JN 229 Entry #4: News Quality Differences in Online Newspaper and Citizen Journalism Sites

    Citizen journalism. What is it? How does it affect professional journalists? How does it affect society as a whole? These are issues I've been exploring in many of my classes this semester.

    From reading the article, "News Quality Differences in Online Newspaper and Citizen Journalism Sites" by Serena Carpenter, I have been able to form my own opinion on the concept of citizen journalism. Carpenter defines citizen journalism as "an individual who intends to publish information meant to benefit a community" (Carpenter 69). In today's society, more and more people are taking journalism into their own hands, believing that they can report on issues the same ways in which professional journalists do.

    I openly question this belief. There is a reason they are called 'professional' journalists. They have studied what it means to be a journalist, how to report fairly and accurately, and have learned the tools of the trade. Professional journalists have ethics codes in place and general rules and guidelines that they must follow in order to present the news issues in the most accurate way to society's citizens. How can a citizen walk off the street and report on some of the very vast issues that we face in our society today? An everyday citizen does not have the same training as a professional journalist. Personal opinions and beliefs would greatly hinder the overall information being reported by citizens. As journalists, we are trained to be as unbiased as possible and to report truthfully and accurately.

    The idea of citizen journalists is a concerning one. Well it is great for people to be able to report on issues to their friends and families, citizen journalism is not the way to go. We still need professional journalists in our society. Too many uninformed people reporting on issues will just cause chaos and disorder. Issues will be reported on improperly and it will have a negative impact on our society as a whole.

JN 229 Entry #3: Keeping a close watch—the rise of self-surveillance and the threat of digital exposure

    "Modern times are now less about the dehumanisation within the industrial machine...and more about the digitally rendered person enmeshed in a fabric and veil of data and code" Kingsley Dennis explains (Dennis 347). In today's day and age, the internet has created a new digital era. "Near-constant surveillance of the person, both in public life and in private affairs has blurred boundaries between what is external and what is internal, between outer and inner freedom" (Dennis 347). The "fear of freedom" that has been noted in our society in the past is expanding into a "fear of security" (Dennis 347) due to this new digital era. People have more access to other peoples' information and it is harder to block people from certain content. Take Facebook for example. There are various privacy settings for Facebook, but you have to go search them. When you create your account for the first time, you are not asked what you want your privacy settings to be. Your profile is automatically open for all other Facebook users to see. You have to go in yourself and set your privacy settings how you want. This new internet phenomenon is making it harder to have a true sense of security.

With the creation of the new digital technology, the Internet has become a major part of our everyday lives: "This upcoming trend can be expressed as a need to record, store, and analyse one's social participation and mobility for security of self. It acts as both security and an alibi towards future dataveillance intrusions" (Dennis 348). As of 2011, Facebook has more than 500 million active users (Facebook). That's a large number of people connected to a website. Yet, somehow, when you go to your homepage, more often than not, the "friends suggestions" are people you actually know. Our personal information is floating around in the World Wide Web for millions of people to see, which is a very concerning concept.