The impact of citizen journalism

By NICOLE LYNN GREINER

What is Citizen Journalism???

“The idea behind citizen journalism is that people

without professional journalism training can use the
tools of modern technology and the global distribution
of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media
on their own or in collaboration with others”
– Mark Glaser freelance journalist
Impact on the media
Citizen journalism has given the media a new set of
fact checkers.
Citizens are not only being informed but they are also
the informers
New mediums like the Web make this easier and more
accessible
Citizen journalism has provided a need for citizen
journalism sites in order to help propel this new medium
Adjustments to online content and style
Impact on the media: Participatory Culture
Henry Jenkins says that in a participatory culture not
every member must contribute, but all believe they are
free to contribute when ready and what they contribute
will be valued.
Ex. YouTube, Wikipedia, commercial spoofs
Advertising has changed because of participatory
culture
Appreciating value of the work
Further perpetuating the content
Examples…
Soulja Boy
McDonald’s
Mac vs. PC advertising campaign inspired the
generation of new content that perpetuated the brand
message
Here is a local spoof: GatorTutoring vs. TutoringZone
youtube.com/watch?v=S5l7FXGZFL8
Impact on the media: Pew research
92% of Americans get their media from multiple
sources
6 out of 10 get their news from online and offline
sources
Of those who get their news online, 75% get news
forwarded through posts on social networking sites or
email and 52% share links to news with others via
those means.
Social Networking and Citizen journalism

Links to news stories

Comments on news stories
Creating buzz about particular topics while informing
citizens about what’s happening
Pages devoted to events created by citizens
New directions for citizen journalism

Crowdsourcing- uses readers to create a news story.

Information is gathered not by journalists but through
an alternate medium such as the Web. (Robert Niles
“Accident Watch”)
Growing networks of community journalism sites
Success stories
2004- Citizen bloggers were issued press credentials to
the Democratic and Republican conventions
2010- Olympics gave press passes to citizen journalists
Wikipedia…
Global Voices

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=List_of_citi
zen_journalism_websites
Is this the end of professional journalism?
Only if we make it.
The public still has a distrust of the media, but you
can’t believe everything you read on the internet.
The shift toward crowdsourcing goes to show that
there are ways to involve the community in journalism
without having them write the story. Making the public
active participants in journalism rather than the
creators will save professional journalists