By: Prudence Chepkemoi
Citizen journalism basically based on citizens who plays a dynamic role in process of news collection, news reporting, editing of news and distribution of news to other public. Its also clearly noted that citizen journalism does not require professional skills for operation.
Citizen journalism is increasingly practiced worldwide due to the expansion of the Internet, new media technologies, and social media which has granted them a wider space for the practice of this form of journalism. With the rise of media platforms like Facebook, twitter and WhatsApp, it has favoured the practice since there is less restrictions in these platforms hence anyone can type and write anything that he/she wants to talk about on media.
Main stream media where professionals work has a well-designed program put in place and also principles Which guides their operation hence there some kind of content that as professionals they may not find it easy to disseminate to public as due to media ethics.
Lack of ethical issues in citizen journalism has favoured the practice hence the public find trust in citizen journalism as the information that are always omitted by mainstream media are covered by citizen journalists. Nowadays before mainstream media broadcast news it’s always noted that the news has already reached the public through citizen journalist since they always get firsthand information from the ground and once they receive it the information is spread out at a faster rate through social media.
Journalism as a profession needs to be safeguarded from citizen journalism which seems to gain more popularity hence may take over this profession by coming up with better ways to combat the competition.
As a mainstream media house there should be a well-designed programs that aims to inform the public on the current matters as they happen before they are fed with information from citizen journalists.
Mainstream media should always avoid being biased, let them report what happens as they are to avoid mistrust by the citizens which may lead them to depend on citizen journalism as a tool for getting information.
The future of journalism as a profession is still bright hence there is a need to make it better by putting in place better strategies on how they do operate for the public to gain more trust in them than citizen journalism.