Citizen Journalism

Under Construction

Introduction

In a globalised world, how do we gain nuanced, localised understanding? SenseMaker® empowers citizens to become ethnographers in their own communities by collecting the stories of friends, family, or other community members. Equipped with a smartphone (or other device), Citizen Journalists enable this scalable, sustainable, distributed ethnographic approach.

Anyone in a social community can become a Citizen Journalist. The Cynefin Centre has trained people of all ages to become Citizen Journalists. Citizen Journalists can extend the citizen sensor network beyond the usual suspects and reach those who wouldn’t normally take part in citizen engagement activities. Citizens have privileged access to their communities and often unearth stories which would not be shared with outsiders. Young people can engage those who are less technologically literate, such as their grandparents. Engaging young people in decision-making and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing is mutually valuable, empowering, and needed more than ever.

“Deprive children of stories and you leave them unscripted, anxious stutterers in their actions as in their words. Hence there is no way of giving us an under-standing of any society, including our own, except through the stock of stories which constitute its initial dramatic resources.” - Alasdair MacIntyre