Quote: "Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens 'playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information.'"
The different forms of Citizen Journalism.
Definition of Citizen Journalism: This topic covers the basic definition of citizen journalism, which is the act of citizens or non-professional journalists participating in the gathering, reporting, and dissemination of news and information.
History of Citizen Journalism: This topic explores the roots of citizen journalism, tracing its history back to the earliest forms of community reporting through to the present day.
Types of Citizen Journalism: This topic covers the various forms of citizen journalism, including community journalism, participatory journalism, grassroots journalism, and more.
Benefits of Citizen Journalism: This topic discusses the positive aspects of citizen journalism, such as increased diversity of voices and perspectives, greater access to information, and increased transparency in the media.
Challenges of Citizen Journalism: This topic explores the challenges faced by citizen journalists, including a lack of training and resources, reliability and accuracy concerns, and the potential for bias.
Examples of Citizen Journalism: This topic provides real-world examples of citizen journalism in action, including stories that have been covered and how citizens have contributed to news and information dissemination.
Ethics and Standards of Citizen Journalism: This topic discusses the ethical and professional standards that should be followed by citizen journalists, including accuracy, impartiality, respect for privacy, and more.
Tools and Techniques for Citizen Journalism: This topic explores the various tools and techniques that citizen journalists can use to gather, report, and disseminate news and information, including video, social media, podcasts, and more.
Legal Issues in Citizen Journalism: This topic covers the legal issues that citizen journalists may face, including defamation, privacy, copyright, and other forms of liability.
Collaborating with Professional Journalists: This topic discusses how citizen journalists can collaborate with professional journalists to share expertise, resources, and perspectives, and to improve the overall quality of journalism.
Blogging: An individual shares their personal opinion or reporting through a blog or microblogging platform.
Social Media: Citizens use social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to report news and events.
Participatory Journalism: A collaborative news-gathering process where journalists and citizens work together to produce a story or report.
Community Journalism: The focus is on local news and events, often reporting on issues which are not covered by mainstream media.
Mobile Journalism: The use of smartphones or mobile devices to capture photos, videos and other content for news reports.
Crowdsourcing: A collective effort of a group of citizens to find, share and verify news and information.
Podcasting: Production of audio content that covers everything from local news and politics to entertainment and sport.
Citizen Photography: Individuals contributing to journalism by providing photos of news events or sharing their photo documentation of social happenings.
Open Source Journalism: Similar to crowdsourcing, open-source journalism attracts teams of experts and enthusiasts whose contributions combine to produce high-quality, collaborative reporting.
Grassroots Journalism: Focusing on the non-mainstream news stories that are often missed by traditional news outlets.
Quote: "Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism 'as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism'."
Quote: "Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: 'When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another.'"
Quote: "The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news."
Quote: "Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists."
Quote: "New media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, in addition to the increasing prevalence of cellular telephones, have made citizen journalism more accessible to people worldwide."
Quote: "Notable examples of citizen journalism reporting from major world events are, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Arab Spring, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the 2013 protests in Turkey, the Euromaidan events in Ukraine, and Syrian Civil War, the 2014 Ferguson unrest and the Black Lives Matter movement."
Quote: "Being that citizen journalism is yet to develop a conceptual framework and guiding principles, it can be heavily opinionated and subjective, making it more supplemental than primary in terms of forming public opinion."
Quote: "Critics of the phenomenon, including professional journalists and news organizations, claim that citizen journalism is unregulated, amateur, and haphazard in quality and coverage."
Quote: "Furthermore, citizen journalists, due to their lack of professional affiliation, are thought to lack resources as well as focus on how best to serve the public."