This work is made freely available under open access. AUTHOR: TITLE: YEAR: OpenAIR citation: This work was submitted to- and approved by Robert Gordon University in partial fulfilment of the following degree: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ OpenAIR takedown statement: Section 6 of the “Repository policy for OpenAIR @ RGU” (available from http://www.rgu.ac.uk/staff-and-current- students/library/library-policies/repository-policies) provides guidance on the criteria under which RGU will consider withdrawing material from OpenAIR. If you believe that this item is subject to any of these criteria, or for any other reason should not be held on OpenAIR, then please contact [email protected] with the details of the item and the nature of your complaint. This thesis is distributed under a CC ____________ license. ____________________________________________________ What Is Citizen Journalism? A Critical Analysis from the Perspective of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation Nareshchandra Rai Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Robert Gordon University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Communication, Marketing and Media Aberdeen Business School The Robert Gordon University 2016 Abstract With the rise of internet literacy across the world, men and women on the street are increasingly participating in the news media more than ever before. Early speculations about the influence of citizen journalism imbued the practice with an almost messianic ability to save both journalism and democracy. Whilst these suggestions were influenced by a small amount of data analysis, mainly from Western countries, they were encouraging and demonstrated the potential of citizen journalism in representing the voice of ordinary people. This thesis suggests that citizen journalism is not only promoting the perspective of ordinary citizens, but is also supplementing the coverage of the mainstream media, building relationships, shaping the public sphere, and fulfilling the critical role of a watchdog. Analysing data from a sample of twenty-four different English language citizen journalism sites, this thesis examines the phenomenon of citizen journalism, focusing on the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation. Employing a mixed methods approach, quantitative and qualitative analyses were undertaken of the data set. The results show that citizen journalism sites in the larger and more developed SAARC countries provide more coverage of news than those in the smaller and underdeveloped countries. Political news is given the highest priority by the majority of the sites whilst news about war and terrorism is given the least. The analysis has also discovered that the sites function as a bridge, bringing people living in different parts of the world together and enabling them to engage in political discourse and the sharing of knowledge and experience. Moreover, citizen journalism is helping people to educate themselves about the culture and political systems of their new countries while also forming their own community online. This was particularly the case with the sites that were owned and operated by the diaspora people living in the West. In addition, with a few exceptions, the majority of the sites make substantial use of supplementary materials to enhance news articles, encouraging readers to participate in interactive news activities, such as posting comments. The study has also found that citizen journalists come from a wide range of backgrounds, from politicians acting as citizen journalists to students aspiring to generate revenues through commercial advertising on the Internet. However, they differ from each other in terms of their news values and news presentation — some of the sites offer more political news than others whilst others behave more like the mainstream media, providing a wide range of news articles. On the other hand, a few of the sites are less active and provide fewer news articles than others. The study has also found that citizen journalists from the SAARC countries include works of fiction as part of their news output, thus offering the slightly different definition of citizen journalism from that in the West. Keywords: citizen journalism, citizen journalists, news media, news articles, SAARC countries Acknowledgements A journey to discover a PhD at times is wonderful; even more so when the end of the journey is in sight. My sincere thanks always goes to my principal supervisor Prof Sarah Pedersen without whom it would have been impossible to begin my PhD, let alone achieve. She has always kept me on the right lines throughout, and her intellectual guidance and ability to make me think critically is second to none. Thanks also to Dr Fiona Smith in the supervisory team