Initial Blog Post: Citizen Journalism

The internet has gained much popularity in the last decade among its users for is reliability for providing fast information, entertainment, and for various communication purposes (Bruns, 1).  With the rise of the internet people were now able to access whatever information they desired at the click of a button.  With more and more people beginning to use the internet, users formed online communities where they would share information, media sources, videos, pictures and create conversations and these web pages are known as social media.  What is interesting about social media web sites is that they have become a platform for “citizen journalism”.  I thought that the concept of citizen journalism was interesting and I’ve never thought of people who are using social media outlets as “journalists”.  Bruns claims in his article that a “citizen journalist” is any person who uses a social media platform to take part in journalist activities, either on a Blog, Twitter or Facebook page and is not a paid professional (Bruns, 4). 

I believe that social media web pages are only increasing the amount that people take part in social activism.  We are now able to share, publish and access information at a faster pace than ever before.  Unlike old media sources like newspapers, and news stations airing on television, social media allows its users to be constantly updated in real time.  People now do not have to wait for the 6 o’clock news, or wait for the next day for the newspaper company to write an article about the event, we are now able to open our social media applications and be informed instantaneously.  Also unlike traditional forms of media, social media leads us to other sources and media outlets that offer various insights and information about the subject through links, hashtags, and even blogs (Friedman, 56).  What is positive about social activism through social media is that the media often times does not provide the public with a sufficient amount of information; people are constantly craving to know more.  What social media does is gives the public that information. 

I think the perfect demonstration of social activism through social media was witnessed when the Kony 2012 campaign came out in the spring of last year.  All forms of social media were used in order to spread the word about the campaign and it started with a Youtube Video that ended up trending on twitter, where everyone was hashtagging #Kong2012 in their status’, and later Facebook groups were formed and many Blogs were written.  This showed how powerful social is today because everywhere you went you were hearing about Kony2012, and they only way you knew about it was through social media.

References

Bruns, A. & T. Highfield. (2012). Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism. pre-publication draft on personal site [Snurb.info]. Published in: Lind, R. A. ed. (2012). Produsing Theory in a Digital World: The Intersection of Audiences and Production. New York: Peter Lang. p15-32.

Friedman, S. M. (2011). Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima: An analysis of traditional and new media coverage of nuclear accidents and radiation. Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists, 67(5), 55-65.