NEW MEDIA

Citizen Journalist and Social Media.The Changing Trend In Mass Media Work.

Operations that involve the activities of witnessing reporting, capturing, writing and the dissemination of information through the mass media are recognized as Journalism. This process has been with society and sustained it in its everyday activities. Another school of thought observes that it is the process of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio. The development of collecting and transmitting news begun before the advent of technology. Businessmen in Italy and Germany complied and circulated handwritten chronicles of important news events to their business colleagues during the latter part of the seventeenth century. The printing press surfaced in Germany around the 1700’s with Gutenberg and his 95 thesis to the pope. Newspapers became the primary medium of Journalists in 1700. The magazine came on board in the eighteenth century; radio and television followed suit in the twentieth century and its posterity, the internet, in the twenty-first century.

Gone were the days when writers were sanctioned or had the mandate to write and produce content for public consumption. The public, in other words the audience hooked on to their interested medium to perceive their world. This had been the normative under the production and dissemination of news. This duty or activity is a profession for professionals, namely Journalists. But the sudden development in the innovation of the production of micro-electronic materials has given birth to a ‘baby’ called ‘citizen Journalism’ who has matured as an industry. Her growth rides on the demise of professional Journalism. Why this situation?

The concept is based upon ordinary citizens (the audience) perfectly playing active roles in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. 

According to Courtney C. Radsch (2013), defines citizen journalism as “an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a repose in the professional Journalistic field, that uses similar Journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream Journalism”.

The audience is a central character in this concept of Journalism. Jay Rosen (2008) states that, citizen Journalism is when people formerly known as audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another. Courtney believes that the juxtaposing of the term ‘citizen’ with its features of civic mindedness and social responsibility, with that of Journalism which refers to a particular profession best describes ‘online’ and ‘digital’ Journalism because it underscores the link between the practice of Journalism and its relation to the public and political sphere.

Making reference from Jay Rosen’s definition, “the audience employs the press tools they have in their possession, and this is possible because in 1999 Darcy DiNucci coined the term web 2.0 and was popularized by Tim O’Reilly at the O’Reilly media web 2.0 conference in 2004. Web 2.0 is an upgrade on websites where web pages are no longer static but programmed in a way to make internet experience successful by introducing software technologies that allow users to generate content (user-generated content) in a virtual community. Web 2.0 has in her fold social networking sites, blogs, Wikis, folksonomies, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications and mashops.

The availability of technology has empowered some citizens (ordinary people) to often report breaking news faster than the traditional media reporters. Examples of the event significantly are Abraham Zapneder who captured the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy with a home movie camera. Also, it is observed from the Arab spring social networking site, Facebook contributed to the crippling and eventual overthrow of the government of Egypt (Hosini Mubarak), the occupation of wall street, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2013 protest in Turkey, not forgetting the west gate mall attack where international news agencies such as CNN had to rely on personal videos and videos from the CCTV cameras in the mall for the mainstream broadcast. “A number of the signature images of the last ten years have come from non-journalist who happened to be at the right place at the right time, or more accurately, the wrong place at the right time-with their camcorders, digital cameras or mobile phones at the ready”.

This phenomenon has shattered the foundation of the mainstream Journalist whose editor is under pressure over what to publish and when. But this does not mean the end of mainstream Journalism.

WHAT ARE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA HOUSES DOING TO ADAPT TO THIS PHENOMENON?

In the UK, the mainstream media has been forced to take note of the massive participation of the audience in the form of applying user-friendly internet tools, quality connectivity and new mobile devices. Twenty percent of internet traffic revolves around social networking sites and user-generated content. This situation has influenced the mainstream media to incorporate online Journalism into their normal activities. Today professional news organizations , are not struggling to compete for ‘breaking news’ but rather are in anticipation to becoming the first and best at verifying and curating news items and contents.

Gradually, the traditional Journalist is inculcating the skills of online Journalism; they are embracing social media tools like Twitter, blogs and Facebook at their own pace. The value is the same but the tools involved this time have changed as they accept the culture of the internet in their organizational norms of news production.

Traditional media are re-strategising their guidelines of operation. There is now recruitment of social media editors; Twitter or Facebook correspondents and the introduction of training and awareness programs. Traditional media have recognized that the social media networking sites, blogs and user-generated contents create an indispensable source of information and room for various opinions.

The traditional media are focused on investing in numerous traffic websites and increment in online discussions and conversations around their news contents in the third party networks. News organizations are dedicating relevant resources to exploit social networks to gain many audiences since social recommendations play significant roles in driving traffic to traditional news content.

A decade ago, Mckinsey’s report informed the world that the rise of new technologies will increase our capacity to interact by a factor between two and five. The argument was that the improvement of interactivity would create new ways to configure businesses, organize companies and serve customers. This development is not observed in businesses alone, but it has its tender hooks in all spheres of life with journalism as its front line.

Names:

Ali Mohammed 

Belvy Ofori 

Nana Osei Anthony

Edna Semenu

Abigail Wiredu 

References:

 McKinsey Global Institute, M.G.I, 2013. Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy. Insights & Publications, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/disruptive_technologies [Accessed 22 October 2013].

Morris, E.R, 2013. What Does the Zapruder Film Really Tell Us?. History & Archaeology, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/What-Does-the-Zapruder-Film-Really-Tell-Us-224928822.html [Accessed 19 October 2013].

O'Reilly, T.O, 2005. Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. What Is Web 2.0, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html [Accessed 16 October 2013].

Rosen, J.R, 2008. A Most Useful Definition of Citizen Journalism. Citizen Journalism, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://archive.pressthink.org/2008/07/14/a_most_useful_d_p.html[Accessed 22 October 2013].

Radsch, C.R, 2013. concept of citizen journalism. Citizen Journalism, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://www.acj-eu.org/citizen-journalism-what-is-it/ [Accessed 22 October 2013].

Calvin, R.C, 2013. Gutenberg. The Renaissance and Reformation Period, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: http://raphaelcalvin.weebly.com/johannes-gutenberg---literature.html [Accessed 19 October 2013].

Kelly, J. (2009) Red Kayaks and Hidden Gold: the Rise, Challenges and Value of Citizen Journalism. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, RISJ Challenges. University of Oxford