Peculiarities Of Citizen Journalism

Every citizen is a rising journalist; As they controls the time of events and their impact on the recipient, for example, news agencies will not be able to publish their correspondents in all neighborhoods and streets, which turned the citizen journalism phenomenon into an phenomenon that cannot be ignored. The media, but they play similar roles to those of these institutions. where the role of the media has emerged. Social media, mobile phone cameras, blogs and others to transmit the event and build The story story Television networks and websites are now dependent on new media. This is important with the rapid development of the technology that provided these Modern and evolving media.

What is Citizen Journalism?

Citizen journalism, is that any individual can be a journalist by conveying his opinion and observations from the whole world, without the need to have a degree in the field of media. this term is considered to be a newly born, and it is an unstable concept. Whereas, citizen journalism is diagnosed by some as (citizen media).

Beginning of Citizen Journalism:

Many researchers differed during the period in which citizen journalism appeared; Not all answers were agreed upon by all researchers or even practitioners, but the majority agree that the actual emergence of this type of journalism was during the hurricane that occurred in December of the year two thousand and four AD; Whereas, the material that the mass media circulated in all parts of the world was based on information and pictures taken by ordinary citizens there, and the reliance of these media on the eyewitnesses present in the place who lived the catastrophic moments that the region witnessed and recorded, Independent newspaper reported that all international TV channels were sending their correspondents, accompanied by television photographers, not to the affected areas, but to airports that were crowded with travelers coming from or going to these areas, in order to find new footage that they recorded and captured, in addition to To record testimonies on those events.

Four types of citizen journalism:

1. Institutionalised (semi-impartial) and non-institutionalised (fully unbiased). Institutional citizen journalism, on the alternative hand, refers to that sort of citizen journalism which has a form of organizational shape or constraining ability, entire with external constraints, but minimal.
2. Non-institutional forms of citizen journalism are extra-institutional, setting the person at the center of the practice. This appears to be the notion of citizen journalism that effectively lends itself to different sorts of social networking, where private residents use a mixture of structures to generate content material and disseminate it as broadly as possible. Non-institutional citizen journalism revolves around the character.
3. Semi Independent Citizen Journalism: It entails citizens contributing, in one for or another, to existing expert news sites. For example: Readers are posting their feedback alongside stories written by expert reporters, essentially a 21st-century model of the letter to the editor. A growing wide variety of media businesses in Zimbabwe permit readers to post feedback. In an attempt to prevent obscene or objectionable messages, some information websites (like the Herald, Daily News and NewsDay) require that readers register so that it will post.
4. Independent Citizen Journalism: It entails citizen journalists operating in way which are fully unbiased of traditional, expert news outlets. These can be blogs in which individuals can file on activities in their communities or offer remark on the issues of the day.

Advantages of Citizen Journalism

• Easy access: Today’s world is an excessive tech world and every person is tech-savvy. The proliferation of on-line media structures such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc made the dissemination of records less difficult and faster. Furthermore, the easy get entry to to digital camera and internet through Smartphones made it handy to seize news in real-time. All these technical innovations and their affordability have set the stage for citizen journalism. Without any instructional qualification permitted from a journalism institute and acceptance from any news or media channel, all of us can take part in the participatory journalism activities
• It shows a different point of view: In citizen journalism activities, it gives different sides from the story or may be a different detail , and since people are more involved and concerned nowadays, they have means to confirm, correct, and add information about the news from the mainstream media as there are instances when they would only focus on one part of the story, leaving other important and relevant information.
• Speed: Holding only a smartphone and capturing the event is much faster than carrying all the equipment and gathering the crew and set up your location.
• It gives opportunity to ordinary people : it gives ordinary people from small towns the opportunity and the power they never had the chance for and to state facts which can sometimes lack the mainstream media.

Disadvantages of Citizen Journalism:

• It has a very limited audience: citizen journalism is usually through social media and of course and millions of people are on it , however there are a category of people don’t give social media that much attention
• Credibility issues: people are so familiar with traditional media and they used to believe it as it is instructed by well known rules and ethics and also a particular protocol so they are expected to be a bit worried about the news sources or credibility and actually they have a point as anyone can write a story or report a fake news
• It may be not biased : citizen journalism actually can be more of an opinion more than a news which increases the trust issues with the audience.

Who can be Citizen Journalist

A lot of people who have strong opinions on a topic became a citizen journalist by posting a comment or a blog. But there should be ethics for telling my opinion such as un ethical words or insults.

Citizen Media Role

Citizen journalism played an important role in political events in the 21st century, Web site Twitter hooked up itself as an rising outlet for the dissemination of facts at some point of the protests following the Iranian presidential election in June 2009. Although the protests did not result in a exchange in the election consequences or a new election, the tweets of de facto journalists showed the doable of nontraditional media to dodge government censorship. In Egypt, activists protesting the government of President Ḥosnī Mubārak all through the rebellion of 2011 often geared up themselves by forming companies on the social networking Web website online Facebook.

Citizen Journalism Sites

Yes! There are variety of citizen journalism sites such as ”Now public”, ”citizen wire”, ”Digital Journal”

Citizen Journalism on the Rise

• Many large agencies encouraging the citizen to share their opinions at the end of the news article , citizens are allowed to call in or comment online, and some agencies even created sections fir citizen journalists to contribute their stories.
• CNN for example have a section called IREPORT where public can comment , share their stories and discuss it with CNN

Conclusion

There is no significant association between professional experience of mainstream journalists and their views on various aspects of citizen journalism. In other words, irrespective of their journalism experience, professional journalists hold more or less similar views about citizen journalism