Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is a favorite subject of mine. In particular the relationship citizen journalism has with traditional modes of journalism is of interest to me. In her article 'If you had been with us': mainstream press and citizen journalists jockey for authority over the collective memory of Hurricane Katrina", Sue Robinson discusses this contentious relationship with regards to the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Robinson focuses on the way in which citizen journalists were able to critique and interact with professional media coverage, serving to bolster or undermine what was being presented by mainstream media. I am also interested in the effect digitization has on media content. I suspect there is a sense in which most online journalism (aside from that which is a direct copy of another established medium- ie the herald online) is considered somewhat amateur and therefore suspect. Based on personal experience, journalistic authority seems to be more easily undermined when it is presented in digital format. Robinson's article drew my attention to the idea that the opposite could also be true in some instances, and for this reason I've decided to look deeper into the subject for my research essay.

See: Sue Robinson (2009). 'If you had been with us': mainstream press and citizen journalists jockey for
authority over the collective memory of Hurricane Katrina. New Media & Society. Vol. 11(5), pp795-
814.