Mar 22 2010
Citizen Journalism Defended Despite a Tough Challenge in a Berlin International Conference
The challenge wasn’t easy. Werner D’Inka, a member of the editorial board of one of Germany’s most prestigious newspapers, Frankfurt’s Allgemeine Zeitung, emphatically proclaimed, “We don’t deal with citizen journalism and we see no reason why we should.”
The statement followed two key note addresses in favor of citizen journalism by Solan Larsen, managing editor of Global Voices, and Stephen Lang, editor of Grocotto’s Mail in Grahamstown, a trend-setting citizen journalist media outlet in South Africa. The venue was a conference in Berlin hosted by the International Media Institute and entitled, “At a Tipping Point: Community Voices Create a Difference.”