Citizen Journalism and the Future of Journalism, Nancy Gordy

Arianna Huffington presents a strong quote pertaining to the future of journalism and the contributions of citizen journalists and bloggers in the article by Jessica Clark. As Arianna appears to defend the rising involvement of the audience in such ways that technology allows them too, it is in agreement that i find my self needing to defend the citizen journalists and bloggers and the useful and positive ways they contribute information. People have begun to turn to the web for instant access to information as a primary means of receiving their daily dose of news. Being able to easily pick and choose what websites to go to, what to read, and what to comment on, to name a few of the things one can do online, provides the user with a sense of interaction. This interaction can go even further if the user were to create their own blog and become a citizen journalist that provides other users with news they wish to deliver.

As there are millions and millions of blogs from all over the world that can be found online, the array of information is outstanding. The benefits that these citizen journalists bring to the world of journalism can also be seen as outstanding when considering the changes that have occurred to journalism and how journalists find, receive, edit, and distribute information due to the existence of your every day person having the ability to disseminate news to a broad range of people. Journalists can now read others blogs and participate in social networking sites only to discover endless amounts of news worthy stories and ideas, find people that are willing to share opinions and facts, hear of breaking news in any part of the world, and be kept up to date with occurrences and events by the second, to name only a few of the benefits. Journalists and citizen journalists/bloggers find themselves in a correlative relationship. While journalists can benefit in the ways that i just listed, the bloggers and citizen journalists (audiences) also strongly benefit from journalists as well. When the user can find articles via credible news sites, they are able to comment on the article on the site, write in to the editor if they wish, be linked to related articles, and share the article via twitter, facebook, and many other social networking sites, allowing anyone to participate in analyzing, sharing, reporting, and collecting news. In an article by Alfred Hermida, he states that "in interviews with local journalists working for the Johnston Press, Jane Singer found that most see the public as complementing, rather than replacing, the work of professionals." While it may appear that citizen journalists and bloggers are doing the work of journalists, but for free, this isn't exactly the case.

Barriers may seem to be falling between journalists and citizen journalists, but there are many differences between the two. Education, accuracy, and credibility play a large role in determining a good journalist. A citizen journalist does not usually have a journalism education and is simply just reporting what they see or hear with minimal fact checking. In the article by Alfred Hermida, he also states how audience participation is delineated. "The public can send in their news tips, photos and videos, but the journalist retains a traditional gatekeeper role, deciding what is newsworthy and what isn't. There is little room for the public to be involved in the actual making of the news -- in deciding whom to interview, how to frame the story and how to produce it. Once the story is complete and published, the audience can freely comment on the final product," Hermida writes. I strongly agree with this perspective and think that the audience simply adds to the journalistic experience. Bringing together different opinions, points of view, facts, questions, and answers allows for an overall beneficial interactive opportunity.

This is not a reality in some countries around the world, however. In an article by Clothilde Le Coz, she states that according to Reporters Without Borders, "there are currently 100 bloggers and cyber-dissidents imprisoned worldwide as a result of posting their opinions online in 2009." The entire article is filled with alarming facts on the dwindling freedom of speech within new media around the globe. It appears that distribution of opinions on political and economic matters that can present a country negatively are not tolerated as they would be here in Canada. This creates many issues. For one, if those bloggers and citizen journalists are not able to paint us a picture of the situation and circumstances on the other side of the world, global interaction is affected in many ways. People become uninformed which eliminates the sole purpose of journalism.

As the many controversies of the new online world of journalism arise, and many continue to question the validity and benefits of the ever rising citizen journalists and bloggers, one thing is for sure; they will both forever be around and the number of unqualified citizen journalists posting information may surmount the amount of educated and qualified journalists distributing information, and it will simply be up to the audience to act as a filter and absorb the accurate news only. In hopes of the interactive on line journalism world becoming one of intelligence and accuracy, I also hope that globally, journalism becomes accepted as a means of disseminating opinions, facts, news, culture and more, as freely as possible and that somehow a balance can be found within the two so as not too make journalism polluted and a means of picking out the treasures within the garbage.

Note: Image from Moderatorated on flickr.