P2 – Citizen Journalism and media platforms used for distribution

Citizen journalism is a way for civilians to publish their news stories online, which has increased over the years due to the rise of technological convergence. This has allowed millions of people to access the media on a larger range of media platforms including social networking websites such as Twitter.  Citizen journalism is where citizens collect news and distribute it online whether that be onto social media or websites specifically for citizen journalists. Many news consumers may prefer citizen journalists as they often give a point of view of a story, including their photos if they took any at the time.

The news audience are now able to interact with the news by giving their opinions on matters through platforms such as social media. This can be done through hashtags that are shown on news TV programmes so that their audience can tweet their opinions with the hashtag included. This allows the news to be able to see what their audience believe and may even read some of their tweets out on air to encourage more users to contribute. Due to the technological convergence and increase of social media use, online news sites now have the ability to include links to sites such as Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of each news article. This allows readers to share the article with their friends via email or social media which effectively lets more people see it, increasing the websites audience. Many news consumers may now prefer online news distribution methods as they are very convenient due to news apps being available on smartphones no matter where the consumer is located as long as they have a WiFi or 3G connection. This is often free of charge and a lot quicker news unlike print newspapers. As soon as news happens it can instantly be reported on social media or news apps whereas traditional methods can take up to a day to distribute the news to the public. 

Example: Sky News’ Twitter post with the public commenting

Twitter/Facebook are both effective ways of distributing news as they have millions of daily users. It is easy for them to get cost-effective recognition on social media as its easy for their tweets to reach members who may not even follow their page through features such as ‘retweeting’ or sharing. Posting these stories on social media allows the audience to contribute by commenting their opinions which can open up discussions between other social media members. Additionally, modern technology on websites allow features such as hyperlinks to be used which can show relating articles. These can be embedded into the website to give the user an option to gain more knowledge if they are intrigued by the original article they had visited.

One in twenty (6%) use all four main platforms for news – i.e. TV, radio, newspapers and the internet. One in five (19%) uses only TV for news. - source: ofcom.com 

TV and radio broadcasts only really show key information relevant to the story whereas online platforms can make the most of advances in technology to go into greater depth on all aspects of the story. for example, they can include several hyperlinks to relating articles to allow the reader to gain greater knowledge on the subject if they wish to learn more.

There are several news companies that are very reliable across the world that are regulated by Ofcom such as BBC and Sky News. as these news companies are regulated they are to be deemed as very reliable by the general public whereas news from tabloids or social media accounts arent seen to be reliable as they arent regulated and can often publish false news.