Citizen journalist cf. professional

To compare the citizen journalist and professional journalist, they are different but interdependent with each other. For the quality of news, professional journalist could report in-deepth. The main stream media have money to support journalist to find deep report with a story. But the citizen journalist cannot afford for the money. For the control and training, professional journalist are better than citizen journalist.

However, citizen journalist could have more communication with readers. They publish articles on the websites at the first time, and they can manage their blog, so they can communicate with reader directly. The professional journalist put story on newspaper and online, they can only read the comments late and have little responds. What’s more, citizen journalist could provide a wide range of topics to meet the readers’ needs, so the “long tail” (Anderson, 2006) could work on citizen journalist. But the professional journalist only has their own area to report, and the topics will less than citizen journalist.

In addition, the main stream media are relying on citizen journalist. The professional journalist will look at Twitter or Facebook everyday, and check what the pubic are talking about. So the professional journalist will decide what story to report, and they can touch with people. At the same time, citizen journalist can get some news and professional tips from professional journalist.

Picture via Wikimedia Commons

Reference:

Allan & Thorsen (2009),. In citizen Journalism , Peter Lang, New York,