December 30, 2008
Difference between Traditional journalism and Citizen Journalism
Traditional journalism is the broadcasting of news through mediums like the newspaper, radio or the television. Traditional journalists have to follow ethics and ensure that research done is accurate and first hand. Careful and conscientious verification of sources also have to be done to ensure there’s fairness in the news broadcast. Through quality control and editorial process, it establishes a credibility of news among readers.
In this new age, everyone wants their part to play in the journalism industry. You don’t need much to actually be or call yourself a ‘citizen journalist.’ No camera man? No sound crew? No editor? NO FRET! All you need is your hand phone camera, a computer and an internet connection. And with word press, blogger, YouTube, YOU GOT THE POWER to publish YOUR news to a worldwide audience out there. Citizen Journalism basically allows you, me and basically anyone who wants to share a certain piece of news or views to the world. Non non-professionals like us get to play an active role in sharing the news. User comments in blogs and YouTube allow readers to participate in sharing their views.
How did Citizen Journalism started?
Readers these days want to enjoy the freedom of choice. And with the wide usage of the internet worldwide, readers are able to hear, watch or read about news that happen in ANY PART of the world ANYTIME through citizen journalism. Although news channels like CNN, FOX news, CNA provides 24 hour news coverage. But they could not broadcast news that was happening anywhere around the world. INTERNET DOES!
Companies who want to advertise their products prefer to go through a much hassle free and inexpensive medium like YouTube or even blogs. The internet is always a better option rather than the traditional media.
Here are some sites that gives you a greater insight of the world of citizen journalism.
-http://singaporemedia.blogspot.com/2006/06/what-next-for-citizen-journalism.html
-http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html
And here you can read more about the 11 layers of Citizen journalism. Pretty useful if you want to be a citizen journalist yourself.
Citizen journalism too much freedom of speech?
Discussion forums, blogs, vodcasts, podcasts have flourished as its one of the most popular form of digital communication via the internet. Users have to ability to share their views or opinions to a global audience with just one click of the mouse. As citizen journalism does not require a panel of editors to filter the undesirable contents, users are able to say basically anything they want. However there are moderators who remove all these undesirable contents and blacklist users whom misused their freedom of speech. One good example would be the video sharing site, YouTube where they remove videos containing unpleasant and distasteful content or violating their terms of use.
Even blogging sites like blogger.com, wordpress.com, livejournal.com and xanga.com made it compulsory for viewers or users to sign up with an account before they are allowed to post an entry. This disallows anonymity on the cyberspace which is another issue the caused much debates.
Sites like STOMP have allowed public ‘reporters’ to reveal many undesirable habits and acts in the open public for example, the ACJC girl’s ‘birthday bash’. STOMP allows registered users to upload videos or photos of culprits, which then brought about opposition from the public as they claimed that this action has violated their privacy rights. However faces in the videos and photos were censored to protect the identity of the culprit. The uploading of these photos and videos serves as a reminder to the public to maintain a good conduct.
The internet was a channel for family of victims during the 9/11 tragedy to outpour their grief. It also allowed the public to offer their condolences. Patriotisms and political debates were also held on the internet. Freedom of speech in this case had allowed many people to vent their frustrations rather than physical rebellion which will cause more social problems.
I believe that internet users, reporters and readers sub-consciously understand that even the freedom of speech has certain boundaries that cannot be crossed. And they are fully aware of the consequences they face if they commit impulsive acts on the internet. Besides, moderators and gatekeepers will always be on the lookout for users breaching their rights in the freedom of speech.
The issues of citizen journalism 
Nowadays new media helps alot by letting users even to use it for citizen journalism. also i think that by having citizen journalism, it will prevent more open public bullies or others unpleasant things from happening.
Hello. This is a very wonderful website about citizen journalism.
Firstly, I’ve to say that i was really appalled at the fact that a prestigious educational institution could harbour such students with such terrible conduct. Something must be done to severely punish those students.
This is how powerful citizen journalism is, isn’t it? It can bring to light many sinister issues that would otherwise have been concealed from public knowledge.
The youtube videos that you have referenced in your website has given me much insight about citizen journalism and how different it is compared to traditional journalism.
In fact, I feel that Singapore is gradually moving towards a citizen-media, with its successful launch of the OKTO channel where citizens get to submit their videos which would be broadcasted islandwide.
Also, with new media, we get to see what we often do not see: personal comments from the citizen journalists, as well as in-the-making video clips such as “NGs”, which really add a touch of reality to the information to be communicated.
I think giving our own opinion on what is happening around the world is alright but thought should be given to their privacy and whether what you say or wrote is true.
I think citizen journalism is great, albeit with much undesirable content being posted on the net.
It allows us to access content and news much faster than traditional media. A few keystrokes or clicks on the mouse is all we need to access content at any time of the day.
