Situated Citizen Journalism: Dilemmatic Thinking

We present an approach to investigating the development of “dilemmatic thinking” in individuals and communities. To study this style of thinking we use a framework called Situated Citizen Journalism (SCJ) in which non-specialists (“citizens”) work with professional photojournalists and learning technologists to create and critique images. The participants form a “community of journalistic practice.” This paper describes the SCJ approach; the rationale for situating the investigation of dilemmatic thinking within the photojournalism practice; and a project currently in progress to investigate young people’s dilemmatic thinking through photojournalism. We conclude with a number of research questions guiding the development of collaborative software to support SCJ.