The significance of citizen journalism

Citizen journalism, to a certain extent, has changed the situation that the right of public opinion supervision is assumed and completed by the news media, and has become the people's supervision of state affairs and social affairs through the news media. Citizen journalism supervises the government and makes its work more democratic and transparent. In the South China Tiger incident, for netizens, the original core of the incident is actually insignificant. They are more concerned about the integrity of the government and the integrity of officials in the incident. On June 5438+065438+1October 2 1 day, 2007, People's Daily published People's Review and Who was Shamed by the South China Tiger Incident, which bluntly criticized the "dishonesty" and "quick success" of local officials. On February 20th of the same year, 65438, People's Daily made persistent efforts to publish the tiger photo incident. Under the strong pressure of public opinion, on February 9, 2007, No.65438, the State Forestry Administration asked Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Department to entrust a national professional appraisal institution to appraise the original materials such as the photos of South China tigers taken by Zhou Zhenglong according to law, and truthfully announce the appraisal results. In the incident, the local government changed from covering up denial to information disclosure, publicly admitting mistakes and conforming to public opinion. We have to say how powerful public opinion is, and the role of citizen journalism is even more indispensable.

1. Citizen journalism was born in Sheldon, USA in 1990s. Gunnar trani put forward several definitions of citizen journalism from different sources. He believes that citizen journalism is the efforts of journalists in print and broadcast media. In their reports, they will listen more actively to the public's expressions and solutions to problems, and create more active audience participation by consciously giving citizens more voices, so as to enrich newspaper and radio reports. "Citizen journalism is a direct response to the appeal of social responsibility theory to meet the needs of different groups forming a large group, and it continues the commitment of American media to social responsibility theory." Citizen journalism not only bears the social responsibility of traditional media, but also puts forward higher requirements for the professional ethics and responsibilities of media and news, which promotes the development and realization of social responsibility theory.

2. People-oriented, improve the ability of media supervision. Citizen journalism is a kind of public participation news, which pursues the people-oriented value concept and puts public interests, especially those of vulnerable groups, in the first place. Its duty is not only to supervise and report, but to improve the public's ability to accept and process information, pay attention to the quality of communication and dialogue between the public, build a real public space, and improve the public's critical consciousness and solving ability on public affairs.

3. Democratic participation to cultivate the sense of responsibility of the audience. The role of the media in this process is mainly reflected in guiding the public to solve public problems and cultivating the public's ability to think about public problems, establishing the public's self-awareness, attracting the public's attention to surrounding events, excavating the real causes of events and cultivating the public's sense of responsibility. The cultivation of this sense of responsibility makes the freedom and obligation advocated by social responsibility devolve to the grassroots level dominated by the general public, distribute social rights and obligations in a balanced way, and create a harmonious discourse exchange environment.

4. The purpose of citizen journalism is to invite citizens to participate in the collaborative production of news reports, discuss and negotiate with public or community issues, rebuild the interaction between audience and society, society and media, and media and audience, awaken residents' civic awareness and public attention to public affairs, and make it the main body of public life.

As long as the media tries to influence society, the problem of responsibility is inevitable. The arrival of the era of citizen journalism has greatly promoted the theory of social responsibility, made the content of media reports go deep into the level of the general public, felt their sufferings and enhanced their sense of responsibility. At the same time, the public, as the receiver, began to participate in the production and dissemination of news, and to some extent gained the right to speak and spread. This way of the whole people participating in news production not only strengthens the sense of responsibility of journalists, but also cultivates the ability of ordinary people to think and solve national affairs and social environment. In such an atmosphere, it is bound to create a responsible and harmonious society.