The Mumbai terrorist attacks:How influential are citizens incrisis news reporting?

摘要

From Hurricane Katrina to London bombings and the 2009 Iran elections, citizensare increasingly making themselves heard in mainstream news reporting. Thisstudy explores the extent of influence of citizen sources on crisis news reportingthrough a pilot case study content analysis of the New York Times, LondonTimes, New Zealand Herald and Times of India on the 2008 Mumbai terroristincident over a one-week period, from 26 November 2008 to 2 December 2008.Findings from this study found a high proportion of citizen sources usedespecially at the beginning stage of the Mumbai crisis, indicating the smallwindow of opportunity event driven news offer for a greater inclusion of nongovernmentalvoices. While the media continued to be cautious, using citizensources more for their conventional roles as witnesses or victims with firsthandaccounts, there were some clear traces of influence with citizen sources offeringanalytical and political viewpoints in the Times of India. Contrary to the belief incitizen-journalists being able to offer breaking news in news reports, its impactremained small. A first study of its kind to examine the extent of citizen sourceinfluence in crisis news reporting through a case study analysis, the findings fromthis study will significantly add to literature on the potential influence ofgovernment and citizen voices in the media and raise understanding aboutsituational factors that will affect their influence in crises.