Between Citizen Journalism and Democracy: Take “Sun Flower Movement” as Example

• Main Authors: Jo-Shen Huang, 黃若深
• Other Authors: 王業立
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/qnxaa9

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 政治學研究所 === 105 === Following the rise of citizen journalism, the public tends to believe that such new form of reporting can fill the gap of traditional journalism that has failed to let the voices of the underprivileged groups being heard. Previous studies are mostly optimistic about the role citizen journalism could play in public domain. But most of these studies did not study further on its impact on a democratic society. Citizen journalism has become extremely influential during the Sunflower Movement when a huge number of coverage made by citizen journalists were focusing on the personal opinions of the movement participants. The paper studies the performance of citizen journalism during the Sunflower Movement to see how it affects democratic development especially on if it has negative impact. The paper also studies on if citizen journalism should continue to enhance its influence to the society or should refrain from doing so. The paper ultimately shows that citizen journalism does realized the spirit of democratic participation that allows ordinary citizens to take part in public affairs that could counter public sphere. In doing so, the voices of the minority can be heard. Such citizen participation is in conformity with the diversity concept proposed by Nancy Fraser. However, citizen journalism also has a major flaw: the contents of these coverages are highly similar, which could be little good in promoting dialogue between different generations. Also, there is no accountability mechanism for such new form of journalism. Many of these citizen journalists have also failed to remain neutral while reporting. These are some factors that could have negative impact on the development of a democratic society. From a more optimistic point of view, meanwhile, as long as citizen journalism can keep its reporting accurate, it is definitely a first step for citizen participation in democracy. The paper proposes that audiences of citizen journalisms should actively use all kinds of media to keep themselves updated with the latest news. They could also closely follow and actively take part in public affairs. An independent organization like citizen-editors like those in Japan should be formed as well to integrate all kinds of citizen media. In doing so that they can come up with a united front so that their discourse will be focused thus becoming a stronger force to confront with traditional media.