INTRODUCTION

The emergence of the network society, with its new compositions, has resulted in economic, cultural, media, social, and political activities related mainly to the information economy. This is defined as the knowledge economy because the competitiveness of its actors depends on their ability to generate and manage electronic information, and the network society is based mainly on the widening scope of free flows of funds, goods, services, and ideas.

This extension has created a culture of “real virtualism,” characterized by unrestricted time and space. The network society is based on a flood of diverse flows and is closely linked to freedom’s rights (Muller: 2019, pp. 138-139)

In light of the network society, media practice has changed considerably, and traditional media institutions have been changed into virtual electronic media with new practices that have created new actors in media production (House: 2017; Tilak: 2020).

The communication and media sector has benefited from the emergence of the second generation of the Web (Wb2.0), which embodied the features of the network society, characterized by democracy and the ability to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate in its structure and content. The second generation of the Web has established the concept of citizen-journalism, allowing a wide space for expression and electronic vulnerability and impact, allowing the creation of communities and information clusters centered on the nature of the information communicated within it, or on the type of support used in the transmission of this information or other information materials (Wall: 2015, pp. 797-813; Aboub: 2015). This kind of journalism, in our interpretation of its simple concept, provides possibilities for each individual to be a reporter through the news, pictures, and recordings that he collects using modern technology. In other words, this is a collective, collaborative citizenship exercise of inclusive media work (Harcup: 2016, pp. 680- 696).

Citizen-journalism has raised some problems in media practice and the dimensions and concepts related to it. Media outreach has become based on the exchange of roles between editor and recipient. The recipient has become an editor, and the editor has become a recipient. The recipient, who was a consumer and who was vulnerable to the media product, has turned into an editor and a witness, even more so when he exercises the function of transferring, deleting, and providing details and pictures of the electronically published news (Wall: 2015, pp. 797-813; Holt et al.: 2019, pp. 860-869).With the emergence of citizen-journalism, media work has become a collaborative work, and its individualwork character has been diminished. It has also become associated with the triplicity of experience, error, and self-training, which has led to our no longer talking about learning and professional training in journalism or media (Wall: 2015, pp. 797-813)

The applications of social-networking technology have enhanced the practice of citizen-journalism practice which has made us start to talk about private blogs. These applications were an area for citizen- journalism par excellence. The citizen-journalist is not only dealing with the media as a final outlet and a fixed truth but also treating it as a special context for formulating truth, which has brought about a decisive shift in reducing the distance between news and reality.

At the 12th World Editors Forum, held in Seoul, in South Korea, Gilmore stated that citizen-journalism was better and more advanced journalism than its traditional counterpart as it provided an opportunity for the public who had got tired of listening to lectures to participate instead of remaining silent and receiving information unilaterally. Citizen-journalism has emerged due to the traditional media widening the gap between the citizen and the government on the one hand and between the citizen and the media institutions on the other hand. In this way, the participation of citizens in political and social life had been reduced, and their sense of citizenship had been weakened. Thus, this new type of journalism came to reflect the philosophy of free information and freedom of expression, which characterize social networks (Muller: 2019, pp. 138-139; Carlsson & Pöyhtäri: 2017).

The blogger who practices citizen-journalism in Algeria lives according to the philosophy of this electronic reality and its new practices in an Algeriann environment with special data that has transformed him from being a passive citizen living in a reality that did not reflect his hopes and ambitions to an actor who participates actively within blogs declaring the end of the news industry’s monopoly.

The social manifestations of blogging are seen in the form of a clash between the Internet and its outcomes: for example, between blogs on the one hand and traditional media on the other hand. The journalists themselves are aware that the new type of media is bringing about a kind of revolution in media traditions which have lost the legitimacy of having a monopoly on information as everyone today can overcome the obstacles of writing and publishing and can control well the process of freely and easily sending and receiving information (Badji & Takieddine: 2020, pp. 160-170).

Blogging has become, in the collective unconscious, a means for leaving behind a type of journalismcharacterized by its passive performance. Through blogs, especially the blogs of associative journalists, we can experience an editorial orientation that expresses publicly or non-publicly these journalists’ negative view of traditional journalism and its news-industry monopoly.

This new environment of the Algerian citizen-journalist leads us to raise the following question: How does an Algerian blogger practice blogging as a citizen-journalist?

