shuttered six major newspapers and three print news magazines, leaving seven major print news dailies in operation (Lora, 2014).

Interference with members of the press over the past three decades ranges from intimidation and harassment to the murder of journalists. Evidence of attempts of censorship, intimidation and reprisals against journalists who report on electoral fraud, corruption, violent crime and the drug trade has continued to mount, as did retaliation against journalists who exposed the forced evictions and arbitrary deportation of individuals of Haitian descent. The Organization of American States (2013) and Reporters Without Borders (2015) reported that investigative journalists had been targeted and intimidated during coverage of the elections and forced deportations. The growing number of violent attacks against members of the press coincides with a spike in drug trafficking on the island: investigative reporters who cover corruption, drug trafficking and violent crime increasingly have faced threats, reprisals, intimidation and violence at the hand of the government, the police and criminals (C. elCaribe, 2014; International Press Institute, 2012; Reporters Without Borders, 2015). As the number of journalists murdered rose to five over the past decade and threats against the press continued to mount, the Society of Dominican Newspapers established a committee to monitor threats and violations of freedom of speech.

In order to examine how these and other factors impact the production of citizen journalism, this analysis first provides a definition to narrow the field of enquiry and briefly reviews relevant concepts in the literature. Next, we detail the research design, then categorize, map and discuss the factors that emerge. We conclude with recommendations for future research.

Conceptual framework

This study defines citizen journalism according to the typology developed by Nip (2006), who differentiates it from the concepts of participatory journalism, and alternative, or community media. In Nip’s understanding, citizen journalists are those who produce and publish original news content without the assistance or participation of professional journalists or established media outlets. As such, this definition stands in contrast to that presented in the work of scholars who, in the vein of Goode (2009), understand citizen journalists to be individuals who contribute news content to mainstream media outlets, and may be aligned with particular social movements. For the purpose of this analysis, citizen journalism is conceived as a form of reporting that may occasionally complement, yet does not replace local mainstream media news coverage, in the manner proposed by Jurrat (2011). This approach parallels the one presented by Rodríguez (2011), whose discussion of citizen media in Colombia positions it as a form of resistance that confronts and opposes the normative and hegemonic narratives, provides a counterpoint to silence and strengthens individual agency in a contested landscape filled with violence.

The present analysis thus construes citizen journalism as news produced outside mainstream institutions in a manner that may contrast to established definitions of professional journalism. Thus defined, the practice is akin to the ‘alternative and independent media’ role proposed by Forde (2009), as well as that proposed by Atton and Hamilton (2008), who describe alternative journalism practices where minimally trained or untrained amateur community journalists report autonomously with a focus on underrepresented voices, unaided by mainstream organizations, professional networks or official sources. Specifically, the term in this analysis denotes reporting that privileges the perspective of communities and populations underrepresented in legacy news media accounts: this reporting may reaffirm cultural identity or chronicle everyday life of rural, isolated or disenfranchised populations, or of cultures nearing extinction. Reporting of this nature is situated not only in community and alternative media, but it may also air on public broadcasting, government-owned media as well as on commercial and mainstream media. Still, whether near or far from mainstream media, citizen journalism thus defined stands in contrast to journalism that privileges elite and official sources to the detriment of local or underrepresented voices.

Citizen journalism examined

Technological advances have impacted news production and publishing in ways that challenge traditional communication models and herald the rise of a new class of citizen journalism. The emergence of alternative methods of reporting and publishing up-ends established concepts and news values that prevailed in commercial professional journalism over the course of the past century. The topic has prompted strong interest since Gillmor (2004) examined the impact of grassroots journalism on mainstream news reporting. A growing literature of descriptive research has recounted experiences in community, participatory and alternative media that oppose, resist or challenge hegemonic narratives perpetuated in global corporate and legacy news media.

Contributions to the field have contemplated how alternative and community journalists produce independent reporting that narrates expressions of resistance (Atton, 2009; Forde, 2011; Rodríguez, 2011) or threatens to disrupt mainstream news media models (Holton et al., 2013; Nee, 2013).

