Citizen journalism is a shift from traditional media consumption and content production. Bruns (2009) states that "journalistic content is being overtaken by a flotilla of alternative options". This means that the role of journalism is constantly changing. I believe this is due to the advancements in technology which have now enabled users to become prosumers. This makes information accessible anywhere at anytime.
In the past gatekeeping was in place to filter information according to what sold. However, now we have gatewatching, Bruns (2009, pg. 5) describes gatekeeping as "first-hand investigative research and the ability to compose succinct news stories". This means that gatewatchers search for "useful and relevant materials that they think should be brought to the attention of the wider community" (Bruns, A, 2009, pg. 6). This is not as extreme as gatekeeping where information "about potentially newsworthy events entered the process" (Bruns, A, 2006, pg. 3). This means that information was selected due to its worthiness of getting attention and gaining capital.
Our information content is hardly controlled in my opinion, people post whatever they want whenever. What are the implications of these? We are flooded with irrelevant information everyday. This also means that we’re sometimes given information that we believe originated from a legitimate source it actually it has been distorted and altered many times before publication. I think when you think about the processes that some content goes through, it is really hard to determine its originality. I think content gathered from citizen journalists are at times untrue and questionable in terms of originality.
I guess it is up to us as producers and consumers of information to decide what information is valid and what is not.
Reference:
Bruns, A. (2009) 'News Blogs and Citizen Journalism: New Directions for e-Journalism' [URL: http://produsage.org/files/News%20Blogs%20and%20Citizen%20Journalism.pdf]
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