Unintentional Journalists

Abstract

As new actors assert their voices into global discussions, the boundaries of journalism are continuously tested and tugged at. Some, like citizen journalists and alternative community media organisations, are relatively well documented by scholars. Others present a grey area in our understanding of who makes up the perceived “in club” of journalism. One such area of emerging journalistic boundary research is about the media outputs of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whose staff have traditionally been seen as sources for or stringers to journalists. Technological advances in information communications, increased staffing capacity and more sophisticated media strategies mean that some NGOs are now producing their own independent news as opposed to relying on journalists to tell their organisational stories. The question, however, is whether this is to be seen as more sophisticated communication strategies aimed at advocating a specific viewpoint or/and an emerging form of reporting folding into the expanding boundaries of journalism. This paper argues that one way to conceptualise advocates and NGO actors engaging in eyewitness reporting is as “Unintentional Journalists” doing the work of journalism, without intentionally meaning to do so. Following an exploratory case study of the Pacific branch of global NGO 350.org, the paper suggests that the organisation’s members who produced reports about the passing of Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, 2015, intended to produce advocacy and, in doing so, unintentionally acted to fill a global news gap for reporting from the Pacific region.

KEYWORDS:

• 350.org
• advocacy journalism
• boundary maintenance
• NGO-journalism
• NGO media strategy
• Pacific journalism

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thank Henrik Bødker, Kathrin Vos and Evangelia Papoutsaki for their feedback and support with this research—particularly Henrik whose ongoing encouragement to pursue this paper has been greatly valued.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 350.org, as described by one of the key interviewees for this paper, is a decentralised advocacy organisation that exists somewhere between a NGO and a social movement—it is not classified as either in this paper although it broadly fits into the topic of NGO-journalism.

Additional information

Funding

No specific funding was received for this project.