Citizen journalism is rewriting and recasting the traditional mainstream news narrative. The effectiveness and success of citizen journalists are apparent, as the media now incorporates and responds to their content almost daily.
As news organizations try to adapt to the ever-changing media landscape and one-up competition with creative methods of breaking news, some of their contenders now have nowhere near the resources, training or wherewithal, yet are still having an impact. Where citizen journalists may lack in finances and formal instruction, they’ve made up for in originality and conviction.
Despite their pedestrian status and lack of conventional credentials, the endeavors of citizen journalism shouldn’t be undercut because they’ve influenced meaningful change and gained traction within the traditional media; look at bloggers, WikiLeaks, Occupy Wall Street videos or Andrew Breitbart’s takedown of Anthony Weiner. This new form is groundbreaking because it empowers the average person to potentially dictate or even overturn the news narrative once exclusively directed by traditional media. Where the media may fall short, everyday folks can now whip out a camera, recorder or cellphone and broadcast whatever they want over the Internet, unfiltered by decision-makers who may have otherwise not seen the initial value or even known about an incident.
In their eyes, citizen journalists pick up the slack where traditional media fails. Because the media, based on its own judgment, may have not picked up a story or angle, citizens who feel a story is important enough to make known can now do so. A citizen journalist’s interpretation of the traditional media’s effectiveness and credibility is that it is somewhat imperfect, which it, of course, is. After all, nothing is entirely perfect, and pretending there’s an uncontaminated purity is misinformed.
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