Navigating Social Journalism: A Handbook for Media Literacy and Citizen Journalism

Public trust in the once powerful institutions of the News Establishment is declining. Sharing, curating and producing news via social media channels may offer an alternative, if the difficult process of verification can be mastered by social journalists operating outside of the newsroom. Navigating Social Journalism examines the importance of digital media literacy and how we should all be students of the media. Author Martin Hirst emphasizes the responsibility that individuals should take when consuming the massive amounts of media we encounter on a daily basis. This includes information we gather from online media, streaming, podcasts, social media and other formats. The tools found here will help students critically evaluate any incoming media and, in turn, produce their own media with their own message. This book aims both to help readers understand the current state of news media through theory and provide practical techniques and skills to partake in constructive social journalism.

Dr Martin Hirst is a freelance scholar, author, journalist and artist working in Melbourne, Australia. He has worked as a journalist and editor since 1975 and taught journalism in Australia, New Zealand and the UK between 1993 and 2016. Dr Hirst is a founding editor of the open access journal The Political Economy of Communication, published by the Political Economy section of the International Association of Mass Communication Research. He is also the author of seven books about journalism.