Critically reflect on whether citizen journalists can

provide the same level of journalism as professionals in

newspapers, news agencies etc. and explain why or why

not. Include examples and use of research in your

discussion to highlight your argument.

Student No: 129036410

Total words: 4.993

Words οf which bibliography & references: 826

The day the Egyptian court banned the operation of the

Al Jazeera local affiliate channel along with three more

stations, was an attack against journalism. (Egypt courtbans Al-Jazeera TV affiliate - Washington Times. 2014. Egypt court

bans Al-Jazeera TV affiliate - Washington Times. [ONLINE] Available

at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/3/egypt-court-bans-

al-jazeera-tv-affiliate/?page=all. [Accessed 24 January 2014]).

However, even though the media were “tied up”, Arab

Spring continued to “sprung” and the rest of the world

was able to see the protesters flooding the streets of

Cairo because someone else was there reporting the news…

The day Turkish journalists were fired from their jobs

because they had expressed their support to the

protesters of the Gezi park or had covered the theme, was

an attack against journalism and free speech. (At least 22journalists fired in connection with Gezi protests - Today's Zaman,

your gateway to Turkish daily news. 2014. At least 22 journalists

fired in connection with Gezi protests - Today's Zaman, your gateway

to Turkish daily news. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-321554-at-least-22-journalists-fired-

in-connection-with-gezi-protests.html. [Accessed 24 January 2014].

However, the pictures of the riot police using tons of

water against the people and the solidarity the latter

showed to each other travelled across the world because

someone else besides the newsmedia were there to report

it… The day that “Mega Channel” a Greek private TV

broadcaster, reported the news of a police officer

shooting dead a 15 year old boy in the heart of Athens,

it used an altered video with added fake noise to draw

the impression that there were extended trouble in the

area that had maybe led to the shooting. The original

video, taken by a resident, circulated across the

internet immediately. Three years later, Mega channel

admitted the fact. (5 χρόνια από τη δολοφονία του Αλέξανδρου

Γρηγορόπουλου - ThePressProject. 2014. 5 years from the murder of

Alexandros Grigoropoulos - ThePressProject. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.thepressproject.gr/article/52598/5-xronia-apo-ti-

dolofonia-tou-Aleksandrou-Grigoropoulou. [Accessed 24 January 2014].

All these three cases are somewhat different from one

another. There is, however, one thing they have in common

so prevalent one cannot but notice: The rise of citizen

journalism.

“Since the late 1990’s we have seen the rise of the

content – generated user: the blogger, the citizen

journalist (McNair, Brian Trust, truth and objectivity : sustainingquality journalism in the era of the content-generating user.

InPeters, C. & Broersma, M 2012) The recent years as we witness

its evolution alongside with the decline traditional

media face, a certain quite debatable question has

emerged: Can citizen journalism provide the same level of

work as professionals in news papers, news agencies etc.

The main argument that will be supported in this essay

is that citizen journalism cannot provide the same level

of journalistic work as professionals in media outlets

do, because it fails to fulfill some necessary

prerequisites in order to be attributed the title of

“professional”. However, it would be elitist and

unrealistic not to acknowledge that citizen journalism is

essential to the society as it helps to the

democratization of the news field by offering alternative

ways of information and by giving people the opportunity

to be the prod-users of the news. In its first part, this

essay shall give a description of what citizen journalism

is. An analysis of the factors that prove why it cannot

be considered professional will follow. The last part

shall briefly state the role it plays in the society.

What is citizen journalism?

Internet, the Web 2.0 and the technological advances

created an “information revolution”. As a result,

traditional media ( TV, radio and print) started to

gradually lose their dominance because of the appearance

of the –so called- new media. Citizen journalism can be

described as the “child” of new media, since it makes use

of the technological applications they provide. The

concept of citizen journalism (also known as “public”,

“participatory”, “democratic”, “guerilla”, or “street”

journalism) is based upon public citizen “playing an

active role in the process of collecting, reporting,

analyzing and disseminating news and information”. (Citizen

Journalism. 2014. Citizen Journalism. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://mashable.com/category/citizen-journalism/. [Accessed 24

January 2014]). This is indeed possible to anyone who owns a

personal computer, a smartphone or a camera and of course

an internet connection. “New media technology, such as

social networking and media- sharing websites, in

addition to the increasing prevalence of cellular phones,

has made citizen journalism accessible to people

worldwide. Due to the availability of technology,

citizens can often report breaking news more quickly than

traditional media reporters”. (Citizen Journalism. 2014.

