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CITIZEN JOURNALISM ESSAY

Citizen Journalism Essay

Montana M. Graham

Ottawa University

Visual Communication

Professor Webb

September 28, 2022

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Abstract

Citizen journalism affects everybody in different ways. As the years have gone by, media

in our world has grown. It is so much easier for news to get out today. Whether it is coming

straight from a legitimate news source, or a citizen, people learn things so much faster. In this

essay I am going to express my feelings and opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of citizen

journalism.
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Citizen Journalism Essay

In the world today, media comes from every which way. On the social media app TikTok,

I see so many different people talking about news that I haven’t seen in the headlines. They seem

to have “insider” information, or they have investigated it themselves. On Facebook, people are

always posting news as well, whether it is happening in a small town, or a big city. There are

even groups on Facebook where people can share local news they have observed. I believe that

there are positive sides to citizen journalism, but I also believe there are negatives as well.

Roles and Responsibilities of Citizen Journalists

Like everything in this world, people have roles and responsibilities no matter what they

are doing. For a citizen journalist, they seem to have a lot of these. These journalists write about

things that are happening from their perspective. They are not professionals, and they are not

hired by anybody. Although, they can work with news organizations. They can be people in your

community, or even your next-door neighbor. In the Ted Talk that was assigned for the class to

watch, a police officer told a journalist that was there to change the whole story behind what

happened to a man who died at the hands of them. They did this so that there was no hatred

towards the police. To me, this is so wrong in so many ways. I believe that everybody should

know the real story, because when they don’t, it causes a lot of confusion and questioning to the

public who are consuming this information. Another example is also from the Ted Talk, where he

talks about a protest. People at the protest were throwing bottles, but the police changed the story,

saying that the protestors were throwing bricks, not bottles. Which was not true, they just wanted

the public to think that the protestors were crazy. Leading the public to believe it.
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Consumers of Citizen Journalism

I believe that citizen journalism does a lot of damage when it comes to the public

consuming it. It causes a ton of confusion, and people sometimes wonder if what is being shared

is true since it is not coming from an actual news source. They are also listening to so many

different opinions and versions of one story that they do not know what to believe. People

consume so many different stories on many different platforms such as Instagram, Facebook,

YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and even Snapchat.

Example of Citizen Journalism

In an article I read, it is said that a citizen journalist posted about singer Whitney

Houston’s death hours before mainstream media even picked it up. I believe that this is a great

way to cause mass confusion on social media, especially because she was famous. People tend to

not believe it until it is confirmed by an actual news source.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe that there are more negatives than positives around citizen

journalism. Most people believe the first thing that they see, which is not always a good thing. I

believe that if journalists were more accurate with information in their articles, it would be a

great thing. I truly think that it just causes way more trouble, and I as well as other people would

likely want to hear it from a legit news source.

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References

What is citizen journalism and how does it influence news? Brandwatch. (n.d.). Retrieved
October 2, 2022, from https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/what-is-citizen-journalism-and-
how-does-it-influence-news/