Citizen Journalism

Abstract

Perhaps the most important organizational development in journalism since its professionalization more than a hundred years ago is the emergence of citizen journalism. Although nonprofessionals have engaged in journalism for as long as it has been regarded as a profession, in the 21st century, citizen journalism as a form of nonprofessional journalism has disrupted conventional institutional boundaries and practices at a time of severe economic and social challenges to the industry. Citizen journalism calls into question institutionalized presumptions such as that good journalism requires a period of intensive training and its corollary claim that legitimate journalism can only be conducted by people who have completed such training and who work for established news organizations. Yet, today, nonprofessionally gathered accounts and images are increasingly and paradoxically an accepted part of the output of professional news organizations and their claims to producing an authoritative account of the world’s events. Granting the complex reasons for this and the complex ways in which it occurs, citizen journalism is both a symptom and a cause of the current crisis in journalism economics and cultural authority, one with great significance for the role of journalism in democratic societies.