Citizen Journalism. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://mashable.com/category/citizen-journalism/. [Accessed 24

January 2014])

This technological facilitation has given people the

opportunity to become themselves “prod-users” (Bruns, 2008)

of the content they used to consume through the

mainstream media and for that reason there is an existing

notion that “everybody can be a citizen journalist”.

There are, though, different kinds of citizen

journalists:

One category of citizen journalism is blogging. Blogs

are free and have a format that allows easy publishing

and editing. They have multiple uses since many use it as

a diary to externalize their inner thoughts or practice

their writing skills. Some people cover current issues

and important news stories and/ or express their opinion

about them, while others write about a subject they like

from food recipes to fashion or technology. 60% of the

bloggers are hobbyists who blog for fun. (Technocrati cited

in Laird, 2012). The use of images or sound to enrich their

content is quite often. Another feature of blogs is that

they provide a commentary section in which writers can

discuss with their readers, something that promotes vivid

interaction. A research conducted 3 years ago concerning

the use of blogs showed that “By 2007 there were over 20

million blogs on the internet. More recently, it has been

estimated that there are 70 million blogs online”

(technocrati, 2011 cited in Athique, A., 2013 chapter 13). While

some blogs may look like simple notebooks, there are

plenty of others that are quite famous because they are

written in a serious, structures manner with in depth

analysis. “Blogs pluralize the public agenda by adopting

two modes of media influence: First, by functioning as

contemporary opinion leaders, and second, by monitoring

news developments operating as media watchdogs”

(Papacharissi, Z. 2009).

A second category of citizen journalism is independent

websites run by people that are not professional

journalists but mostly (political) activists or at least

people that support that information should not be spread

exclusively by “systemic” media but also and from

alternative newsmedia. These sites also operate as

“watchdogs” for the established media. (Cook, C. “U.K, socialmedia citizen journalism and alternative news” in Anderson, P, Ogola,

G. and William, M 2014). A relevant example is indymedia.org,

a site that operates worldwide and characterizes itself

as “a collective of independent media organizations and

hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-

corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media

outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and

passionate tellings of truth.” (Independent Media Center |www.indymedia.org | ((( i ))). 2014. Independent Media Center |

www.indymedia.org | ((( i ))). [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.indymedia.org/or/index.shtml. [Accessed 24 January 2014].)

A third, wider category of citizen journalists consists

of the rest of the people who may not be writing on a

site, personal or collaborative but contribute in the

spreading of news and information using digital tools.

They can be dedicated citizen journalists (Citizens, theFloor is Yours! - The Nordic Page - Exclusive. 2014. Citizens, the

Floor is Yours! - The Nordic Page - Exclusive. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.tnp.no/norway/exclusive/3323-citizens-the-floor-is-yours.

[Accessed 24 January 2014].), people who attend and cover

major public events, like the “Occupy Wall Street”

movement for instance, carrying the palm of the street

straight to the Twitter feed or Youtube every single day.

They can also be occasional like the random commuters of

the London subway the day a terrorist hit occurred. For

many hours, the only material available the traditional

media had available to help them figure out what has

happened, was the pictures and videos sent by these

people in the train. (Nieman Reports | Citizen Journalism and theBBC. 2014. Nieman Reports | Citizen Journalism and the BBC. [ONLINE]

Available at: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?

id=100542. [Accessed 24 January 2014]).

For many years, “elites have played the key role in

controlling public knowledge” (Bimber 2003 cited in Tewksbury

and Rittenberg, 2013 ) but as time goes by, the development

of the digital media has brought a change in the media

scenery. Mainstream media are becoming witnesses of

public disbelief and their own loss of dynamics as well

as of an increasing shift of the audiences not only

towards digital media but mostly towards alternative

forms of information. One of them is citizen journalism.

While we think that citizen journalism is in no position

to totally replace traditional journalism, we cannot

ignore the fact that in an “info-war” era it gains a

great amount of the audience’s attention. So, the

question remains: Can citizen journalism provide the same

level as journalists in newspapers, news agencies etc?

In order to prove why citizen journalism cannot be

considered “professional”, we have to explain what

defines “professionalism”.

“A journalist is someone employed to regularly engage in

gathering, processing and disseminating news and

information to serve the public interest”. (Why Defining aJournalist Is Messy, But Crucial | Mediashift | PBS. 2014. Why

Defining a Journalist Is Messy, But Crucial | Mediashift | PBS.

