The Significant Roles Of Citizen Journalism And The Role Of Citizen Journalism

News organizations that report on stories in a fair, balanced and ethical manner are essential to the functionality of this nation. A citizen’s ability to make well-informed decisions hinges on a news organization’s ability to relay the most accurate information regarding the state of the nation, the changing condition of communities, and adjustments in the government. Journalism is no longer a one-sided conversation. Journalism is an interactive process that allows for readers and viewers to create a dialogue with journalists by utilizing mediums such as social networking sites and comment sections. Audiences have a say in what stories get reported and how news stories are presented to the masses. When news organizations fail to cover all

The media’s job is to entertain, inform, and educate society on what is going on around the world. The media entertains society by reporting stories that amuse people. The educational function of the media is about allowing society to know their legal rights. The informational aspect of the media does not need to be explained; it is self-explanatory. Within the last three decades, the media’s role has changed dramatically. The media went from using telegraphs, post offices, newspapers, magazines, radio, and television to using cell phones and tablets. In the modern era, which is also sometimes referred to as the information age, global networking and global communication have shaped modern societies. The majority of

Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.

Nowadays journalists have the responsibility to report facts as accurately, objectively, and disinterestedly as is humanly possible. ‘’The, honest, self-disciplined, well-trained reporter seeks to be a propagandist for nothing but the truth’’ (Casey, 1944b).

In almost every aspect of politics, digital media plays a major role. Most people go online to read headlines and see what’s happening in the world. From providing articles on political topics to allowing the possibility of furthering campaigns by micro targeting, digital media helps people gain a better understanding of the political world around them. Also, digital media allows for the spread of information from various sources, allowing for people to form well-informed opinions. Digital media is easily accessible and always available making it convenient for all people. It also allows for politically express themselves, making them feel more involved in politics. Citizen journalism is news that is reported and distributed by citizens. It is an extremely important benefit that digital media offers. Citizen journalism has proved to be extremely important through the role in Arab Springs and more recently on the Dakota Access Pipeline. With access to sites such as mobile phones, YouTube, Facebook Live, citizens can report incidents with ease. While other sources of media for various reasons (including profits) might overlook or not show two sides to a story, citizen journalism allows that to happen. (WTP,

These depictions, often hurtful in multiple regards, can influence the public to either make or break an idea that, although innocent in nature, may actually be dangerous and ultimately unnecessary for societies to expand on. Now, more than ever, the public relies on mass-media, the type of media that connects a large population through technology and can easily stifle or set aflame a viewpoint on certain issues with only a few choice lines that demarcate particular opinions of a distinct matter over other opinions, that although may be equally as true, are not distributed by the outlet, and therefore cannot influence the culture. Specifically, citizen journalism, which is by nature intensive and frequent, is meant to cater to the individual's subjective partialities, as this vent manages to portray emotional biases routinely and encourage a mindset within readers of the same mentality. However, like all maps, media has many limitations, including its ability to lack credibility and its capacity to sway in favor of certain positions based on what is more favorable to a discrete group of

This research has been conducted due to the fact that some researchers have claimed that “journalism is dying” whilst others have argued that “journalism is not dying but is simply evolving” (Blatchford: 2014). This has been a much contested debate triggered by the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources i.e. newspapers, television and radio together with the technological advances of the internet and social media (Cub Reporters: 2010). This has raised many questions and firstly, this dissertation will assess whether the rise of social media has led to the decline of news circulation from traditional news sources. Secondly, this paper will look at what the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a news distributor are for professional journalists and the general public. Lastly, this study aims to investigate

I was 18 when we moved to the United States from Cameroon in 2010. I had always known I wanted to be in journalism, yet had little knowledge of how the media worked or what being a journalist even entailed. I had a passion for telling stories, and zero experience or hope that I would someday be able to do so in a way that affects everyday people, and effects positive change. As far as I knew, journalism was the ruling government’s tool for communicating what it deemed fit for public knowledge, and stifling any information that remotely threatened the political status quo. Only in the following years would I come to grasp the power of media and communication, in a journey that has led me to this very moment.

The duty of journalists is to tell the truth. Journalism means you go back to the actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, and you report it that way. — Chomsky 2008

Today it’s hardly a secret that all news sources big or small depend on this camera wielding citizen as a major source of information. Top news outlets rely on these citizens journalists with their armature pictures and videos in their breaking news section for any events around the world. Like their saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, today these first pictures and videos have become their bread and butter and news agency compete against each other to be the first one to air it.

The media and the public have had a relationship that has existed for centuries. Through the media, people become aware of events and issues occurring around them. As a result, they make educated decisions. Therefore, the media serve as witnesses of the events happening within our societies and then report them to us. That said, could journalism have a significant political impact in our societies? It is through the media that governments and their citizens communicate. For instance, people communicate by protesting and voting, governments respond by amending the issues affecting the public. It is also through the media that potential political leaders gain recognition. Therefore, the answer is yes, because, journalism causes the spread

In a contemporary society, the role of journalism is a varied one that covers many different aspects of people’s lives. As more and more outlets spring up around the world, many more stories are able to be covered by different outlets, and this means that journalism takes on a more and more important role in a contemporary society. Much of our lives centre on political and social happenings, and journalistic outlets are the public’s way of finding all the information on these event. Journalism also provides us with a way of finding out which of these stories are important and deserve our attention, and which stories can be ignored. The important role of journalism can be well observed in the recent coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in both New Zealand and around the world. This is a ground breaking economic deal, and holds a great deal of importance for the 800 million citizens of the countries involved, as well as the rest of the world. With worldwide coverage of this deal, it is inevitable that different types of reporting occurs, and that different outlets will provide different accounts. With so many different journalism outlets around the world and locally, many have to have a way of standing out from the crowd. This means that some extremely different coverage of very similar stories can occur. However it can also simply be down to different ownership, differing political views, and different socio-economic environments. Two outlets with

More unbiased and neutral forms of news are available online and they could be delivered through various platforms such as blogs, alternatives news sites, social media, discussion forums and others. With these existing platforms, journalist are allowed to be more participate in term of news making as they are not tied to function as how working in the news organization. Apart from that, journalist could participate by interacting with other users especially on social media. News could be passed to their followers much more easier, faster and cover a wide range of contents without any censorship (Knight & Cook, 2013, p.

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

In this era, the popularity of citizen journalism has spread throughout all over the world. As a matter of fact, more and more people are starting to take benefit of content publishers. This can be seen in Television news, such as winter snow photos, traffic accidents or local sporting events. However, it leaves a question, what exactly is news anyway? What do you need to be a citizen journalist? What is its impact on today's fast-paced society? Basically, a lot of people think this is a great thing and it can be a good tool for promoting interaction between the media community and the community. There are pros and cons of citizen journalism, we need to face this issue critically and dialectically (Techopedia, 2017). On the one hand, citizen journalism has some benefits that professional journalism can not provide. Firstly, comparing with professional journalism, citizen journalism provides a wider range of news and fills the gaps in mainstream media. The main body of the dissemination of citizen journalism is ordinary citizens rather than professional journalists or professional media. People can through the Facebook, microblog,Twitter to publish news which happened around their life. Delicacy, beautiful scenery, sports events, entertainments, political commentary can be seen in Weibo, Twitter, Facebook and so on. Secondly, citizen journalism could stimulate the interest of audience. Most audiences enjoy reading