i-reporting, the rise of citizen journalism

i-reporting, the rise of citizen journalism

Posted by natashalardera


With the rise of people shooting accidents, robberies or anything that they want to denounce with their cellular phones or blackberries and with the ever increasing amount of bloggers and impromptu reporters, we are witnessing the growth of a new form of journalism: citizen journalism. Many, especially trained journalists, see the phenomenon as controversial. Citizen journalism is the product of “any effort by people who are not trained or employed as professional journalists to publish news or information based on original observation, research, inquiry, analysis or investigation,” says Amy Gahran one of the editors of ireporter.org, “CitJ can conceivably include anything from notes and quotes from a public meeting, to neighborhood happenings and trends, to an original analysis of a piece of proposed legislation, to a public discussion about conditions at local parks, to music and restaurant reviews, to podcast interviews with community leaders and characters, and much more....Yes, I know that's very broad. But consider the diversity of journalistic content typically offered by mainstream news outlets -- this isn't really that different.” Virginia Tech graduate student Jamal Albarghouti, who captured dramatic video of the deadly shooting on his cell phone, sent his video to I-Report, and immediately became an i-reporter. The work of I-reporters appears to be quite different from what you find in a daily paper. It tends to be more personal, often written in the first person, with scarce tact, sometimes, and without too many scruples. Quality is unpredictable and inconsistent, depending on the citizen journalist. Anyone who loves to write and knows technology just a little bit can be a citizen journalist -- seniors, students, kindergarten teachers, housewives, strippers, and priests, simply anyone who wants to do it. This way the so-called ‘Big Media’ has lost its monopoly on the news. Publishing in real time to a worldwide audience, thanks to the internet, is transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In the book We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news. Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today.