The Rise of the Citizen A citizen journalist is a non-professional journalist reporting news on personal blogs and websites, such

as Facebook and Twitter. Modern technology has allowed the general public to document newsworthy events without having profess ional journalism training, and the global distribution capability of the interne t allows audiences from other parts of the world to quickly access and find out what's going on. The citizen journalism industry is becoming cheaper and easier to produce and upload news - people now have decent quality cameras built into m obile phones that also have the ability to upload the images to internet social websites almost immediately after taking the photo. The effects of these implications on the professional journalism and pho tojournalism industry can make newspaper businesses jobs harder to carry out. Whe n journalism first started in around the 1850s with the outbreak of the Crimean War, journalists and photojournalists competed against each other to get that per fect shot or exclusive story that would make the front page. But now the general public can compete for that same front page. Another advantage of the citizen jo urnalist is that they could be a first hand witness to an event, such as the 7/7 bombings, which would take time for a photojournalist or journalist to be in po sition, whereas citizen journalists could even upload their accounts to social n etworking sites and even newspapers before the professionals. On the other hand, photojournalists will have the equipment to document events and can get granted access, or press passes, to restricted areas, such as f ootball stadiums and war zones. However, one such photojournalist who documented a number of wars, Don McCullin, was even refused a press pass to the Falklands t o document the war there, as his photos were considered too graphic at times. The main aim of a traditional journalist and photojournalist is to re port news worthy and accurate stories. The detail in which the journalist and ph otojournalist reports can be biased towards the feelings of the reporter or/and the newspaper the journalist or photojournalist is writing for, for example The Times, The Sun and The Mail are all currently backing the Conservatives, therefo re, their reporters will want to make the Conservatives look better than everyon e else. In comparison, there is a danger in the material that a citizen journali st produces. The produced material could be inaccurate and easily misleading to the viewer. In addition, a citizen journalist wouldnt necessarily have the gut ins tinct that the traditional journalist or photojournalist would have developed tha t would lead them to form a conclusion before the story itself has reached it, t herefore, a citizen journalist may only cover part of an event and possibly miss a dramatic climax. Other complications that citizen journalists face are laws on photograph y and their blogs. The general public may not be fully aware of their Rights as citizen journalists when taking photographs are concerned or when publishing mat erial online. Blogs are self-regulated and dont get checked out by the likes of O FCOM so issues of truth and trust are biased on the opinions of the reporters. By posting events and stories on a blog that can be accessed by the world, the info rmation can be easily copied and re-worded by newspapers for their own publicati ons in some cases, newspapers just paste and copy straight from a source. A poss ible problem here is cases that go to court. Any blogs that immediately publish photographs and/or documents could be liable for Contempt of Court depending on how soon the proceedings become active and whether or not the story is likely to cause serious prejudice. This also applies to the newspapers that may copy and paste the material. One of my personal favourite photojournalists is Sydney Schanberg from A merica, working for The New York Times. His graphic images of Cambodia showed th e horrors of the war and those innocent civilians who lost their lives and famil y to American carpet bombing campaigns. Even when every American was evacuated o

ut of Phnom Penh, he remained behind to continue documenting the war. In this si tuation, any citizen journalists would have been evacuated without question of who or what they are working for. For his work to be published, Sydney had to use w hat materials and work spaces available using bathrooms and store cupboards for darkrooms. So why is journalism changing? Its changing because it has to keep up wit h consumer demand. Using the war in Cambodia in 1970s as an example, the photogr aphs and stories produced were at least a few days old by the time the newspaper s printed them, but with the discovery of the internet, these stories can be sen t within minutes of being produced, particularly if the photographer or writer i s a citizen journalist because they will be on site before any reporter, unless they happen to be in the general area.