Wednesday 15 August 2012

Citizen Journalism and how it affects my future as a student journalist.

Citizen journalism is best described as private individuals who report on issues happening around them online, the earlier the news is uploaded the better. This makes me scared because I am in my second year of journalism and what will be of my future when people who have not been trained professionally report on news affecting the community?

I do not think their news should be considered because they have not been trained to be objective and their work can be seen as a form of propaganda. In the sense that only what they deem correct is uploaded and one would ask the question: how balanced is this story? I am not saying people should not blog or anything like that what I am saying is the credibility of citizen journalism should be looked into.

People need expert information for accuracy and reliability which is far more important than reading what a person feels about what a journalist has written. Citizen journalism can compliments and extend the work of the journalist instead of always trying to beat them to it.

It makes one wonder where their future lies when people without the relevant expertise are given a platform to speak out. What saddens me is the quickness with which the people are recognised and given a title such as Citizen Journalist.

Being a writer is not an over-night trick it takes years of study to reach the point and being a well respected journalist who finds the balance between objectivity and personal feelings. Without these traits Citizen Journalism is headed for disaster because articles will be subjective to what they feel is necessary to be a part of the story.

To be able to find relevant sources, to find a proper angle to focus on needs expert advice so as to stay away from a story without a defined angle. Moreover you need to know your target audience; Citizen Journalism should have been named opinion pieces because the accuracy of the text is questionable.

Yes! Visual images tell us what is going on but do they Citizen journalists have the ability to put picture to words without repetition of what goes on in the picture? That is hardly the case. There are skills that Citizen Journalists needs to acquire for them to be able to say they are objective enough to report.

And as it is jobs are really scarce in this field we need not have such strain from a so called Citizen Journalism movement. It is not only unfair it is unruly because journalists are often looked upon as liars and deceivers so when such occur one would wonder if the supposed lies we tell are the ones making people lure at the aspect of taking our jobs.
The only positive side there is to it is that these Citizen Journalists get a small picture of what goes on in the newsroom and the trouble journalists go through to find balanced stories written objectively. And how hard it is to be accurate and factual while trying to be educating and entertaining at the same time.

http://journalism.about.com/od/trends/a/bloggersjournalists.htm

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