[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2013/10/why-

defining-a-journalist-is-messy-but-crucial/. [Accessed 24 January

2014]. While this term may resemble a lot the one for

citizen journalists, there is a clear difference between

them: A professional journalist does not work for free.

He is not a hobbyist or an amateur but a qualified

employee who belongs in a certain working field, that of

information. Therefore, he is in a way “obliged” to

operate under a specific ethic code that consists of a

variety of values. In our attempt to show that citizen

journalism cannot be conceived as professional journalism

we are going to analyze some of the core principles of

journalism that were published by The Pew Research

Journalism Project (Principles of Journalism | Pew ResearchCenter's Journalism Project. 2014. Principles of Journalism | Pew

Research Center's Journalism Project. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.journalism.org/resources/principles-of-journalism/.

[Accessed 24 January 2014]).

“Journalism’s first obligation is the truth”. Journalism

holds the title of the “fourth estate” and not

unreasonably as it exercises significant influence over

people’s decisions concerning matters of citizenship and

therefore democracy.”Trustworthingness is defined as the

absence of persuasive or manipulative aims of the

communicator and the desire to transmit the information

in an complete and accurate way” (Peters, C. and Broesma, M.

2012). On the one hand, One cannot deny the fact of an

existing “credibility crisis”, the evidence are clear

enough: “63% of American people said that news stories

are often inaccurate” (Pew research Center, 2009) On the other

hand the Guardian’s revelations of NSA’s secret spying

program showed that there is no general rule and there

are exeptions. Nevertheless, even if we accept that

media outlets do not always operate by having the

citizen’s best interest in mind, they generally try to

state loyal to this code as they are well aware of the

fact that once their audience find out that they have

repeatedly transmitted unreal news, this will mean the

end of their relationship. Citizen journalism has also a

strong will for exposing the truth. The main difference

here is that bloggers or independent contributors in

websites etc. do not have the same access to essential

sources of information that experienced journalists have.

They do not have connections or permission to classified

documents. Weldon puts it in an excellent way when he

says that “Journalists were information elites. Readers

and citizens did not know the handshake; No one let them

into the code” (Weldon 2008 cited in Anderson, P., Ogola G. and

William, M. 2014). That means that very often than not they

know only either one side of the story or the story

partially. Even if their intentions are good, they lack

the means to exercise what we call “investigative

journalism” properly. In addition, citizen journalism is

characterized by anonymity. The fact that there is any or

limited control proves that everybody can post a false or

fake story online for purposes of manipulation or just

fun, but it will take time until it is understood that

the story or picture was a hoax. A journalist on the

other hand cannot afford to do that, because not only his

article is signed but even if it is not he represents a

company and he puts his job at risk if he acts

disrespectfully.

Moreover, “journalism’s essence is a principle of

verification”. This is one extremely important element

that differentiates professional journalism from amateur

journalistic work without, of course, believing that

journalists do not ever make mistakes. Treymane sets as

“abiding rules of journalism,” the need to always “check

your sources” and to “correct published mistakes”

(Treymane, 2007 cited in Papacharissi, 2009). For that reason, by

the time a rumor for a story or some initial information

breaks out, journalists rush to identify its authenticity

and find out the rest of the details. For those working

in digital media, time is always an additional pressure

(if they want to post the story before it is “old news”)

but even so they “appear hesitant to rely on social

networks to source and verify information. A survey of

500 journalists in 15 countries found that almost half

the respondents used Twitter to source angles for a news

story” (Oriella PR Network, 2011 cited in Hermida, A, 2012). That

comes in sheer contrast with the information coming from

citizen journalists since their material is found

basically on social networking sites where an information

can spread like fire within minutes. One would need hours

to compare and contrast all the information available in

order to understand if it is real or not. Finally,

anonymity plays here too a serious role, as someone, a

blogger for instance, has the option to “enjoy commenting

upon events and issues with or without verification”(Digital Media Ethics | Center for Journalism Ethics. 2014. Digital

Media Ethics | Center for Journalism Ethics. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://ethics.journalism.wisc.edu/resources/digital-media-ethics/#lay

ered. [Accessed 24 January 2014].)

