Each One, Teach One: Citizen Journalism
Today, I will be discussing the topic I chose to present on for my second EOTO presentation. I chose to talk about Citizen Journalism! If you have not heard of this term before, you definitely want to pay attention because it is a very important definition to understand.
What is Citizen Journalism?
Citizen journalism is where citizens participate in the action of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and spreading news. Some real life examples include:
- Black Lives Matter Movement
- The 2013 Turkish Protests
- John F. Kennedy Assassination
Pros & Cons of Citizen Journalism
Positives:
- Interaction with Media:
Citizen journalism allows for the average citizen to interact with media. Without citizen journalism, most citizens would not take part in interactions with the news media.
- Personal to Viewers:
Because it is average citizens involved in news coverage and journalism, this makes it more personal and appealing to others.
- Untouched by Media:
News media and other professional journalists tend to share news stories that are filtered or edited to fit their viewpoint or to fit the narrative. With citizens participating in sharing stories, they tend to stay unfiltered.
- Diverse Perspectives:
Anyone can participate in citizen journalism and because of this, more diverse stories can be shared rather than just the mainstream news anchors. All kinds of different topics can be shared and multiple different perspectives are viewed.
- Gives Minorities Voice:
Again, anyone can participate in citizen journalism. Because of this, people who are part of diverse minority groups can share their voice and opinions on different stories from around the world. Citizen journalism gives everyone a voice!
Negatives:
- Potential Misinformation:
With citizen journalism, anyone can share information. Because the average citizen can participate, there is the potential for misinformation since they may not do research to the fullest extent or they may intentionally leave information out to help their opinion spread.
- Lack of Professional Training:
As mentioned above, people who are participating in citizen journalism may not exactly have the same training and experience as other mainstream media personnel, which leads me into my next point.
- Credibility/Trust Issues:
People tend to trust those they see consistency from, like people on the mainstream media. With average citizens coming out and sharing information, it is much harder to garner audience trust and build credibility for yourself because of your possible lack of training or being an unknown individual.
Impact of Citizen Journalism
There are many positive impacts when it comes to citizen journalism.
The average citizen can easily practice their First Amendment: speech! They have the freedom to participate in sharing their opinions with the world. Citizen journalism helps to enhance the freedoms of America.
Additionally, it helps promote government transparency where citizens can hold the government accountable for potential withholding of information or false information intentionally spread to make the government look better.
To add on, it challenges traditional media that tends to follow a specific narrative. Citizen journalism promotes stories that are typically shutdown or hidden by the mainstream media because it does not fit their narrative.
And to conclude, citizen journalism empowers citizens to step up to their role as a citizen and inform all about what is going on in our nation.
Conclusion
Citizen journalism is extremely important to our nation. It allows stories that are ignored to be shared with everyone. It also supports patriotism and shows that our country works together to inform others of what is happening in the world. It brings people together where they have a safe space to share their thoughts and opinions. It can be concerning because it does put people in a vulnerable position to be criticized for their opinions or stories shared, but it does allow information to be spread that is unfiltered and untouched.
Next time, I will be sharing my thoughts on living in The Age of AI and how it impacts me. See you then!
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