What is citizen journalism?

Citizen journalism involves ordinary members of a community actively collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information outside of mainstream media institutions. Enabled by internet platforms, social networking, and mobile phones, it allows everyday people to share breaking news and local stories directly. However, critics argue that because it lacks professional regulation, conceptual frameworks, and formal resources, its quality and coverage can be haphazard and heavily opinionated.

What we know

• Citizen journalism is based on ordinary community members playing an active role in collecting, reporting, and disseminating news and information. [1, 2]
• The practice functions outside mainstream media institutions as an alternative form of news gathering driven by different objectives and ideals. [2]
• Development of online internet platforms, social networking websites, and widespread cellular telephones have made citizen journalism more accessible worldwide. [2]
• Critics claim that citizen journalism is unregulated, amateur, and haphazard in quality due to a lack of professional affiliation, formal resources, and a unified conceptual framework. [2]

Still open

• Scholars and critics debate the reliability, standards, and overall effectiveness of citizen reporting compared to traditional institutional journalism.

Where to go next

• what caused itHow did digital technology change news reporting?
• a case in pointWhat impact has citizen reporting had on major world events?
• compared withHow does nonprofit journalism fund public interest reporting?
• whenHow has the medium of journalism evolved from word of mouth to the internet?
• the bigger pictureWhat defines the broader category of user-generated content?
• an unexpected connectionHow do citizen reporters create formal resources for reliability?A research team of citizen journalists actually created an open educational resource library containing video interviews to establish access to reliable sources.

Sources

• [1]citizen journalism (Wikidata Q848979) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Citizen journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]History of journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Digital journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Nonprofit journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0