The concept of citizen journalism is not new. In fact it’s probably been around for many years. However, there is a growing popularity of this form of journalism, and it’s actually starting to overwhelm the real news. While websites that promote citizen journalism are making huge profits and being bought and sold for millions, real news outlets are suffering massive losses. This is unfortunate because while citizen journalism has it’s uses, there are many disadvantages of citizen journalism.
The first disadvantage is that the average citizen should certainly not be considered a journalist. They can, perhaps, report on an event, and document what’s occuring, but that is not performing real journalism. Real journalism involves finding an particular angle on a subject or event, flushing out the facts, and objectively reporting on the findings. Taking pictures of some people at a rally, and saying you were at the rally and that you took some pictures, is not journalism. It’s hardly even reporting.
The contents of websites devoted to citzen journalism are dubious at best. Most people are allowed to sign up for an account with little to no background check, no qualifications, all you need is an email address and an opinion. These articles are then published with absolutely no editorial process. No one is checking to make sure what you say is true. Sure, someone may comment on the article and point out your errors, but of course that comment can be moderated or deleted.
There are some interesting and useful aspects of so called citizen journalism, like the fact that information can be spread by these people incredibly quickly. This can be useful to actual journalists, as they are notified of events a lot sooner than they would have been traditionally, before the internet and information sharing.
While there are a couple of good things about citizen journalism, it’s quite possible that this could be the worst thing to ever happen to journalism.