Citizen Journalism - What Is It ?

Citizen journalism should not be mixed with community journalism or civic journalism, which are implemented by professional journalists, or collaborative journalism, which is practiced by professional and non-professional journalists working together.

The idea behind citizen journalism is that people can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the internet to produce argument or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others without professional journalism training.

There are many examples in citizen journalism. For example, you might write about a meeting about charity on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube.

Citizen Journalism is a democratic media form. Because of popular participation and influence, the mainstream media coverage will become more objective and more rational. News will no longer speak several media, which will become the common voice for the whole society. More and more newspaper readers or television viewers involved in news production through the Internet, camera phones, cameras and other technology tools. Media and audience interaction has undergone major change. As the mainstream media, "citizen journalism added the voice, and is real voices which are not processed."

Citizen Journalism is that in the new media environment, citizens play a leading role in the process of new dissemination in the news media.

Anyway, everyone can be Citizen Journalist.