It's always interesting for me to learn about different types of media. Especially during this round of presentations there were a lot of terms I never heard of that were actually very interesting. The presentation that really struck my attention was on Citizen Journalism.
I think this can be a positive thing for society however it might not be so good for the actual journalists who are going out and reporting stories.
Having the public report on news is a good way to get multiple perspectives of a story. Sometimes the hired journalists have promises made to higher up people and can't honestly report on breaking news.
The public has ties to no one so they can write what they want and tell a story how it is. They can open up stories that hadn't reached the big news outlets yet and give a head start to the people about what's going on.
A famous example of a story opened up from citizen journalism is the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. News outlets eventually picked up this tragic story but it was because of the videos and pictures posted online that really grabbed peoples attention.
It was really good in this time of disaster because people were able to inform each other about what was going on. The people involved were no doubt shaken so hearing from others that went through it established a connection of humanity and made people realize they weren't alone in it.
However there are issues to this. Citizen journalism is a good thing when disaster hits. These people can instantly tweet or post videos about what happened and be a first hand account of what's going on.
The problem comes later when articles about the incident start to surface. It's really hard to disinherited citizen journalists compared to real, paid journalists. This can lead to a misconception about who is really writing and posting news.
Theres also the problem of bias. Having bystanders and random people report on top stories because they witnessed it means they are only reporting what they saw and what they think.
They aren't trained reporters so they don't know how to make an informative, unbiased piece which can lead to a lot of controversy in opinions.
Citizen journalism is still a helpful tool for immediate news and information about something that is or currently happened. It also shows a more personal side of the story instead of news anchors just talking at the tv screen.
You get to see what real people went through and what it was like being involved and so close to the scene.
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