Citizen Journalism and the Future of Journalism, Kevin Penny

Over the years, media has become a lot more active than previously before. Where people would once passively watch the news, they now have the ability to report it themselves. Citizen journalists have caused an explosion in the amount of information being transferred, causing a shift in the way people can receive information. Although it is only in its early stages, citizen journalism is swiftly becoming the new norm for information gathering and reporting the news.

With websites like Youtube and DemocracyNow, news has never been more easily accessible.

As the shift in information gathering has occured, companies such as Google have taken no time in capturing the web-based market. With sites like Youtube, Google Books, Google Reader, and many other applications, Google has become the baron of information gathering; even its search engine has been redesigned (almost like an AI) in order to choose the best information for its users. If technology keeps advancing at its current rate, in a not too distant future the HAL 9000 will most likely control all of our daily activities.

Many people will say that the rise of the Internet technologies will destabilize the traditional form of journalism, but this is simply not the case. Where people once had no say in how their information was ranked in importance, now they have the ability to choose whatever site they please to receive their information. It is with the many blogs and social networking softwares that people are able to pick and choose their information accordingly, instead of being fed the news by their TVs and radios. Citizen journalism is not the death of the traditional 'Fourth Estate' form of media; instead, it is a rebirth of the way people communicate news in a global community.

K. Penny

Picture obtained from Google Images