electronic governance and citizen journalism
Electronic Governance (e-Governance) is the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to provide citizens and organizations with more convenient access to government information and services, and to provide better public services. The most important anticipated benefits of e-Governance include more efficiency, improved services, better accessibility of public services, and more transparency and accountability. Citizen journalism, on the other hand is the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy and governance requires. If e-Governance is still the top-down flow of information, then citizen journalism is a bottom-up flow. However, in both -- on e-Governance through the state, and on citizen journalism through the citizens; the quantum of practices has grown in leaps and bounds with the rapid penetration of new media technologies, like the Internet in the economic, social, political and other processes. The soul searching still needs to be done on do e-Governance and citizen journalism flock together? Can e-Governance facilitate and integrate bottom-up flow of information and make people participate in the governance process? This panel, consisting of primarily e-Governance and citizen journalism practitioners, shall try to look into what has worked and what has not worked as far as e-Governance and citizen journalism working in isolation and in tandem is concerned.
electronic governance citizen journalism