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Mounting Citizen Journalism, Raging Mainstream Media
When B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit writer expressed his indignations on writers like Premchand for writing Dalit stories, we fairly understood his point being that a well lived writer like Premchand could never envisage what a Dalit faced in India and could not express a Dalit’s adversities.
Similarly, when stories of exploitation, war, destitute and inequality are told by the people who faced the calamity, it gives much more insight and reality than what a leading daily print or a studio reporter would inform. Not that we do not need mainstream journalism, but the importance and vitality of citizen journalism should not be overlooked.
What is Citizen journalism?
Today, in the 21st era, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Micro-bogging, Digital Magazines, etc have given a platform to the normal citizens to share their news, experiences, stories, etc without much hassle. This kind of journalism which involves participation of general citizens is called ‘Citizen Journalism’ or ‘Participatory Journalism’.
Immediacy and Adequacy
Mounting Citizen Journalism somehow expands the scope of awareness and profundity. The immediacy and instant news by participatory citizen are of utmost importance. In situations of war, natural calamity or attacks, where immediate media coverage is difficult and risky, citizen journalism and reports help the editors and news gatherers in reporting. Also, in such cases, stories by real victims help media report the situation adequately and clearly.
Sociologist Michael Schudson explains, “When minorities and women and people who have known poverty and misfortune first-hand are authors of news, as well as its readers, the social world represented in the news expands and changes.”
Reality and Regulatory
When it comes to reporting, mainstream media has the gate-keeping authority as to what should be concealed and what should be exposed. At times, media also hypes certain irrelevant news. Somehow, media does have an affinity for biased practices. It might beat report about a tabloid news piece but it might not take into consideration, the need to expose the reality of rural India or the exploited victims of the destitute background. Citizen journalism keeps reality alive; bloggers bring into focus the buried stories of concealed cases, of victims, of needy.
Citizen journalism is important to regulate mainstream media and bring into existence the hidden realities.
Lacks Professionalism, Ethics, Reliability
Richard Sambrook, the director of the BBC Global News Division once said in a conference, few years back, “Information is not journalism. You get a lot of things, when you open up Twitter in the morning, but not journalism. Journalism needs discipline, analysis, explanation and context and therefore it is still a profession.”
According to him, citizen journalism lacks the basic attributes of reporting. Therefore, raises the question of censorship on social networking and regulation of citizen journalism. People write what they find interesting which might not be adequately analyzed as professionals do. Also, when a professional writes, he owns up to its accountability which is quite the opposite in case of the prior. At times, it is difficult to locate the source of the stories or pictures posted. Be it that citizen journalism is on rise but none can outdo the professionalism, balance and adequacy of the mainstream media.
Thus, there exists a tension between mainstream and citizen journalism. Do drop in your views in the comment box.
44 Comments. Leave new
Good work.
Thankyou Ojasvi 🙂
inormative 🙂
Thanx 🙂
Very rightly said ‘Citizen journalism cannot outdo professionalism’. But its equally important for a country to know the opinions of ordinary citizens.
Vidushi, you got me right 😀
This is a intriguing topic. While I under the need for Citizen journalism, I am biased towards mainstream journalism. Citizen journalism takes information and decentralizes it to make it available to all everywhere. My question is while mainstream journalism follows certain rules of ethics what rules do Citizen journalism adhere to? Is Citizen journalism always reliable? Probably not. It might lead to distortion of facts which can be dangerous in certain situations.
Priyanka, you are right. Citizen Journalism is not always relaible but is equally important
By the way, I love your article. It raises a lot of questions.
Interesting 😀
Thanxx
There are always some issues which need to be dealt with more sensitively so accountability is important in citizen journalism also.
Mannat, you got me right
well done! Nice article
Thankyou
very nice article…good efforts..
Thankyou
interesting topic and well researched
Thankyou
interesting!
Thankyou
Good efforts..indeed a well written article
Thankyou
Hi Deepika, I would just like to point out that social media cannot by itself cannot be considered as Citizen Journalism. Every person who tweets or shares a post on Facebook does not become a Citizen Journalist per se. There are specific news websites which call for user generated content, which are then filtered by Editors. Such websites along with Citizen Journalism shows on news channels can qualify for Citizen Journalism 🙂
Chandni, what you say is partly right. Citizen are invited to contribute but somehow the kinds of feeds posted by people that go viral are also a part of citizen journalism and is counted into it.
Well structured. Amazing piece.
Thankyou
Worth pondering over insight.
Thankyou Srush :*
Nice article.
Thank you
Nice article and well explained.
Thank you
Interesting topic.. Well written..
Thanx Saumya
good wrk 😀
Thank you
Really good work
Thankss
i wasn’t aware of any such thing thank you so much a very informative article.
Happy to help, Srishti 🙂
Citizen journalist is a good concept because it gives voice to common citizens so that they can raise their voice in public but as everything as its two sides good as well as bad so as citizen journalism also have because there is no limitations or restrictions ….so anyone who is with the Internet can post whatever they want so uts blurring lines between the professionals and the common people who are writing on the net….
Great job, Deepika!
very well written