In the age of smart phones and readily available internet, anyone can be a journalist. In fact it is our duty to be a journalist whenever we see government wrongdoing that the public should know about. It is also important that we are citizen journalists because of the mainstream media's bias on news. By having everyday people who are not journalist by trade participate in journalism we can see firsthand what stories they are trying to tell unadulterated. We usually see citizen journalism when somebody feels like the government has wronged them because they document it firsthand and share it with the world in hopes of support. Through protest like the Black Lives Matter movement and Occupy Wall Street everyday citizens who are on the frontlines of these protest can directly address their viewers/listeners/readers about what is going on in their fight for their cause. This blog that I am writing can be considered Citizen Journalism because I don't owe loyalty to one entity and have free will to write whatever I want. In the age of heavy media bias people like to listen to citizen journalist because they have nothing to loose by telling the pure truth. There is a tik toker that I follow named
Marcus DiPaola and multiple times a day he updates his viewers on what's going on in the world unbiased and straightforward, and he also doesn't work for any media company, although he is trained in the journalism trade.
In the midst of so much distrust and violation by big tech and media companies I think the one thing that we can use our digital technology and social media platforms for good is to be citizen journalist. Not only will it combat bias in the news and distrust, it will set a positive trend that strengthens our duty as American citizens to call out and criticize wrongdoing when we see it.
Getting Started with Citizen Journalism
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