Citizen Journalism: Legitimate or Not?

“When major events occur, the public can offer us as much new information as we are able to broadcast to them. From now on, news coverage is a partnership” (Richard Sambrook, BBC)

Citizen Journalism is an extremely controversial term. Journalists defend their right in that you are trained to be a journalist and that it is a professional discipline. Others beleive that you can just snap a picture of something and share it with the world and beleive that is journalism.

Citizen Journalism is a global phenomena. Each and every day, we see thousands, if not millions of people posting information and pictures to help spread news, information, and analysis of events. My personal opinion is that journalism is a profession and you have to have the proper training and skills to call yourself a journalist, but that in a case of an event or new information, if a person is the frist to report about it and it spreads into the media, I would also call them a journalist in that instance. It is a tricky term, but it can be applied depending on the situation.

Technological advances have greatly benefitted to the increase in citizen journalism. Having cameras on cell phones, ipads, ipods, etc allow us to record or capture something at any moment and relay that information on any social media website or just the general Internet in seconds. Information travels so fast these days, it is hard to constantly always have the right information and to be fully informed on what is going on. But with just short videos or pictures of events or people, society is able to know about a story in a very short context, versus reading an entire article.

Citizen journalism is participatory and has changed the entire dynamic of news reports and the relationship between broadcasters and audiences. Now, an ordinary person has the opportunity to make news just by the click of a camera or pressing the record button. It truly is incredible and will change society forever.

Once a journalist, always a journalist.