Increasingly, much of the research has explored the space where professional journalists and citizen journalism intersect and collaborate with established news outlets. A number of studies have examined the interaction between citizen journalism and democratic engagement (Allan and Thorsen, 2009; Deuze et al., 2007; Goode, 2009; Lindner et al., 2015). Indeed, participatory and community media scholars have considered the causal linkages and proposed that locally produced, relevant news content can predict democratic participation and foster civic awareness (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2009; Meadows et al., 2009). There is evidence that traditional news media collaborations with citizen journalists continue to evolve; research has identified innovative newsroom experiments that engage audiences in consultation while preserving traditional news reporting routines (Canter, 2013). Others have questioned whether participatory journalism can break free from mainstream media hegemonic news narratives that uphold established values and contribute to the perpetuation of social inequality (Dutton, 2004; Norris, 2002).

While a growing scholarship contrasts and compares citizen journalism to professional journalism, the former is seldom examined on the basis of its own merit. Amid the exceptions, Forde (2011) offers a reminder that the print version of citizen journalism predates the commercial journalism standard that professionals and journalism educators now consider canonical. The preponderant criticism is to fault non-professional reporters for the failure to adhere to established norms and balanced news reporting, yet recent research has found US citizen journalists unaffiliated to mainstream news media also follow established norms of truth-seeking, information verification and balance (Johnson and St John III, 2015). Still, Carpenter (2008) identified an absence of established routines and inferior access to sources as a common norm among citizen journalists, in contrast to mainstream news media practices. Furthermore, there is evidence that citizen journalists display a high level of autonomy and personal initiative in the selection of the topics they cover (Reich, 2008). This style of reporting, which may reflect the absence of established relationships to official sources, stands in contrast to professional standards practised in mainstream news media; it may lead reporters to rely on ‘ad hoc short-term exchanges’ (Reich, 2008: 750) and hyperlinks to secondary sources found online (Atton, 2002; Carpenter, 2008). Steensen (2009), for one, acknowledged the bias of research that focuses on news production within organized newsroom settings and understates the role of individual practices.

Insofar as the news content itself is concerned, scholars agree that most news generated by citizen journalism revolves around local reporting and may qualify as hyper-local media (Miel and Faris, 2008) or ‘placeblogs’ that deliver witness accounts of ‘soft news coverage about community life’ (Paulussen and D’heer, 2013: 599). Ball-Rokeach et al. (2001) identify ‘locally-oriented citizen journalism’ as a form of ‘neighborhood storytelling’ that reaches beyond personal networks to fill the void left unreported by mainstream media news sources (p. 260). Forde (2011) furthered these notions with the suggestion that reporters who volunteer or receive low pay may be limited in their ability to develop long-term relationships with sources and in the extent to which they interrogate their sources about news story versions.

The literature on newsroom innovation allows us to infer that macro-level structural constraints impact the practice of citizen journalism, as do meso-level influences comprised of economic, political and institutional considerations (Boczkowski, 2004; Paulussen et al., 2011). At the micro-level, individual motivation, technological affordances, source access and support from community also factor into agency, and thus determine whether an individual can successfully practise citizen journalism (Straubhaar and Tufekci, 2012). As the field of study evolves, there is still limited understanding about the structural and institutional considerations that may impact agency and the motivation that drive individuals to report the news in the Global South. The specific conditions and the wider context that impact citizen journalism outside of established mainstream journalism settings in advanced democracies remain largely unexamined. In order to better understand these considerations, this study sets out to examine citizen journalism in the Dominican Republic in the manner outlined in the next section.

Research design

The subjects of this research were recruited from among graduates of communicators for development, a 4-year citizen journalism training programme that delivered multimedia journalism workshops taught in Spanish to individuals from low-income, remote and marginalized communities in the Dominican Republic. Funded by the Office of the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, with assistance from the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami, the workshops, which ran from 2008 to 2010, consisted of a replicable model of citizen reporter training designed for non-traditional and underprivileged students. Students received instruction on basic notions of print, broadcast and electronic journalism, along with information about legal and ethical considerations essential for newsgatherers. A key component of the programme tasked graduates to multiply knowledge by sharing their training in their community in a sustainable model for social change and development. The 141 graduates generated news coverage that exposed issues as varied as access to drinking water, sustainable ecological development, child abuse and the impact of the Haiti earthquake on the diaspora.

