After looking into Wikinews last week, I decided to investigate a bit of the history of citizen journalism and what it means to be a citizen journalist today.

Wikipedia (appropriately) provides a detailed article on the matter, with over 20 references to professional articles and papers published on the topic. The article defines citizen journalism as the role of reporter being brought back to those people who were once considered “audience.” As is fairly obvious from the name, this new type of reporting involves the non-professional public to become involved in news and media.

One of the most interesting highlights is a quote from an article published by Boston College law professor Mary-Rose Papandrea in which she discusses citizen journalism and the history of press. She reminds us that “freedom of the press” originally referred to literally using a printing press, an act often done by individuals to publish both news and opinions. Only in the late 1800s did the term “press” come to mean professional individuals or companies engaged in a “competitive commercial media enterprise.” This new citizen journalism, therefore, could be seen as a return to an early form of reporting. [And don’t forget that publishing opinionated pamphlets was a major component of America’s revolution!]

Our new technology allows us to publish freely as our forefathers did, but now in high-definition and at the speed of light. We use blogs to write about our news or opinions, we comment on other sites to show approval or insight, and we whip out our camera phones to capture breaking-news. These methods give us previously unknown freedom of the press, which is exhilarating but potentially dangerous.

If you have news or opinions, if you would like to share them, and if you have access to the Internet, you can and should become a citizen journalist. The only way for the strength and credibility of the movement to improve is by spreading interest and involvement. Knowing that you are reading this, I am fairly certain that you have at least interacted in some way with citizen journalism—be it by blogging, commenting on blogs or articles, posting news-related pictures, or one of the myriad other means. If so—keep it up. If not, start a blog here at OnEarth, and expand out to wherever your interests take you.

Once you become more involved, you will see that most of the blogs and articles out there are informative and thought provoking, but there are some that are simply inaccurate, distasteful, and occasionally offensive. Next week I will deal more with the controversies and issues of controlling or curbing these potentially negative aspects.