What is the Effect of Citizen Journalism?
How the Availability of Media Technology Affects the Industry
Mar 25, 2009
The development of mass literacy in the west began when Gutenberg invented the printing-press in 1455. This had an extraordinary affect on the way people lived their lives - suddenly, everyone wanted to read. They wanted to read because then they could contribute more intelligently to society, learn about Christianity without being told it by a priest, and start to develop their own social opinion. In contemporary society, there is a mass overload of media technology available to the public, and today, everybody wants to be a writer. They want to contribute to the public sphere, generally via the internet, to add their social opinions and take part in global debates. It is so easy to pick up a camera, a mobile phone, or even just describe events in writing and spread the word.
Web 2.0
The digital revolution clearly had an effect on the way that people contributed to the global public sphere. People could now educate themselves to international affairs, issues outside of their community and raise awareness to situations happening around the world. However, with the introduction of Web 2.0 - that is, internet content generated by users themselves, citizen journalism has emerged with incredible force. The first video footage of the 2005 Tsunami was taken on a mobile phone, as was the supposedly private execution of Saddam Hussein. CNN executive Jonathan Klein predicts camera phone footage will be increasingly used by news organizations.
How this affects Professional Media
There is a public argument that citizen journalists undermine the value of professional writers and reporters; that they do not have the skill or objectivity to report on situations or provide reliable coverage. If this is true, then traditional journalists still have a role to play, to provide that objective coverage to a situation. However, in a world where being "first" is essential and competition is life-threatening, it is argued that this could lead to the destruction of the traditional media industry.
Exposing Crime
There is another side to the argument, which is that citizen journalism exposes situation that perhaps otherwise would go un-reported. There are instances where professional media representatives are not allowed to report, or could potentially risk their lives to expose a story, particularly in the area of human rights abuse. A tragic example of this is the death of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who openly opposed the Russian government.
Citizens who gain access to technology and use it to report stories that are missed should be commended for their bravery. There was an instance of this seen in the documentary "Seeing Is Believing" by Katerina Cizek and Peter Wintonick. This film documented the situation of the abuse of indigenous tribes in Indonesia. Members of the tribe were provided with and taught how to use a hand held camera to prevent violence, and where the mere presence of a camera potentially stopped terrorists from committing murder.
A Media Revolution
There is increasing fear in the industry that journalism is on the way out. However, this is untrue; traditional news reportage perhaps will be overhauled to a new way of presenting and accessing information. The inclusion of citizen journalism provides a local edge, a perspective that cannot be provided by objective professionals. This type of journalism is raw truth, which surely is the objective of reporting in the first place. Getting the story from a multitude of sources, both professional and citizen, will provide a more balanced perspective and a higher level of involvement from the public community.
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