Helping Syrians Tell Their Story to The World

Abstract

This article explores network journalism (connective journalism) and shows how citizen journalists in Syria are trained and supported through the network journalism model. The article applies three major concepts of connective journalism: engagement with social networks, negotiation, and maintaining a connection with norms and values of journalism, and suggests a fourth aspect: protection. Through a case study of the newsgathering and mentoring process leading up to stories being posted on the Damascus Bureau website (damascusbureau.org), a news site dedicated to publishing the stories of Syrian citizen journalists, we show that connective journalism is a viable model for citizens to tell their community’s story to each other and the world.

KEYWORDS:

• citizen journalists
• connective journalism
• network journalism
• Syria activists

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.