An Introduction to Citizen Journalism

With the advancement of technology and the expansion of the Internet, the phenomenon known as "citizen journalism" has risen. Just what is citizen journalism? On his blog, Digging Deeper, Mark Glaser, a freelance journalist, says, "The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others." Some general examples of citizen journalism would be someone writing about an event or fact-checking a newspaper on his blog, posting a picture of a newsworthy event online, or uploading a video of a newsworthy event on YouTube or another video hosting website.

Examples of modern citizen journalism includes the videos of the Kennedy assassination and of the Rodney King beating. The 90's were a major period for the expansion of citizen journalism with the emergence of the Internet. The Internet was key for opening up the world of journalism because it allowed anyone to have widespread, global distribution that was once only available to professional journalists and media companies.

Citizen journalism is now more prevalent than ever before. It has been citizen journalists who have been able to capture footage and have eyewitness accounts of events such as terrorist attacks and natural disasters. When oppressive regimes have banned the mainstream media, citizen journalists have been able to obtain video and information to share with the rest of the world; a large amount of information about the revolutionary events in the Middle East was obtained from citizen journalists.

Hybrid websites that include content from both professional and citizen journalists have become popular, such as the OhMyNews site in South Korea have become popular. Mainstream news media has also begun to reference citizen journalists. It is not uncommon now to see news channels such as CNN or MSNBC bringing up a twitter feed or other content from citizen journalists.


While expanding citizen journalism has offered broader, faster news and tapped into the knowledge and ability of everyday people to report news, it also has numerous criticisms. Citizen journalists generally will not feel the obligation to follow the code of conduct that professional journalists do. They may be biased, less reliable, and have less accountability.


Citizen journalism has changed the face of news and we will see how it continues to shape the way we get news in the future.