The Importance of Citizen Journalism:
Citizen Journalism is the collecting and reporting of information via social media, public platforms, and traditional news outlets, either by non-traditional sources or the public The assassination of President John F. Kennedy occurred on November 22, 1963, is considered the first ever form of Citizen Journalism. This moment in history, was a transformative live, global TV news event sweeping the industry without a playbook for covering a breaking story.Ultimately changed how people receive their news for generations to come. Back then the main streams of news was either by radio or television. Citizen Journalism has become increasingly popular with the rise in popularity of smartphones. Everyday we are citizen journalists by participating and posting on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook for example. This type of journalism relates to us as college students, because it is conducted by people who are not professional journalists usually communicating information giving original perspectives and ideas.
In addition to that, Citizen Journalism simply allows us to express our thoughts, beliefs, views, and opinions freely without being censored of having to go through a major company telling us what narrative to push or what to say in order to please a specific audience. Citizen journalism has been highly recognized in other forms such as podcasts and blogs. Substack is a very popular site that helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter. No tech knowledge is required. Without ads and algorithms to get in the way, you can sustain a direct relationship with your readers and retain full control over your creative work. Matthew Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for Rolling Stone, an author of several books, co-host of Useful Idiots, and publisher of the newsletter Racket News (formerly TK News) on Substack.
Overtime, Citizen journalism has expanded its worldwide influence despite continuing concerns over whether citizen journalists are as reliable as trained professionals. I one hundred percent understand the concern that this can cause in the world. This all goes back to deciphering between false, unreliable and biased news. How can we get the full story based on a snapchat story, or a simple take from an individual for example. I feel as though citizen journalism is a very impactful way to disperse news without professionally working for a company. Often times, I have gotten insight on news and things that are going on strictly from social media or friends account. I then go to a more reliable source that can provide facts and more details on the topic of discussion. Without this type of journalism, the news world would be lacking severely. We need views, beliefs, thoughts, opinions, etc from normal people living in everyday society. This allows for us to gain new perspectives and create more readership and viewership on circumstances and bigger companies outlets. Citizen journalism has deeply impacted the way news is created and consumed. Overall, it has removed the distinction between journalist and viewer.
https://substack.com/profile/263053-matt-taibbi
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