The rise of citizen journalism

Image: Imgur

The internet technology and social media emergence has opened the gate for citizen journalism and replaced the way people read news today. The possibility of posting factual messages through smartphones or tablets by almost anyone at the instant time, makes it hard to judge the value of the eyewitness images or clips compared to the news broadcasted by traditional media.

People doesn’t wait for news to be broadcasted or published on newspapers or TV on their scheduled day. The social media sites life Facebook, twitter, YouTube, etc. gives the consumers the chance to share own information and news stories without being insecure of the whether the word is spread or not (Anderson 2014). The factual images and video clips uploaded to social media from ordinary citizens proves that professional reporters are not always accessible at everywhere every time; especially if there comes a breaking news event just on the spot.  Thus the traditional ‘passive’ audience is turned to ‘active’ audience today using the internet to make the public aware by sharing information on the spot.

Reference

Anderson, M 2014, ‘How social media is reshaping news’, Pew Research Center, 24 September, viewed on 6 December 2015, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/