citizen journalism
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What is citizen journalism?
Citizen journalism is the practice of news gathering and reporting by people who are not professional journalists. These citizen journalists disseminate information through websites, blogs, and social media.
The modern concept of citizen journalism can be traced to 2000, when Oh Yeon-ho, a South Korean online entrepreneur, stated that "every citizen is a reporter".
Citizen journalism has played a major role in 21st-century political events. For example, Twitter became an important outlet for disseminating information during the protests following the Iranian presidential election in June 2009.
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How is citizen journalism different from traditional journalism?
Citizen journalism differs from traditional journalism in several key aspects. Citizen journalists are independent, often unaffiliated individuals who disseminate information through social media, blogs, and other online platforms. Traditional journalists, on the other hand, are trained professionals working for established news organizations.
Traditional media employs editors, attorneys, and fact-checkers to ensure high standards, whereas citizen journalists typically lack these support systems. Mainstream journalists also have a tacit right to cover news that citizen journalists may not, and face fewer risks of persecution compared to citizen journalists. Despite concerns about reliability, citizen journalism has grown, playing a significant role in reporting breaking and neighborhood news, often providing voices to the socially disenfranchised.
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Who can become a citizen journalist?
Anyone can become a citizen journalist. A citizen journalist is an independent, non-affiliated person who gathers and reports news via social media, blogs, newsletters, and other outlets.
Oh Yeon-ho, a South Korean online entrepreneur, stated in 2000 that "every citizen is a reporter". He and his colleagues, dissatisfied with South Korean press, created OhmyNews, a website using volunteer content creators. Starting with 727 citizen reporters, it grew to 50,000 contributors across 100 countries by 2007.
Citizen journalists report breaking and neighborhood news, often missed by mainstream media, and give voice to the socially disenfranchised.
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What tools or platforms do citizen journalists use to share information?
Citizen journalists use various platforms to share information, including social media like Twitter and Facebook, as well as blogs, newsletters, and podcasts. They often report on neighborhood news and issues of regional importance that mainstream media overlooks, and give voice to the socially disenfranchised. The rise of the Internet has significantly boosted citizen journalism, providing unique platforms for reporting news ignored by traditional outlets. Anyone with a cell phone can report and inform the public, making platforms like Twitter and YouTube as vital as major newspapers.
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What are the advantages and challenges of citizen journalism?
Citizen journalism employs people who are not professional journalists to disseminate information via websites, blogs, and social media citizen journalism.
Advantages: Citizen journalism gives ordinary people the ability to report news, especially regarding breaking events and local stories that mainstream media might miss. It also gives a voice to the socially disenfranchised.
Challenges: Citizen journalists often lack the training, experience, and institutional support for ensuring high standards of reporting and ethics. They also face a greater risk of persecution, especially in countries with government-controlled media.
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How has citizen journalism affected the way people get news and information?
Citizen journalism has changed how people get news and information by providing alternative news sources, diminishing the influence of traditional print and broadcast outlets. The Internet has driven the growth of citizen journalism, with online platforms enabling amateur journalists to report news ignored by the mainstream press.
Citizen journalists report breaking news, often as it is happening, and cover local stories and issues of regional importance. Anyone with a cell phone can report and access information, democratizing the news. Social media platforms have become important in informing the public.
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citizen journalism, journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information using Web sites, blogs, and social media. Citizen journalism has expanded its worldwide influence despite continuing concerns over whether citizen journalists are as reliable as trained professionals. Citizens in disaster zones have provided instant text and visual reporting from the scene. People in countries affected by political upheaval and often in countries where print and broadcast media are controlled by the government have used a variety of technological tools to share information about hot spots. Swirling in the background of these developments was a debate over whether the term citizen journalism was itself accurate.
Both the term and the practice crystallized in South Korea, where the online entrepreneur Oh Yeon-ho declared in 2000 that “every citizen is a reporter.” Oh and three South Korean colleagues started an online daily newspaper in 2000 because, he said, they were dissatisfied with the traditional South Korean press. Unable to afford the costs of hiring professionals and printing a newspaper, they started OhmyNews, a Web site that used volunteers to generate its content. In a speech on the site’s seventh anniversary, Oh, the firm’s president and CEO, noted that the news site began with 727 citizen reporters in one country and by 2007 had grown to 50,000 contributors reporting from 100 countries.
Since then the Internet has spawned thousands of news sites and millions of bloggers. Traditional news media, while battling declining readership and viewership, leapt into the fray with their own Web sites and blogs by their own journalists, and many newspapers invited readers to contribute community news to their Web sites. Some groups started their own “hyperlocal” online news sites to cover happenings in their neighbourhoods or specialized topics of interest that were not reported by larger media organizations.
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Among those who studied and nurtured citizen journalism, the phenomenon often went by other names. In a 2007 article, editor J.D. Lasica called it “participatory journalism,” though he described it as “a slippery creature. Everyone knows what audience participation means, but when does that translate into journalism?” Dan Gillmor, founder and director of the Center for Citizen Media and author of the book We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (2004), also rejected any single definition for the transformation in news that had begun in the late 1990s. He called this era “a time of incredible exploration” because of the democratization of access to inexpensive and ubiquitous publishing tools.
Citizen journalism has played a major role in 21st-century political events. The Web site Twitter established itself as an emerging outlet for the dissemination of information during the protests following the Iranian presidential election in June 2009. Although the protests did not result in a change in the election results or a new election, the tweets of de facto journalists showed the potential of nontraditional media to circumvent government censorship. In Egypt, activists protesting the government of President Ḥosnī Mubārak during the uprising of 2011 often organized themselves by forming groups on the social networking Web site Facebook.