I know I only have #3 up now, but I will have 1 and 2 up later today to try to avoid getting complete zeros.
For this post we’re supposed to pick a topic that relates to the future of jounalism. I feel that “Citizen Journalism” will be very important to the industry in coming years. With the creation of blog sites and video streaming sites such as youtube, these citizen journalists are becoming more and more popular.
Someone like Perez Hilton is a prime example of how effective citizen journalism can be. Who ever heard of this guy before 2 years ago? Now he’s a blog phenomenon (www.perezhilton.com) with a cult-like following. His blog is updated all the time, with new dirt on the celebrities posted everyday, accompanied by pictures with often ridiculous captions. He has somehow managed to weasel himself into the entertainment business, by being a nosy guy in Los Angeles who writes a blog. He makes appearances on various entertainment shows to announce the latest gossip, and give everyone the “inside scoop.” Muchmusic will sometimes interview him live on air during Much On Demand to find out all the latest celebrity news. He’s even making cameo appearances on TV, music videos and movies now.
I believe that with the layoff of more and more journalists, due to companies giving in to conglomeration, that citizen journalists are almost going to be relied on. With cutbacks in staff, companies are having less people do more work, and because of that I think that alot of important stories with go undiscovered. If citizen journalists are used and paid a lump sum for their stories, I think mediums suffering from being understaffed can definately benefit from it. It’s not fair for people like us who are going to school for it, but it’s something that could be done, just as like a freelance sort of thing. We just had to write a story for Kurt’s class on how The Spectator just laid off a bunch of people, and how a professor from Mohawk said that the quality of the paper is going to be affected. You could even use citizen journalists as a means of finding out stories that more people actually care about, in an attempt to make more people read.
In the end, as much as real journalists look down on “citizen journalists”, they may help the industry out in times where conglomeration is eating away at jobs. They may just save the ass of the news industry if things keep going the way they are.
*the link for this post is Perez Hilton’s blog site.
