Vice started in Montreal, Canada in the mid-'90s, as a free magazine called the Voice of Montreal. Since then, many changes have occurred, like their name change and their relocation to New York. After reading various articles and watching news clips of their work, I realized that Vice Media is an example of citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism allows news reporting to come from a genuine place. The most unique detail about it is that everyone can be part of it. The definition is in its name: journalism that comes from citizens. Anyone who is able to record a video and post it onto their social media accounts is partaking in citizen journalism. It is unfiltered and raw news. Due to modern technology, it allows citizens to report breaking news more quickly than traditional media reporters. It is an alternative to media news. Many of the same topics are covered but the articles are written from different perspectives and provide unique styles of reporting.
In April of 2013, The New Yorker released an article titled, The Bad Boy Brand. It describes the journalistic journey of Lizzie Widdicombe, a writer for The New Yorker. Widdicombe starts off in North Korea during a basketball game, that was organized by Vice Media. American basketball players were to play against North Korea’s national team. North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un was in attendance, along with his wife. Also in attendance was Dennis Rodman, Chicago Bulls star and cross dresser. This event occurred during a time when North Korea was in the spotlight for the regime abuses and reports of cannibalism among a starving population. Relations between North Korea and the United States are complex. Yet Vice did not hesitate to broadcast the event and headlined it “North Korea Has a Friend in Dennis Rodman”.
In order to gain the attention of multiple readers, Vice was able to integrate the interest of young people by placing a basketball star's name in their headline thus combining their interest in news with a bit of world news. I believe that their form of reporting and maneuvering headlines was genius. Vice provides a new perspective to reporting on a particular topic that would otherwise be broadcasted differently in mainstream media. Fareed Zakaria, Time columnist and CNN host, said that Vice is getting a new audience interested in the world and Rupert Murdoch called it a global success.
Now with thirty-five offices in 18 countries, Shane Smith, CEO of Vice, states that his aim is to be the largest network for young people in the world. In November of 2015, Smith covered a story about the mass incarceration problem in America. He was invited by President Obama to accompany him to visit inmates in prison in order to get a more personal view of the issue. That was the first time in history that a president of the United States had visited inmates and Smith was able to cover the story and televise it nationally through his deal with HBO. His article touched on a topic that is mostly ignored by mainstream media and through it he provided the world with a clear view of what incarceration in America entails. That day Smith proved, contrary to popular belief, that topics that are not covered by mainstream media are not necessarily unprofitable.
Technology and the constant change of what media is keeps us on our toes. The freedom of and ease to access unfiltered news demonstrates that journalism is changing. Bigger corporations and powerful people are now backing up citizen journalism and what it stands for. We can’t ever lose sight of the fact that money will always find a way to affect the news. We just have to stay aware of that, in order to recognize the difference between what our opinions are and what it is that the media is trying to feed us.
