Week 4

Citizen Journalism/ Journalism as a Public conversation in the 21st Century

So what is it and how has it come about? Here is a useful link for Media Shift:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_ci.html

This topic was really interesting for me. I hadn’t previously thought about the role the public play in regards to media in todays society. I always knew in the back ground that there were blogs happening, talk-back radio and there are things posted on YouTube but I never really thought much of it. I will elaborate later on this but I first want to look at the reading.

The reading was interesting in that Medows talks about the history of journalism simply being public conversation. He then adds that since the ‘print media’ took on the ‘fourth estate’ role, they now form public opinion not report on it. He believes that the public have become ‘students’ to be educated by the media rather than the public being involved in producing it. For me I think that this is a very outdated concept and does not apply to modern journalism. In this technology savvy era, we are seeing the public getting more involved in journalism.

Just as the presentations pointed out this week, people are taking their own initiative to be the journalist rather than let others provide it for them. We are seeing this through blogging, commenting on/correcting articles on online media forms, letters to the editor, YouTube, video cameras, mobile phones, podcasting and even talk-back radio. Since the introduction of the internet and new technologies, it is amazing to see the demand from the public for instant news. Also given the decline of newspaper circulation and the lack of funding from advertisers who are moving to online publications, the funding behind quality in-depth journalism is limited. We are seeing media outlets sourcing information directly from public relations and even directly from the public who are going to be cheaper and quicker to access. There has been numerous occassions where members of the public are selling footage taken on their mobile phones to media outlets who will then use it as news. Are we as future journalists worried about the increase in citizen journalism? I know that I defiately am. Are there going to be jobs there for us? I fear that there wont be many. Funds are defiately going to be lacking for ‘professional’ journalists to produce quality and in-depth news.

I really liked that in one of the presentations, the presenter engaged the audience by having a debate about the pro’s and con’s of citizen journalism. The pitfalls identified were: expression verses journalism, uniformed journalism, opinion rather than fact and objectivity, little editing, lack of responsibility and harder to regulate. Medows idea from the reading was also that it is now harder to distingish from entertainment and story writing/news. This is a very scary thought as it may become difficult for the public to distingish between professional journalism and citizen journalism. I feel as though the credibility of journalists is already tainted and if this idea continues, are the public going to have more trust in information that comes from another member of the public that doesn’t have a ‘political’ or ‘financial’ agenda to set? This is a shame because we as journalists go though years of study and training to be a professional journalist who aims to work for the public, presenting quality, objective news and we are trying to compete with the general public who have more access and resources to create media.

To look at it from another perspective, the need for citizen journalism is definitely there. It allows the public greater voice in expressing their interests, ideas, concerns, and desires, and allowing thses to set the agenda for public debate (surveys, public forums, blogs etc).

This week we watched an ABC Documentary about the June 2007 long weekend floods in NSW, mainly Newcastle and the upper Hunter. For me this really allowed us to identify the importance of citizen journalism in the modern media context. Without the pictures, footage and radio calls from the public, there wouldn’t have been much of a story to tell. Those involved in the floods allowed other states to have access to the news and to engage with the media through call-in’s on the radio to create awareness for others.

This is such a difficult topic to draw a conclusion on as journalists also feel uncomfortable with citizen journalism goals of seeking to direct the public agenda and community debate as journlaists should merely report the news not try to shape it. There needs to be a balance between professional journalism and citizen journalism and both need to work hand in hand with media to be successful. The internet makes it so difficult to predict the future of professional journalism especially if the traditional media forms (mainly print) cease. I personally don’t think that the public will want to get rid of professional journalists as there are people who only trust print media and source their news mainly from this form. I do think people are educated enough to distingish between the two forms (citizen v professional) but I feel as though citizen journalism will limit the opportunities available to professional journalists. The ‘I want in now’ society of today however will have a significant impact on the reporting of news.

How do you guys feel about the future of professional journalism and newspaper reporting?

Do you think the public will profer professional journalism because it offers responsibility and accountability?