When Does "Citizen Journalism" Become "Mob Justice"?

The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday featured yet another front page article on the conspicuously homeless, penned by the prolific C.V. Nevius, who's made the issue into a near crusade. The article isn't surprising – it is one of many in the past several months or years that single out the "hard-core" homeless population and stoke the frustration and exasperation of a public increasingly tired of seeing battered and mentally-unstable people sleeping along their streets. Needless to say, the article advocates for less carrot and more stick in addressing the city's homeless problem.

What was completely surprising to me, at least, is the boxed call for citizen journalism at the page's bottom, inviting readers to send in their photos of vagrants:

"Chronicle readers often write us about scenes on the street or vagrants camping out in front of their homes. If you see something you think would make a good photo, shoot it and send it to cwnevius@sfchronicle.com with your name and a line describing the location attached."

The Chron states it will post many of the pictures on their website. This is really citizen journalism at its very worst, in my opinion. This is not a project intended to produce a community-oriented solution. Rather, it's a clear attempt to incite a weary public toward mob reaction, and potentially from there, toward violence. It will be interesting to see what they ultimately post. My prediction is that the images won't hint at the complexity of the issues involved, or suggest ways in which community-members can wield a carrot or a stick, but encourage us to dehumanize the subjects as a kind of grotesque littering of "our" streets, in ways reminiscent of the odious "bum fights" videos, which helped to provoke so much violence recently, and raised the ire of the Chronicle itself.