Citizen Journalism

Birth of a new genre in journalism: Citizen journalism

Citizen journalism is taking off when the rise of the Internet. This post will discuss more about citizen journalism- CNN iReport as compared to Al Jazeera's Your Media

CNN iReport


What is it about?

• A platform which allows anyone from around the world to share news or post pictures, which is solely reader generated content.
• Started on 2 August 2006
• Once they submit the stories, it will be vet through and determined if they should be used
• No ireporters are paid for their stories or photos even though they do hold the copyrights

Problem/ Controversy?

• AN incident when one ireporter reported the a false story on Steve Job's health, which then led to Apple's stocks temporarily drop

Al Jazeera's Your Media

What is it?

• It is also citizen journalism efforts where you can submit photos or stories and selected ones will be featured in the website or on the news station
• Uses this software called: Ushahidi, to collect information

The MAIN difference

• Al Jazeera's Your Media website is hard to access. You will need to sign up for it before viewing any content. WHILE for CNN iReport, you can access any content and you only need to sign up only if you want to contribute.
  

This video explains why we need citizen journalism. This is a MUST WATCH.




References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jazeera
http://yourviews.aljazeera.net/
http://ireport.cnn.com/