User Generated Content

Citizen journalism refers to any type of collecting or reporting newsworthy information, posting pictures/videos of an incident which is done by members of the public. This is a type of ‘user generated content’ that is usually found online. With the emergence of the Internet, anyone has the opportunity to create their own blog, podcast, streaming videos and more.  

Social networking sites such as Twitter can help citizen journalists with finding new information. People who are not trained as journalists often tweet about tragedies that happen in their local area, or even post pictures. This type of freedom has people questioning the importance of journalism: what does it mean to be a ‘journalist’ if anyone can report news?

A blogger is an example of an independent citizen journalist, where they can update readers daily on topics they are passionate about. A simple blog post can be read globally with the help of the web. You can now find blogs about up to date news, even though the blogger may not define themselves as ‘journalists’.  According to a survey of 300 political bloggers conducted by Michael Maier, 37% saw themselves as journalists whereas 72% defined themselves as ‘commentators’.

However, the mainstream media may feel threatened by citizen journalists as some of the information they publish could harm the established brand, if the information is of poor quality, confusing or incorrect.

Andrew Keen criticised citizen journalists in his book: ‘The Cult of the Amateur: How the Democratisation of the Digital World is assaulting our Economy, our Culture and our Values’, by referring to ‘untrained people’ as monkeys banging away on an infinite number of typewriters.

He said: “It is threatening the very future of our cultural institutions. What the Web revolution is really delivering is superficial observations of the world around us, rather than considered judgement.”

First of all, I strongly disagree with Keen’s view of citizen journalism. It seems like he is assuming all citizen journalists don’t have a clue about what they are writing about. It is understandable that there are different bloggers with their own style of writing; however those who do blog about the news or even tweet about it can help the professional journalists more than anything else. With the help of social media, journalists sometimes seek help from the public and ask for their permission to use their pictures or ask them about what is happening at the scene.

Ironically, some professional news outlets have made huge mistakes in their reporting in the past and had to publicly apologise. For example: Fox News falsely accused Ryan Lanza of being the gunman who shot children and teachers in Connecticut. Journalists used his Facebook picture in their articles. They later found out that Ryan was not the gunman; it was his brother Adam Lanza.  I’ve used this example because of the silly mistakes that can be made by ‘professional journalists’ who should be double checking the facts before using an innocent man’s picture. To assume that ‘untrained people’ should not get involved in reporting is like saying professional journalists can’t make mistakes. It does happen. And with the web revolution, anyone can share their thoughts on the Internet.

For citizen journalists who are the witnesses to some tragic events, they have the opportunity to report about it just by using their mobile phones.  They can take one photo, a short footage on video or even tweet about it. The advantage for them is that by tweeting about something, it can be read by thousands of people around the world. It’s that easy.

I agree with Michael Keen on the fact that bloggers are not professional reporters who have the right ethical training, but they can at least help the journalists when there is a breaking story.

As Dan Gilmer puts it, there are benefits of citizen journalism:

• It brings experts into the reporting process so that stories can be more accurate.

• Saves them a lot of money.

• Can influence the news agenda or resuscitate stories that the media may not have covered.

• Citizens journalists who are at the right place at the right time can get all the facts quicker than a journalist who is not there.