CITIZENS JOURNALISTS OF OLD WESTBURY

In the article “CNN discovers the downside of citizen journalism” by Reyhan Harmanci, citizen journalism is put under a negative light. A light where due to citizen journalism, rumors spend and citizen journalist get the story wrong and if not wrong with certain vital mistaken details. In the article by Ms.Harmanci, she states that one mistake in citizen journalism was when a rumor spread about the health of Steve Jobs, the CEO of apple, causing the apple stock to drop dramatically in price. Investors worried about their assets and pulled out of the company making the stock drop by 9% in a matter of hours.

In the video by Stephen Colbert his take on citizen journalism isn’t on the light side either. According to him, I reporters on CNN’s I reports do meaningless puff pieces on things that are irrelevant to anything anyone wants to know about. He also says that the reports aren’t too good because you get what you pay for.

Now, in the speech my Paul Lewis its very obvious to tell that he is pro-citizen journalism. He states that with social media anyone can cover an important piece or topic that the world should know about. He begins to speak about a topic that most of us can relate to. about students in a Berkley College getting beaten by police due to a nonviolent protest. News spread quickly about this incident due to citizen journalism. people, students and teachers alike, took out their cellphones and helped spread the news of these injustices. they tweeted about how wrong they thought this was and updated their statuses flooding their timelines with in and and letting their friends know what was going on.

These articles bring a new perspective into my mind about citizen journalism. Up until now, citizen journalism seemed like the perfect topic to study but with such negative reviews it has got me to thinking. Maybe it isn’t so perfect. Stephen Colbert brings up a good point about getting what you pay for, and with CNN trying to mooch off of people and firing people who are skilled in the very thing they need makes CNN look like a fool not just the citizen journalist. With accredited journalist Reyhan Harmanci, she also brings into the light about the quality of the work citizen journalist give into the world. which can be defended because a citizen journalist isn’t a professional, just someone who who is either very passionate about this topic or someone who was at the right place in the right time.

The biggest Pro for me personally would definitely have to be that I can read an article or watch a video and not be confused about whats happening in the world around me as opposed to when a professional does it, and they use an expanded vocabulary and shots that to me are meaningless. But a big con would also have to be that I cant get the same amount of information from a citizen that I can from a professional because a professional would have a right to be there and can get even more about a topic by his/her number of contacts in the industry as well as getting both sides of the story and not just being biased about the topic in question. Because that is something pretty important when it comes to uncovering a story, getting the whole picture, not just one little bit of info. 🙂