Due to the investigator’s role as a journalism instructor among the respondents, 5 years prior to the date of the interviews, this study makes note of the power asymmetries in the relationship between researcher and interview subject in culturally charged spaces. Kadianaki (2014) suggested that a researcher in such a setting considers and reflects upon the ways in which her own participation could pose challenges or prompt role reversal and resistance, or otherwise impact the disclosures and self-presentation of the interview subjects. It is possible and even probable that the subjects perceived the investigator in a role other than that of researcher, a common characteristic of the qualitative method described by Chesebro and Borisoff (2007). Whereas meaning emerges from the interaction between the researcher and the subjects as the latter illuminate how they construct reality, the interpretations derived from the researcher–subject interaction are localized, and the findings emanate from the interpretation of themes and patterns by the researcher (Rakow, 2011).

Structured interviews were conducted with 9 women and 16 men between the ages of 20 and 62 in the workplace, home or at a neighbourhood public space at 17 urban and rural locations throughout all four quadrants of the Dominican Republic. Interviews were undertaken in a manner appropriate to qualitative methods of data collection; each lasted anywhere between 1 and 4 hours, and the subjects were interviewed in their natural environment (Lindlof and Taylor, 2002) over the course of 2 weeks of travel in January 2014. The number of interviews (N = 25) meets the median found in recent studies in the discipline (Jensen et al., 2013) and was capped at the point where the researcher was unable to identify the emergence of new themes (Flick, 2002). The questionnaire was designed to first probe respondents about individual habits, norms, processes and conditions for reporting and news production. Next, it enquired about structures, institutions and peer, community or other social networks that supported or challenged their reporting. Next, it asked about individual motivation and about tangible (i.e. monetary compensation or in kind rewards) or intangible (i.e. prestige or recognition) results obtained from news reporting. Finally, it sought to establish perceived versus real evidence of achievement through observation and collection of documented accomplishments.

Upon completion of data collection, the content of the interviews was transcribed, analysed and validated; they are now reported in accordance with the seven stages that allow for validation criteria in qualitative research outlined by Kvale (1996). Adherence to established criteria within the qualitative research paradigm has been found to confer credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability among researchers who employ these methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Given that findings of single case studies pose a problem of generalizability, this research relies on methodological triangulation of material collected in the form of interviews, observations and documentation, supplemented by debriefing member checks with key sources, in the manner proposed by Denzin and Lincoln (2005) and practised by Boczkowski (2004), Steensen (2009) and others. In addition, the research was conducted over a period of time to ensure the object of study was understood within the context. Although the researcher was not immersed in the culture for a lengthy sequential and uninterrupted period of time, the interviews followed 6 years of repeated visits to the field and multiple interactions with the subjects during which time the researcher sought to uncover the ‘range and reason of opinions’ in that particular setting, an approach Rakow (2011: 420) defends as one that allows the researcher to comprehend how the subjects make sense of their lived experience.

Given the qualitative nature of this study and the relevance of context to the situation and the lived experience of the subjects, the demographics of the sample are presented in Table 1 to make it possible for readers to evaluate the findings (Jensen et al., 2013) (Table 1).

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Table 1.

Demographics of the sample.

	Female	Male	Total
Occupation
Employed full time	8	9	17
Un/underemployed	1	5	6
Practice journalism
Citizen journalism	3	9	12
Career journalism	3	1	4
Education
Four-year college degree	6	8	14
Age (years)
20–34	7	8	15
35–50	2	2	4
50+	6		6
Total	9	16	25

N = 25.

The schema that emerged from the interviews revealed that commonly shared factors impact the practices of these citizen journalists: the patterns that emerged from the interviews can be mapped along three major categories, which we examine next.

An alternative approach

Figure 1 shows a graphical depiction in the form of an inverted pyramid, which suggests how these factors exert an impact on the agency of citizen journalists and their ability to produce news.

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Figure 1.

The SIM map: dimensions of citizen journalism.