Under this main question fall several sub-questions, as follows:

1. 1. To what extent is the Algerian citizen-journalist interested in news writing styles?
2. 2. Does the Algerian citizen-journalist use his real name in blogs to reflect his awareness of the need to confirm the sources of his news?
3. 3. To what extent does the Algerian citizen-journalist comply with the standards of mediaresponsibility and the ethics of the profession?
4. 4. How does an Algerian blogger see before practicing blogging?

LITERATURE REVIEW

• The concept of citizen-journalism

During the 1990s, the phrase “citizen-journalism” expressed the interest of the press in the citizens’ concerns; consequently, the media space was opened to citizens to discuss their problems in public. Perhaps the most prominent examples of such experiences in the last century were the articles of Paul Melamine at the American news agency and the opinion polls carried out by the American magazine The Register in 1993, which published its results in the form of serial articles under the title “The Voice of the People.” Thus citizen-journalism was a journalistic practice within the media institutions that were aiming to create a dialogue with the citizens because they believe in freedom of opinion and expression and their role in protecting and preserving these values.

The concept today is no longer of the same dimensions or indications: the technological revolution hasresulted in the concept shifting from the authority of the media institution to the authority of the citizen. The concept of citizen-journalism has evolved into “participatory journalism,” “open media,” “democratic media,” “alternative media,” “civil journalism,” “public journalism,” and “community journalism,” reflecting a new form of media practice that no longer represents the media institution, but instead represents citizens and citizens’ authority in making and publishing news.

According to Shane Bruman, citizen-journalism is an activity in which citizens play a vital role in the process of collecting, editing, and analyzing the news. This participation is carried out with accurate, reliable, and independent information that responds to the requirements of democracy (Ritonga & Syahputra: 2019, pp. 79-90).

The concept of citizen-journalism is based on going beyond the transfer of events and problems to citizens’ participation in media coverage of political and social life as active actors in transmitting, discussing, and analyzing events, rather than as mere recipients of facts and messages conveyed to them by the media (Wall: 2015, pp. 797-813).

In this respect, the two researchers, Shane Bruman, published a preamble on the website “We the Media,” in which they stated: “We are at the beginning of the golden age of journalism, journalism that we have never experienced before, and many futurists have predicted that the return to press production will be carried out by the citizens by the year 2021” (Cam et al.: 2019, pp. 1-7).

Thus, citizen-journalism is a concept that has been conceived and formed in a context where a passive recipient turns into a lecturer outside the platform – effectively, in the hall – to send and make what he casts in the press field. In this way, he verifies, corrects, and discusses and may become, in this sense, an eyewitness to each event in every location. Through the growth of citizen-journalism and the emergence of a media dimension in its output, especially as related to blogs, we can say that every citizen is necessarily a promising journalist who controls the time of events and their impact. No news agencies can have journalists stationed in every street. The appearance of the citizen-journalist has become a clear phenomenon that cannot be disregarded (Wall: 2015, pp. 797-813).

• Network Community:

This is a concept used for modern societies that believe in the role of information and in sharing its production and then integrating it into the production process. Thus its role is not restricted to the use of the information. However, recent indicators confirm that the mere consumption of information through the tools of modern technology is sufficient to reorganize society in the form of a network and to integrate a relatively large segment of the population into the global community so that they thereby come to know new lifestyles. The network is essentially a network of active actors’ actions, which are not joined together by any organization and which lack management and control. This network community is made up of a group of actors linked to each other. Each group is called a knot, and this link is made by numerous and interrelated connectors with communication secured by technological tools.

The concept of a network community, based on the free flow and the freedom of information, is governed and oriented by two central poles: the network pole and the active self-pole. The term “network society” does not refer to the network itself but to multiple networks that control the sources of power, wealth, information, and digital technology (House: 2017; Tilak: 2020).

The network is the new social structure of the information age, the age of the network community composed of production, power, and experimentation networks. The networks play their roles in building a virtual culture within the framework of globalized flows, thus surpassing the concepts of time and space. Hence, we can more tightly define the network community as “a social form of communication that expresses itself through a flow of messages across time and space. Networks address information flows through channels that connect the links; the nature of the network is identified by the program that defines its objectives, rules, work, and interests. These values and interests are determined by the social actors who programmed the network and those who later joined it (Castells: 2007, pp. 20-29).

Understanding the network community makes it easier for us to understand interactions and tounderstand the philosophy of internet applications which are based on the same philosophy. We speak of the free-flow variable, which is one of the main drivers of the interaction policy within a networked society” (Lowe et al.: 2018; Kali et al.: 2019).

