Journalism All Around the World: Social Media Changing the Landscape

In high school, I chose to become a journalist because my noisiness, quest for knowledge, and I loved writing. Those things have fueled my passion to study the field at Mizzou. But there is always one thing that I fear in the media landscape. Learning to do it all and watching citizens try to do my work better than me.

Citizen journalism has forced the 24 hour news cycle. Social media sites like Facebook can now not only be used to create a personal page but a business site and a resource. You can connect with people globally. While that global perspective is helping shape journalism, it is still a scary and does nothing for your journalism career ans opportunity for advancement and quality unless you take full advantage of it.

The Missouri Method trains us to take full advantage of the resources with a hands on approach. Different faculty specialize in the different areas. Sarah Hill, anchor for KOMU's revolutionary UNews, takes the reporting out of the traditional realm and into the social media world. She is always on the social media sites, connecting with people who want to say something about the social media trend. She has tried to make a bond between journalism and citizen journalism, something I struggle with and often do not understand the news value.

Can the latest video on the Internet qualify as news? I guess it depends on the content but viewers care about it regardless. It is not traditional hard news but in today's society that viral video counts as news because people care about it. Journalism is for the people not for the journalist. The journalists role is a complex one. They should enjoy the field but journalism is ultimately a career to serve the public need for information. The highest rated stations are not often high rated because they are choosy with their news. Good new stations are good because they serve the public interest. And that viral video obviously has some kind of interest if it gets that many hits.

Is it fair for citizens to engage in journalism when they do not know the ethics, rules, and issues in journalism? Will traditional journalism escape? I always believe there will be room for traditional journalism, at least for now. Although citizens can capture video, write to the video, and create stories, it takes someone dedicated to know how to put together and find the information the public needs. Not everyone can have access to a police scanner, find time or reason to put some stories together, or has the resources and assertive power to make it work. I do think it is a public right to allow the public to have freedom of speech. And that is what citizen journalism is. They are expressing what is important to them. Citizen journalism will not replace traditional news gathering but can engage the public and help enhance it. We can use citizens to help find stories, tell the story, and find what is important.

I know I need to jump on the social media bandwagon more than I do. You have Facebook, Twitter,  Linked In, Google+, Pintrest, photo sharing sites, YouTube, Myspace, and many more. By using these resources you can make global stories out of local ones, find people to talk to or who may have an interesting story, find the latest public interest, and network. Citizens want to help take part in my job more than ever and I need to embrace it. Not once have I completed a story and used social media to help find my information or sources. And that's got to change.

The times I think citizen journalism helps the most is in natural disasters. Tornado rip apart towns, earthquakes and wars rumble the soil. News stations cannot and do not have the resources to be there 24 hours a day waiting for the tornado to touch down. When a tornado does hit, a citizen can catch the video, timing, and destruction before any news station may be able to get to the spot. News stations search the blogs for personal testimonies, footage, and facts to feed the public until they can record the events for themselves.

 Joplin, Missouri after Tornado: Picture from a Citizen Journalism Blog

Here is a link about what some people believe citizen journalism may be about. I agree with their statements but I believe that even though citizens are doing journalism, we need journalists to be role models and gather information the public may not have access to. Our job has become harder making sure facts are correct with citizen journalism but we also have tons of resources and ability to confirm those facts.Some journalists are ruining it by not using fact check sources. And it is more important than ever when the community can begin finding and knowing the truth themselves.

You can also find more information about citizen journalism from PBS here.