Two of the three dimensions of the ecosystem of citizen journalism outlined here, structural and institutional challenges, seldom warrant mention in dominant academic narratives. Still, they present a set of practical challenges that predetermine the viability of citizen journalism in settings where basic needs are not readily met. Inasmuch as the first two dimensions impact individual agency and motivation, and consequently moderate work norms and processes, they deserve the attention of those who examine the practice of citizen journalism in the Global South. The three dimensions parsed here are as follows:

We examine these in turn.

Where poverty is the norm, structural factors trump the will to report

Structural factors pertain to conditions that directly impact the ability of citizen journalism to report and distribute news and information. In that manner, they are of the essence of the practice: they include buildings that house accessible workspaces, dependable electrical power and safe water supply, access to functional hardware and software, and reliable Internet connectivity at digital subscriber line (DSL) speeds or above. In remote and impoverished communities that lack reliable basic physical structures and services, citizen journalism coexists daily with challenges unthinkable to most reporters in the Global North. Although power outages occur everywhere on the island, with the exception of resort areas, where hotel generators and private power plants ensure continuous electrical service, the villages on the border with Haiti subsist in a reverse reality that defaults to blackouts. Reporters all along the border told of prolonged power and water outages so frequent as to be the norm: in at least two of the border villages, the electrical power comes on at 5 or 6 pm each day and lasts only until 8 or 9 pm. Solar power is practically non-existent in this Caribbean setting, where the sun shines, on average, 12 hours each day throughout most of the year. It is common for local radio stations to be off air for weeks on end and for computers and Internet connectivity to fall silent victim to the erratic power supply and limited financial resources that prevent redress and repair of inexistent or inadequate physical spaces and supporting structures (electrical poles, sanitation, road access, etc.).

As a direct result of an erratic power supply and a communications landscape where fixed telephony relies on microwave radio relay in rural areas and high bandwidth Internet subscriptions remain below 5 per cent, mobile telephony rapidly grew to reach 88 per cent of the population by 2013 (International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2016). As one reporter in the eastern region, where sugarcane plantations and endemic poverty loom, remarked, ‘Now even the guy who sells coconuts from a street cart carries a cell phone’. Reporters are no exception; every respondent has come to rely on mobile telephony for SMS communication, and many resort to their phones to publish content online. Although widespread, the new default mode of connection comes at a significant financial cost; where poverty is the norm, monetary constraints may limit a reporter’s connectivity even in villages where electrical power is available every day. Prevalent wage insecurity drives most to purchase phone and data services on a pay-as-you-go basis, replenishing their store of minutes whenever they can afford to do so: while some could only pay 50 Dominican pesos for 24 hours of service at a time, others spent 1800 Dominican pesos on a monthly subscription plan. Respondents spoke of difficult trade-offs made in personal and home life budgets in order to allow for cellphone connectivity, which most consider an essential lifeline.

Reporters who do not own personal computers and laptops, or cannot afford home connectivity, at times file news stories from public access locations and telecentres that offer Internet access points. Even at locations where connectivity and computing are made available at minimal or low cost to the public, access is not always possible. Most reporters told of slow connection speeds, deficient hardware and outdated or sluggish software. In addition, a drive across the country exposes the reality that public access points are often shuttered as a result of basic structural deficits. Water and power shortages require facilities remain closed until basic conditions for public access are restored, sometimes a matter of months, as observed on repeated tours of villages and small towns in any one region. Throughout the country, such major challenges to sanitation abound: trash collection is unknown anywhere outside major urban areas, and a quarter of the rural population still depends on latrines. Most small and remote villages struggle with contaminated water supplies, and in various locations, particularly in the arid south-west, water must be trucked in at great expense. Absent running water, toilets are unavailable and public buildings thus remain shuttered. At other times, precarious road conditions compound daily obstacles to connectivity. In what became a common refrain, a 54-year-old male reporter recounted that his cellphone and extra charged batteries were the village’s only source of reliable contact to the outside world when mountain roads become impassable in the wake of violent storms that disrupt landlines.

The results of the interviews indicate that more often than not, efforts to report and publish news on a regular and consistent basis will falter in the absence of functional structural conditions (shelter, electrical power, clean water, sanitation, paved roads, bridges, computer hardware, etc.).