whose support has always been valuable for my research study. I wish to thank both of my supervisors for the advice and critiques they have offered to me throughout my study. There are also many people who have made my PhD journey possible and whom I would like to thank. First, the Bhutanese refugees in different refugee camps in Nepal, especially Dr Bhumpa Rai and Mr Teknath Rizal, whose information on Bhutan and Bhutanese people has been valuable for my analysis. I wish them all the best and hope that their dream of returning back to their homeland will materialise soon. Second, the citizen journalists from the SAARC countries who provided me with valuable information by phone or e-mails as and when needed, and whose information has been valuable to understand South Asian perspectives. Third, I am grateful to Mrs Pampha Rai in New York, who supported me morally and financially during my difficult times. I am grateful to many of my fellow research students and members of staff at the University, in particular Sally Berrisford, Dr Robert Halsall, Martin Simpson, Prof Seonaidh McDonald, Sylvie Davies, and Anne Nichol, who provided me with intellectual and moral support. I am also grateful to Prof Ying Chan, the founding iii director of Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, who has been my source of inspiration for further studies. Finally, I am eternally indebted to all my family members in Hong Kong and Nepal. Without their genuine support and encouragement, this thesis would not have been possible. Menu – my younger sister who died at the age of ten – used to encourage me to focus on my studies in my childhood. I would like to dedicate this thesis to her who should have been here to see its completion. iv Table of contents Abstract Acknowledgement iii Initials and acronyms xi Chapter One 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Aim and objectives 8 1.2 An overview of the thesis 10 Chapter Two 2. Citizen Journalism: Concept, history and criticism 14 2.1 Citizen journalism as a concept 14 2.2 Defining citizen journalism 16 2.3 Types of citizen journalism 22 2.4 Comparative media systems: An analysis 25 2.5 A review of journalism 33 2.5.1 Traditional journalism 34 2.5.2 Public journalism 35 2.5.3 Participatory journalism 36 2.5.4 Multimedia journalism 37 2.5.5 Citizen journalism 39 2.6 Citizen journalism: Historical dimensions 40 2.7 Citizen journalism: A practice 45 2.8 Citizen journalism: Criticisms 49 v 2.9 Summary and conclusions 55 2.10 The public sphere: A process of forming public opinion 58 2.10.1 Habermas’s public sphere: Criticisms 62 2.10.2 Virtual public sphere: The Internet as a public sphere 63 Chapter Three 3. Conceptual and theoretical framework: From the democratic function of the media to ordinary people as content creators 67 3.1 Democratic functions of the media 68 3.1.1 Information provision 69 3.1.2 Agenda setting 71 3.1.3 A public watchdog 72 3.1.4 Political mobilization 74 3.1.5 Regime legitimation 75 3.2 Traditional media: In crisis or constant? 75 3.3 Ordinary people as content creators 82 3.4 Conclusions 86 Chapter Four 4. An overview: South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation 88 4.1 South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation as an Economic and Political Organization 88 4.1.1 Afghanistan 90 4.1.2 Bangladesh 92 4.1.3 Bhutan 93 4.1.4 India 95 4.1.5 The Maldives 97 4.1.6 Nepal 98 vi 4.1.7 Pakistan 100 4.1.8 Sri Lanka 101 4.2 Summary 103 4.3 South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation: The history of media development, media policy and the media 104 4.3.1 Afghanistan 108 4.3.2 Bangladesh 111 4.3.3 Bhutan 113 4.3.4 India 116 4.3.5 Maldives 118 4.3.6 Nepal 121 4.3.7 Pakistan 123 4.3.8 Sri Lanka 126 4.4 Summary 129 4.5 Journalistic freedom: A perspective from the SAARC countries 130 4.6 The prevanance and usage of English language in the SAARC countries 132 4.7 Diaspora development and democracy 137 4.7.1 Proliferation of contemporary diaspora 139 4.7.2 Diaspora activities and national identity 141 Chapter Five 5. Research design and methods 147 5.1 Inductive: An approach to research 148 5.2 Overall research design: Choosing a mixed-methods approach 149 5.3 Content analysis: Choosing a quantitative method 151 5.3.1 Sampling techniques 153 5.3.2 Sampling period 155 vii 5.3.3 Sampling procedures 157 5.3.4 Data collection procedures 159 5.3.5 Data coding procedures 161 5.4 Discourse analysis: Choosing a qualitative method 166 5.4.1 Sampling techniques 169 5.4.2 Sampling period 169 5.4.3 Data collection procedures 170 5.4.4 Criteria for coding 170 Chapter Six 6. Citizen journalism: An analysis of news content from the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation 173 6.1 An overview of news articles and supplementary materials 177 6.2.