Citizen journalists are popping up everywhere, causing a wave of self-protection in the professional journalism field. Being a student of journalism myself, I think it's important to have an opinion on the subject.
Forming this opinion is proving itself to be more difficult than I expected. While I do find the title of "journalists" a little presumptuous, I do find that these ordinary people are trying to uncover the truth, which is essentially what journalism is all about. What is wrong with getting different points of view?
I think my problem with this concept is the devaluing of the profession that I strive to break into. At Ryerson we have been taught to work hard to get a job in the field, and that good jobs in journalism are hard to find. But people are now getting paid for their camera phone videos of events, or are becoming sources of information through their poorly researched blogs. I want the world to value what I want to do for a living, not believe that it doesn’t take much skill.
With my concerns on the table, I must admit that citizen journalism does have an organic feel to it that often mainstream journalism does not. The stories these people produce are not filtered through editors, potential readers or fear for their professional reputation. They are pure and real. Obviously this can have drawbacks, but it’s nice to have this alternative. The world is all about choice now, so why would journalism be any different? I just don’t want to be considered the “corporate” money hungry option.
This type of journalism can also put a human face on issues. Sometimes an issue is covered solely from a hard news angle, and then people blog about how it personally affected them. Often times the human angle is not newsworthy enough to make it into professional publication, but the story can still be told and have a positive effect on other people. This is something that can be very beautiful.
With this beauty though there also comes a danger. Truth telling is not something that the general public does best. People lie to get attention, or simply do not do adequate research to make sure that what they are saying is true. This is why we need journalists. We are trained to delve deep into the facts of a story, and only report on things we know for certain is true.
I have decided to not let citizen journalism bother me. In any profession there will always be people who are trying to make it big for the least amount of work. That doesn’t mean that those who try their hardest fail. I think this world is big enough to hold all kinds of journalists.
9 comments:
I love your new design, Michelle!
VERY intreging.. (if thats how you spell it). It was actually the first thing i read that you wrote and it was veryy good! Like amazing wording, keeps you interesting in what you're reading.
Michelle, interesting point of view, you are bang on, there is enough room for both! Personally, I appreciate a Journalists perspective.
I defiently agree with you. It is totally unfair to people to spend time and work very hard to achieve their personal goals, and then some people come in with no training and who dont take the profession or situation seriosuly and recieve fame or fortune for their acts.
Very Goods POints!!!
I think you omitted a word from your bio,
you mean you're from Sweaburg as opposed to I am Sweaburg.
And as for the issue at hand, I feel it's a good thing. With all the scandals that have come out over new stations fabricating news, we can have more points of view to try and make sense of it. However, I have faith in Canada's news reporting. We're not yet at the corruption level that CNN and FoxNews are at.
I am glad that you support participatory journalism. It is a great privilege for average citizens to be able to communicate and contribute their ideas about various issues to a mass audience. I see after reading your blog why some journalists may reject someone without a professional background in journalism contributing to the pool of articles existing through various forms of media. From this perspective, I now see that some citizen journalists have misinformed the public about certain issues. On the other hand, some citizen journalists especially bloggers have broken major news events that the mainstream media overlooked or filtered out. In my opinion citizen journalists poise no threat to professional journalists such as yourself. In most cases there is a clear distinction between the writing of a professional and citizen journalist. If anything I imagine the competition must keep you on your toes.
It was a breath of fresh air reading your blog and I look forward to your future articles! Keep up the good work.
This is such a nice way to get marks lol.
The way I see it, if somebody is deserving of a position in journalism, they have to work for it either way. Citizen journalists are not hired off the street if they don't know what they're doing. Sure, they may be able to freelance a little, or publish their writing online, but to make any money or get any respect, talent and knowledge are required. I don't see citizen journalists as not working as hard just because they didn't go to journalism school. J-school just gives you a lot of skills and connections that citizen reporters would have to build themselves to have any real position in the field.
I definitely think that there is enough room in this world for both types of reporting. People in all positions of life should be able to help in building a world where all its members' voices are heard. These citizen journalists also will not cheapen the profession because the general public will always have more faith in authentic news publications than the random guy on youtube. It just allows people to enjoy a fresher point of view every now and then.
heyy hunnie,
I love you and your blog.nicely done-ill keep an eye out for updates!:p
ps:I agree that journalism should not seen as needing no training because its an acquired skill,that takes time and money...i feel like that sometimes when people say that about my program.
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