Weak institutions, a culture of patronage and impunity pose challenges

Institutional factors refer to consistent political, cultural and economic policies that allow for the continued existence and operation of public spaces that are inclusive, and wherever there is a history of racial, ethnic or class strife, the existence of provisions that encourage safe and equal access for members of diverse groups. Factors under consideration in this category range from the legislative to the political; they may include labour policies, legal protections and freedom of speech, overall political climate and more (Atton and Hamilton, 2008).

Power in the democratic republic is highly concentrated in the presidency; the president is both the chief of state and head of government, and exercises direct control of the national budget. The leading Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) holds a clear majority in Congress and faces minimal challenge from the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (DRP). The leading PLD yields power through allegiance with a network of governmental appointees. The concentration of power follows a longstanding tradition of clientelism and patronage that reinforces well-entrenched patterns of inequality. Poverty is widespread throughout and endemic in the south and along the 376-kilometre land border with Haiti. Nationwide unemployment figures number 22 per cent for men and twice that figure for women, one of the many drivers of the rural exodus that has led to a concentration of 79 per cent of the population in urban areas and a steady migrant outflow. Long-standing cultural patterns and the absence of trustworthy and enforceable legal protections pose complex challenges that compound various failures of economic, technology and educational policies set at the national level.

In settings where institutions are weak and inequality prevails, citizen journalists who check on government and hold authorities accountable may suffer retaliation. Time and again, the reporters interviewed in this study told of intimidation and persecution perpetrated by official and elite sources who withdrew access to reporters as punishment after the release of an incriminating news story. In one instance, a reporter in a coastal village who broadcast news of costly road repairs left incomplete was banned from attending public meetings by the local mayor, even though the reporter is a community leader who sits on the local economic council. These accounts reinforce reports of attempts at coercion and intimidation of press (Reporters Without Borders, 2015).

Observed from a wider perspective, it is possible to glean how the cultural legacy of authoritarianism and patronage encourages complacency, thwarts investigative reporting and helps perpetuate the status quo. A 51-year-old reporter on the government payroll explained that mimicry is the norm in everyday life, ‘We pattern ourselves on the boss; everyone seeks consensus. We had 30 years of dictatorship where anyone who spoke up could turn up dead the next day’. An ingrained, learned conformist attitude may spill over into reporting practices and could inhibit less aggressive or confident reporters from contradicting or challenging the version of news accounts presented by elite and official sources. On election day, a 37-year-old female reporter spoke of politicians as ‘sacred cows’, whose crimes remain unprosecuted in a climate of ‘rampant impunity’, when a 50-year-old male reporter who demanded to inspect the ballot boxes in the precinct prior to the start of voting found them pre-stuffed with 150 votes already cast for ruling party candidates.

At times, respondents relayed egregious accounts of retaliation and coercion perpetrated against themselves and their sources. Nearby, in the outskirts of Santo Domingo, a 42-year-old reporter, who has been repeatedly persecuted for her news reports about medical wrongdoing, believes that she owes her life to her service in the military guard. After reporting the deaths of emergency patients who were not transported to the hospital for lack of money to cover the cost of gas for the ambulance, the reporter was reprimanded by local authorities, who disparaged her in racist remarks that alluded to her dark skin colour. Her apparently well-founded concerns about widespread medical negligence, compounded by threats of retaliation, means she must travel to the capital for medical treatment.

Closer to the border, reporting the truth can carry a high cost in the form of threats or actual violent retaliation. A team of reporters on the border with Haiti, one male and one female, both in their 30s, who in 2012 broadcast on local radio and online news of the theft of harvested fruits and vegetables from the community storehouse, came across the source of the story shot to death in the back 7 days after the story aired. Through this and other accounts, the pattern that emerged in many of the interviews confirmed that official and other elite actors, in defiance of the law and sheltered by a culture of impunity, rely on coercion, intimidation, threats and physical violence to discourage reporters and sources alike. A 32-year-old female reporter summarized the context for the accepted practices that led to retaliation against reporters and sources:

It does not behoove those in power that the people in the communities gain power. That would be most inconvenient. I don’t believe it is in their best interest for there to be educated folk who feel empowered and who understand they can bring about change in the world. Blogs make it so that anyone can now read. That is not convenient for them because the mainstream media sometimes follows a set agenda or they decide to print the text of a press release. I’ve seen it happen. They are not interested that there be people in the communities who feel empowered.

