“We all work in closing spaces around the world where journalism is becoming more and more difficult.”

The challenges of reporting on places and conflicts forgotten by the mainstream media were laid bare on Tuesday 19 January, as the Frontline Club hosted an in-depth discussion on the professionalisation of citizen journalism.

Trevor Snapp, director of programs at Nuba Reports, chaired a discussion that ranged from the increasingly savvy media strategies employed by governments, to the dangers faced by emboldened eyewitnesses looking for a big payout.

‘eyewitness media could be used not just for news, but as evidence in court’ -great event last night @frontlineclub pic.twitter.com/i1jCfjLIrs

— eyeWitness project (@eyewitnessorg) January 20, 2016

Snapp explained that the need for such a panel came about “because of the reality that the world is increasingly difficult to do journalism in” – and pointed to countries such as “Yemen, Libya, many parts of China, many parts of India, many parts of Pakistan and many parts of Iran” as examples of this.

Jacqueline Geis, chief operating officer of Videre est Credere, found one solution to the challenges faced by citizen journalists who are working to document governmental abuses.

“Governments are becoming increasingly creative in their targeting of civil society, by including new codicils and amendments into press laws (…) People that are committing these crimes and atrocities are getting smart to when Western media shows up and when they don’t show up.”

Geis continued: “You see this a lot in election cycles: that people that want to manipulate election cycles are not doing it three months before the election, they’re doing it two years before that election happens (…) So having the continuous presence on the ground makes a valuable difference in telling the complete side of the story.”

John D McHugh, award-winning photojournalist, filmmaker and co-founder of Verifeye Media, agreed on the importance of eyewitness accounts. He likewise shared in Geis‘ optimism for the potential benefits of citizen journalism, as opposed to more traditional forms of journalism: “The closed space, the budgets, the restrictions and the authorities that close these spaces can be opened up in other ways.”

Chavala Madlena, a freelance journalist and producer, agreed that more traditional practices of journalism could be restrictive. While trying to tell “a nuanced story, like children growing up in drone-affected areas in Yemen and what that does to them long term,” she was certain that there “must be a better way (…) than just sending in a crew and doing interviews.”

Madlena‘s solution was to give cameras to Yemenis to document their experiences. Not only did this prove cost-effective, but it also brought back very different results to what a crew of video journalists could have achieved. She said the experience has “reshaped my thinking about making documentaries going forward.”

Thant Sin, a regular contributor to the citizen media website Global Voices, spoke of the “dark side of this new citizen media: there’s a lot of rumours and misinformation spreading around the net. People start believing whatever they see on the internet.”

Snapp commented that this need for authenticity and verification is one reason that citizen journalists should not be seen as an alternative to professional journalists. “The job of a professional journalist is still very much there (…) It’s about working together now and not seeing each other as threats.”

“There are things that algorithms can’t do, and that’s build relationships and trust with people” – @chavalamadlena #frontlineclub

— Alastair Reid (@ajreid) January 19, 2016

In a fitting conclusion, McHugh captured the energy of the discussion: “Eyewitness journalism is not the future of journalism – it’s the now.”

With shrinking editorial budgets, greater risks and lack of access it is becoming increasingly difficult for established media outlets to offer a full picture of events. Can citizen journalists fill the void?

A few organisations are working to address this reality: Nuba Reports mentors and trains filmmakers in Sudan’s conflict zones. Organisations such as Syria Deeply and Tehran Bureau aggregate and report from hard-to-access areas using a dedicated network on the ground. The human rights organisation Videre trains oppressed communities to document abuses and violations on camera.

Everyday there are even more places and stories that foreign correspondents cannot access. While the outside perspective they bring is critical, local insights are equally valuable. This discussion will bring together a few key players working on new models of foreign reporting to address the issues of verification and bias, and of which technology is working and which isn’t. They will discuss the challenges faced and delve into what the future of this new reporting holds.

Chaired by Trevor Snapp, the director of programs at Nuba Reports, a media startup in Sudan pioneering ways to tell stories of life amidst war. Over the last decade he has covered stories around the world, producing documentaries for Al Jazeera and VICE, and reporting for NPR and Newsweek. His photographs have been featured in The New York Times and The Guardian amongst others.

The panel:

John D McHugh is the co-founder of Verifeye Media, a technology driven visual news agency that represents freelance journalists and accidental eyewitnesses, delivering verified eyewitness media from the centre of a story to newsrooms, in real-time. McHugh is an award winning photojournalist and filmmaker with extensive knowledge of foreign reporting, especially from conflict zones.

Basia Cummings is a commissioning editor on the Guardian’s world networks, focused on in-depth coverage of under-reported regions, including Africa, North Korea and the post-Soviet states

Jacqueline Geis is the chief operating officer of Videre est Credere, an organisation that equips activists in hard-to-access areas with the cameras, technology, and support to visually document human rights violations safely and effectively.

