IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM A THREAT OR CHALLENGE TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM?

Citizen journalism is when private individuals, do most of what professional journalism reporters do on their own or in collaboration without professional training, or the idea to enable the audience to participate in the gathering and disseminating of  news about events and occurrences by the means of the latest communication technologies. According to Ms. Solana Larsen, managing editor of the Global Voices, said that, “citizen journalism is not a competitor for the professional journalism in the world”.

We live in a time of change and there is little doubt in mind that we are seeing a shift in how people find and consume news and information. Citizen journalists do their best to report on issues but it is still not the end to journalism. Therefore, citizen journalism is neither a threat nor challenge when it comes to professional journalism.

          Many people are no longer satisfied in just listening to the thoughts and opinions of professional experts, but rather want to involve or participate in the process of discussing and interacting with the news. For that matter, we are seeing more and more focus upon citizen journalism where millions of people have the means to engage in reporting of news simply using their mobile phones to snap a photo of a news worthy event happening.

Citizen journalism is created just to express the voice of the general people instead of proving it as the platform of journalism. In other words, the expression of speech of the people.

         Citizen journalists rather help the professional journalist to go into an information or story which were unaware to the trained journalist and give it a wider exposure.