Citizen Journalism and the Future of Journalism by Dale Boyd

Due to the new wave of news digitization in the past 5-10 years the journalism world has been forced to become an ever-adapting entity. With advancements in the portability of both access to the internet, and to cameras and video recording at any moment with our phones, anybody can unknowingly become citizen journalist at a moments notice. While technological advancements help capture events as they unfold, citizen journalism also has its bad side. With blogs, twitter, facebook, and a myriad of other social networking sites, people are able to get their opinions out there easily and as often as they want; which is not necessarily a good thing. David Simon, former writer for the Baltimore Sun, spoke in front of the United States Senate at a hearing on the future of journalism saying "You do not – in my city -- run into bloggers or so-called citizen journalists at City Hall, or in the courthouse hallways or at the bars and union halls where police officers gather." Simon goes on to describe the downfall of print journalism and the future of news and the shift online, Simon's full speech can be found here.

While blogging and social networking are great for posting one's opinion, the format is struggling to work as a news medium. First hand accounts of live events sound good in theory, but the filtering and fact checking you get from a newsroom seemed to be lost in the shuffle. This is not to say there is no good blogging or citizen journalism going on, it definitely has its place; however, if it causes more harm than good in certain situations the validity of this format has to be questioned. A recent example is the Fort Hood shooting that took place on an American military base. Major Nidal Malak Hasaan opened fire and killed 13 innocent people in the Fort Hood army base; during the tragedy soldier Tearah Moore was using twitter from inside the base. A first hand account in a situation like this may prove helpful, but in reality Ms. Moore began spreading misinformation. Moore was tweeting things such as "Maj Malik A Hassan. He shouldn’t have died. He should be in the worst suffering of his life. It’s too fair for him to just die. Bastard!" when Maj. Hassan was actually captured alive. This is the type of misinformation not only detracts from the reporting of facts but also has the potential to put people in danger in serious situations like shootings.

Situations like Fort Hood show the pitfalls of citizen journalism; however, it isn't without its place. Citizen journalism answered the call via twitter during the protests after the election in Iran. Twitter was a forum for Iranian protesters feeling oppression from their government to tell the world their story. Even though efforts to help oppressed Iranians may have gained momentum because of the citizen journalism taking place, it didn't change the amount of rumors and misinformation being spread as well. In the article "Iran Protests: Twitter the Medium of the Movement," author Lev Grossman states "The vast body of information about current events in Iran that circulates on Twitter is chaotic, subjective and totally unverifiable. It's impossible to authenticate sources. It's also not clear who exactly is using Twitter within Iran." Grossman discusses the use of mediums like twitter in his article here.

The positives of citizen journalism always seem to get overshadowed by the negatives. With credibility being a major concern, the citizen journalist has little more than cell phone pictures to prove their validity. Capturing the news first hand isn't the only way for citizens to be involved in the news according to Arianna Huffington, in the article "Best of Twitter: FTC Workshop Discusses the Future of Journalism," she argues that consumers are no longer just fed the news but can become involved and interact with the news. Countering those in the media opposed to citizen journalism Huffington said "The contributions of citizen journalists, bloggers, and others who aren't paid to cover the news are constantly mocked and derided by the critics of new media who clearly don't understand that technology has enabled millions of consumers to shift their focus from passive observation to active participation -- from couch potato to self-expression." Whether that active participation is fact-checked or not, citizen journalism is a useful embrace of technology to spread news faster than ever before. The article with Arianna Huffington and Rupert Murdoch discussing the future of journalism can be found here.

Good or bad citizen journalism, with the increased prevalence of social media in society, has a major impact on the news, but should it? With rumours and misinformation rampant among twitter feeds and internet here-say, the only valuable citizen journalism seems to be found among photos and videos as they are concrete and factual. Objectivity isn't necessarily a precaution taken among many citizen journalists, and since journalism should be presented as objective fact it is hard to hold these reports in high regard. Professional journalists are professionals for a reason, they have experience or training in the field. Citizen journalists have there place, it just isn't with professionals, and their opinions should be treated as such.