Role of Citizen Journalism in Today’s News

Role of citizen journalism in today’s news.

For the last ten years or so, social media has been not only helping people to connect with their families and friends, but it also has been playing a very big role in bringing fresh news to people from the places where mainstream media can’t reach. Many new technologies including blog sites, social networks, and the use of smart phones with cameras, allow people without any journalistic training to publish something important they witnessed or their own points of view about many different subjects. Today, we name these people citizen journalists. Articles written by citizen journalists may contain any kind of news; however, there have been arguments about whether this type of journalism is good enough to become the traditional media? In this essay I am going to talk about benefits and drawbacks of citizen journalism and the role it played recently in revolutionary movements in Ukraine (Euromaidan).

The usual disadvantages of citizen journalism are that the journalist’s views are supposed to be non-biased and balanced; however, citizen journalists change the context of the news toward their views and likes. Many professional journalists believe that the quality of an article from a citizen journalist often has poor standards and lack of content. As American citizens, citizen journalists have the power to say what ever they like; however, this can sometimes be dangerous. It can result in the possibility of a libel claim, which means the citizen journalist could be charged for publishing a false statement. During the past year, a number of people have been charged for statements they have published via social networks or online blogs, because they were being offensive or untrue. Professional journalists have rules to obey, which they have learned in a journalism school.

Despite all of the disadvantages of citizen journalism, there are many positive sides of it. Every member of society is able to alert the media about news stories that professional journalists have not got the ability, time or resources to cover. Timing is very important specially at the crime seen or braking news. Citizen journalists can be a massive help by providing written reports in addition to photos and videos in real time. Before social media became global, breaking news had been represented by licensed journalists . Many of them had their information from “in tell”, a person, who was the spectator of what ever happened. Today, the “in tell” can post the news by himself using just a cellphone when the traditional media is unable to reach the area of interest. In some countries where the government is corrupt, most of the media is pro-government, and only social media helps citizens to fight the corruption. A great example of how citizen journalism helped people to fight corruption in government happened in Ukraine, the country where I am originally from.

More than half a year ago, an ex president of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich (head of corruption in Ukraine) went to Euro parliament, where he was supposed to sign the documents so Ukraine would join the European Union (EU). When he realized that joining the EU could start the end of corruption in Ukraine by building democracy, he turned his back at the last minute just before the signing of the documents. That was the reason why the Euromaidan protests started.

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