Pros and Cons of Citizen Journalism

There are countless possibilities associated with citizen journalism that cannot be found in mainstream journalism. The strongest characteristic of citizen journalism is probably the fact that everyone's voice is heard on a given matter. Often times mainstream media informs the public with information that may be biased in order to serve the needs of the higher authorities. However, citizen journalism allows everyone to voice their opinions on a certain matter. In addition, citizen journalism is done on a smaller scale which may highlight various events that are important on a community level that "Big Media" may choose to ignore. However, as with all things, there are problems with citizen journalism as well. One would be that uninformed individuals will express their opinions as solid facts that must be accepted by the rest of the community. This can potentially be harmful in terms of sharing information because some people might be strongly influenced by the nonsense that these people post on their blogs or websites. If we are able to find a balance between citizen journalism and professional journalism, we could have an efficient media system that can benefit our society in many different ways.