Citizen Journalism: How social media allows anyone to be a journalist

In today’s world, anyone has the power to become a journalist. Thanks to smartphones and social media, anyone can write or capture newsworthy events and post on the internet for the public to view. This idea is called citizen journalism. Below are a few visual examples of what it is and the impact it has on the public and large news companies.

The video above by Expresso Show goes in depth of what citizen journalism is, how it compares to traditional journalism and the impact it has on getting news instantly as its stories develop.

The tweet above is from a Police Brutality protest in Brooklyn Center Minnesota on April 11. The video is assumed to be captured by a citizen who is standing in the middle of the divide between the police and the protestors.

The Instagram post above is another video from the police brutality protest in Minnesota on April 11. This protest from when I created this presentation happened less than 24 hours ago and is already being showcased across the internet for the world to see.

Citizens are able to capture images, videos and text updates journalists may have missed to instantly inform the public of developing stories. Twitter user Mounica, captured a photo of two national guard vehicles blocking off the entrances of the protest areas

Citizen Journalism allows the public to get a non journalist point of view from ongoing events. Twitter user Nathan, is protesting outside Brooklyn Center Police Department alongside others demanding answers for the murder of Daunte Wright.

According to Tony Rogers of ThoughtCo., he states citizen journalism as, “Citizens collect, report, analyze, and disseminate news and information, just as professional journalists would, creating what is known as user-generated content.” With people having access to social media 24/7, breaking news stories are reported instantly since individuals are able to simply take a photo or video on their smartphone and post it on social media almost instantly. Citizen journalism opens the doors to various types of content from breaking stories and allows the viewers to get different perspectives outside a neutral view of a journalist,