Who Are Journalists These Days??

  Journalism 2.0 is an extension to Web 2.0 (blogging, visual, audio and social networking) where by news can be covered in numerous different ways. Within this evolution of the media comes 'Citizen Journalism' (CJ) or 'Street Journalism'. This term is used to describe members of the public filming specific events with mobile phones, cameras or small hand-held shooters. The events are are usually filmed before a professional news team can get to location meaning that the video or audio captured is in its unedited state or raw footage.

  The evolution of mobile phone technology has provided  anyone becoming involved in CJ.

The Citizen Journalist Technology - quick and easy

Phone video cameras over the last few years has evolved to HD meaning that captured footage is of a higher quality making much more of an impact.

This quick and easy to use piece of hardware was vital in the 9/11 New York Bombings, without the public there would be no way of capturing the devastation that was caused.

Rooftop view of 2nd plane hitting tower  (Source: Youtube // CameraPlannetArchive)

The same is with the London Bombings, without amateur footage through CJ we would have never understood what the situation was like in the stations themselves as large news groups like the BBC or ITV were denied access by the authorities.

  The idea of Citizen Journalism has become under a large amount of scrutiny primarily from the more 'professional' individuals in the profession. For example, a letter from a photojournalist Pete Jenkins states, "This is presumably to reward people who were lucky (or unlucky) enough to have been caught up in one disaster or another, and happen to own a mobile cameraphone".

The idea that CJ has gone too far!

 Me personally can see where he is coming from (sort of), he has probably spent years and years training and learning how to provide the best story via the best photographs and to be overtaken by a random citizen capturing a 30sec clip on their phone, posting it on Youtube and a few days later have it shown on all major news networks. (An example is the notorious Cat Lady who purposely chucked a cat in a dustbin by its neck: See the video here)

  Youtube, as mentioned above, has become a world wide success fetching a mere 2billion hits per day according to newsintech.com and provides a platform where videos such as the Cat Lady can become news worthy. In a video from, yes, Youtube, respected American journalist Katie Couric explains this site and how       simple videos can become 'viral': Katie Couric explaining Youtube with Video Examples

This platform of video publishing allows the world to view, comment and discuss the content as if it was shown on TV on the 6'o Clock news. With Journalism 2.0 blog sites are becoming a very popular location for CJ set up to essentially collect this amateur footage for the world to view. Although some large news networks look away at this others embrace it and see its potential. For example, America's CNN has its own dedicated Citizen Journalism site: http://cj.ibnlive.in.com/. On its site it states, "A pioneer in participatory journalism, CNN-IBN offers the common man a platform to tell his story. Log in to join the army of Citizen Journalists and make yourself heard". The sites caption, "Be the Change" I think is a great example to use to describe this broad type of journalism, it is changing, and rapidly at that.

  One interesting type of video capture is CCTV. Over the last decade the number of cameras watching us has grown exponentially but are these cameras part of CJ? I mean, a CCTV camera in a train or on a high street is all integrated into the countries police and therefore part of the government making a massive network of cameras. But this is similar to a large news network in my opinion and therefore not a CJ device or method. On the other hand I suppose CCTV footage can be seen as part of CJ as it is there and captures a rare event as it happens. Its not  there to capture devastating events but to record small scale things such as mugings or desruptions. The CCTV cameras are available 24/7 much like a citizen and captures the event that a news network will not be able to capture. An example would be the London Bombings or the station floodings in Madrid 2007: Station Flooding Footage

This surreal footage shows the whole floor expand as it fills with what looks like water. No news teams would be able to get that footage as it has happened right-there-right-then. For citizens the chance of some filming that particular footage is slim as people were seen fleeing the station. So CCTV can both be seen as a metaphorical CJ or just an addition to the large network linked into the government.

  So who are journalists these days? My answer is that anyone can but in respect to those in the professional trade, it takes skill to set up the footage, prepare and deliver a report on TV or in the paper.