What is more, “journalism’s practitioners must maintain

an independence from those they cover”. Objectivity or at

least impartiality, and subjectivity are the two

keywords. Traditional media, despite the fact of existing

proof1 that are not at all free of biases cannot be

compared with blogs or social media in terms of

subjectivity. “Blogs are expressions of personality”(Bentley, C. “U.S Citizen journalism and alternative online news

sites” in Anderson, P., Ogola, G. and William, M. 2014) and social

media are primary channels where users can make their

beliefs public. This is perfectly fine for the goal they

were originally set up for, but when it comes to

professionalism, an image or an article with an added

personal comment can not by any means constitute

journalistic material. A professional journalist has the

ability and the obligation to maintain some distance from

the person or situation he covers so that his crisis can1 Only about a quarter (26%) now say that news organizations are careful that their reporting is not politically biased, compared with 60% who say news organizations are politically biased. (Pew Research Center 2009) (Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2014. Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.people-press.org/2009/09/13/press-accuracy-rating-hits-two-decade-low/. [Accessed 24 January 2014].)

remain unaffected and be able to report the facts in a

fair and objective way avoiding characterizing people or

putting his opinion (unless it is an opinion story). When

covering a protest for example, a professional reporter

is obliged to mention if there was police brutality

against the people but he will use the proper language to

do so and he will never take a stand on whether he thinks

this was necessary, good or bad.” Objectivity is a

standard that promotes truth, defined as a

“correspondence, grounded in correctness, between thought

and reality” (Heidegger, 1943:1). On the contrary, a citizen

journalism who is reporting the same event may or may not

act the same because he does not have the obligation to

operate under a specific code so his attitude and

reaction depends completely on his own morals.

Professionalism in journalism is not about chances.

Certain rules should be followed at any cost because the

journalist is the medium, the transmitter.

Another principle journalism has to follow is that “it

must strive to make the significant interesting and

relevant” and “keep the news comprehensive and

proportional”. While traditional media (in their

conventional or digital form) have a variety of

categories, from politics to environment and from science

to culture, so they report on multiple subjects daily,

the majority of blogs or citizen journalism news sites

usually tend to be monothematic or undertake local news

an topics. “You’ll find masses and masses of political

blogs, masses and masses of blogs about technology but

you are not going to find really many good blogs about

education, social services, health or other areas that

are just as important to people” . Angela Philips – TheGuardian (tvxs gr. (2010). Citizen Journalism. [Online Video].

15/09/10. Available from:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xets9i_015642-0907032104_shortfilms?

start=8. [Accessed: 24 January 2014]). Professionals journalists

are qualified and trained to recognize a good story from

a pile of potential others. In other words they can

ensure diversification and make sure that their audience

will be able not only to find the kind of information

they prefer and need but also additional subjects that

may not had considered before worthy of their attention.

Besides that, though, journalists are responsible for

delivering comprehensive, structured articles to the

readers. That means that they are educated and skilled

enough not only to write well but also to respect and

follow the rules of grammar and syntax. As far as citizen

journalism is concerned, there are indeed a lot of

people, bloggers for instance, that truly have a talent

in writing, are quite descriptive and careful. However,

there are many others in wikis, blogs, personal sites or

social media who cannot do that but in order to be

professional this ability is essential. Therefore,

independently if someone is making an important

revelation or simply narrating a very interesting story,

the fact that he cannot express himself in a proper way

or he does not have the time to perform the necessary

editing before posting, results in the undermining of

their work and the loss of credibility of the medium.

“Yet, those at the forefront of exposinggovernment abuse in Egypt are not the so-called professional media- reporters working for newspapers, TV or Radio but rather citizen journalists who first broke the barriers of media silence, both government – imposed and self- enforced. […] Citizen journalists have paved the way for traditional media to follow.” (Egypt: Citizen Journalists Lead Revolution Coverage | Pulitzer Center. 2014.

In the previous paragraphs we made an attempt to

explain why according to our opinion citizen journalism

is not professional journalism. However, these

“circumstantial news gatherers” (. 2014. . [ONLINE] Availableat: http://www.cimethics.org/home/newsletter/jun2013/Nanda

%20Armoogum_EDITED.pdf. [Accessed 24 January 2014]. are becoming

more and more essential to the society because through

the characteristics of their work they help in the

reconstruction of the news field towards a more

democratic character.

