Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism refers to when people of the public use regular pieces of equipment such as a mobile phone or the internet to report on various crimes/situations they experience first hand. These include big stories such as the London riots and 9/11. But citizen journalism also shows a lot of minor crimes that would normally go unseen such as "My Tram Experience" and the racial attack on the asian kid in America (videos beneath). Without citizen journalism many of  these stories many things would have gone unnoticed or unflimed.

Semi-Independent Citizen Journalism - This involves citizens contributing, in one form or another, to existing professional news sites. Some examples:Readers posting their comments alongside stories done by professional reporters - essentially a 21st-century version of the letter to the editor. A growing number of news websites allow readers to post comments. In an effort to prevent obscene or objectionable messages, many websites require that readers register in order to post.

New media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, and the increasing prevalence of cellular phones have made citizen journalism more accessible to people all over the world, who can often report breaking news much faster than traditional journalistic organs.

examples of Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is normally associated with web 2.0 and sites such as Twitter, Facebook and mainly Youtube. Many videos are posted on youtube of crimes seen first hand and may have been considered too minor to reach the news. An example of this would be another woman expressing her racial thoughts also on a bus a few days after My Tram Experience.

New media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, and the increasing number of mobile phones have made citizen journalism more accessible to people all over the world, who can often report breaking news much faster than traditional journalistic ways.

examples of Citizen Journalism