As discussed by Alex Bruns, the development of new technologies have made possible the rise of citizen journalism, however its sheer popularity speaks more to the broader misgivings the public have about mainstream journalism. The one-to-many communication structure of old media forms put the gatekeepers in a dangerously powerful position, a sentiment echoed by many authors. Additionally, the commercialisation of mass media means that news has become commoditised, so how can journalists represent the interests of the public when “media is directed at consumers rather than citizens” (Street 2011, p. 14). Citizen journalism gives power back to the people.
Some of the problems of citizen journalism is that ordinary people often won’t have the resources behind them to engage in comprehensive fact checking or conduct interviews with experts, and they have no institutional guidelines that bind them to balanced reporting. While everyone can agree that many media conglomerates have an agenda around which they report the news (ahem, News Corp), there are also trustworthy sources like the BBC. I don’t think citizen journalism should replace traditional news sources, however I think the threat it currently poses to the mainstream media has encouraged an evaluation of the industry. The government has called for an inquiry to assess the benefits of a independent body to regulate the media beyond our current and failing system.
If trust in mainstream media can be restored, I think the benefits of citizen journalism will be maximised if the two communication systems can work together, filling the gaps where the other is lacking.
Nice blog. I also think citizen journalism is helping to improve media conglomerates with a little bit of healthy competition. These media groups are being forced to pick up their games and watch their backs in order to keep up with the immense amount of news being produced. Simply, they have to be the best and to be the best they have to constantly improve.
ReplyDeleteHey Jess, I agree with you that the popularity of citizen journalism points to our mistrust of the mainstream media. I think our generation is much more cynical towards media that is traditionally authoritative than previous generations. However you're right in arguing the danger of replacing our trust in traditional news media with the same trust in citizen media- as they do not have to comply with the same set of rules. We should definitely be critical of both. I agree with you, and hope that in the near future, we will learn to use both in order to have a wider and more balanced perspective.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you when you say that you don't think citizen journalism should replace traditional news and I think that they are trying to prevent this from happening by incorporating citizen journalism into mainstream news.This works into your idea that both forms of news fill in the gaps of the other. Nice post, completely agree with all of it
ReplyDeleteHey Jess, I agree with you and everyone here. We should definitely not put our full trust on citizen journalism then that of traditional media. However, citizen journalism has for sure helped shape the society over the years. Without it, news wouldn't be able to travel so fast and less people get their share in saying what they think is newsworthy. But also not forgetting the development of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Without them, citizen journalism wouldn't be as effective as it is today.
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