Citizens are not getting journalism out of the way

By the time I started to realize how complex the world is (I am not sure I understand it yet), Internet had reached rich societies’ daily living. 

I wouldn´t be able to say how or in which order it occurred: all of a sudden, I came of age and this globalization tool has completely changed our life.

I didn’t altogether notice this fact until I began my university career. Then, I had to get used to heard about Internet impacts on the journalism world.

Information on the new digital environmet involves talking about a huge number of changes in traditional mainstream.

"Where do people get the news?" polls and the endless debate about the future of newspapers are frequently brought up. 

Citizen journalism is one of those issues that communication professionals are dealing with for first time. The term refers to lay people writing and reporting their live experience on the net and social media. Through some modern technology tools  (such as videophones or compact digital cameras), ordinary individuals that unexpectedly find themselves as witnesses of an event, may post what is happening online. Without any professional journalism training, they would be creating, amplifying or fact-checking information.

Social networks have recently joined the game too.

Over the last few weeks, in Arab countries where protests have been taking place (Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya...), social networks gained such a magnitude that are even considered the revolts´engines. Information that dictators made inaccessible to traditional media, were reaching us thanks to Twitter or Facebook. They have become brigdes, to an extent that people have turned to them more frequently than to the mainstream media.

For those most deeply interested in social media monitoring and analyzing; Sysomos.

Changes that are coming along with massive democratization of information, allow anyone not only the access to it, but the chance to publish content online. As I have already said, new age adaptations are not always "friendly received".

Some trained journalists are practicing what migth be considered citizen journalism. They are writing blogs and harnessing the audience knowledge, going out of the traditional hierarchy. While they are doing so, for many others it is hard to get the idea: citizien journalism is a very valuable source, not a threat. A variety of worried minds and views meeting all together can only mean a freedom never reached.

Future of true journalists is not endangered. It is not an easy job to verify and to go through the countless information dumped on the internet. You need high studies, years of experience and ethical feelings if you want to do it well. Professional journalism implies the awareness that information is a social right. 

I am sorry to announce you, power forces, that the time of the most advantageous and profitable agenda setting is over.  You, persistent gatekeepers, are not the exclusive center of the information anymore.