Citizen Journalism: A Help or Hindrance?
There’s now a whole host of media and platforms in which to communicate messages, including news messages. Is citizen journalism a good way of disseminating information and seeking the truth, or is it just a threat to professional journalism?
Whether it’s a tweet on Twitter, a grainy video shot on a mobile phone and uploaded to Facebook or a viral video of a catastrophic event shared via YouTube, everyday citizens are becoming more and more responsible for the distribution of news.
With a variety of platforms available for people to share their views and opinions, and circulate or live react to the latest events, citizen journalism is a word that’s in every professional journalist’s vocabulary nowadays.
Some see it as a huge advancement in terms of opening up the realm of journalism to the public who are often at the centre of these events, whereas others believe it’s threatening the profession and making traditional means of journalism meaningless.
Defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “ the collection, dissemination, and analysis of news and information by the general public, especially by means of the Internet”, citizen journalism describes how the public are now playing an active role in the creation of modern journalism.
Citizen journalism can take the form of much of the current news around today, be that in the form of:
- Film
- Audio
- Photo
- Text
Involvement and Location
A clear example of citizen journalism was demonstrated during the Boston Marathon explosion in 2013.
Much of the footage of the explosion was captured and shared by the public who were filming the event anyway — take this video for example, which even the news anchor refers to as being sourced via Twitter:
This just goes to show that, despite the trauma that this event caused, sometimes those who are in the centre of the news are deemed able to best report on the news.
Critique
Citizen journalism has come under fire from professionals due to the notion that it is saturating the industry.
Social media has already drastically changed the reporting landscape, with social media pages often being now the first place news is broken, moving away from the traditional means of news distribution.
In 2016, 66% of journalists cited social media as a critical source for a story, and in 2017, only 53% of journalists cited it as a main source. MyNewsDesk
Social media and citizen journalism is the most raw and up to date version of a story. It provides eye witness accounts, live information dissemination and real time updates.
Because of this, and the speed in which information spreads online, by the time a journalist comes across an event on social media, it has already been reported by so many individual accounts, it is no longer fresh news, perhaps explaining the decrease in reliance on social media for story sourcing.
Another argument that is given that insinuates citizen journalism is tarnishing the professional industry is that of objectivity.
Often specific media outlets lean towards a certain angle of an event depending what is more widely accepted by their readers. It is argued that due to their involvement and lack of bias or need to think and align their story with values before sharing, that citizen journalists are free from bias.
“Most news outlets present a somewhat slanted position on most issues through a variety of mechanisms. The difference is newspapers often hide these positions under the guise of neutrality, whereas blogs and citizen journalists do not.” James Walker
Being free from this bias is something that traditional news outlets cannot do, and may lead to a lack of trust in these outlets over that of everyday citizens.
Conclusion — Collaboration?
Is citizen journalism killing off the traditional journalism industry?
Some like me, believe no, and that citizen journalism is just the next revolution when it comes to moving journalism towards a more modern age.
Although social media has changed the landscape for journalism in the 2010s particularly, there is no reason that newsroom journalists can’t harness the power of citizen journalism.
“We are increasingly seeing that it is the job of journalists to pull together and curate different types of materials and then explain what is going on, offer interpretation, offer context, offer analysis. That, increasingly, is what counts as good journalism.” Phillip Meyer
From this quote, it is clear to see that professional journalists hold a specific role within the media.
Whilst, no, they may not be the first to break news after a single tweet or share on Facebook, journalists can work together with those practicing citizen journalism in order to pull together and professionally disseminate this news — after all, some people do still go straight to news sites for this knowledge rather than scrolling through social media aimlessly hoping to find a breaking story.
“Firstly, citizen journalism is not about the replacement of traditional journalism. It is an addition, a development, a progression.” James Walker
Professional journalists can open the discussion and bring these stories to a wider readership; rather than feeling threatened by citizen journalism, it should definitely be viewed as an opportunity.
Citizen journalists can offer first hand accounts into tragedy, often sparking action, or brand new perspectives on what would otherwise become everyday news, or inform newsroom professionals on the issues that really matter to citizens.
Professional journalists utilizing this perspective could in turn refashion their own reporting styles and effectiveness, leading to a more diverse media for all.
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