Factors Contributing to Citizen Journalism Growth

Citizen Journalism
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Introduction
Traditionally, the process of collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating information as news has fallen on the professional journalist, either under private practice or commonly under a company. However, that has since changed and news companies are embracing a new trend in the new collection approach. This is with reference to the involvement of individuals outside the main stream media companies or institutions (Rogers, 2016). This is a concept that combines the roles of citizen and those of a journalist into one. Ideally, a citizen uses the tools that they have at their disposal to collect and disseminate information that they come across intentionally or otherwise. There is a civic duty tied to the journalism aspects, with many forms such as blogs, podcasts, videos, pictures audio and texts among others. With the advent of mobile technology, most of the people have a chance to take part in the revolution. In most of the cases this is a form of journalism that takes place online. While it gives the people a chance to report what they see and hear, it also comes with some disadvantages associated with authenticity among other challenges.
Journalism
Over the years, journalism has been tied to the media houses, where on one side are the journalists and on the other the audience. As such, much of the work involved has been in reference to journalists collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating the news items that they have collected over the different within the society, locally and globally. This is however slowly changing, as part of the audience is also taking the mantle to distribute the news on the available platforms online such as blogs, podcasts and posts on social media (Rogers, 2016).
Factors Contributing to Citizen Journalism Growth
Media Manipulation
There are a number of reasons that can be attributed to the growth of the citizen journalism. One of the main elements that can be attributed to the growth of the citizen journalism is the dwindling trust in the media houses. Over the years the media houses have been a tool for disseminating information to the public using the various platforms. As such, they have been a powerful tool driving various aspects of the society; from politics to general cultural shifts. As such, the media houses have become a powerful tool in the public domain driving various agendas. For most of the political bigwigs, this has become a platform to influence the masses. This relative to the fact that, they understand that the media is a platform that influences every other area of the society, even with simple aspects as diets and even dress codes in fashion. The media houses as well have fallen prey to manipulation by political and other elites in the society (Bulkley, 2012). Over time this has worked, however, a good majority of the population now understand and despise the fact that media houses are no longer liberal and independent. They broadcast what their owners and investors want, taking away some of the vital information that the public needs. This element of manipulating information available to public has caused most of the people in the citizen journalist dockets to t...