Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is a concept in media that refers to journalistic activities of ordinary people.
It means citizens themselves report the issues confronting them. Citizen journalism has enabled
people to raise their voice on what they feel need attention. These people are, thus, termed as
citizen journalists. Citizen journalists or amateur reporters are none but the general audience,
that is, viewers, readers and listeners of mainstream media. Citizen journalism is also known
as participatory and democratic journalism. There are various other synonyms used for citizen
journalism - “public journalism,” “civic journalism,” “stand-alone journalism,” “networked
journalism,” “open source journalism,” “crowd-sourced journalism,” “collaborative
journalism,” “grassroots journalism,” “community journalism,” “bridge media” and so on.
These forms of journalism are related to “citizen journalism”, but each is a unique species that
has evolved out of a larger family of social media. All these terms refer to different acts.
Citizen journalism has been an emerging phenomenon of the 21st century that has arisen at the
intersection of the Internet and digital media technologies, a perceived crisis in news values
and professional journalism, and the demand for online participation, social networking, self-
expression and interaction characteristic of the era of ‘Web 2.0’ or the ‘participative Web’. One
of the most accepted and inclusive definitions of citizen journalism has been put forward by
Bowman and Willis (2003) in New Media. They define citizen journalism as the act of non-
professionals, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and
disseminating news and information. This definition covers all the possible activities of citizen
journalists in existence. The authors further write, “the intent of this participation is to provide
independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy
requires.”
Oxford Dictionary defines citizen journalism as “the collection, dissemination, and analysis of
news and information by the general public, especially by means of the Internet.”
The Macmillan dictionary defines it as the gathering and reporting of news by ordinary people
rather than professional reporters.
According to the Collins dictionary, “citizen journalism means the involvement of non-
professionals in reporting news, especially in blogs and other websites.”
Techopedia defines “citizen journalism as the reporting of news events by members of the
public using the Internet to spread the information.”
Importance of citizen journalism
The citizen journalism means collecting any happenings, events or occurrences by any member
of general public and irrespective of analysis or not, disseminates the collected material to the
whole world through any means and the popular being the internet. Citizen journalism allows
everyone to be a journalist and provide his version of truth to the whole world. Citizen
journalism has gained importance in the present era. It is also notable that the citizen journalism
has become of part of democracy observed by any country. A degree of democracy can be
weighed based on the restrictions on the media imposed by the Government. Hence citizen
journalism has become a symbol of democracy in the modern era. However, citizen journalism
in case of war has been a part of major debate on emerging aspects of journalism. Ever since
the rise of internet and social media as part of a person’s life, journalism has gained maximum
thrust and activism from the citizen.
Like every subject matter, even citizen journalism has its own share of advantages and
disadvantages. Citizen journalism brings out the real stories of the people to the public at large
which is sometimes for free. Unlike traditional newspaper, where purchase is to be made, the
newer form of journalism i.e. social media will give quick and free access to everything
happening around the world. Some events get reported by Citizen journalists that may not be
reported by other journalists. Traditional media journalists cover only those which are
understood or perceived to be of great importance of society and sometimes because of
prejudice, personal beliefs and propaganda, some news item may get hidden and invisible to
public. Citizen journalism will enhance the coverage of events which might have occurred in
the remotest of areas. Citizen journalism promotes for reportage of community level news
because people will be concerned to know what is happening in the locality and sometimes
these community level issues will gain national level attention required.
Other advantages include:
1. Speed in reporting news stories.
2. Higher credibleness of Citizen journalism reporters than the standard TV journalism.
3. A lot of honesty within the news reportage than other media.
4. Covering of events that don’t seem to be permissible because it may be coated by the
standard media coverage.
On the other hand, citizen journalists sometimes act with prejudice covering items which may
be against rights of an individual. They may be violating someone’s right to privacy or right
to be left alone. Traditional media journalists possess the required training to report the matters
without any bias. This makes their reports more accurate and clear. Therefore, the news
coverage of citizen journalists may not be as credible as the traditional media journalists.
Citizens are not trained on the defamation laws and laws of privacy. Skilled journalists do have
this information and training. They recognize what they should say and cannot say in a
newspaper article. An example of this is when Citizen journalists declare de jure that potential
suspects and alleged co-conspirators as criminals in the Massachusetts marathon bombings.
The Citizen journalists caused the police to take long time in searching them and conduct the
investigation. Also, Citizen journalists don’t notice the copyright problems.
Other disadvantages include:
1. News of Citizen journalism may be superficial and lacks depth.
2. News of Citizen Journalism must always be verified.
3. Citizen Journalism may just be rumours.
4. Citizen Journalism might lose honesty because sometimes it serves special interests.
5. Citizen Journalism doesn’t take the general public under consideration. It’s going to
contain scenes of violence or X rated scenes that offend public decency and cause panic
and law and order situation.
Citizen Journalism has its own share of advantages and disadvantages but it is to be noted that
it gives every individual a chance to provide his side of the story to the whole world and let
the world decide on it. The extent of citizen journalism shows the degree of democracy
prevailing in a country. Citizen Journalism has gained much importance and the credit has to
be given to the internet. Citizen journalism may have saved many lives, provide a platform for
expressing one’s view over a matter but it comes along with the responsibility.