The discussion on this blog has primarily focused on the advantages of citizen journalism, which are primarily related to the breadth of reporting, and the disadvantages of citizen journalism, which are primarily related to the standards of journalistic practice that citizen journalists do not necessarily follow. In the previous post I highlighted a case in which citizen journalism demonstrated a lack of reliability, a disadvantage, and in the post before that I pointed out how citizen journalism could offer fresh perspectives on events, an advantage.
While I won't take a stance on the pepper spray incident at UC Davis as that is beyond the scope of this blog, it is a case that illustrates both some of the positives and negatives of citizen journalism. As you may have heard, videos from citizen journalists found their way to YouTube of police pepper spraying protestors sitting on the ground at UC Davis. Now, a positive of citizen journalism here is that the incident was reported so the public knows about it, since it is the kind of thing that people would want to know about. However, there is a negative of citizen journalism being demonstrated here, which is slightly more subtle. Look at these two articles The War on Police and Pepper Spray on Campus: A Tale of Two Videos. They cite different videos when they discuss the incident, and the former claims that other people discussing the incident are not considering the whole story.
This issue is applicable to journalism as a whole; stories are often long and complex and it is difficult to capture them in their entirety. However, with citizen journalism not capturing the whole story is a larger issue than with professional journalism. It goes back to the idea of objectivity. Citizen journalists are not bound to be objective, therefore they are more likely to report only one side of a story to push their agenda. Is that a problem though? Is it the responsibility of a citizen journalist to show both sides of the story? I'm not entirely sure, but it's a good point for discussion.
I have to agree, journalism is very flawed, especially in the United States. To quote one of the books from our summer reading, people are too engrossed in "bumper sticker politics." It is almost shameful that industries founded on news and information spreading are subject to ratings that slant their presentations and define their articles. Citizen journalism definitely affected this incident. As a frequent Redditor, I have witnessed many cries of outrage as well as images that portray the police in question to be scumbags. However, I don't think a citizen journalist is responsible for showing both sides of the story because it's often the byproduct of their shock at what is happening. I would leave that job (giving both sides coverage) to the "professionals" even though as of late they haven't been doing the best job.
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