Before talk about citizen journalism in details, let's compare communication pattern between old and new media. Old media only allows individual conversation, which means one to one such as letters and telephones. But, new media allows mass communication, many individuals can involve in the same conversation such as email, attn, cc, bcc, you can send the same email to many individuals.
We did discuss media convergence in previous so, one of the characteristics of the new media is cosumers become prosumers.
Consumer + Producer = Prosumer
It refers to nowadays we people are not only using the media but also contribute materials or information via the media. For example, Blogger.com, a blogspot owner is the consumer of Blogger and he is the producer too as he publishes web logs within his blog. Moreover, network nodes change the flow of information and more information are generated within the network. Thus, the world changes the ways to contribute or publish information especially in journalism.
Furthermore, tradition media for publication such as newspapers and magazine have limited information due to limited columns, expensive printing and the distribution is limited too, like what we have discussed in previous post entry too. On the other hand web logs or blog can reach wider audiences and various written works can be published with low cost or even free and no entry requirements. Then, these advantages encourage people to publish their written works via web logs and citizen journalism is formed. Basically, citizen journalism refers to anyone of us can become the journalist, write something, and publish it through online. Web log, this new media for publication can reach audiences globally and then, anyone of us could be the readers or audiences of web logs as long as we are connected to the networks.
Based on industry point of view, journalism should contain news values which are proximity, timeliness, prominence, novelty, and human interests. The stories published via web logs could achieve all these news values too and web logs are more advanced in timeliness as updates can be made immediately through online, not like newspapers, editing has to wait until next publication. Moreover, newspapers need to be profitable, that is why many advertisements but web logs not necessary need to be profitable and online journalism could offer a collection of news which is free one and always available. Internet shares information by the speed of lights thus, the news can be shared to many people at the same time.
In addition, citizen journalism is about people can create any information, news or materials through online media thus, it could lead to information avalanche - overflow or too much of information. Besides, there are no gatekeeper to filter the information and more and more similar information can be distributed through out the networks and quality of the works would be affected too. However, citizen journalism encourages instant feedback that makes the information more valuable. It means, readers could share their opinions through online immediately and make the content richer.
In conclusion, I am a citizen journalist too. I use Blogger to publish my written works and I could interact with my readers by commenting.
Let's enjoy a simple animation about tradition journalism vs. citizen journalism. This video talks how citizen journalism works and benefit.
Markfior 2009, Old vs new, YouTube.com [ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRlKol4Usxw&feature=related ]
Let's enjoy a simple animation about tradition journalism vs. citizen journalism. This video talks how citizen journalism works and benefit.
Markfior 2009, Old vs new, YouTube.com [ URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRlKol4Usxw&feature=related ]
viewed at 26th September 2011.
Hi Cindy
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that with the ability to write freely on weblogs, it has given many people an opportunity to become a writter or journalists themselves.
Many had dreamt of it before, but it seemed impossible to make it ever happen in the past.
However, with the new medias like the network, internet and weblogs, this has changed.
For some people, even if they just have few readers who read what they post online, as long as they can share their thoughts and comments to each other, it's more than enough. They are not looking for publicity or fame, but simply a space which allow them to write freely as they wish.
However, as i mentioned in my previous post, when something is free to the public, everyone will want to be a part of it and put their hands on it. Therefore, when everyone is writing freely on weblogs, indeed there will only more qunatitative over quality. Hence, the lack of gatekeepers.
Xin Yee,
ReplyDeleteIt's true that nowadays new media compare to old media, new media can approach and reach the big amount of audiences and yet not only for local also around the world. We can get a lot different kind of comments from different kind of people and people from different kind of country. Old media was just let us to know the latest news and hard to discuss with others, just like newspaper. Meanwhile, old media won't be replace by new media as old media also got the advantages. After all, I still prefer old media like newspaper because the details will be more and accurate than from the website or blog. Anyway, it's a great post.
Hai Xin Yee, this new era that we are living in had made everyone a journalist through citizen journalism i meant. Through the older media, we only will have our latest updates the next morning or through the evening new, but now it just delayed in about a few minutes time things may became fast but how sure are we that the contents are as good as it should be.
ReplyDeleteHey Xin Yee,
ReplyDeleteI would say even with the existence of New media i still love to do my reading manually which is like having a cup coffee and reading newspaper, magazine or a book. the reason why it because it does not tire my eyes and gives a sense of relaxation. i think these why the older generation still prefers the old media compare to the new one. besides that they do not trust citizen journalism because they feel it lacks of credibility and accuracy.
Hi Xin Yee
ReplyDeleteNew media definitely are taking over the traditional media but no doubt i still kind of prefer the traditional way of getting news through newspapers. I get extremely annoyed when i read news online despite it updates far more faster then the newspaper, but it hurts my eyes after a while. However, no doubt that they are quick with updates which is what we always want nowadays.