METHODOLOGY

In this study, we have selected the descriptive approach, which helps us to describe what reality is, to interpret and analyze it, and to derive outcomes from it. It also identifies the conditions and uncovers the relationships and elements that constitute any problem, in addition to identifying the prevailing practices and describing the general characteristics and the social and individual ones. It helps in describing behavior patterns and in recognizing the trends and beliefs of individuals and groups and their way of growth and development. Within this approach, we adopted the following tools:

Data-collection tools:

We used the form as a basic tool for collecting study data, which included five main axes related to:

1. 1. The demographic data.
2. 2. The Algerian citizen-journalist patterns of using blogs.
3. 3. The extent of the Algerian citizen-journalist commitment to the standards of journalistic writing.
4. 4. Using the author’s real identity in blogs as a citizen-journalist.
5. 5. Publishing media-responsibility standards for the Algerian citizen-journalist. Study Community:

○ Study Community:

The study community is related to the Algerian bloggers active in the management of their media blogs. This is a large group that is difficult to limit, so we have chosen purposive sampling.

○ Purposive Sample:

The sample was chosen purposely where there is no room for coincidence. The process was performed according to the intentional controlled method by searching through several electronic means for the sample members representing the research community. After contacting them, we sent them an electronic questionnaire form and managed to get 85 individual replies.

RESULTS

As for the study tables, only the most important ones were selected, i.e., those which possess contents that can answer the study’s questions.

Table (1) shows that the younger groups are the most active in the field of blogging. The group aged 30- 40 has the most extensive presence (54.11%), followed by the 20-30 age group with 31.11%. This confirms that the internet, with its applications, is mostly used by young people, and therefore the 20-40 age group is most interested in working in this type of media through covering and transferring news periodically and regularly. This group has the psychological and scientific characteristics, as well as the required technicalskills, that enable it to seek truth in the hope of change. A study conducted by the researcher, Noha Abdelmoti, has confirmed that a large percentage of young people are interested in citizen-journalism and that they follow it up constantly. The percentage of young people who practice citizen-journalism has always been 75.5%, which confirms that this media model is no longer a recreational means but rather a well- integrated part of the media process. Social media has been ranked first in respondents’ preferences regarding citizen-journalism sites with 71.3%.

Table 2 shows that most bloggers (74.12%) are university graduates, whereas 21.18% are postgraduates and only 4.70% of holders of secondary certificates. These results show that the most educated people are the most interested in practicing citizen-journalism, and this is to be expected because e-blogging and citizen-journalism have found a new dimension of editorial thinking within the institution of the media.

The individuals’ awareness of the importance of democracy and the importance of reflecting realityfreely, combined with the lack of technology experienced in traditional media, has made them resort to benefiting from the network-based society built on the freedom of information flow. Algerian bloggers use citizen-journalism consciously and thoughtfully within a new media industry, parallel to the traditional one, to protect the values of citizenship, the freedom of speech that cannot be achieved without democracy, and the belief that democracy has no substance without the free media press (Ritonga & Syahputra: 2019, pp. 79- 90; Chung et al.: 2018; pp. 1694-1712).

If the amateur press aims at fulfilling a wish for citizen-journalism, this wish, as expressed in a statementby one of this study’s respondents, is that it “fulfills a duty, the strength of citizen journalism lies in the correlation between the media dimension and the practice of democracy away from the biased traditional media” (Noor: 2017, pp. 55-76; Lowe et al.: 2018).

Table (3) shows the correlation between the variable of regularity in media practice as a citizen- journalist and those considering blogging as journalism, having patterns and forms through which it presents news.

The majority of those who practice blogging regularly (72.13%) consider that citizen-journalism runs in parallel with the traditional press, but with better features, while 27.8% say that they do not see it as journalism although they have regular blogging behavior. Naturally, these percentages indicate the nature and the type of blogs managed by the sample.

These are the media blogs that are interested in public affairs, in particular, the difficult situation that Algeria is experiencing in all sectors. Most of what is presented in these blogs usually covers forthcoming events and life courses, so they see that blogging greatly resembles journalism. Although the lack of systematic blogging does not necessarily mean abandoning the blog completely, the daily commitments and responsibilities of the bloggers must be taken into consideration.

The nature of the profession plays a significant role in the widespread belief about whether or not to consider blogging as journalism.

