Conference

Monitorial Citizen

the ordinary witness

Selecting in the new planetary humanity those characteristics that allow for its survival, removing the thin diaphragm that separates bad mediated advertising from the perfect exteriority that communicates only itself – this is the political task of our generation. (Giorgio Agamben, The Coming Community, University of Minnesota Press, 1993, p63)

Agamben’s statement implies a sense of urgency, a call to humanity to form a completely new engagement with politics, a shared uniting form of representation, _the perfect exteriority._ This may be seen as an unachievable ideal, even for informed citizens, especially in context to the current condition of uncertain notions of citizenship, disuniting nationalisms, refugees and internal displacement caused by incessant wars, migration caused by climate change and bots generating fake news. Corporate and government media’s insistence on defending a collapsing political, economic and social system has created reverberations of disillusionment and mistrust leading to a decline in conventional forms of political involvement. Nonetheless, we are witnessing an alternative form of participatory democracy and a higher level of engagement on the web by citizen bloggers, described by Michael Schudson as “monitorial citizens.” (Michael Schudson, Good Citizens and Bad History: Today’s Political Ideals in Historical Perspective, Communication Review 1, no. 4, 2000). This ubiquitous presence of citizen journalism is in itself not without issues. Stuart Allan addresses these concerns and conceptualises social media outreach from ordinary citizens as “citizen witnessing” (Stuart Allan, Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis, Polity Press, 2013). It is from both these scholars we take the title for this conference.

The growing demand for political and corporate clarity is a manifold topic of discussion on social media. The speed with which data-processing is conducted provides the citizen blogger with almost instant access to information but it also ensures that crucial issues may  become evanescent. The acuity with which we address these issues requires serious attention in order to secure increased citizen participation, to expand and reinforce the demand for greater individual security, privacy and transparency of governance. Accomplishing these would provide tangible credibility for technology’s claim of democratising the world.

Corina Demetriou: Introduction

Stuart Allan: Citizen Video Witnessing of Human Rights: The Case of WITNESS

Joke Hermes: On reconnecting with disengaged sceptics

Cynthia Carter: Citizen Journalism and Children: Investigating Rights of Access, Opportunity and Voice

Nico Carpentier: The dark sides of online participation

Nicos Trimikliniotis: Peace journalism, partitions and potential for overcoming austerity-and-chauvinist citizenship in divided Cyprus: Drawing on Cyprus and South Africa