Citizen Journalism and Military Communications: Can They Co-Exist?

How many times have you read an article and discovered that it isn’t written by a reporter representing a media organization? Was it a blog? Did it have an agenda of its own? Did the writer implement sources?

Photo by Seaman Christopher Bokum (DVIDS)

If you’ve read something like this, you’ve read what is sometimes referred to as “citizen journalism,” which calls for everyday people to head to their computer and type away. Now, this has its pros and cons. It allows for free speech online. However, in a world saturated with “fake news,” citizen journalists can sometimes only add to the headache of finding accurate information online.

This week, we’ll examine why you should never editorialize as a military communicator. Yes, that means I will be sharing my opinion on why you, a current or potential military communicator, should never act as a citizen journalist.

To dive into my argument against citizen journalism, we have to fully understand what citizen journalism is.

Have you listened to a podcast recently that wasn’t ran by a media organization? I’m talking to you, the Joe Rogan fans out there. Yes, some will argue that even Joe Rogan’s podcast is viewed as citizen journalist. If you are using a medium to present new information to an audience, you are conducting citizen journalism. From a fake news standpoint, it’s obvious to see why this can be dangerous. Some people may find a citizen’s blog online, for example, to find news. However, if that blog isn’t backed with proper research or sourcing, it can be seen as an editorial piece.

That’s why it’s critical for citizen journalists to make their intensions known early and often in their work. For you, the military communicator, your sole job is to keep your audience informed about what is going on in the organization and the organization’s goals, inform the internal audience of significant developments affecting them and the organization, and increasing the troops and family members’ effectiveness as ambassadors of the organization. These are all known as command information goals, and they are the backbone of your work as a military communicator.

Because of this, you don’t have room for editorializing while representing your branch of service.

Whether you attend Defense Information School in Fort Meade, MD (which is the instillation that teaches all enlisted and commissioned military communicators), you will discover that you must refer to the Department of Defense’s principles of information, which outline major provisions on releasing information to an internal and external audience.

Your goal as a military communicator is to provide accurate and timely information to your internal and external audience, as the DoD’s principles of information states. The DoD’s principles of information states, “information shall be made fully and readily available, consistent with statutory requirements, unless its release is precluded by national security constraints or valid statutory mandates or exceptions. The Freedom of Information Act will be supported in both letter and spirit.”

Both of your audiences are not going to be looking for you to provide any editorialized content. To recap, your internal audience consists of U.S. military members, DoD civilians, and local national employees. Your external audience consists of for everyone else, i.e., the general public.

You’ll also find, too, that the media members that you work with will habitually seek facts over opinions from you. Now, this won’t always be the case. If you end up working in the public affairs realm of military communication, you will be faced with questions from the media and they could always try and pry an opinion out of you during an interview.

However, when you submit media releases or data sheets to the press corps, this data should always be fact-based with no editorialized information.

In fact, a recent study from 2019 found that 63% of surveyed reporters said they want media releases and data sheets provided by the public relations representatives. To be clear, YOU will be the public relations representative of your local unit should you work under the umbrella of public affairs in the military.

If you provide fact-based data to reporters, they will trust you. This can build a working relationship with the local news media that can be covering stories about your branch. In case you haven’t heard, the DoD is facing a recruitment crisis across both the DoD branches and in the Department of Homeland Security with the U.S. Coast Guard. Thus, any positive image of the U.S. military in the media will only help expose the armed forces to potentially help combat the recruiting struggles.

One way to help keep you in line as a military communicator in the public affairs realm is abiding by the Associated Press Style Guide, which is a requirement for military communicators. There is also a DoD Style Guide that military writers must use when writing content across many spectrums, such as press releases, captions, to social media posts.

These guidelines will help you ensure that you stick to the script when it comes to writing in the military. This keeps you honest when it comes to writing because you have to use specific diction and follow their specific style guides.

Another thing to consider that citizen journalists don’t have to worry about is attribution. These online bloggers can write and write and write all they want. For the most part, anyone who writes their own blog doesn’t have to call up an editor to check their work beyond grammar and spelling but also for fact checking.

In the military, if you are writing press releases or media data sheets, you must attribute where facts come from. If you don’t attribute, you could possibly violate copyright laws. When you don’t attribute, you could potentially be faced with a plagiarism. Again, a citizen journalist doesn’t have to worry about this if they don’t want to. They can still hit publish even if they don’t properly cite sources or attribute data.

When considering a career in military communications, it is my personal belief that you should avoid blogs for your inspiration on writing. Instead, stick to what military professionals do best: provide our internal and external audience with facts in an accurate and timely manner. This will only help your career in the long wrong.

Should you attend Defense Information School in Fort Meade, MD when becoming a military communicator, you will see first-hand what I mean by all of this. The school will imprint this mantra into your mind. By the time you graduate the program, you will be trained to write like a military communicator, one that does not editorialize, unlike citizen journalists.