The Pros and Cons of Citizen Journalism in Social Media

I have always thought that the beauty of social media is that we are able to share this crazy concept of life. The boundaries are limitless. We are able to reach out to, connect and discover new interests. We are able to express our opinions, challenge points and extend our knowledge of this world that we are all part of.

Whether we are taking pictures of floods and puddles, sharing traffic jams on the motorways, tweeting about a cat stuck up a tree, or a faulty product, we are all creating and disseminating current news and information. We live in a society whose first reaction to a shocking or fascinating event is through reaching for a Smartphone to record and share onto social media.

I like to refer to this as citizen journalism. Citizen journalism has many advantages, such as:

· Providing an active voice for the public

· Allowing the audience to fact check and challenge news put out to us

· Giving local communities a voice to address issues affecting their lives

As the use of the internet progresses the use of social media has become increasingly widespread across the globe, reaching out to remote corners of the globe and to countries less advanced than our own. People of other cultures are able to awaken the world by attracting attention to their well-being such as poverty, or the implications that war has had on their community.

Recently in the news a Syrian refugee family used Twitter as an act of desperation and plea for help in an urgent attempt to be rescued from a dangerous war zone. From the 24th September a Syrian mother and her daughter live-tweeted the bombings happening in Aleppo, their neighbourhood.

A positive aspect of this is that it can expose different communities to unfamiliar, different cultures to create a better understanding of the world in which surrounds us. Other countries are then able to reach out to people in need and less able than our own. It awakens our senses, and although may shock and upset us at times, it is important to be exposed to this to understand the impacts that other countries can have on others lives (war). Western countries can be so far removed from this and almost forget that people are suffering everyday.

Below are some examples of the live tweets that the Syrian daughter allegedly composed.

On the other hand, these examples of sources are also representative of demonstrating the ‘cons’ of citizen journalism as well as the pros, such as:

· Difficulties in the truth

Unlike legitimately licensed organisations, relying on personal accounts of information from only citizens can become problematic. Information that may appear truthful and supply facts can easily become manipulated to attract further attention. For example, this Syrian mother manipulated tweets to create the impression that it was just her daughter exposing an account of bombing events, leading to global attraction and attention and aid support.

While this isn’t particularly an example of utter deceit, as it still reveals a truthful account of the bombings and the impact this has on their neighbourhood. It does arise questions of manipulation on the internet. It demonstrates how minimal deceit can be achieved, which could possibly develop into a large scandal, ultimately reminding us of the vulnerabilities that we are open to from relying on unfamiliar sources.

I understand how this topic can be viewed as controversial, due to the mother’s manipulation, however, I believe it speaks so much more. It emphasises the desperate plea of help for innocent people’s lives, left powerless by a war entirely out of their control.