“The people formerly known as the audience are those who were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another and who today are not in a situation like that at all” (Press Think 2006). Citizen Journalism as defined by Flew (2008, 144) is “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide- ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires”. Blogging is the new printing press, podcasting is the new radio, YouTube is the new TV; no longer is the public forced to consume what traditional media is streaming us, we are now connected to news in far more ways than could have been predicted (Press Think 2006). It is opening an infinite possibly of new channels for news distribution that may ultimately be detrimental to organisations creating a public relations nightmare.

Citizen Journalism has been seen to have exploding on the main scene as more and more people gain access to technology that incorporates all aspects of reporting into everyday life. With the introduction of the camera phone even the most basic knowledge of technology can mean you have the ability to be a citizen journalist, with many of the reports being simple a luck of location rather than a skill of sourcing. McQuail (2005 as cited in Flew. 106) identifies a key feature of mass communication to be “the use of media technologies which enable large-scale production and distribution of informational and symbolic content to reach the largest audience possible”. These technologies have been seen to put in to process the convergence of digital technologies allowing for a far greater sphere of the Web. It has been seen that with emergence of Web 2.0 people are expecting to be included in journalism. Web 2.0 technologies will see the evolution towards “journalism as a conversation or seminar” (Gilmour as cited in Flew 2008, 144). With the prevalence of sites such as Digg and YouTube, we have been allowed accessibility to a wide and previously untapped audience. From this as stated by Gilmour (as cited in Flew 2008, 144) “the lines will blur between producers and consumers, changing the role of both in way we’re only beginning to grasp now”. For PR practitioners creating a target public group that may be difficult to define.

Jeff Jarvis (as cited in Press Think 2006) suggests “give the people control of media, they will use it”. But is it really that simple? Audiences have been given the means to report on news but the question remains; can ordinary citizen really function as journalists (Alternet 2007)? Technology allows for each individual to have their written, spoken and acted news be seen, but are the technologies available enough to validate their voices? The answers to these questions are in uncertain territory, audiences are no longer just passively consuming what the media is putting on the table. It can be seen that the growth of technology has facilitated the way we can both receive and report news. It is turning what was once a passive audience into an active participant. But are these news sources really filing this void or are they just providing us with bias and a public relations nightmare? That is for you to decide!

References
Alternet. 2007. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/55915/?page=entire (accessed May 2, 2009).

Flew, T. 2008. New media an introduction. 3rd ed. Victoria: Oxford University Press.

Press Think. 2006. The People Formerly Known as the Audience. http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/06/27/ppl… (accessed May 2, 2009).

Walker, L. 2004. On Local Sites, Everyone’s A Journalist. Washington Post. December 9.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46519-2004Dec8.html (accessed May 2, 2009).