Citizen Journalism

 Journalism had to adapt itself to the new technologies. Nevertheless, the word citizen, contribute to change the sense of "journalism". So technological evolutions,  first of all the Internet, brought to a profusion of information, owed partially to the will of expression of the citizens.

1)    Media to multimedia

The change to print media, then to radio then to broadcasting was not made without fear of seeing the paper disappearing. The paper establishes an unmistakable strength: it leaves tracks. Certainly it is always possible to register a radio or television’s program, but it is all the easier to have to only preserve the newspaper.  Furthermore, the various medias, which I have just quoted, are an addition. Certainly they often deal with the same information, but according to different glances, offer a real plurality of point of view contributing to the exercise of the citizen.

So the Internet upset this vision with a multimedia support grouping including text, image and sound. Nevertheless, Internet does not constitute a revolution in itself. Indeed, the traditional media, whatever they are (written, radio, television), use Internet to complete their information by taking into account in particular the citizen’s words. It is moreover in that sense that develops initiatives into citizen journalism.

 

2)    Of the traditional journalism in the citizen journalism 

With the growth of blogs, personal expression was widely facilitated. So, according to the number presently increasing of these blogs, the citizen expression took an essential place in the treatment of the current events. The initiatives of citizen journalism  thus don’t stop to develop all these points of view and offer them a real echo, and a real power. So, does those citizen journalism settle themselves in opposition even battling against the traditional media? Certainly not. The objective of the citizen journalism translates the exercise of the freedom of expression. The purpose of the journalism is to analyze all the points of view, more or less objectively. We distinguish from then on an essential stake for the journalism: contribute to assure this echo of the citizen’s words. The traditional journalism has to grow rich of this plurality. Citizen journalism allows a treatment of the current events real-time, in theory, without constraints (if they are the legal limits).

Journalism cannot confine to tell a fact without studying it. The word citizen thus contributes to bring a concrete, often engaged analysis, of raw facts.

So a definition of "journalism" could be " Study of a fact or a subject of current events most objectively possible, in the light of additional and\or contradictory points of view, and the analysis of which brings a real added value to information succinctly.