The article written by Natalie Fenton and Tamara Witschge questions the idea of how digital media is challenging the role of the journalist in society.
“The functions of inquiry, observation, research, editing and writing have had to adapt to the vast array of information available online, digital video footage, wire photos, amateur pictures taken with camera-enabled cell phones or digital cameras and the blogosphere, as well as the speed of the 24/7cable news” (Fenton 148). The world is an ever changing place. With all the new technology that is created all the time, it constantly affects professions. One major profession is keeps affecting is journalism. As a profession, journalism is meant to be a select group of people who report on issues that occur around the world. However, as new digital media emerges, more people can take journalism into their own hands.
“The codes and conventions of professional journalism are being challenged as they are being restated. Professional journalists are keen to guard the borders of their profession, and demarcate where journalism ends and something else begins” (Fenton 160). That something else is citizen journalism. As I’ve learned about citizen journalism through the course of this semester, I have come to the conclusion that it is a ‘necessary evil’.
“The main difference between professional journalism and other spaces of news as perceived by the journalists lies in the differentiation between facts and opinion” (Fenton 160).
Professional journalism should still be the main base for receiving general news stories. Citizen journalism can add to those stories, with a variety of opinions, firsthand encounters of events and up-to-date stories and images. In today’ society, we cannot go back to just professional journalism. Due to the technology that our society has grown with, people feel that they have a right to participate in news gathering and reporting. However, we cannot wipe out professional journalism completely. All in all, neither aspect of journalism can survive without the other.
