Blog Post 10; EOTO Reflection - Citizen Journalism

 Citizen Journalism 

    For our final EOTO, we explored topics related to the media and technology. Awareness, mediasphere, theories, policy, and artificial intelligence were the areas we observed. One topic within these areas that intrigued me through watching other groups present was citizen journalism. 

    Right now, I am a citizen journalist through this blog. My mother who writes lengthy essay-style posts on Facebook is also a citizen journalist. Any form of information writing that is not done by a professional journalist, but an individual, is considered citizen journalism. And it's extremely important. 

    I learned that citizen journalism has been around since the Boston Massacre of 1770. However, with the integration of new technology, specifically the internet, citizen journalism has become more and more prominent and more and more essential to piecing stories together. Think about how many photos and videos we see in news stories today. All of those photos and videos are not captured by professional journalists. They are captured by ordinary people. 

    This is why citizen journalism is so vital. Without people capturing monumental moments of news on their phones, we would not have the ability to piece or illustrate a story. 

    Citizens in disaster zones have been able to provide instantaneous text and visual reporting from the scene. People in countries that are tied down by political upheaval can report on development, and even people in countries where the news and broadcast media is controlled by the government can use a variety of technology to share information. 

    Because of these brave citizens, the term citizen journalist has been debated as if it's even accurate. 

    The term and use of citizen journalism were first coined in South Korea where an online entrepreneur, Oh Yeon-ho, stated in 2000 that "every citizen is a reporter." Following this surge of people actively reporting news themselves, Oh and three of his colleagues founded an online newspaper that provided daily news because they were unimpressed with the traditional press in South Korea. 

    Since then, and since the internet and technology have expanded drastically, there has been a spawn of thousands of news sites and bloggers reporting independently. However, this independent citizen journalism is a double-edged sword. This kind of reporting and writing opens the door for misinformation and bias as well as the incorporation of one's personal opinion. I would argue though, that these aspects have very minimal negative aspects as even the mainstream media is biased and publishes misinformation. 

    At the end of the day, citizen journalism is crucial. It is needed to keep mainstream journalism thriving. In a sense, it is almost our duty as citizens to report, analyze, and interpret events on our own. Not only does it help us to shape our ideas and opinions, but it shows the mainstream media that we as citizens don't need them and that we are capable of uncovering the truth on our own.