Dispatch: Secure, Resilient Mobile Reporting

摘要

The rise of social media and data-capable mobile devices has transformed global journalism. Brief, text-based and easy to translate, social messages allow the public to skip the middleman and get news "straight from the source." Whether used by "citizen" or professional reporters, however, social media technologies pose risks that endanger users. First, social media platforms are often proprietary, exposing users' data and activities to scrutiny from collaborating companies and governments. Second, the online networks that citizen reporters use are inherently fragile, consisting of easily targeted devices and relatively centralized message-routing systems that authorities may block or shut down. Finally, this same privileged access can be used to flood the network with inaccurate or discrediting messages, drowning the signal of real events in misleading noise. A citizen journalist is someone who is simply in the right place at the right time. Untrained and unevenly tech-savvy, citizen reporters may not consider social media activities high-risk. The dangers citizen journalists face are personal and physical. Addressing their needs for protection, resilience, and recognition requires a move away from assumptions of in vitro communication security.