Citizen Journalism: The Future of the Media?

Times are changing for the mainstream press and many of us believe we are seeing the irreversible demise of the traditional methods of reporting and journalism.  The media’s main source of income –advertising revenues- are at an all time low. 

People are increasingly logging on to the internet and getting their news for free.  In addition, the news is becoming more specialized or niche –  outlets are focusing on specific areas of interest.  The result of lower revenues is fewer staff journalists as newspapers can no longer afford to have local specialists on the payroll around the world.  For example, only four newspapers in America have foreign desks and most media outlets rely on the wire services; Reuters & AP, but, even they cannot afford to be in every country (in fact 40% of the world is not covered by either).

We also living in the age of ‘parachute journalism’ – where a journalist is flown into an area where something is happening just to ‘cover’ the event and leaves – no local expertise or knowledge.

Whilst the internet is responsible for much of this – it also offers the possibility for its resurrection.  Social networking and citizen journalism sites are connecting people around the world who are increasingly making use of them to share their news – the recent attacks on Mumbai are a good example of where these site are breaking the news before the mainstream media (in this case Twitter).  Demotix, (the company I work for) now have over 3000 members in 90 different countries and in some cases we have even got reports before the wire-services.

The existence of such platforms which contain no barriers to entry will allow people to enjoy equal access to this media. This can enable those that visit sites such as Demotix to view stories ranging from the  intense international drama to important local events. With genuine freedom comes genuine choice; and with citizen journalism the potential to create real pluralism is enormous. If users are continuously viewing stories which would not normally make the mainstream press, big media outlets could be persuaded to change their editorial policy (especially, as greater audiences mean higher revenues from advertisers).

Whether citizen journalism can really be so effective remains to be seen, however, it is hard to deny that citizen journalism is here to stay and does offer the only genuinely free platform for people.

Ed Hadfield ([email protected] )
Regional Editor for Asia
Demotix (www.demotix.com )