As for moderators and gatekeepers, they are not almighty. They take down a single user and more users pop up to fill the void left behind.
I think Traditional journalism will tend to be more control compare to Citizen Journalism.Like what Brandon had mentioned in the post, Traditional journalism research had to be done and information had to be accurate. Much time required and more expensive. With Citizen Journalism, people can make use of new media to advertise or broadcast anything they want. With this people tends to abuse it. For example, do something that are “stupid” and post online to let other see their act.
An interesting insight on the difference between traditional and citizen journalism. Personally I think traditional journalism is better than online journalism, because it has more credible sources and more unbiased comments, rather than citizen journalism.
I am totally agree with james. Traditional journalism is always the best as all the facts are true but it may take more time and more costs than citizen journalism.
In citizen journalism, it can be used anywhere whether you are at home or outside travelling. You just need a device which support internet access and you can view any websites you like or upload your own personal video on the web.
How do you think citizen journalists could exercise more discipline and integrity when posting their news, given the immense power they actually wield through new media.
Good information on the topic.
Compare and contrast those similar facts or news among other available sources are definitely critical here. Hear no evil, see no evil.
Truth choices.
Usually citizen journalist post their comment only to their opinions.Like the JC girl birthday bash, it might just be a normal sabotage between friends. New media just allows anyone to post any issues so easy thus some abuse it .
I do not really support citizen journalism. I feel that it restricts a person freedom. This is because people can just take out their phones and snap pictures of us. Not only that, people are now able to humiliate others as we can now comment and write articles on what we see and hear.
I support citizen journalism. Sites such as STOMP (http://www.stomp.com.sg/) allows anyone, anywhere to post what they see freely. Some of these articles cannot even be found on newspapers. There are alos news that are funny and humourous such as a guy caught sleeping or nose digging in the MRT train. Laughing at the expense of others :p.
Citizen journalism has definitely brought about too much freedom of speech to a very large extent. But then again, i believe that overtime, people will develop that sense of maturity towards the usage of new media .
Perhaps soon enough, mandatory laws/rules will be implemented to ensure that no explicit or rude content will be posted.
I’ve already commented but didn’t include my name. So I’ll post it again.
I think citizen journalism is great, albeit with much undesirable content being posted on the net.
It allows us to access content and news much faster than traditional media. A few keystrokes or clicks on the mouse is all we need to access content at any time of the day.
As for moderators and gatekeepers, they are not almighty. They take down a single user and more users pop up to fill the void left behind.
Ze Chuan
From your artical I know that what is citizen joutnalism. However, I think that citizen journalism is not ready to be official.Traditional journalism has the ture fact In my opoion Citizen journalism has too much freedom of speech as something is not allowed to post.
I prefer tradition journal in terms of reliability than citizen journalism. As some people will post unrelevance or false information on specific topics and you might mistaken the facts.
However, in terms of getting the specific information you need, citizen journalism definitely be a faster way than tradition journalism.
Citizen journalism has its own pros and cons. As mentioned by James, I agree that traditional journalism is more credible and reliable. Most people also prefer the format of traditional journalism in its printed form which makes it more official. However, traditional journalism is presented in a very straightforward manner. The reader is only allowed to digest the given news or information.
Citizen journalism however, is rather opinionated. The citizen journalist has the freedom to present his or her own point of view. It also gives the news a new twist in that a reader sees the news from a completely different point of view. It allows a reader to process the news and also triggers the reader to response to the writer’s opinion, and the reader can post his or her response easily online. Unfortunately, this freedom of speech has caused some of the news to be rather unreliable as mentioned by Branson.
I personally would prefer to read from both traditional and new media sources of news and information so that I am able to receive the news from different points of view. Good post, but which do you prefer personally? The old or the new?
i agree with james that traditional journalism is much more better than online journalism because the news that traditional journalism produced is much more reliable compared to online journalism. They cannot give out false information infront of TV or radio. People that spread out news on online journalism might be trying to stir up trouble or gaining attention from the whole world.
I believe that as we are moving towards citizen journalism, peoples’ mindset towards the issues regarding this form of the new media will start to change. As you can see, we are becoming more transparent in the internet world. We are sharing more intimate details about our daily lives and uploading or viewing homemade videos on the net. The internet has become part of our everyday lives. I believe that with the increase in transparency,it heightens individual integrity and forgiveness.
Like what Kat and James said, no doubt, traditional journalism has grown onto us. We come into contact with it almost everyday. But like what i said in my entry, citizen journalism has brought about changes or benefits traditional journalism cant offer. Yes, there are loopholes regarding privacy issues but i am sure in the future when citizen journalism has indeed become part of our daily lives, like what Amanda said, mandatory laws/rules will be implemented to ensure that no one misuse this tool.
Thank you all for taking time out to read this entry and for your valuable comments. (: I personally enjoyed writing this entry as i come to understand more about citizen journalism.