Essay on the Potentials and Pitfalls of the New Media

Citizen journalism involves the collection, reporting and analyzing of information and news by citizens. The main aim of citizen journalism is to provide free, relevant, secure, correct and extensive covering information that is needed in a democratic state (Allan, Stuart & Einar, 2009, p20). Audience participation as a type of citizen journalism involves people commenting on new stories, blogs, photos, video footage that are captured and local news. People are no longer silent listeners or observers, but they have the opportunity to give their views by being active creators and critics. Citizen journalism takes place because people want to improve the society by airing their grievances. People can be able to participate in social processes whereby citizens employ press tools and inform others. This journalism emerged due to the positive change of technology and communication such as the internet. Citizens collect the news and distribute using mobile phones, i-pod, computer and the internet system. Private people mainly own the mass media, and their primary goal is to make a profit, unlike Citizen Journalism which is used to correct many sources of information and create a clear and true view of the world.

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The change of media contents being in control of few individuals to the media being owned by all people is a good revolution in the world. The new media transforms all social, economic, political and cultural aspects of life. With the availability of information freely to citizens, people get connected. The risk of war, violation of human rights is low because the voiceless eventually find a place to air their grievances to the authorities. Citizen journalism is very important to the society because the established media may fail to communicate all the relevant information to people and in other underdeveloped regions supply of news may be insufficient. According to Gladstone, a lot of information broadcasted by the mainstream media is full of bias. Gladstone argues that everything that we don't like about the mainstream media was also present in the creation. The mainstream media is full of corruption and coward practitioners. It is clear that the people in power easily manipulate the mainstream, individuals with self -interest and it is likely to broadcast lies from those people.

One of the potentials of new media is educating and informing the general public. Citizen journalism has helped many people be aware of the social, cultural and political issues. Twitter, blogs, Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms are digital interactive places where people exchange their views about certain issues, and there is leakage of information to the public. Through the Internet, citizens can organize rallies and mobilize each other to defend any political, economic and social issues. The public can be able to inform each other about the progress of the movement and also educate each other about the need to fight for their rights. The mew media then plays a significant role in educating the general public about arising issues. The public can be able to discuss issues of natural disasters such as floods facing the world. While the mainstream media may not be able to air full stories of all problems, people can be able to access the information and give their feedback. According to Lunsford, everything is an argument and not only do citizen journalism help in educating the public, but also help the government and private institutions in policy making.

Citizen journalism gives people a platform to speak whereby they can say their views. Even though professional journalists report on different issues, bloggers, and other social media platforms explain the stories in a detailed way. In cases of circulating video footages, people can be able to speak and comment on the issue. Images and stories that cannot be broadcasted can be easily accessed on the internet (Bucy, Erik & John, 2004, p63).Some media stations may be one sided when broadcasting on issues such as politics, economic and other current issues, which may be different in citizen journalism because people freely discuss the truth. Citizen journalism acts as another check for the mainstream press as they ensure that all the information is put to the general public so that they can view the stories in details. People can freely get different information from the internet and comment about them with no fear or limitation. By using the internet, members of the public can research on various things and then give their contribution about the same.

Public debate on how to deal with different economic, social and political issues is possible with the new media and can involve many people. In the case of economic crisis the public can be able to contribute the factors that they think has led to the situation and still offer ideas on how to solve the problem. Citizen journalists give information to the public about the impact of climatic change on their daily lives to keep people updated. According to Hoffman, new media has power, and people have the right to speak and can participate in most decisions that affect them. The new media is empowering people with the information that is needed to control their day to day activities. Media is important in many aspects of world development, such as fighting corruption through transparency, helps to strengthen the civil society and the rule of law. People's idea and technology lead to social change. Through the help of new media in a democratic state, the power of people is exercised whereby access to open information fulfills human freedom. As clarified by Hoffman, new media has the power that nobody ever thought existed or even people believed it had. Citizens can freely discuss political issues. All the historical events, party issues, the government system, are all scrutinized by the citizens with the help of new media. In the past, such scrutiny would lead to physical violence, but the internet has brought an end to that.

