IS CITIZEN JOURNALISM A THREAT OR CHALLENGE TO PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS

Citizen Journalism as the name implies can also be termed as public, participatory, Democratic, and Guerrilla or Street Journalism. This therefore makes Citizen Journalism the collecting, gathering, reporting and dissemination of news information by the ordinary person.

Citizen Journalism should not be confused with Community, Civic and Collaborative Journalism which have to do with Professional journalist.

Citizen Journalism has come as both a threat and a challenge to Professional Journalists. The challenge here is that, it tells Professional Journalists to be up and doing in their work.  This because as technology prevail in our daily lives, has made everybody a journalists and hence the reduction in depending on Professional Journalist.  The challenge then is for professional journalist to be creative and do what will aid them get attention of the masses.

 The inception of the Social Network and media sharing website and gadgets like Smart phones, I pads, etc, has come to aid the ordinary person become a Journalist and this will help check the employment rate in the media. Citizen Journalists are amateurs, subjective and haphazard in quality; this is a threat to Professional Journalist because their reportage may undermine their credibility and how popular they are.

The above basically talks about the challenges and threats that Professional Journalist faces as a result of Citizen Journalism.