Extraordinary News from the Digital Eyes of Ordinary People We live in a digital world full of social media and instant gratification, which is why a citizen journalist is so critical. A citizen journalist is defined as “The collection, dissemination, and analysis of news by the general public, especially by means of the internet” (Oxford Dictionaries). Everyone wants to be up-to-date with significant events happening, and we rely on the media to provide that for us. For years, the media have relied on eyewitnesses verbal accounts of events happening; the only difference now is most everyone has a cell phone with a camera. The general public can be at certain places at crucial times and give a personal view of events happening when the media …show more content…
A passenger aboard that flight Eddie Ho took some pictures, which later were broadcasted on several media outlets along with the story. The pictures showed the inside of the plane after skidding to a halt, the passengers exiting the plane and others outside of the plane showing the aftermath. All the passengers aboard Air France Flight 358 survived. The media outlets who aired Ho’s pictures stated that they do not encourage anyone to take risks, but will accept and use information from citizen journalists (Memmott, Levine, and …show more content…
Giving the public an inside aspect the media had no way to. The details and evidence that was generated by these men proved that a citizen journalist with today’s technology is a valuable asset. It cannot be ignored that many of today’s extraordinary news events have benefited from the detailed coverage citizen journalists provided. The media benefits as well as the public and the authorities trying to solve cases. A recent example of this is of the case in Staten Island on July 17th, 2014 where the NYPD put a man in a chokehold and the man later died. Also the very controversial shooting of an African America man in Ferguson, Missouri. Video’s from a citizen journalists were used in the news coverage of these
During the onslaught of negotiations and rescue efforts by the Berkeley Police Department, a media frenzy began to ensue as media stations competed to carry the broadcast live. The days following the incident resulted in expressed concern and anger from the public about the perceived irresponsibility of the media coverage by a particular local television station and
After the men were arrested, one of them named James W. McCord Jr. admitted to having connections with the CIA which sparked the reporters interest
Self-motivation and determination are two of the main ideals of being journalist. If a journalist does not have the desire to find and report a story, he has no career. A journalist depends on finding the facts, getting to the bottom of the story and reporting to the public, whether it’s positive or negative. Janet Malcom states in the book The Journalist and the Murderer, “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.” (Malcolm, 3) Her starting words speak volumes about “the Journalist and the Murderer” and the lessons that can be learned.
Few days from now, it will be a year since the Boston Marathon massacre occurred. That is one of the reasons which motivated me to do my research about this controversial topic. I have previewed a total of 90 reports; 30 reports announced by each of the American news outlets; FOX news TV and CNN . Additionally, I looked at 30 reports published by an Iranian TV which is Press TV. Then I defined every report as a positive, negative or neutral. During my research I have looked at further more than the required number of reports for this assignment released by numerous media outlets. I found it an interesting research that it enhances my knowledge about the topic itself and about the techniques that are used by the various media resources in showing and announcing their news to the public.
This investigation analyzes how the reports of the Beltway Sniper Attacks were given (newspaper or television, etc.) changed the public’s reaction the amount attention that was given to this event. To be able to analyze this, I will look at different newspaper reports that were published discussing the different ways that the media took to reporting about this event. The varying reasons for differing reports will be explored; along with the different ways these reports affected American citizens.
As the incident wasn’t over, there were many photographers taken photos; however, there was only one photo that was sad when everyone first saw the photo. The photo was taken by the Brown Brothers, and was remembered in the past and even today (Todd 11). They were sad that there were dead bodies on the ground. There were policemen and other people standing near the bodies of victims on the Green Street sidewalk in the photo. Most of the victims were w...
In reference to the media’s role, they have been highlighted for playing a part in maintaining these views by portraying victims in a certain way according to the newsworthiness of each story and their selectiveness (Greer, 2007). Furthermore, there has been an increase in both fictional crime programmes and crime documentaries, with Crimewatch particularly becoming a regular part of British viewing. In the modern context, crime has continued to represent a large proportion of news reporting and with the aid of social networking sites and self-publicity via the internet, journalists are now more able to dig even deeper into the lives of people on whom they wish to report. Newspapers continue to keep the public informed with the latest headlines and the internet has also provided opportunities for members of the public to have their input in blogs.
The introduction of the internet to modern society has brought about a new age of information relation. Since there is no longer a need to wait until the next print day, news from all over the world is available at a person’s fingertips within hours or even minutes of the event. With this advent of such easily accessible information, new problems for the news media have also arisen. Aside from potentially losing good economic standing because newspapers are no longer being purchased in the quantities they used to be, the credibility of the information itself is also put into question. No one would argue that credibility of news sources is unimportant, but there is a discrepancy in what takes precedence; economy and speed or getting the information out correctly at the first publishing by taking the time to make sure all facts are checked. The importance of having a system of checks on all information submitted is paramount. People trust what they read and believe it to be so without always questioning. If all information were to not be checked thoroughly, there would be instances where people read an article only for information included to be wrong and they go on believing such information. This can be very dangerous as misinformed people make misinformed decisions. With an increase in errors being made by citizen bloggers and even major publications, many are worried that journalistic ethics and credibility in the news media are being sacrificed in order to maintain swiftness in the news circuit and to retain personal profits. Though getting information to the masses quickly is a major part of the media’s importance, this should not mean that the credibility of that information being presented should be sacrificed for it...
