To be considered a professional in a certain field, one must have been paid for their services at any one point; A musician getting paid for a gig, a motocross rider getting paid for a show, or a writer getting paid for an article. A person getting paid for something that they are doing in a particular field is considered 'a professional' in that particular field; In theory, a musician can call themselves a professional musician if they have even but one paid show under their belts. Thus, people who aren't paid by any news organizations to deliver news of any kind may not be considered 'professionals', but this does not mean that this growing wave of citizen journalists, bloggers, 'tweeters' and more are to be overlooked. Citizen journalists that aren't considered 'professional' in the professional sense can still be a force to be reckoned with. Applications like Twitter and Youtube can enable any regular person with a camera, smartphone, or computer to deliver journalistic content similiar to a professional journalist.
Now-a-days, applications like Twitter can turn anybody with a computer or a smart phone into an active journalist, without the need of years of experience within post-secondary institutions. Applications like Twitter via smartphones, can allow anybody on the scene of any kind of news incident to immediately 'tweet' what's going on, with the added ability of being able to link to pictures, video, audio, other stories, and more. According to The Canoe Dossier, Twitter does some things very well, such as "Filing fast reports, some from the scene; reflecting the sentiment of the online population; revealing multiple points of view; directing people to useful sources, and revealing new information." Many notable celebrities, athletes, politicians, newsgroups and more use Twitter. Not only can people use the application as a reporting device no matter where they are, but people can likewise use Twitter as an RSS feed, 'following' multiple sources and getting information as soon as it breaks. Though it is conceded that Twitter can be a tool in aiding both citizen and career journalist, it is not without setbacks. Since anybody can 'tweet' on Twitter, information may be inaccurate, untrue, or could potentially compromise certain situations, such as giving away information that could potentially put someone at harm. An example of this could be someone tweeting about a hostage taking, potentially allowing the assailant to know what people are talking about, giving them valuable information.
As well as being able to post immediate updates about breaking news, linking to pictures, videos and other articles, citizen journalists also have the internet media giant, Youtube, at their disposal. Since the inception of Youtube in February of 2005, users have uploaded over 78 million videos as of March 17th, 2008, and over 65,000 videos are now uploaded daily. Many smartphones such as the iPhone feature the ability to upload videos almost instantaneously, and even cameras such as the JVC Everio have a one-touch 'Upload to YouTube' button, making instant-video uploads from anywhere a simple, one touch affair. Thanks to video equipment becoming more and more affordable, citizen journalists can now upload videos of breaking news stories, interviews, documentaries, insights and much, much more from any corner of the globe, at any time. Because the professional journalist can't be everywhere, and the citizen journalist could be anyone, anywhere, anytime, the ability to film and instantly upload news footage via a phone or a laptop is an additional source for news for people, which woulnd't have been there otherwise if not for some citizen journalism. Although there is alot of 'fluff' and pointless, irrelevant videos on sites like YouTube, there is alot of genuine and prudential content on these types of sites. Citizen journalism has become such a large part of the Internet's news-gathering effort, that many organizations have given citizen journalists their due recognition, with the launch of Citizen Journalism channels on YouTube, called Citizen News.
Arianna Huffington once noted, "technology has enabled millions of consumers to shift their focus from passive observation to active participation-from couch potato to self expression." Not only have things like Twitter and YouTube allowed the average person to be able to participate in the world of journalism, but it is also becoming more mainstream, which could be a concern for the career journalist. Organizations like CNN, BBC, MSNBC, Yahoo and Reuters have all committed web-space and time for citizen journalism, with BBC having an application called Your News, Yahoo and Reuters partnered to create You Witness News, and MSNBC owns a citizen journalism focused site called Newsvine, and there are many more such things created for citizen journalism. With these developments, it is clear that citizen journalism has become a fixture within the media realm. Although journalists may see these developments as something that is infringing on their craft, it is a beneficial development for people who want to stay informed at all times, and who would like to do more than just listen and observe. Once again, a journalist cannot be everywhere at once, especially when a news-worthy story breaks. If journalists were the only people that were able to produce news, it wouldn't be considered 'news', because there is no way that there would be a professional writer on hand to cover everything that's going on; hence, citizen
journalism.
journalism.
Since the inception of the Internet, and with it a flurry of developments like Twitter, YouTube, and various other social-networking and news sites, citizen journalism has been on the rise. Slowly disappearing are newspapers and with it the traditional method of story telling, and career journalists fear their jobs are at risk due to these citizen journalists. But, because not everybody can be a professional journalist, and there will never be enough career journalists to cover everything that will ever happen, all the time, there is a benefit to these citizen journalists, and they should not altogether be disregarded. A citizen journalist can be anyone with a smartphone, camera, computer and enough skills to compose a legible sentence. In theory, one of these people can be somewhere the same time major event, when a journalist is not. Using the tools available to them, citizen journalists can inform when a career journalist can sometimes not. Although there is a definite risk posed to career journalists in terms of getting noticed, at the core of all these tools should still be a writer's skillset-the ability to write well. Ultimately, despite all the advancements made, good writing will still be the core of story telling and journalism, and what will truly seperate the good writers from the mediocre, or just plain bad.
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