Citizen Journalism in India
Journalism is a medium to communicate with the masses. Due to the paucity of time and space, it is not possible for media, newspapers and radio channels to keep up with every form of news at the community or local level. Citizen journalism is an active involvement of the public or citizens in communicating information at the grassroots level. The term citizens media refers to forms of content produced by private citizens who are otherwise not professional journalists. Citizen media is causing fundamental changes in the media landscape.
- Media is now much more democratized because it is open to many people.
- Consumers have now become producers and vice-verse.
- A read-write Web has allowed people to write easily on the Web.
- The democratization of access to media has provided the audience many choices
Citizen journalism in India is an outcome of modern technology. The drastic increase in social networking and advancement in technology has made citizen journalism platforms more active and reachable. Citizen journalism finds its way as an alternative outlet to help marginalized rural youth to raise their voice against the local problems and disparities that they find hard to talk about otherwise.
India being one of the largest democracies in the world, citizen or participatory journalism would benefit the country in every possible way. It is for the common people, and will redefine the structure of mainstream journalism. It plays a vital role in empowering people, especially the poor and impoverished, to raise problems and issues which hitherto suffered government neglect and indifference.
People living in far-flung areas and regions with low level of educational qualifications – now use smart phones and computers to report on issues that never captured the attention of mainstream media. Issues like inadequate socio-economic development, neglect by the government, economic exploitation, access to basic services, social conflicts & violence, problems in accessing to government provisions and entitlements have all garnered attention through citizen journalism.
