So you want to be a journalist

If the world of journalism and being a reporter fascinates you, grab a back pack; you’ll be in college for the next 4+ years learning the tricks of the trade. Or you could simply grab your lap top in the next four minutes and blog about anything you want. Granted, you will not be considered a “professional,” but it doesn’t take much to make a person a “citizen journalist.”

You may have acted as a citizen journalist without even realizing it. Like to blog about current events on your free time? Congratulations, you have participated in citizen journalism. A lot of things you do on the internet can be classified as citizen journalism as well. The article you wrote for Wikipedia, those videos you post on youtube, even those comments you leave on your favorite news site can all be classified as citizen journalism. Even your vacation footage can end up becoming a part of the citizen media collection. On September 11, 2001, when the first plane hit the tower, there were no news crews anywhere near the area. The footage of the first attack was shot by regular people with home video cameras.


Citizen journalism allows all people to express their opinions and share information with the world. It is a wonderful tool, especially for women and minorities (who are often over looked in the professional journalism world) as well as teenagers and college students, to have their voices heard.

If you’re looking for your fifteen minutes of fame, keep in mind that very few citizen journalists will have their name recognized for their contributions. With the billions of blogs on the web, your chances of standing out are pretty slim. Although, at times anonymity can be used to your advantage. Bloggers of controversial subjects are able to create a false screen name to protect themselves from their objectors. On very rare occasions, some citizen journalists can be famous. The most famous citizen journalist right now is probably “Joe the Plummer” who is currently in the Middle East “reporting” for an online news site. If fame is what you seek as a citizen journalist, wait for the next presidential election and become a candidate’s poster child first.

But in all seriousness, citizen journalism has its critics. Most criticism comes from reporters and journalists, people who went to college and studied journalism. Of course they criticize citizen journalism. They get paid for their expertise and if people prefer to get their Middle East reports from a plumber, they loose a portion of their audience. While traditional media will give us reliable facts, professional journalists should not disregard the citizen reports as uneducated babble from journalist wannabes. Any news station can deliver the facts about Hurricane Katrina: How did it happen? What was the cost of the damage? What is the government doing as a response? But it is the ordinary citizens who can deliver the emotional side: What was it like to loose a home? How are you receiving help? Did your friends suffer similar loss?

The events we see on the news affect every person in a different way. Citizen journalism allows everyone’s viewpoints to be heard. Not all media is blind to this fact. MSNBC actually has a webpage that gives ordinary people topics to blog about such as the war in Iraq. This major news corporation understands that citizen journalism doesn’t take jobs away from professional journalists, it simply gives us a broader view of current events.