It aims to represent the voices of ordinary people or people that may seem undervalued in the light of the mainstream media. These people are the citizens in whom the news is directed at but the stories that are made and shown may sometimes not resonate with them, instead it is just information that may have no direct effect on them. However, alternative journalism allows the citizen to take journalist practices into their own hands and have a voice and opinion. The access to social media and the internet has brought about a new wave of alternative journalists that have no professional qualifications but look at the world from a view that a majority of the world can understand. Atton mentions that citizens have a loyalty to other citizens (Atton, 2008) which is important to note because it is the biggest motivation for alternative journalism is not profit, but the drive to inform fellow man. People are going to trust news sources that are written by people who are like them or because they are eyewitness accounts or people that have placed themselves in situations that are dangerous, these types of news stories have a more humane
The idea that lies behind public journalism is that citizens that lack any formal experience are able to utilize the tools of modern technology alongside the limitless Internet to practice a form of journalism that allows the audience to inform one another. There is a sense of freedom with public journalism, also known as civic journalism. In this digital age, public journalism is easier to access due to laptops and cellular devices. It is true that public jou...
In extreme situations, journalists choose the angle they can find, tick the boxes to the news worthiness, but never having a stand. According to Kempf, journalists fulfill certain criteria of newsworthiness and fake empirical evidence, which implements propaganda and in the journalists’ defense “that it did not matter the pictures were faked since they only showed what people already ‘knew’ and since they served the goal of opening the eyes of the public” (Kempf 2002, p. 60). Various examples from the War on Terror, where journalists and reporters would fake evidence just to gain more audiences but examples like this could elevate the issues, and it is as if this responsibility of Journalism of Attachment only adds fuel to the fire and this is done in the name of peace (Kempf 2002).
Naturally, journalism would spill over to the Internet and as social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook grew in popularity, so did regular citizens involvement with sharing news. The argument can be made that the explosion of social media journalism was due to frustration from the lack of coverage of news that mattered to society. For example, the lack of subjective coverage of Michael Brown 's death helped with the creation of #BlackLivesMatter and spread of news related to African-American’s and other minorities across the country. After all, journalism is supposed to be a public forum. Millions of people on Twitter share their thoughts and opinions on several topics, furthering the conversation and to some degree challenging society. Things such as “Moments” on Twitter provide us with direct links and summaries to the world’s most important stories and encourage a conversation. According to journalism.org, 63% of users on Twitter and Facebook get their news from these websites. Even more eye opening is that 59% of users on Twitter keep up to date with news stories via Twitter while they are in the process of happening.[3] The rise of social media related journalism has caused some issues however. “Inevitably, as citizen involvement grows, more of our media culture is concerned with talking about news, instead of focusing on original reporting and the vetting of it.”[4] Because the general public has the ability to post as they wish and pass it off as news, it has affected the accuracy of many reports. Many stories lack reputable sources but are shared between millions as an accurate and true story. There are several websites designed to spread inaccurate information. The website www.fakenewswatch.com exists to inform people of these sites in order to avoid mishaps. Recently a Connecticut mom went viral for being involved in an online hoax
Mainstream media such as television, radio, newspapers were the primary source of reliable information before the epoch of the internet. However, the situation has changed. The evolution of modern technology in the world today has led to the continuous increase in the methods of practicing journalism. Social and technological advancements have not only improved the pace and content of this field’s practice, but has extended its genre to online or cybernetic journalism. (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007). News websites most of which are owned by major media companies and alternative websites with user generated content such as social networking sites and blogs are gaining grounds in the journalism field of practice. (Nel, n.d). One of the chief forces affecting the practice of journalism nowadays is online citizen journalists. Nel (n.d) defines citizen journalism as “individuals playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information”. He further adds that “citizen journalism is slowly being looked upon as a form of rightful democratic ways of giving hones news, articles, etc, directly by citizens of the world from anywhere.” One of the major researches conducted in the field of citizen journalism, describes the phenomenon as “individuals who intend to publish information online, meant to benefit a community”, and this information is expected to benefit the audience or the wider population in making decisions for the improvement of their community. (Carpenter, 2010.)
Because I am a journalism student, I have talked, researched and discussed with many of my fellow students and faculty members about the topics above. I am choosing to talk about this because I think it is important and they are pertinent issues in the journalism field. I am also very interested in this topic, so I thought it would be fun to take the opportunity you gave us to design our own multi-part question and write about something in journalism that is appealing to me.
news media for his behavior but he still showed an act of heroism. The search and rescue