CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Eight years ago I was staring at my college application to UP really hard, wanting so much to write "AB Journalism" in the field Course 1 but ended up taking something totally different to avoid an uncalled-for tension between my parents. Today, kids who want to take up Journ probably wouldn't need to defend it that way as the rise of online media now heavily promotes and encourages 'citizen journalism.' Defined, citizen journalism derives from public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Facebook and Twitter have obviously been one of the best venues for this over the years, where millions of blogs, links, and status messages are shared daily over the net. 

A couple of weeks back, this has been the topic on Rock Ed Radio, my Thursday night radio fix on Jam 88.3. I'd love to share some points the two notable guests (Maria Ressa formerly of CNN Asia, and Roby Alampay of Interaksyon.com) raised during the two-hour discussion (thanks to storify.com for these feeds):

@robyalampay: I don't really use the term "citizen journalist." I'm more focused about the process of journalism.

@maria_ressa: Anyone who publishes is a journalist. A citizen journalist is someone who can publish.

@robyalampay: Whether you call yourself a citizen journalist or not, if you can publish, then you can be sued.

@robyalampay: I don't think Edu Manzano was being a citizen journalist when he tweeted that Grace Lee, President dated in Greenhills.

@robyalampay: We should be responsible as we can in protecting the integrity of that information.

@maria_ressa: Now, the people speak for themselves. The danger there is what standards do they use?

Quite obviously, there are a lot of things to discuss and to question on this topic, and even journalists themselves could not install police lines on the roles of 'citizen journalists' especially that they have all the avenues and that the availability of information has never been this fast and free.

I for one have been using blogs for years to create awareness and express my views --- but I could not consider myself a 'citizen journalist' despite draping these articles online for anybody to read. Facts are accurate, sources are cited, but the 'process' Roby is referring to may have been what I lack. And that for me simply differentiates the professionals with all those publish-hungry uploaders who feed useless and/or inaccurate information, not to mention habitual errors in structure and grammar, proudly claiming "Look, I'm a citizen journalist!"

I will forever be grateful to the online media for these kinds of tools where we can express ourselves more freely, compared to when, eight years ago, I was on a struggle to get published. But given these tools, let's remind ourselves that whether we want to call ourselves 'citizen journalists' or not, our role is not to gossip, but to educate. It is our responsibility therefore to feed our readers' minds the kind of education they deserve. And again, it's our sole accountability if we get sued. Heaven forbids. #

photo credit: jgold517