Table 4 shows the extent of Algerian citizen-journalists’ knowledge of media practice regarding writing techniques etc. A total of 54.12% are familiar with these techniques, which proves that the majority of the sample is aware of the writing techniques and the journalistic genres through which news is presented. But those who are not familiar with media-practice methods (45.88%) represent a significant proportion that should be taken into consideration. However, we found that blogs that present news, comments, and different coverage of facts and events have forcefully imposed themselves on the media environment (Ritonga & Syahputra: 2019, pp. 79-90).

This content is also simple and fast in terms of covering events. Along with the technical simplicity of the blog itself, these attributes have helped blog content to spread quickly worldwide.

Table (5) shows that 55.29% of the sample members had access to press codes of honor and press laws, although they question the existence of the citizen-journalism laws, charters, and ethics that concern press work as a whole. They are aware only of general concepts and do not possess deep knowledge of specific laws or charters.

This problem has been raised strongly in most of the studies and literature were written on citizen- journalism, and it is one of the areas that are being discussed regarding the regulation and organization of the publication process in citizen-journalism, either concerning the source and validity of the news or to the means of its transfer from other sources. Thouraya Snoussi has addressed two main ideas, the first of which is summed up as: “The press rules and ethics lived a state of embarrassment in light of the emergence of new media model ‘citizen journalism’” (Roberts: 2019, pp. 1-10; Noor: 2017, pp. 55-76; Atton: 2009, pp. 265-278).

The rules were formed on a specific intellectual and professional horizon dealing with the press as a profession subject to prior scientific training or acquisition of its rules through affiliation to a media institution in which these skills are refined, enabling journalists to gain the necessary experience through practice. Thus, the editorial line commits journalists to the principles of the code of ethics, albeit in varying degrees (Allan & Thorsen: 2009; Chung et al.: 2018, pp. 1694-1712).

The second idea is that citizen-journalism has penetrated the boundaries of this specific professional horizon, as we are talking about a new type of journalist who is free from all these formative and professional commitments. Therefore, talking about ethics with citizen-journalism seems to be a form of absurdity because the freedom aspect makes it escape any attempt to control, classify, define and deal with it within the framework of these specificities and characteristics (Snoussi Thuraya: 2018, pp. 2-5). These peculiarities and features are essentially connected and institutionalized in the system of a network community based on freedom of information and freedom of flow (Roberts: 2019, pp. 1-10; Muller: 2019, pp. 138-139).

Table (6) shows that the majority of the sample members (80%) reveal their real identities while writing their blogs, while only 20% use pseudonyms.

Showing their real identities plays a key role in enhancing credibility regarding the blog’s personality, aswell as the content published by the citizen-journalist, to increase the audience’s trust because the use of real names makes the citizen-journalist responsible for the news that he disseminates and gives the impression of transparency, clarity, and commitment in presenting such news. Moreover, media reality obliges us today to inquire about the identity of the journalist, as everyone is now able to give their opinions through social media and to start disseminating news without even having a degree in media studies. Some researchers believe that citizens, or so-called citizen-journalists, have more of an influence on the public than does the traditional media, and this explains some economic institutions and parties were resorting to bloggers to solve their crises in the virtual world.

The data recorded in Table 7 shows that citizen-journalists’ first source of news and information is the events that they see and photograph by themselves (60%), followed by websites (28.24%) and other blogs (9.41%).

The last source of news for citizen-journalists is traditional media (2.35%).

These data confirm that the citizen-journalist considers what he experiences and what he directlyobserves as the truth that must be conveyed to the public and as the fact quality that allows him to transfer realities better than the traditional journalist does (according to the sample members’ views). Being on the ground to cover what the citizen-journalist sees as being suitable has guaranteed the participatory aspect of citizen-journalism and rendered the citizen an active actor: he chooses what to disseminate, expresses his opinion unconditionally, and thus the citizen turns into the information producer.

DISCUSSION

The roles have changed, and the citizen-journalist no longer depends on traditional media as a source of news and information other than in a very restricted manner, confirmed by the 2.35% recorded in this study.

Citizen-journalism draws the strength of its presence from the idea that it “touches the hearts of people directly, expresses their concerns in their words and speaks for them, and has entered the world of collective unconsciousness, which renders it different from the amateur press that aims to achieve its owner’s desire to appear or to be famous and prevail. Citizen-journalism has adopted the idea of collective intelligence, which means the collective refinement of the information to be published jointly in the network and references” (Badji & Takieddine: 2020, pp. 160-170).

