By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - Videos shot in smoke-filled, bombed-out London underground trains, photos of body-strewn roads — the July 7 bombings on London’s transport system brought the arrival of a new advance guard of amateur reporters to Britain.

Media commentators described it as a sea-change in journalism as mobile phone photographers, text messagers and bloggers dominated initial coverage of the bombings that claimed the lives of 52 commuters.

But while the momentous events of July 7 raised public awareness of how eyewitness-generated content can dominate the the mainstream media’s initial coverage of a big story, citizen journalism is still trying to establish itself in Britain.

“It hasn’t got a proper foothold here yet — citizen journalism hasn’t carved out a niche for itself like in the
United States,” Roy Greenslade, a professor of journalism at City University in London and former editor of the Daily Mirror newspaper, told Reuters.

But more and more news reports in the “old media” have taken their lead from submissions by ordinary citizens and a new wave of political bloggers is challenging Britain’s media commentators.

“It helps us tell the story truthfully and accurately,” said BBC Interactivity Editor Vicky Taylor, referring to the BBC’s use of images sent in by witnesses of the London bombings.

Mainstream media owners also have rushed to tap into the phenomenon by setting up blogs written by their own journalists.

But unlike in the United States, where bloggers have claimed credit for major political upsets, including the resignations of broadcaster Dan Rather and Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, Britain’s newspapers remain in charge for now of exposing the misdemeanours of public figures and institutions.

“The citizen journalist here is a snapper who happens to be passing somewhere where something is going on,” Greenslade said. “What we haven’t developed yet is the citizen journalist who goes out and writes and reports.”

NOT MUCH TO BLOG ABOUT?

Like citizen journalism, blogging has received a lot of coverage in the media. Globally, there has been a massive growth of web logs, or personal online journals.

According to Technorati, a search engine for blogs, a new blog is created every second of every day.

But in Britain, despite a rapid uptake in broadband Internet connections, only 2 percent of Internet users publish a blog, a recent survey by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) found, while another study said most bloggers quit after three months.

The BMRB also found that only 10 percent, around 2.8 million people, of UK Internet users read blogs.

“There has been disproportionate coverage of blogging — still only a tiny proportion of people publish them,” said Paul Milsom, a senior associate director at the BMRB.

“A lot of media attention has been paid to blogs, which looks a bit overhyped given how few people actually blog,” he told Reuters.

But, as trends in many other countries have shown, bloggers potentially wield a hugely disproportionate influence in setting trends, as those who do publish blogs are more likely to be opinion formers.

“It is definitely set to grow in Britain (but) it will take time to filter through in terms of people having to learn how to publish a blog,” said Milsom.

In the United States, the fastest-growing area of citizen journalism is the so-called “hyper-local” coverage of
high-school sports or petty neighbourhood crime, usually too small even for local newspapers.

That trend is also shaping up in Britain.

“I expect citizen journalism to really take off at regional and local level: citizens reporting about what goes on in their area, on their street,” Greenslade said.

The Press Gazette, a magazine dedicated to UK journalism, is leading the charge in honouring the best in citizen journalism for the first time with its Citizen Journalism Awards, to be announced on July 14.

Among the entries are photographs and films of a local pub siege and of a local teenager being threatened by a knife-wielding man.

By Astrid Zweynert

LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Richard Dreyfuss has challenged the establishment for decades and now the maverick actor and activist is taking on the mainstream media.

The Oscar-winning star says an obsession with delivering instantaneous news and images provides too little context for audiences to reflect and understand what is happening in the world.

“There is no room to pause, no room to think,” Dreyfuss, who starred in films ranging from “Jaws” to “Mr Holland’s Opus” told Reuters in a recent telephone interview.

“We don’t build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn’t build that into its transmission of knowledge and information.”

That creates what Dreyfuss calls “shaped news” — a version of events according to how the mainstream media want audiences to see what happened, and a violation of journalism’s core value of objectivity.

Citizen journalism is playing a vital part in broadening news coverage, as well as scrutinising professional journalism, Dreyfuss said.

“Information from more than one source is good. I’m totally in favour of it, even if people send propaganda. In the aggregate you can find more truth than in one opinion.”

But despite an explosion in blogs, people’s views of the news is still shaped by what powerful media corporations print, broadcast and put on their Web sites, Dreyfuss, 58, said.

“Do the mainstream media ever tell their readers ‘Don’t believe everything we tell you?’ No, they don’t.”

Dreyfuss said media coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York was a pertinent example of how a non-stop supply of images and spot news shaped people’s views.

