Wikinews- Is this the future?
The term ‘citizen journalism‘ is quite a controversial one at present, sparking concern as to the fate of journalism in the near future. Put simply, ‘citizen journalism‘ is journalism contributed by ordinary citizens with no specific journalistic training. This spectrum covers everything from bloggers to the elderly voicing their opinion in the local paper and everything in between.
While on the hunt for examples of citizen journalism, I stumbled across Wikinews- a news site devoted to citizen journalism. Upon first glance, it looks to be a very well organised site. It displays categories along the top of the page, categorising the news into different sub sections, with categories including economy and news, sports and disasters and accidents. I find the choice on the several links that I clicked on to be very interesting and its organisation on the page was also very innovative.
By clicking on the ‘upload free media‘ link, it takes you to a page with several choices on it as to where the material you are uploading came from. This very page is where citizen journalism is born. Here, ordinary people can contribute to a highly popular and well regarded news site, without ever having received proper training.
Regarding interactivity, it is possible to contact the principal people involved, by hitting the ‘contact us‘ link. A ‘news quiz’ is also available as a bit of fun to encourage users to ’swat up’ before taking it.
In short, I have found this to be a truly enjoyable website. The only concern I would have is the fact that if sites such as this one breed and multiply, journalists and the art of journalism will soon be a thing of the past.