Table (8) shows the Algerian citizen journalist’s commitment not to publish material or documents prohibited by law or by court order. This commitment is accepted by most citizen-journalists; we recorded 65 good recurrences. The commitment to this indicator reflects their respect for their profession’s prohibitions, although some expressed their lack of knowledge of the laws and regulations governing the work of journalists. This brings our attention to the existence of controlled censorship because most of the sample members do not want to make mistakes that entail legal proceedings. The second highest frequency recorded is for the use of reliable sources, which makes us…

According to this table, the Algerian citizen-journalist directs his content mostly at the general public (83.53%). The remaining target groups include officials and decision-makers with 11.76% and “my entire region” with 7.71%.

These results show that the Algerian citizen-journalist aims to reach large segments of the public tomake the information available to all as soon as it is available. The conditions experienced by members of the community are common and shared by all and what is published are generally the problems of everyday life for the Algerian individual. Therefore, everyone has the right to information (according to the sample members).

Some describe blogging as contributory journalism or as critical mass culture press (Afshana & Din: 2018, pp. 527-545). This is why we notice the mass orientation in the study results. The masses, especially young people in Algeria, are very interested in cyberspace as a source of information because of citizen- journalism comments on events, news, and facts addressed by the traditional media. Blogs are an important means of ascertaining the facts presented by the mainstream media in Algeria (Lih: 2004).

Because it is not subject to the pressures and factors that render traditional media biased and unreliable, citizen-journalism makes use of its unlimited freedom to address sensitive and bold issues and even to face up to those government agencies that sometimes want to hide certain information from people. This has made it an alternative space for communication, with everyone looking forward to owning it.

Table (10) shows that websites record the highest percentage (34.12%) in terms of citizen-journalist blogs being used as a source of information, followed by 32.94% for other blogs and 11.76% for traditional media, with 17.65% of the sample members not seeing their blogs adopted as sources of information.

These results show us the level of reliance on information provided by citizen-journalists in Algeria. This reliance is increasing in many channels and various traditional media, albeit at a lower level in Algeria as there are those in the country who consider blogs as an unreliable source of news and information. However, there are major companies and major international media organizations that have given special attention to this new source. We find, for example, the France24 channel adopting electronic content in carrying out its journalistic work (Badji & Takieddine: 2020, pp. 160-170; House: 2017; Tilak: 2020). Citizen- journalism is considered a significant source for providing information, images, and videos, but the channel has created certain mechanisms to deal with such content.

CONCLUSION

The results recorded in this study indicate that citizen-journalism is a new direction that has its specificity, its own scope, and its own space in which it was created. Despite all the problems posed by citizen-journalism, the main advantage that distinguishes it is the freedom to deal with information and the freedom to publish and distribute that information over social networks, making it an evolutionary act against the traditional press. Citizen-journalism is based on interaction and sharing and the emergence of active and innovative users, which have changed media practice and made traditional media institutions interact through multiple ways with this critical development, especially through the use of information produced by the citizen-journalist.

The media has also been strengthened by the role of the distributor who shares his output with thebroader public. Many organizations, including media institutions, have stressed the importance of these media platforms created by citizen-journalism and have started to use them for publication and influence because of their great impact on young people. In this respect, an important issue has been raised concerning the use of citizen-journalism for developing a relationship with the public.

Most of the problems that have been raised about citizen-journalism should be discussed in participatory, collaborative, and free thought. Therefore, the specificity of Algerian society drives us to question the extent to which the traditional Algerian media is aware of the appearance of active citizen- journalism and of the general cultural, environmental transformations that are requiring internal organizational transformations. This is because the traditional vertical and non-interactive model on which traditional media is now based is closed, incapable of opening up to the culture of participation promoted by citizen-journalism. It also constitutes an obstacle to the creation of media capable of interacting with the new contexts that distinguish Algerian society.

BIODATA

JELJELI: The currently affiliation of Dr. Riadh Jeljeli is College of communication and Media Al Ain University-UAE; E-mail: Riadh.jeljeli@aau.ac.ae; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2379-1207

SETOUTAH: The currently affiliation of Dr. Samira Setoutah is College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences University of Sharjah -UAE; E-mail: ssetoutah@sharja.ac.ae; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8122- 5484

F. FARHI: The currently affiliation of Dr. Faycal Farhi is College of communication and Media Al Ain University-UAE; E-mail: faycal.farhi@aau.ac.ae; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2738-6970

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