The Importance Of Citizen Journalism

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Citizen Journalism has been hailed as the savior of online news, bringing stories to the attention of the public sphere, that other wise wouldn’t, and being free of all the bias and influence that hinders mainstream news, although some scholars have argued that isn’t the full story and citizen journalism is playing a similar role to the mainstream in discouraging a healthy public sphere (Bruns, 2011). Citizen journalism has been growing more and more popular as social networking and the Intent become more prevalent in everyday life, and has most certainly aided in promoting a better public sphere through online news, as opposed to if online news was, solely controlled by the mainstream media (Kranzberg, 1985). Citizen journalism utilises a …show more content…

Citizen journalism has also been applauded for representing a wider range of views and opinions from a greater variety of people, which has potentially given minorities and equal voice in the public sphere (Lasch, 1987). Blogging has been used as an example of this as almost anyone can sign up to a range of free blogging and sites and start reporting what they see as news; however this assumption has come under scrutiny from a range of academics (Habermas, 1991). Blogging is still mainly restricted to people who have a computer or smart phone and have access to the Internet, which for the majority of the people on the planet is not feasible (Lasch, 1987). Research has also proven that the majority of bloggers tend to be from the middle class, are educated, white and male (Harper, …show more content…

Mainstream news organisations have seen their revenues drop in print, television and radio across the board and have looked to fill the void with online news in the form of websites, blogs, online videos and social media pages. Citizen journalists have risen to take full advantage of the Internet and the widespread audience it offers them, with these journalists being able to express their views and opinions to people who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to hear it. Online news has significantly contributed towards the 24/7 news cycle that people across the globe are subjected to today, where citizens are inundated with information from all angles every minute of the day (Mythen, 2010). The real benefit of online news is that it allows people to pick and choose what information is important to them, as opposed to watching the 6pm news every night for the one or two stories that you may find relevant (Kranzberg, 1985). Some have argued that this is its downfall as people only ever interact with popular news, reducing the impact of news that should be important (Dahlgren, 1995). However, the increased interactivity of news allows people to discuss the stories they find with their friends, as their friends do with them, which allows for the

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