To begin with, citizen journalism’s main characteristic

is interactivity. “The internet has changed the

relationship between journalists and audiences from an

one- way, asymmetric model of communication to a more

participatory” (Hermida, A. 2010). Bearing in mind that

citizen journalism exists because of the tools internet

provides, we can safely argue that it promotes

interactivity via a horizontal communication system

instead of the top down classic, old journalist media

use. (Tewksbury, D. and Rittenberg, J. )

Furthermore, citizen journalism can be conducted

extremely fast and the material it provides can be used

as supplementary to the professional journalistic work in

purposes of enriching research or giving primary

information. Citizen journalists have the ability to

gather and upload material instantly when an important

event occurs, advantage mainstream reporters do not have.

Relative examples that prove this argument can be found

in the Tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004. Passers- by

and holiday makers captured raw footage with their

cameras and mobile phones and “fed” the media with the

very first images of the disaster. (Stuart, A. and Thorsen ,E. 2009).

Another characteristic of citizen journalism is that in

many cases operates as government and/ or media

“watchdog”. A site that made a huge impact because of the

revelations and exposures of U.S government activities

that showed “corruption, deceit, brutality” was Wikileaks

. (What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010 - Salon.com. 2014.What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010 - Salon.com. [ONLINE]

Available at: http://www.salon.com/2010/12/24/wikileaks_23/.

[Accessed 24 January 2014]. “Other sites such as MediaLens and

Spinwatch, concentrate in scrutinizing existing

mainstream media for bias or spin, adopting a “watch-men”

role” (Cooke, C. and Dickinson, A.” UK Social Media, CitizenJournalism and Alternative News” in Anderson, Peter J., Ogola, G and

William, M. 2013)

Diversification and plurality is one last characteristic

of citizen journalism. People have the ability to access

multiple and alternative sources of information which in

most cases are open sourced and free (like Ohmynews.com,

Demotix.com and NewsVine.com for instance). That means

that anyone who is interested in having a deeper

knowledge about a story has the opportunity to explore

many sources from online Vlogs to wikis and discover

different angles that traditional media do not know or

wish to keep unknown.

As traditional media face the competition of the new

media as well as the “growing pressures for profitability

emanating from market forces” (O’Sullivan, J. and Heinonen, A.

2008), they experience tangible changes that affect the

way they used to operate, like the newsroom shrink for

example. These factors, in addition to the knowledge that

alternative media will constantly appear from now on,

have made some the erstwhile dominant media outlets to

appreciate the contribution of citizen journalism more

quickly and try to adjust to the new reality that calls

for an effective collaboration of the two. “Professional

new media are also providing opportunities for news

consumers to participate” (Thurman, N. 2008). Examples of

these initiatives can be found on BBC’S Hub, which is a

“part of BBC’S newsroom” that receives and processes

material sent by the audience covering national, regional

or local news. (Harrison, J. 2009). CNN also has its own

iReport section, where professional journalists monitor

the approximately 500 daily submissions” (Bentley, C. U.SCitizen Journalism and alternative online news” in Anderson, P.,

Ogola, G. and William, M. 2014). Guardian has launched its

“Guardian Witness” application for Iphone and Android

devises with which “asks users to supply staff

journalists with video, photos and stories for breaking

news which could then appear on The Guardian’s website

and/ or in print” (The Guardian' Calls for Citizen JournalistsVia App. 2014. 'The Guardian' Calls for Citizen Journalists Via App.

[ONLINE] Available at: http://mashable.com/2013/04/16/the-

guardianwitness/. [Accessed 24 January 2014].) One last very

interesting effort is that of the famous video sharing

website, Youtube. Youtube has launched a special channel

called Youtube Reporter’s channel, where citizen are able

to look at a number of video tutorials, in which some of

the leading experts in the field of journalism explain

how to do amateur journalism”. (Citizen journalism and itsimportance | Flows. 2014. Citizen journalism and its importance |

Flows. [ONLINE] Available at: http://iletisim.ieu.edu.tr/flows/?

p=1266. [Accessed 24 January 2014]). The reason why this

initiative is notable is because Youtube’s audience

consists of young people therefore it can be proved

really educational and motivative.

This essay critically examined whether citizen

journalism can provide the same level of journalism as

professionals on newspaper, news agencies etc. In the

first part we described the nature of citizen journalism

and supported the idea that for reasons of credibility,

objectivity and a certain ethic code professional

journalists follow, citizen journalism cannot respond to

that characterization. The second part of the essay was

dedicated to the reasons that we believe indicate that

citizen or participatory journalism has become a

necessity and a dynamic factor in the field of news

gathering. Embraced by both the society and the

journalist world, the only way this new, amateur but

promising kind of journalism can follow is up and that

will only be proven beneficial for our society.

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