Shifting Perspectives

Understanding Citizen Journalism through a 'Politics of Location'

Theory – the seeing of patterns, showing the forest as well as the trees – theory can be a dew that rises from the earth and collects in the rain cloud and returns to earth over and over. But if it doesn't smell of the earth, it isn't good for the earth.

— Adrienne Rich, 'Notes towards a Politics of Location', 213–14

In 1984, Adrienne Rich wrote 'Notes towards a Politics of Location', in which she argues for a grounded approach to theoretical work. Behind its lyrical wording, the above quote suggests an understanding of knowledge production that takes both its starting point and raison d'être in a grounded cartographic reading of particular circumstances. These particular circumstances give life to concepts, which in turn allow for a new understanding of the practice that served as the initial starting point. Similarly, in his work on cinema, Deleuze argues, 'A theory about cinema is not "about" cinema but about the concepts that cinema generates' (Deleuze 1989, 280). Inspired by Rich and Deleuze, I argue in this book that citizen journalism is not about citizen journalism but about citizens and journalism as well as about how these concepts and practices formulate and generate political practices of subjectivity formation. Deleuze sees cinema as a practice of knowledge production on par with philosophical knowledge production, though generated through different events and understandings. I do not argue that citizen journalism is a philosophy but rather that looking at citizen journalism as a particular practice of knowledge production with a historical presence allows us to understand more about its role in society and about subjects' political practices and agency. In arguing this, I furthermore draw upon philosophy of subjectivity, postcolonial theory, theories of citizenship and theories of political acts in order to take a new perspective on citizen journalism. This enables me to move beyond binary positions often evoked in empirical discussions about citizen journalism, such as the amateur producer of news versus the professional journalist, the importance of technological developments versus cultural determinism and the particular versus universal expressions. In other words, I wish to move to a position situated outside the dichotomies established by previous studies and long-held beliefs regarding an opposition between the practices of citizen journalism and professional journalism, which remain determining factors and points of reference. I wish to question the role and meaning of the 'citizen' and the mnemonic processes, positions and substance of 'journalism' when discussing citizen journalism.

In order to shift perspective on citizen journalism from a focus on journalistic practice to a focus on processes of subjectivity, I consider the case of a colonial newspaper which was published in St. Croix between 1915 and 1925 by a descendant of enslaved people in this colony within the Danish West Indies. I read this newspaper, The Herald, to develop my perspective for three reasons: First, as a case of colonial citizens' communication through a journalistic medium, it challenges the perceived boundaries of the nation-state on which professional journalism and the idea of the citizen are predicated. This is further amplified by the precarity experienced by the populations of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, when these islands were sold to the United States in 1917. Despite expectations to the contrary, the sale did not immediately result in US citizenship for the islands' inhabitants but instead initiated a new struggle for civil rights, one that continues in the US Virgin Islands to this day. Second, the historical location of the case releases us from the digital saturation of debates on citizen journalism long enough to refocus on the material, actual public and its embodied and situated space. Debates about digital expressions and participation have suggested a particular kind of democratisation through digital media through an expansion of the public sphere. The space of the postcolonial, however, demonstrates the limits of the public sphere as a concept and highlights the need for an analysis of power. Finally, the particular circumstances surrounding The Herald are important. The Herald invites a close reading of its ten years of publication and archived storage, which represents a counter-reading of both journalism history and Danish (colonial) history. The founder and editor of the paper, David Hamilton Jackson, was a descendant of enslaved people, who agitated for the rights of the islands' labourers to better wages and shorter working weeks. I argue that the racialized political conditions on the islands (as well as in interaction with Denmark and the United States' mainland) allow us to revisit our reading of the journalistic practice of Jackson and his peers in a manner that underscores their call for equal rights and social awareness as crucial to the practice of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism can be regarded as a conceptual practice not just because of its mechanics but also because of its grounding and meaning-making ability. By deconstructing the relationships between citizen journalism, the journalistically understood and amplified public sphere, and the nationally and politico-legally bound idea of the citizen, I highlight the importance of The Herald and Jackson's journalistic political and embodied practice. The Herald of St. Croix, 1915–1925, thus allows me to answer – in my view – far more interesting questions than 'What is citizen journalism?': 'How may we understand the concept of the citizen in citizen journalism?' 'From which kinds of politics and social community may this citizen's journalism arise?' 'What kinds of politics can it create?'

The relationship between the colonial groundings of citizen journalism and the theoretical implications of a politics of location generates questions of subjectivity formation and political agency. This book thus has three interlinked theoretical aims: (1) It aims to bring about a new reading of citizen journalism that focusses on the practice of producing political citizenship and subjectivity formations. I therefore understand practice as actively producing material subjectivities. (2) It aims to analytically argue that our understanding of citizen journalistic subjectivity formation is enhanced through (post)colonial perspectives and positions but that these perspectives and positions are hard-earned modalities of constant learning. (3) Finally, this book aims to shed new light on the relationship between...