THE NETIZENS ACTING AS JOURNALISTS

Citizen journalism has become a huge phenomena in the role of journalism. However, I believe that there is still a huge difference in citizen journalism in comparison to professional journalism.

Citizen journalism comprises of netizens acting the role of a journalist. However, unlike professional journalism, these netizens are probably unable to provide solid and essential facts, where mostly, their posts are probably their opinions, or perhaps facts that are skewed to their personal standpoints.

However, netizens do play an important role in today's journalism as well. I would say that they are an addition to the journalism family. For example, netizens are able to publish posts immediately using an iPhone for example. Allowing other netizens to share their first hand experiences regarding an event. In this way, netizens may be able to spread the latest news faster than a news coverage since it requires time for journalist to reach a current event to report the situation.

I think the recent tsunami in Japan is probably a great example of netizens acting as journalists. Although it's definitely a devastating situation which shocked the entire world, the victims during the tsunami were able to post videos and thoughts regarding their experiences during the tsunami. And some, perhaps was a last video of them before they got swiped away by the tsunami.

Therefore, as much as netizens may not be the best journalists, they are however, a great addition to the role of journalism.