Arab media make most of citizen journalism

A rise in citizen-generated video during the Arab revolutions created space for mainstream media in these countries to report the uprisings and amplify the protesters’ message, according to an authoritative survey of press freedom.

Citizen journalism gave established and official media outlets “political cover” to address topics long kept under wraps, says the report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent watchdog based in New York. “The convergence of traditional and new media is among the major trends emerging [in the Middle East and north Africa] after the fall of Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali’s Tunisian regime in the opening days of 2011,” the report says. “Had the citizen content not been amplified by traditional media, particularly television, Tunisia’s revolution might have been snuffed out.”