Initial Thought and Research

There are many changes that are occurring as it relates to the field of journalism and the change I have decided to delve more into is the topic of citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic" or "street journalism") is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are shaping the Future of News and Information.
This definition completely dissects what citizen journalism can do on all levels. The fundamentals of this phenomenon have always existed, because the citizens have always been the heart of a story and the eyes and ears of what occurs in the community. This just grants them the opportunity to execute their thoughts in online blogs to shine light on an issue that may not have otherwise been covered. I decided to find out more about this particular topic as it relates to editing because it is becoming more popular as many people are blogging about various things that happen in the community. This things range from things such as a teen blogging about her experiences at school, or a witness to a crime writing about the account of the incident. The first piece of information that I found that correlates to citizen journalism is from an article by Steve Outing. In it he describes some pros and cons of allowing the public to report on community events.
Before giving examples of how Outing feels, I will describe the changes I see and how citizen journalism is changing editing in particular. As stated in the assignment sheet, for the purposes of this assignment editing means checking stories for accuracy, sense and writing style; packaging content visually, such as designing print or Web pages; interacting with readers through blogs, social networking and discussion forums. Citizen journalism affects many of these aspects in negative and positive ways. For example, the first component of editing is checking stories for accuracy. This can become an issue with the citizens not being skilled reporters and they may not check sources as a journalist would do and have been taught to do. Outing suggests that the writer before acknowledging anything to be correct from citizens to check facts as to not get duped (Poytner Online). Another downside I feel there is to this that Outing addresses thoroughly is sense and writing style. A journalist has experience and knows not to be biased in a story, whereas in the world of citizen journalism you may get a story that is inherently biased. Outing brings out a point that is occurring, “Some news websites have had trouble with readers posting objectionable content in comment areas.” This showcases how some sites are hesitant to reader comments and moving toward citizen journalism. With these changes to the editing of style, and writing accurately, I plan to look more into the pro side of this change in journalism that is affecting editing. (504)