The findings show that institutional structures present hurdles to source access and other obstacles to accurate reporting, which may at times include safety threats that compound standard reporting challenges.

Respected by the community and dismissed by the elite

The three components of psychological empowerment outlined by Leung (2009), self-efficacy, perceived competence and the desire for control, may play a role as emotional incentives for those who practise citizen journalism. As such, some of the elements evaluated in this category refer to established work routines and procedures, motivation, training, compensation, and whether or not the reporter follows an editorial agenda. Furthermore, ethics, reputation and access to sources are all taken into account as evidence of individual agency and effective news production.

Many respondents spoke about the challenges of operating on the margins, without the backing and credibility of a mainstream media organization. For most, everyday challenges of a structural or institutional nature often were the most difficult to overcome. Yet, for those who successfully established a basic reporting routine, access to official sources at times proved difficult if not impossible; most complained that official and elite sources deny interviews to anyone not affiliated with mainstream media. Ironically, since plagiarism and appropriation are rampant and impunity abounds, mainstream media outlets will publish citizen journalism without proper attribution. Several reporters spoke of the conflicted emotions they felt when they saw one of their news stories picked up by a regional or national legacy news outlet without pay and a byline that inaccurately credited ‘news staff’. Yet others reported that the appearance of partisanship that emanates from having received journalism skills training from a government agency also meant that some friends shunned them and were ‘forever lost’.

The reporters interviewed in this study focused exclusively on local news: the topics ranged from news of potholes and citizen complaints about the lack of waste collection to coastal water contamination and investigations of medical malpractice at local clinics and hospitals. A 62-year-old reporter justified the focus on hyper-local news: ‘I have reported on potholes, trash removal, the inauguration of the new health clinic, and the firefighters. People love their local news, they’re not interested in what happens elsewhere in the valley’. Hyper-local news coverage need not be inconsequential. The same journalist has written and broadcast extensively on the topic of contamination of the waters of San Lorenzo Bay, an estuary adjacent to a national park renowned for its mangroves and protected forests. That prompted the local mayor to include these news reports as evidence when she asked the state to fund a local wastewater treatment plant. In the northern region of the country, a 27-year-old reporter published an investigative series on the health hazards that resulted from inadequate sanitation. After 2 months of publishing regular news reports about the open landfills and trash discarded on the sides of roads, the town purchased its first garbage truck, an acquisition funded entirely by members of the Dominican diaspora who read the news stories online. Elsewhere, a 32-year-old female reporter who lives and works in what, by most accounts, is the most violent slum outside the capital, Santo Domingo, concluded, ‘We no longer need the mainstream media to say the truth. Indeed, they get the widest audience and few people read our stories. But we tell the truth’.

Those who report on a regular basis credited their reporting role as the reason for increased confidence, self-fulfilment and a new-found sense of agency. A 62-year-old male respondent proudly stated, ‘I do what I can to help out the community. People respect me; they say I’m well informed. I try as best I can to approach the truth and fact check my sources’. For many, a heightened reputation and community support represented a major source of motivation. A 34-year-old male reporter who regularly contributes reports to local community radio broadcasts spoke confidently about the increased sense of self-esteem gained from reporting on local public health and social justice stories that had previously gone unreported. He credited his new-found pride and sense of agency with emboldening him in the face of threats from the owner of the local private health clinic, after his broadcast report of medical negligence led to the shutdown of the facility and prompted an official response from Congress members.

At times, the role of reporters brought about increased respect from the community that superseded that won by regular employment in other professions. A 28-year-old reporter employed full-time as a math teacher at the local public school, nonetheless, credits his role of reporter as the reason: ‘I have gained respect in my home community; people now see me as a leader’. In the wake of a devastating hurricane that washed away the only road to the mountain village and stranded the remote community for days on end, the use of his mobile phone to connect the community to emergency responders vaulted this reporter to celebrity status amid neighbours and the diaspora, who heard news of family and friends from his news reports. At each instance, reporters cited the recognition from their own community as the greatest reward for their work. The findings indicate that in settings where endemic poverty and profound social inequality contribute to an illusory sense of agency, recognition from peer and social networks may provide a substantial source of motivation.

