'Citizen journalists' have arisen on the internet because large media outlets, especially television, have become corporate organs. They are not even timid and objective: agendas are disguised in insidious and subtle ways.
“Freedom of the Press” didn’t refer to the type of media outlets we have today. It referred to just about anyone who wanted to print something. Somehow, the legacy media outlets are trying to posture that they are “The Press” and it’s a rather empty claim, when you look at history.
What’s frightening is that many in the legacy media are attempting to stifle the competition by lobbying for laws against the “non-professional” media. And they’ve been coming pretty close to getting it done because they use partisan and skewed reporting to support the lawmakers who will do their bidding.
The ability to document events is only half of the story; a journalist also needs to be able to describe it successfully to whichever audience the material is being presented to. The term 'journalist' then runs the gamut of descriptions, all the way from a teenager writing thoughts in a diary for future reflection to Woodward and Bernstein trying to put truth and fact together on national matters of interest.
Many people are extremely disappointed with the current corporate climate and its effect on news gathering. In my own opinion, there are too many legitimate stories being swept aside by the legacy media, and the current crop of 'citizen journalists' are doing everything they can to correct this market inefficiency. Many of them do this work for free, which my opinion also tells me this is of more service to worldwide citizens then the current batch of legacy journalists.
Continue reading the full article at High Plains Pundit.
No comments:
Post a Comment