Citizen Journalism

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality.

The video above gives a very good overview on citizen journalism which made me think about how this affects news being delivered through our television screen. In a way, it allows for a greater degree of freedom and reality to be portrayed in the news as it is pretty much as real as it gets and not to mention the speed of the news that gets to us.

In the past or even presently, the news that is shown on tv gives us the impression that it has been either edited or that it may not be as current when judging in comparison to citizen journalism. The example Katie Couric mentioned about how the politician made a careless remark and hence ruined his chances of being re-elected was particularly interesting to me. She mentioned how his remark would have probably made a spot light in the local news but when this clip was posted online and it went viral, the politician's reputation took a beating and was badly damaged and since the evidence was already online, there was no way to curb it.

Other instances like the peaceful protest before the military opened fire and even the Sichuan Earthquake showed the reality of the situation there and the actual conditions of the country. Many a times, the news being shown to us can sometimes be misleading as they censor or try to give the opposite impression of the actual reality. These citizen journalists help to give perspective and even an alternative to mainstream media which can be a very good thing in order for the consumers like you and I to have a better and fuller understanding of whatever that is being reported in the news.

I do take into account the various concerns like the validity of citizen journalism however, in order to come up with a balance viewpoint we need to have a combination of various sources and it just so happens that citizen journalism is able to provide such an avenue. In both instances whether it is mainstream or citizen journalism, the integrity of the news needs to be upheld and the truth should always be portrayed accurately instead of being exaggerated.

The Battle at Kruger has has a total of more than 60 million views which show how the Buffaloes banded together to save a baby Buffalo from the lions and crocodile. This was the example mentioned by Katie about citizen journalism and this amateur video is as good as it gets when you film the footage right at the scene where it is taking place. Enjoy!