An Exploration of Citizen Journalism

In their article entitled "Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism," Bruns & Highfield define the term 'citizen journalism' as "an assemblage of broadly journalistic activities which are characterized by specific practical and distributed network of self-selected participants rather than on the paid work of a core team of professional staff, and they utilize Internet technologies to coordinate the process and share its results."

Citizen journalism is important for several reasons, including the immediacy of information and the switch from media concentration to a more democratic distribution of news. Most importantly, citizen journalism allows for an increase in media watchdogs, as news is being viewed, edited, and redistributed by millions of people at any given moment.

With the increase in smart phone technology and social media, individuals have the ability to capture news stories as they happen, and distribute them almost instantly on a number of different platforms even before many news stations. One of the most recent examples is that of the Boston Marathon bombing, where video footage of the event was filmed and uploaded by citizens before any news station could even reach the scene of the attack.


Citizen journalism also allows for a larger variety of sources when distributing news stories. Alfred Hermida describes the way that social media questions the "individualistic, top-down ideology of traditional journalism, subverting journalism's claim to a monopoly on the provision of everyday public knowledge."

Rather than have a handful of media outlets select and distribute news stories, we now have hundreds of thousands of individuals capturing and uploading a variety of news content from all over the world.

Social media also ensures that "no one voice can speak with unquestioned authority." (Jenkins & Thorburn.) As information is distributed through sources that are viewed by millions of people, facts are constantly being checked for validity. Thus, any false information that is distributed is often questioned by citizens.

Sources:
Bruns, A. & T. Highfield. (2012). Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism. pre-publication draft on personal site [Snurb.info]. Published in: Lind, R. A. ed. (2012). Produsing Theory in a Digital World: The Intersection of Audiences and Production. New York: Peter Lang. p15-32.

Hermida, A. (2012). TWEETS AND TRUTH: Journalism as a discipline of collaborative verification. Journalism Practice. 6:5-6, p659-668.

Jenkins, H. & D. Thorburn. Introduction: The Digital Revolution, the Informed Citizen, and the Culture of Democracy. in Jenkins, H. & D. Thorburn eds. (2003). Democracy and New Media. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. p1-17. NOTE: this link takes you to the entire book (online). You only need to read the introduction.