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Citizen Journalism Essay

Decent Essays

Citizen journalism is defined as any news content, such as articles, videos etc. created by amateurs. Traditional and citizen journalism are often contrasted to each other, however it is important to note the similarities alongside the differences. Because of the growing popularity of citizen journalism due to new technologies such as social media websites, it is essential to weigh the risks and opportunities to truly see how citizen journalism is affecting the world. It is vital to assess citizen journalism and its benefits of collaboration and pluralising voices, alongside the risks of inauthenticity, bias and causing an erosion in the quality of news, in order to fully understand its impacts.

The pluralisation of voices that citizen journalism offers is considered one of the many benefits. According to Melissa Wall (2015) this allows for new and important opinions and perspectives on multiple events. For example, in rural India poor internet rates and a language barrier made it nearly impossible for the majority of citizens to listen to the professional media. In order to expose more citizens in India to local events, Shubhranshu Choudhary founded CGNet, which developed into a mobile-phone service, allowing for everyday citizens to report in on and listen to local events in their native language. This leads to more, albeit unprofessional, perspectives on events from residents (Chadha & Steiner, 2015). The internet has been credited with having "altered relationships with

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