News Media Codexery

Citizen journalism

Ordinary people collect, report, and analyze news outside mainstream media.

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Citizen journalism is a form of news gathering and reporting where ordinary community members, rather than professional journalists, act as the main creators and distributors of news.[1][2] It is a specific form of citizen media and user-generated content.[3] The expansion of social networking sites and mobile phones, along with other online platforms, has increased the global reach of citizen journalism.[4]

Quick Facts

Field
Journalism, alternative media
Key definers
  • Courtney C. Radsch
  • Jay Rosen
  • Seungahn Nah
  • Deborah S. Chung
Criticisms
Unregulated, amateur, haphazard in quality and coverage; lacks resources and focus on serving the public

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism as an alternative and activist form of news gathering that functions outside mainstream media institutions.[2] Jay Rosen defines it simply as "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another".[2] The idea that every citizen can engage in acts of journalism has a long history in the United States.[5] As early as the 1920s, Walter Lippman and John Dewey debated the role of journalism in democracy.[5]

Those journalists became part of the public, or civic, journalism movement.[6] By 2003, the public journalism movement seemed to be petering out, with the Pew Center for Civic Journalism closing its doors.[7] A 2004 trend was the emergence of hyperlocal journalism, where online news sites invite contributions from local residents.[8] After the 1988 U.S. presidential election, journalists started doubting the predictability of their event coverage, which led to the rise of the modern citizen journalist movement.[9]

Darnella Frazier, who used her phone to film George Floyd's murder, received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation.[10]

What the cited sources add

A Guardian article reports that Chinese citizen journalist Li Zehua was detained by police and forcibly quarantined after posting videos from Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak.[11] The same blog states that police brutality has largely been covered by citizen journalism, bringing light to civil rights issues through footage.[12] The blog also reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that members of the press have the same First Amendment protections as citizens in public spaces.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nagarik, "About Us", Nagarik Patrika; "Collaborative Society", MIT Press, 18 February 2020; Witt, "Is Public Journalism Morphing into the Public's Journalism?", National Civic Review, 2004, p. 49–57; Baase, "A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet", Prentice Hall, 2008; Case, J. A. "Recovering the Radical: Biocybernetic Subversion in Guerrilla Video Primer ." Paper presented at the NCA 93rd Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, Novem; Boyles, "Grassroots journalism in your own backyard: How citizen en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Radsch, Courtney C. The Revolutions will be Blogged: Cyberactivism and the 4th Estate in Egypt. Doctoral Dissertation, American University, 2013.; Jay Rosen, "A Most Useful Definition of Citizen Journalism", PressThink, January 2026; Min, "Conversation through journalism: Searching for organizing principles of public and citizen journalism", Journalism, 2016, p. 567–582; Novin, "Debate Cited: A First Exploration of a Web Application to Enhance the Production of Science Journalism Students", Journalism Interest Group, CCA/Groupe d'Int en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Deutsch Karlekar, "Adapting Concepts of Media Freedom to a Changing Media Environment: Incorporating New Media and Citizen Journalism into the Freedom of the Press Index", ESSACHESS Journal for Communication Studies, Jul (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Min, "Conversation through journalism: Searching for organizing principles of public and citizen journalism", Journalism, 2016, p. 567–582 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miller, "Citizen Journalism", Oxford University Press, 2019, p. 1–25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Merritt, D. "News Media must regain vigor, courage." September 29, 2004, PJNet Today.; Dvorkin, J. A. "Media Matters. Can Public Radio Journalism be Re-Invented?" January 27, 2005, National Public Radio.; Meyer, E. P. "Public Journalism and the Problem of Objectivity." 1995, Published on personal website. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Witt, "Is Public Journalism Morphing into the Public's Journalism?", National Civic Review, 2004, p. 49–57 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Walker, L. "On Local Sites, Everyone's A Journalist", December 9, 2004, The Washington Post, E1. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blaagaard, "Cosmopolitan relations in the colonies: Redefining citizen journalism through a cultural historical reading of The Herald, St. Croix 1915–1925", European Journal of Cultural Studies, August 2018, p. 418–434 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Citizen journalism" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Pulitzer Prizes" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Kuo, "Missing Wuhan citizen journalist reappears after two months", The Guardian, 2020-04-22. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  12. Patel, "Citizen Journalism and Political Protests", SYR-UMT, 2019-10-11. facts only, no text reused. onlinegrad.syracuse.edu

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Citizen journalism (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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