Discussion

The findings show that, in the Global South, structural factors and institutional considerations present fundamental practical challenges to individual motivation and ability to report and publish news. Whereas much of the literature examines citizen journalism from the perspective of techno-capital, organizational factors and work practices that may impact editorial decisions and news production (Boczkowski, 2004; Carpenter et al., 2015; Paulussen et al., 2011; Reich, 2008; Rojas et al., 2012), the findings of this study indicate that reporting from the margins may be seriously compromised at the onset by precarious structural and institutional conditions. In practical terms, access to education and skills training that build techno-capital and techno-disposition may not readily foster digital inclusion where structural challenges and institutional failure prevent the poor from the right to communicate, a finding that echoes the work of Straubhaar and Tufekci (2012). Furthermore, the evidence shows that, at the level of the individual, limited capital resources, sparse monetary incentives, and threats real or perceived of personal persecution and retaliation may further compound the challenges to agency and negatively impact news reporting norms, processes and editorial agendas. Insofar as structural and institutional factors condition an individual’s ability to report, these factors deserve appropriate scrutiny.

On the other hand, although some critics contend that citizen journalism produces little or no original reporting, this study also found ample evidence that the practice generates original news accounts, even though much of it is based on single-source first-person witnessing or on interviews with personal connections to non-elite sources, as noted in previous research (Ball-Rokeach et al., 2001; Paulussen and D’heer, 2013). The findings also support the literature that shows citizen journalists face limited access to elite and official sources, compared to mainstream news media reporters (Carpenter, 2008; Nah and Chung, 2012; Reich, 2008). Nevertheless, and even though the news sourcing practices of citizen journalism do not follow in the mode of established routines common to commercial mainstream media newsrooms, it evinces original news reports that rely on first-person and witness accounts of ordinary citizens and non-elite sources. Finally, the exclusively hyper-local and local news stories that were often the product of the reporting observed in this study confirm that geo-proximity often drives news coverage produced by citizen journalism. However, the evidence shows that, contrary to research (Lewis et al., 2010; Mersey, 2009) that claims the prevalence of reports about crime and breaking news (fires, accidents and human interest stories), citizen journalism as practised by the respondents spoke truth to power, questioned authorities and the corporate elite, demanded congressional members be accountable to voters and advocated for transparency in government.

Finally, reporters interviewed for this study repeatedly spoke with pride of the gain in social capital, an indication that reporters who perceive a raise in status amid their peers and in the community may consider the increase in reputation sufficient reward, even absent monetary compensation. Anthropologists explain the role of culture in establishing group identities that help individuals make sense of their lives; in a similar vein, there are indications here that confirm findings from studies that show participation in citizen journalism can enhance solidarity, collective identity and group affiliation (Choi and Park, 2014). Reporters who hold authorities accountable for malfeasance, negligence and abuse of power render a fundamental public service and, in so doing, may earn respect and gain prestige in their community.

Conclusion

As citizen journalists fill a void with hyper-local and real-time news reports from communities and locations that remain for the most part outside the scope of coverage of mainstream news operations, it is important to research how technological innovation, collaboration and changing practices transform news reporting. This study argues that it is also important to acknowledge the gap that distances the practice of citizen journalism in the Global South, where structural and institutional factors may pre-empt or condition individual agency and autonomy. While the impact of particular macro-, meso- and micro-level factors differ from one country to the next, the practical constraints they pose to citizen journalism exist in a global context and deserve greater attention.

Chief among the limitations of this study is the reliance on a single case study, the small sample size and the selection of a pragmatic qualitative approach, which precludes the generalizability of the findings. As much as the qualitative approach in journalism research has evolved over the past four decades, there remain questions that challenge the descriptive validity, generalizability and objectivity of methods that fail to conform to quantitative standards (Maxwell, 2002). Still, these findings contribute to our understanding of citizen journalism with a map of factors that condition and impact news reporting at the margins. In so doing, it lays the groundwork for future research that counters a dominant narrative that presupposes all citizen journalism conforms to similar ground rules and conditions.