A new generation of media consumers has risen, demanding content delivered on when they want it, how they want it, and what they want. The tools of broadcast media have gone from owning newspaper mills, press houses and broadcast licenses, to having a cheap PC or a mobile phone in one’s pocket. This gives everyone the ability to have a direct connection with the news as either a consumer or a producer.
According to Mark Glaser in his book ,’Your Guide to citizen Journalism’, defines citizen journalists as people without professional journalism training who use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others.
Citizen Journalist is an everyday person who contributes information on news and events. For example, you might write about a town council meeting on your blog or even update your Facebook status on events happening around you. You might take a photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube. The citizen journalist is not required to have any specialized training in journalism. All that is required is access to tools and gadgets that will enable the individual to break and spread compelling news, stories and events. Having a smart phone, being on social media sites like Facebook, twitter or Flickr or having a blog is all one needs to be citizen journalist. The average citizen can now make news and distribute it globally, an act that was once the prerogative of established journalists and media companies.
In recent years, there has been a rise in popularity of powerful new tools, associated with the improved capacity of the internet to handle two-way interactions. These tools are referred to as ‘Social Media’, and often they are linked with ‘Web 2.0’, popularized by the internet entrepreneur Tim O Reilly. Web 2.0 advocates argue that the internet should not be just another form of distribution for big media companies but is an opportunity for a growing of new creative expression, where the general populace can partake in information sharing.
Social media can be defined as an online communication channels that is used to transmit and sharing information .The social media is made up of numerous array of internet based tools and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information. It helps in content sharing like music, videos, audios, bookmarking among other communication and information sharing process. Platforms like Facebook, twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, delicious, Dropbox, SliceShare, Blogger among other social media tools have created an internet community which enables interactions, content sharing and input and promotion of information. What social media does is to provide platforms and outlets where ongoing events can be shared. Kristjan –Paul Raude, managing partner for social media technology WSI news (We Simplify the Internet) said, “The vast growth of social media has made huge changes on how information is consumed-virtually and socially .Tradition media like TV, radio, newspaper have partly moved online where information is easier to find, manage and share. The new generation has already consumed social media as ‘traditional media.”
Traditional media refers to the old and usually outdated way of circulating information involving only one way communication this media was the means of communication used before the advent of technological advances like the internet. Newspapers, Radio, Magazines and Television stations are examples of what is referred to as traditional media.
Steve Marinker the managing director of Havas PR, proposed the motion that Traditional journalism is not sustainable in an age of citizen journalism and social media. The domination of the media community by citizen journalists who use social media has affected the activities of traditional media production and houses.
What was once a comfortable corner for traditional media houses, citizen journalist who use social media have fragmented the market into an open market of multiple choices for communication and information and power has shifted from the media houses to the consumer. The means to publish is now available to everybody with a blog or website. Now anybody can have an online media house and distribute their content to millions. An effect of citizen journalist who use social media on traditional media is that it has led to readers and revenues migrating to digital platforms.
Some observers see the arrival of New Communication Technology as bringing with it a set of opportunities and challenges for traditional media professions such as journalism (Garrison, 1996). Journalists, especially when writing for magazines, can gather news via the Internet and do their fact-checking or inquiries into facts and figures or background information directly from their homes or offices.
The traditional media houses have come to realize the importance of social media and the changing trends in mass media work therefore are taking social tools and networks increasingly seriously by strategizing to move with the tide. Many of these Media houses are trying to harness the knowledge of their audience either through comments at the end of stories they post online or by creating citizen journalist databases of contributors or sources for stories.
Media houses nowadays also encourage audience to contribute their experiences on major news events. For example, Metropolitan television station a private media house in Ghana has a segment on their major news bulletin known as “Have Your Say” were viewers are given the opportunity to express their views and share their experience on a certain issue.
Also most of the media houses have set up social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter were citizens can leave stories or add their opinion to ongoing trends. Media houses like Aljazeera has focused on news gathering potential of its worldwide audience, regularly asking for videos, pictures and comments on breaking stories. For example during the Westgate mall attack an eyewitness was responsible for providing the footage to CNN which they used as news item.
What the traditional media can do to bridge the gap created by citizen journalist who use social media to their advantage is for traditional media houses and producers to accept that there is a vital need to intensify the supply of journalists with skills, who can write, edit and manage online content impeccably for the benefit of their online audience to meet the growing use of the Internet and digital technologies in the media space and declining influence of traditional media. With the coming of the new media, people who have long been on the receiving end of one-way mass communication are now increasingly becoming producers and transmitters. The distinction between information producers and consumers will become increasingly difficult to draw (Creeber and Martin, 2009; Bennett, 2003).
REFRENCES
Mark Glaser, (2006). Your Guide to citizen Journalism.
Kristjan –Paul Raude, (2013), Managing Partner, kristjan@wsionline.ee
Steve Marinkar. (2012), Managing Director (Havas PR), Proposed the motion that Traditional Journalism is not sustainable in an age of citizen journalism and social media.
Creeber, G. & R. Martin. (2009). Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media. Berkshire, England: McGraw-Hill.
Garrison B., (1996). Successful Strategies for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Lawrence Erlbaum Associate
WSI. (1995). Internet Marketing info@wsionline.ee
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