Sunday 6 October 2013

Citizen journalism

Quote from Wikipedia with my boldfacing:

'The concept of citizen journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Similarly, Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of newsgathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a repose to shortcoming in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism." Jay Rosen proposes a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists. Collaborative journalism is also a separate concept and is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together. Citizen journalism is a specific form of both citizen media and user generated content. By juxtaposing the term “citizen,” with its attendant qualities of civic mindedness and social responsibility, with that of “journalism,” which refers to a particular profession, Courtney C. Radsch argues that this term best describes this particular form of online and digital journalism conducted by amateurs, because it underscores the link between the practice of journalism and its relation to the political and public sphere.

So are the following good examples: weblogs (blogs), facebook, twitter etc. What about the huffington post? Is that somewhere between or is it too professional now?

 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-28/aol-waits-for-a-huffington-post-payoff

Most facebook and twitter comment seems to me to lack depth and reflection - I doubt  that I would classify it as citizen journalism - more like citizen reaction I think. Blogs are much more often signposts to or reflections on opinion which is informed and relevant to the topic (s) in hand, in my opinion.

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