The world is constantly changing. And the people in our world, their cultures, their communities and more are changing along with the world. In a time when traditional news writing is more about the sale of an article than the disclosure of information, we are starting to see more and more of what pundits are calling citizen journalists come out of the woodwork.
For those who don't know, here's a quick definition for you, straight from Wikipedia, a source that exemplifies how everyday people can contribute information on line:
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. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.
As we have seen in more recent years, citizen journalists have contributed news that impacts and informs the public . These facts come from the Online Journal Review:
- An online journalist broke the "Phantom Congressional District" story about the chaos in tracking American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. On November 16, 2009, Jim Scarantino, the investigative reporter for New Mexico's Rio Grande Foundation, discovered that the recovery.gov website listing federal stimulus money was riddled with ludicrous errors. His online story prompted other citizen journalists he had networked with through the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity to look into their own state's recovery.gov data. When all was said and done, these online journalists found that $6.4 billion in stimulus funds had been awarded to 440 non-existent Congressional districts in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four American territories.
- It was an online journalist in New Hampshire who broke the news when Newt Gingrich admitted during an interview he made an endorsement mistake in a highly contested congressional race.
- A Watchdog in Texas recently discovered that the Department of Homeland Security lost nearly 1,000 computers in 2008.
- An online reporter in Minnesota got the attention of the state government when his organization, theFreedom Foundation of Minnesota, released a report proving that Minnesotans were leaving the state due to high taxes.
- And it was a reporter in Hawaii who delved into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pricey holiday trip, which included an astonishing $10,000 nightly expense and more than $21,000 in security cost to Hawaii's taxpayers.
What is more encouraging than these examples in the eyes of many is that that citizen journalism has spread from some of the more developed countries in the west, to places in Africa and the Middle East. With the power of the internet and new technology, these citizens are using citizen journalism to expose injustice and accomplish incredible feats in nations that suppress information.
Here's Katie Couric, with her top citizen journalist videos from YouTube. It's better than you may think.
As the video shows, news reporting from citizens is becoming more profound and more important on a daily basis.As Geoff Livingston wrote on Mashable:
And over at the Society of Professional Journalists, they're even all-day workshops that offer topics such as these one-day workshops will explore everything from Journalism ethics to the use of technology needed to get started as a citizen journalist.Citizen media is seen as a benefit to society and democratic principles. Many organizations are actively dedicating resources to improving citizen journalism, including the venture capital-backed AllVoices, three organizations (Global Voices, Internews and startup Small World News), and the U.S. State Department.Internews, Small World News and the U.S. State Department provide various training programs, grants and technical resources to citizen journalists. For example, Small World News, which focuses on conflict and post-conflict situations, is in Benghazi training Libyans to report stories using video. Its team of citizen journalists has been so successful that it is now breaking footage that no mainstream media outlet has been able to capture.
As all forms of information become more available for everyone to see, it is important that we both utilize this freedom in the internet age and also protect ourselves from it. Citizen Journalism represents a new frontier in newsworthy video and news reporting, and will most likely play a huge role in this enthralling, scary and new Age of the Internet.
