August
2008
Citizen Journalism0
Society as a whole puts so much emphasis on new, innovative products, services and behaviour that it consumes the way structure in the community is developing. We all want to be the next entrepreneur because society has come to expect NEW, NEW, NEW all the time!
Citizen journalism has been developing over the past couple of years. It is a way for civilians to record (whether it be audio, video or still images) eyewitness accounts of events and then distribute this to the greater public. An overview of citizen journalism can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_ci.html
Technology, such as camera phones with the acceptance of the public and therefore the support of media organisations has made it easy for citizen journalists to evolve. As an example citizen journalism set the agenda of slavery amongst China’s media, a country governed by strict regulations and limitations in the way of public affairs. To find out more about the story visit http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/26/1962255.htm.
Does this make you a responsible citizen? Far from it as the disadvantages of this form of journalism is that people can tape case sensitive material such as children, defamatory images, etc.
This is a huge step forward for mainstream media as we bridge the gap between a professional newsmaker and citizen and make it more accessible for the public to view current stories from different points of view. In my opinion it is a great way for citizens to get involved and debate, lobby and revise media content/ stories that may potentially affect us all.
Below: Citizen Journalist Doug Aberg reports about his eyewitness account of the California flames on CNN i-reporter. http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/spotlight.html
