The professor Eric Freedman, Michigan State University, in his lecture said that bringing events to light is very important role of the press. It is undoubtedly true and it is exactly what citizen journalism is trying to do. In fact, the traditional newspaper readers can not know whether the article is ordered, how much a journalist is going to be paid for it and how much truth is in this article. Citizen journalism comes from people who truly want to notify something to people and do not require compensation for it. They are not required to listen to an owner of the newspaper and write in the way he or she wants. So, it is evident that some readers will increasingly rely on non-profit professional journalists. According to R. Sakadolskis, nowadays there is less and less reliance to traditional media and journalists. And in the article Diplomacy and Journalism (author: Bridget Kendall) is written that citizen journalism “have no interest in spilling the beans”.
"A reporter’s job is to understand subtleties and boil them down into an accessible form for an often bewildered audience, all the while conveying myriad points of view that more often than not are never reconciled " claimed B. Kendall.
This proposition also applies when we speak about citizen journalism because many people can reveal many different opinions and it might be that one unprofessional journalist can understand subtleties that a traditional journalist can’t. Also, sometimes a whole community can better analyze the problems than only professional journalists.
Citizen journalists saves people lifes
A great example of this new type of journalism could be a much unexpected incident in Turkmenistan.
"The deadly explosions also mark the unprecedented emergence of citizen journalism in one of the world's most isolated countries" writes Muhammad Tahir (article named Citizen Journalism Scores Breakthrough In Turkmenistan).
The unprecedented activism of citizen journalists who reported the event to the outside world even as it was still unfolding -- in some cases risking their lives in the process. It's the first time in the history of Turkmenistan that anything like this has happened. Without these citizen journalists that deadly explosion would normally go unreported and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to escape in time.
One more incident like this was with Syrian blogger sentenced to five years in prison. According to news reports, he was sentenced for disclosing information to a foreign country that must remain a secret for national safety. It shows that citizen journalism can reveal important information and even spreading news in your personal blog can be dangerous.
Journalist Paul Lewis talks about new media, citizen journalism and how he has used social media to investigate two murders
And one more short movie about how citizen journalist is solving his village problems by reporting about it in public.
Everyone can contribute to CNN IBN's 'Idea Citizen Journalist' by uploading videos through super-fast internet.
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