Question

“Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other news and social-media sites have allowed average citizens to become newsmakers. Is this a good or bad thing? Is the increase in citizen journalism leading to inaccuracies in reporting? Or can we trust that Americans will “consider the source” and verify any questionable information they read on a blog?” 500 word minimum

Answer 1

Average citizens becoming newsmakers is certainly more of a bad thing and less of a good thing when the issue and its outcome is viewed in its totality. This is because average citizens make use of social media tools and platforms like blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. to share their views and opinions on a particular topic or issue. These social media tools and platforms ensures that new, opinions and views of average citizens gets high reach and coverage within a short span of time and this makes the average citizen feel empowered and powerful. Now an average citizen may lack proper knowledge with regards to ethics, morals and principles and hence may not always put forth opinions and views that are always correct. However due to immediate impact of the social media platform their opinions and issues can cause widespread stir, emotional connect and support even when the views are entirely wrong and misplaced. Many people put forth their views on topics like climate change, discrimination by companies, lack of corporate social responsibility on the part of large conglomerates etc. without fully comprehending the large scale and ling run ramifications of their opinions.

Citizen journalism is a double edged sword and while it is leading to increased level of awareness more than ever before it is certainly leading to inaccuracies in reporting on a larger scale. This is a serious cause of concern. People now have increased their ‘functional’ use of social media and this is giving rise to social journalism on an unprecedented scale. The average person now has the power to make as well as report news in a manner that did not exist before in the era when internet and use of social media was not prominent. Power, as we all know, can easily be misused and people can use social media tools and platforms to spread false news just to support their agenda or propaganda. While many people do not abuse this power they may ignorantly spread wrong messages and opinions with regards to an issue.

There are definite ethical implications with the use of social media tools and emergence of citizen journalism. As the impact is immediate we cannot always expect the readers to verify any questionable information that they read on a blog. This may give rise to movements and agendas that are based on a wrong and unethical premise and the worst part is that the wrong premise stands very little chance to be corrected in future. The immediate connect often can arouse strong emotions and the emergence of strong and powerful emotions can often cloud judgement and reasoning even in the most logical and rational of peoples. Also there is the difficulty with regards to what the audience should believe in and what should be discarded due to lack of credibility. Unlike traditional journalism in which information being disseminated was always factual the readers cannot be certain in this regard when comes to social media journalism. This creates confusion in their minds and they are, in many cases and many a times, not able to verify any questionable information that they read on a blog.

To conclude I would say that in its entirety citizen journalism is not a very good thing and the negatives of use of social media for the purpose of citizen journalism can cause much higher level of damage and negative consequences than the positive impact.

(568 words)