Assignment 5

In response to the thoughts about citizen journalism I feel as though we are all journalists at one point or another in terms of this blog. A few of the posts I have read have been reports such as the one about ASU beating U of A. I have even written some citizen journal type blogs on here myself. I went to two sights that google said had information on citizen journalism. However upon looking at the sites they were more or less sights with news and happenings. Http://wethemedia.oreilly.com and http://onlinejournalismblog.wordpresss.com are both sites where people go and blog news type publishngs regularly. I think there is a difference between this type of blog and a blog from say Kim Kardashian where she talks about her life and what is happening. These two blogs cover issues which are of no interest to me but I am sure subscribers follow them daily. That is essentially what I think citizen journalism aims to do. Instead of having to purchase a newspaper or waiting for the news someone can just click the link or type in the address and then they have access to the news that they seek. Blogging has become such a mainstream phenomenon that people are talking about everything on their sites. The problem I would have with citizen journalism is where are the bloggers getting their information from. How do we know that what they are saying is credible if they are just some random person who is reporting. On top of that who is to say that they are always gioing to talk about what you need information on. A sports blogger could talk about basketball in one blog and then switch to baseball or hockey which you the reader may have no interest in. Because of that I think that print and broadcast journalism will continue to overshadow the citizen journalism approach but the idea is constantly catching on. Being able to come and write about whatever you want to and getting feed back on your thoughts is definitely an attractive idea to many people. For aspiring journalists such as myself its a great way to practice my writing skills and I think that citizen journalism also incorporates that. The idea that you are the reporter and you are getting a chance to report the issues.