During the past years, many communities used the media for propaganda because human freedom was not considered. Women were meant to stay at home, and the girls were not allowed to go to school while boys were being taught difficult languages that they did not understand. The media and new technology helped many states become developed and accept modernity within few years. The new media have contributed the status of how women are viewed and them being involved in leadership. The society is highly informed about each individuals rights and how to put them in practice. The new media in the current society has become the main driver of the state economy, politics, social change and even the government. The dictatorship experienced in the past was because people were not given a chance to give their opinions. With the use of the new media, people can be able to discuss politics because people have embraced the freedom to speak their minds.

With the availability of the new media and internet connection, a lot of information is always at citizen's fingertips. The quality of information on the internet can be either excellent or horrific. People should be very careful when dealing with the information retrieved online. Citizen journalism and new media post are difficult to society on what to believe and what not to believe. Unlike the traditional journalism where the information revealed to the community is safe, new media information may not always be true. Members of the public must recheck the details and accuracy of the information before they comment or react. People who want attention can record and write anything, post it on the internet and present it as a fact. Some photoshopped images may also be used to convince people about different issues which may be lies or a way of inciting people. This news can be unreliable and misleading to the society because they may be false.

Citizen journalism may be a limitation to only the audiences who can access the internet. Not all people can freely access the internet in the world. Many people own the international broadcast such as the radio and television, so it has many audiences. The easiest way to avoid being misled by the new media is, not trusting any chain emails. Information sent to numerous recipients making extraordinary claims may be directed by people with self -interests. Being aware of the photoshopped images that circulate on the internet and checking every quote before commenting and reacting is important.

All the information available in the new media is not pleasing. Gladstone asks if it is safer for the citizens not to know all the information. The public is exposed to many details that may discourage them in their daily lives, like knowing that a certain company dumps harmful materials in the river that people get water from. All the members of the public will not be pleased to know some issues, but at that moment they cannot change anything. This is a pitfall of the new media because pressing matters may be exposed to the internet and people in the society may feel betrayed.

Although the new media has connected people from different parts of the world, it has hacked many people's lives and privacy. A lot of time is spent on the internet where news spread very fast at an uncontrollable rate. If the general public targets someone in authority, the reputation of that individual may be tarnished. The stories created may be false from the person's opponents with the aim of destroying the reputation of that person. No one is available to edit the stories that are spread via the citizen journalism. Many stories available on the internet may bring hatred because many people may believe stories that false. Different people may spread many videos, pictures and even photoshopped images just to see the response that the citizens will have, without considering the negative effects of spreading false information to be viewed by the general public. Some people have become lazy because of getting addicted to the internet to observe the trending events and stories on the internet. Social, economic activities may be affected as many people spend much of their time on the internet other than in other activities that build the society economy. In conclusion of the pitfalls that face the new media, citizen journalists need to be careful with the information that they spread to the internet to avoid misinforming the public. People should also use polite language when commenting and airing their views on different issues that are on the web.

In conclusion, new media and citizen journalism can help the society acquire social, economic and political change. To achieve this change, citizens can share their views about different factors that affect the economy of the state. Education is the key to success whereby positive minded people can teach others about the need to be cooperative to achieve the success of the society as a whole. The new media acts as a voice for the voiceless because citizens are given a chance to contribute even in policy making. The government officials can get ideas on how to change the state of society by considering the views of the citizens. Members of the public can also comfortably discuss political affairs using the new media and are allowed to criticize politicians who do not represent them well in the government so that they can be challenged and start working. The information and ideas from citizens are very critical (Mortensen & Mette, 2015, p35). Any problems arising in the society reach the respective authorities quickly with the help of citizen journalism. Changes can be done to issues that arise every day to improve the welfare of the society. With the help of citizen journalism, it is easy for the community to make social, economic and political changes.

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