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Essay Citizen Journalism vs. Mainstream Media

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Citizen journalism is news that comes from the larger public and not well- known and legitimate news agencies like, The Washington Post or The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Citizen journalism can be most recognized in the form of blogs or wiki sites. 15211 is a citizen journalism site that is based in Mt. Washington which is a small part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The title of the blog relates to the blog because it is the zip code for Mount Washington residents. The blog discusses current events that are going on in the Mount Washington area only; the site masters are completely open to criticism and understand that not everyone agrees or likes what is being discussed. A mainstream media outlet close to Mount Washington is the Pittsburgh …show more content…

That is the point of a blog and we intend to keep true to the medium. We know that our opinions may not be yours and vice versa, but we respect the fact that you’re here….”
This allows more people to openly express their opinion and respond to the opinion of the creator without feeling judged. Another upside to citizen journalism is that it is very easy to share and connect with the site and the other followers. On the 15211 home page they have a tiny box in the middle of the page that allows you to share or bookmark the site to 11 different social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google Bookmarks. On the site, the blog creators also allow people to view a live Twitter comment feed on the website so that they don’t have to have Twitter to view the comments people are making about the blog posts.
Citizen Journalism good at sharing information and allowing others to participate in the discussion, but being completely opinionated and specific on one topic is not always a good thing. On negative thing about citizen journalism is that they mostly only apply to specific publics/audiences and although the internet has many different blogs and wiki sites that attract all people, it still doesn’t cover everyone, especially older generations who are against the change in the way that we view and access our information. Being able to expand to just more than one specific public might help increase the recognition just like

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