Phone as witness: Civilian Journalists

Last week after the lecture we broke into small groups and my group discussed civilian journalism. I was planning on blogging about it while it was fresh in my mind but I’ve since been ill. The mobile phone technology today allows anybody to be a journalists and share with the world what they think is important. A lot of our news in today’s media landscape often comes from some video that a civilian took of something terrible that happened aka. someone getting shot, the treatment of refugees or prisoners etc. This technology empowers people to be heard on important issues, however this counteracted by the resulting over-saturation media. With individuals spreading news it seems like we are more likely to hear that truth as they most likely don’t have a hidden agenda like a major news corporation might do. While yes some civilian journalists might have a certain agenda, you can also cross-reference the facts with other everyday people who have reported on the matter. Its great that everyday people are able to expose terrible things that might be happening to them or others. Civilian journalism and social media have the power to create real change. If you have any doubt on the scale of change that such media can have just look to political unrest that have been assisted by social media known as “Twitter Revolutions”.

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