Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is one of the hottest buzzwords in the news business these days. The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology. One of the main concepts is that mainstream media reporters and producers are not the exclusive center of knowledge on a subject. For example, you could snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening and write a post about it on your blog.  There is some controversy over the term “citizen journalism” because many professional journalists believe that only trained journalists can understand the rigor and ethics involved in reporting the news. However, others can see it has very helpful. It gives the readers a chance to choose about what they want to be informed about, YOU decide about which topics YOU are interested in. Citizen journalists do it for free, so it is available to anyone and anywhere. Traditional newspapers in a digital form with use of the internet, allows the opportunity for people, like yourself, to contribute with them. Hey, and guess what? YOU can be a citizen journalists. All you need is a desire of communication, investigating, tools to record your investigations, and material with quality information. Blogging, can be a form a citizen journalism with the right layout and good quality of information. The blogosphere is no longer just for the ranters and idealogues. Straight-shooting journalists are increasingly joining online non-profit ventures. This gives them the opportunity to reemerge as news reporters and investigate stories that traditional media cannot and will not cover. By decentralizing the news business, investigative reporters for online non-profits are creating quality coverage of America’s most important issues and making it available to all.