“The falling Twin Towers — pictures that produced anger, a lot of anger that were sent instantly around the world, they created a need to react.”

“People in Kansas could see the Twin Towers fall at exactly the same instant as in Nigeria and Cairo. Such an instantaneous knowledge of a situation leads to an instantaneous reaction which creates demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response.

“The question is how do you get people to find out more, how do you get people to read not just what they are told to read.”

The power of language is also an important factor in shaping the news.

“The ‘war on terror’ — objection to using this term is dead. It’s become part of our vocabulary, but what does it really mean? You should know more specifically what you are fighting.”

Dreyfuss is eager to point out that he is not anti-technology: “I’m not in love with technology and speed but I don’t want to sound like a luddite.

“We’ve got to be aware of the power of technology and the speed at which it allows us to transmit information.

“You have to encourage prose, analysis and detail — otherwise people will go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without really knowing why.”

Dreyfuss, who won an Oscar for his performance in “The Goodbye Girl”, has pursued his passion for political and social activism since his college days.

An active opponent of the Vietnam War, he has also worked to promote solutions to the Mideast conflict, campaigned for education and, most recently, has lent his support to a campaign for the impeachment of U.S. President George W. Bush.

He is studying civics and democracy as a senior associate member at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford. “Civics is no longer taught in the U.S, a sign of a neurosis that is inexplicable,” he said. “Not to teach civics is suicide.

“Reason, logic, civility, dissent and debate — five ancient words that should be taught again and better, at elementary level, so that people know the difference between news and shaped news,” Dreyfuss said.

By Guy Dresser

LONDON (Reuters) - Journalists do not traditionally enjoy a high place in the public esteem, but a new survey has prompted some commentators to suggest that a difference is emerging between attitudes towards print and broadcast media.

Just 16 percent of British adults trust journalists to tell the truth, a study by opinion pollsters Mori found last year.

The figure was even lower than the 20 percent scored by politicians and left journalists at the bottom of the scale, according to Julia Clark, a senior research executive with the polling company.

“We ask what profession people trust most to tell the truth and we have run this survey for several years,” she told Reuters.

“The figures move up and down but the overall trend is unchanged. Journalists as a group remain at the bottom, along with estate agents and used car salesmen.”

Despite Mori’s apparently downbeat findings for journalists in general, television news readers emerge as people that the public would trust to tell the truth.

Of the 2,000 adults questioned, 63 percent gave them the thumbs up, putting them just behind scientists (70 percent), priests (73), judges (76), professors (77), teachers (88) and doctors (91).

Mori’s findings on broadcast media last year are echoed by the annual media literacy report from UK communications regulator Ofcom on April 26.

It found that 78 percent of adults trust television news providers, 76 percent trust radio news and 63 percent trust news Web sites.

The figure for newspapers is 46 per cent.

Justin Lewis, professor of communication at the Cardiff School of Journalism, believes old stereotypes could be to blame.

“When people are asked the question about how far they trust journalists, the image they have is of the foot in the door, the cheque book, the sleaze, the probing into people’s private lives,” he told Reuters.

“But if you ask them about News at Ten it’s different.”

Another academic, Professor Adrian Monck, head of journalism and publishing at City University in London, believes that different regulatory regimes could be responsible.
“The issue of trust is one of those hilarious polling issues but what is it really telling us about journalism? The fact is that in both surveys the figures are higher for the broadcast media than they are for print.

“My inference is that the broadcast media are benefiting from the fact that people know they have to get it right because they, unlike newspapers, are regulated.

“I have argued in the past that it would be useful for the print media in the UK to think about being regulated in the same way as the broadcast media.

“My argument is that if Sky News can manage it with Adam Boulton, then the Times can manage it with their political people,’ Monck said.

Journalists themselves sometimes admit to having a jaundiced view of colleagues.

Investigative journalist Donal Macintyre says that featuring on the gossip pages of tabloid newspapers as well as in front of the camera has given him a different perspective.

“I think it is sad that the public has a view like this of journalists, but it’s not surprising. I distrust about 70 percent of the media.

“Being on the cusp of working as an investigative journalist and crossing the boundary into the world of celebrity, I see what people write about me.

“Sure, in proper publications and on the BBC and Sky News, people understand that journalists are doing their best, but it’s the tabloids people distrust,” he added.

“I think cynicism is deliberately focused here on the lighter end of the media and the audience is right — much of what you read is nonsense.

“Most of the profiles written about me can’t even spell my name right, let alone get other facts down correctly.”