Citizen Journalism Blog

I had a enlightening two hours chat with the lecturer who taught us citizen journalism this morning. She wanted to interview me about Kampung Buah Pala coverage and somehow, our conversation lead to self-censorship.

It never occurred to me that what I thought was more of being considerate is actually something like a self-censorship. Usually, I can afford to run wild with my camera because I do not have a direction to my story. Those so-called ‘action drama’ involving demonstration, demolition, confrontation and etc do not come with any specific script. We do not know what is going to happen next and which direction we should shoot.

In a large open village for example, I rely on my gut instinct to follow people whom I think should be featured. During the Kampung Buah Pala demolition, many things happened at the same time. Do I focus on the police, politicians, villagers, heavy machines which are scattered all over the village depends on my gut feel.

For example, during one of the fiery drama where the one of the woman villager poured kerosene on herself, I was actually hiding in the shade and had the first scoop ahead of all the other reporters. Many came later and some did not even know it happened because they were following other groups.

So, with such a huge varieties of angle, how do I decide what goes on the internet and what do not?

That’s when I told the professor that I relied on my maturity. I would ask myself if certain clips would cause more harm than help. For example, if I show a large group of certain ethnic race shouting vulgarity and racist remarks at one person from another race, will that clip help anyone? I would omit it simply because I do not want any racial friction to arise when people get emotional watching it.

I also pondered if I am being professional if I show embarrassing situations. Let’s say if it was me whom had fainted and being dragged around with bare belly being shown, do I want to appear on the internet for eternity? So, I do hide certain clips although it is tempting to show as it would be explosive and interesting.

This is when self-censorship comes in. I also disclosed that sometimes, I also take the liberty to edit out certain things which I know some top politicians shouldn’t utter because I feel they probably were carried away.

We learned about journalism ethics. Unfortunately, I notice that people do not preach what they say. Most times, I can see blatant unethical reporting by large news corporation. I could follow their style and make my videos more enticing, controversial and such. But I prefer to follow what my heart tells me.