Thant Sin is currently studying for a master’s degree in Media in Development at the School of Oriental Studies in London. He is a regular contributor to the citizen media website, Global Voices, and covers the latest events in Myanmar. Before beginning his studies in London, Sin worked in the development sector in Myanmar – travelling the country to work with displaced peoples.

Photo: Nuba Reports. Videojournalist Ahmad Khatir interviews an elderly farmer about an injury she sustained during a government bombing attack in the Nuba mountains of Sudan.

This interactive workshop will explore the pitfalls, the logistics, the security issues and ultimately, the impact, of using hidden camera footage in documentary filmmaking. We will discuss its role as an advocacy tool and what responsibility, if any, filmmakers have to distribute this sort of footage beyond the scope of the film.

The workshop will feature a conversation between Oren Yakobovich, co-founder of Videre, and Orlando von Einsiedel, director of Virunga. They will share their respective experiences of working with communities to gather undercover footage of human rights violations and corruption; discussing the process in its entirety from initial scoping through to effective distribution.

The workshop will be moderated by Jess Search, chief executive of BritDoc.

Spaces are limited. To apply to attend this free event please send an email to info@videreonline.org with your name, credits (if applicable) and a brief (no more than 50 words) answer to the following question:

Why are you interested in knowing more about hidden camera footage? If your interest relates to a specific project, please tell us about it.

Blackberry Messenger, Google Maps, YouTube and other less conventional information hubs were put under scrutiny on the 21 January at the Frontline Club. Richard Pendry, a journalist and lecturer at the University of Kent, chaired the fully booked discussion titled: The Changing Face of News Gathering.

Well-versed in the art of unconventional news gathering and distribution, were a panel of speakers including; Eliot Higgins author of the Brown Moses Blog; Malachy Browne, news editor of Storyful; and Trushar Barot assistant editor at the social media and User Generated Content (UGT) at BBC News. The fourth panellist, whose true identity remained hidden, was the charity Videre’s head of operations who was referred to as Greg.

The categorisation of news gathering as traditional or non-traditional was flagged as problematic from the start. When asked if he considered himself a non-traditional reporter, Browne said:

“The source of information that we receive a few years ago would have been considered non-traditional, its primarily social media content that we work with… Its the application of traditional news values and journalism values to a new form of information.”

Browne continued,

“Storyful was founded on the idea that you can draw news from the noise… We filter the social web in a way so that we are able to monitor it very effectively.”

It was made clear that individuals are becoming citizen journalists by generating valuable content and presenting it to the public. Higgins is a good example of this, he became a well known journalist by gathering information on the weapons being used in Syria. Through online channels he effectively accessed and deciphered information which confirmed an arms smuggling route from Croatia through Jordan to the opposition fighters.

Barot gave us some perspective from within the BBC on the advancements of social media:

“Its changed a lot. Four years ago just finding a reporter who would take Twitter seriously as a journalistic tool was not easy… Now we have hundreds of reporters on Twitter.”

He went on to mark the 2011 UK riots as a point when Twitter really came into its own in conveying news as it happened. Barot said:

“As well as being a source of pictures, videos and eye-witness accounts we were feeding in real-time intelligence in terms of our news desks.”

Unlike some of the others’ approach, Greg’s organisation Videre, whose motto is “Seeing is Believing”, goes back to first-hand evidence collecting for various media and human rights organisations. Run like a secret intelligence core, Videre’s reporter’s identities’, as well as the information they collect, remain untraceable and their carefully gathered  information is given away for free. Pendry outlined a potential concern:

“How does anyone know if any of this stuff is true? There is no transparency at all so it completely depends on everyone trusting you and the people that work with you.”

When asked why Videre does what it does, Greg answered simply, “To try to do good.”

It was made clear that the credibility of information and how to verify it is an issue which plagues new media sources. Higgins demonstrated how he pieced together information from anonymous Libyan footage to effectively map events. The already media savvy audience were eager to hear more tips on geo-location technology which Browne went on to outline.  He emphasises the importance of investigating three questions; the source, date and location.

Browne went on to provide an example as to how his team of experts confirmed recent footage coming out of Dariya, Syria as well as how they traced the author of a video posted during the Boston Marathon bombing.

With the boundaries of investigative journalism being pushed in this way, the question of privacy became essential. Barot highlighted:

“Something these social media companies are pushing towards is that actually there is nothing wrong in being open and that privacy is a bit of an illusion.”

Evidently in Videre’s case privacy must be upheld at all costs and Greg summarised the high-tech low-tech balance well, he said:

“To understand when to use the the technology which enables you and when using it puts you and other people in danger.”

While exploring the open media platforms available to journalists is essential in todays world, Barot warned of the growing number of closed social media tools such as chat applications. While Barot could not predict what future technology in the media world would look like, he confirmed a far wider spread of mobile technology. He concluded:

“That is one of the things that is definitely going to be a big change over the next 18 months as mobile technology becomes so much more ubiquitous in the developing world.”

Watch or listen to the event here: