International Association Of Independent Journalists Inc.

[IAIJ]

Citizen Journalism in the England


By Sue Earps


Journalism for citizen journalists in the England is an unencumbered affair. In all the articles I've covered over the years, demonstrations, sport events and human interest stories, citizen journalists could do their job unmolested by police. Social media sites are most commonly used to post these happenings unlike the newspaper we run at IAIJ.

Most demonstrations used to happen at Trafalgar Square or the U.S. Embassy and were usually organized with permits to the city and well policed, yet citizen journalists, were never hassled by the authorities as far as I could see. In comparison to the broadcast news the televison and newspapers gave a more objective report, while I was more subjective to the happenings. I believe that giving a bit more than just the facts is something citizen journals can add to the usual news reporting. In a way the two forms of reporting can compliment each other to give the audience a more full bodied account of the event.

Broadcast journalists probably have to cover events that come about and as such it is more a job and easy to be more objective. Citizen journalists can pick and choose the events that they are most interested in an are less likely to be as objective. This need not necessarily be bad in the overall field of journalism, but a compliment to traditional broadcast journalism.

Citizen journalism is alive and well in the U.K. and understanding the nature of citizen journalism and traditional broadcast journalism and how they compliment each other is the best future for journalism in general.