Bonnie

Citizen Journalism sites, such as OhMyNews.com are popular because they they is an enormous amount of content being added every day that is not specific to any reader demographic, unlike a newspaper which has limited space for articles only deemed as most ’newsworthy’ by editorial teams. If a citizen journalist has an article or broadcast published online that they wrote because they think it’s interesting and newsworthy, chances are someone else around the world thinks the same. Websites such as OhMyNews do not place as much emphasis on filtering stories so what is popular and newsworthy is decided but the number of hits an article gets. If an article receives an exceptional amount of hits it’s placed in the Top Stories section of the site. With hundreds of article submissions a day from citizen journalists, they need not stress about variety and exclusivity in the content. As a professional journalist reporting for a newspaper the ability look for stories and making them newsworthy is one of the most important aspects of the job and usually the one that decides how successful you become in the business. As a citizen reporter the quest for a story is not the most critical point because in many cases such as the London Bombings you have exclusive coverage, being at the scene when the event actually occured. Futhermore, citizen journalists can the upper hand in some matters by being more educated and informed than that of the traditional media. People from other professions who don’t spend their working day in a newsroom may be better equipped to report on some matters. For example Timothy Savage, a featured writer at OhMyNews, has a B.A in History and works at Nautilus Institute for Security & Sustainable Development. Mr Savages’ education has enabled him to report on various issues that may give his articles more of an edge, than perhaps a reporter of a newspaper that may not have the extensive knowledge in a subject. OhMyNews is an example of not only citizen journalism, but where the future is heading in terms of media platforms around the world.

While the article proves there is more commodities in our world today that hold the ‘free’ label, it is mainly the imperative extra that it comes with that will leave you out of pocket. The extra’s which are usually marked in fine print are in many cases marked up to account for the free items a consumer receives. A recent advertising campaign for Harvey Norman indicated that if you bought a brand new LCD T.V Flat Panel you will receive a free Nintendo Wii Mini valued at $199.00, but of course it is no use to you unless you buy the Nintendo Wii games valued at around $80.00 each in store. So while you did get something for free the retailer was hoping you would spend an additional couple of hundred dollars on games so you can play your new Nintendo Wii mini. Usually these specials are not negotiable on the additional purchase price of the television, which if you had not got something for free the consumer may have been able to negotiate a better price. Young people are especially susceptible to buying in on these sorts of marketing gimmicks given how easy it is today for people aged less than 25 years old to get credit from a credit agency or bank. The business marketing plan of getting something for free is proving to be a successful sales technique for the time being. For everyday grocery and clothes shopping, the ‘buy one get one free’ is cost effective for the consumer and usually does influence what products they buy. But for larger expenses such as technology, there are always better deals, it’s just a matter of doing your research and figuring out what you (the consumer) wants in a product, and having a set budget so you don’t get persuaded into buying something that maybe $200.00 dearer than anticipated just to receive the additional ‘freebie’.

Admittedly, I had never heard of a mo-blog or a v-log before I had read this article. However, now I do know what these technical terms really are I do see how they prove to be popular amongst bloggers. The provide instant news coverage.

With the high quality camera and video-recording devices they have developed on mobile phones people viewing blog and news online sites can see high quality pictures and video clips from news as it emerges. In the readings this week what stood out for me was the vast area that citizen journalists were news-gathering. From London, to Thailand, America and Korea, people were recording, writing, shooting, blogging, mo-blogging etc from all parts of the world. The citizen journalism phenomenon is greatly a part of the effects of globalisation. People across the world can communicate instantly through pictures, video and writing about what’s happening in their part of the world because of technology. It is evident that major news events that effect a city or a national can now effect every person in every continent with a click of a button. Terrorist attacks and natural disasters that cause widespread damage and grief are the events that seem to attract the most cross-continental attention. people can view blogs or read foreign news from online news sites and get a detailed story of an event if the local or national news does not cover it. In the case of blogs it provides a much more personalised story you never really know how credible the material is but by being able to read the posts and responses it enables the reader to gain a wider understanding of an event or news story, and peoples opinions and experiences.

This is my response to the week 2 readings: ‘Why and How Convergence is Emerging.’

What an exciting time to be entering the journalism profession. It is apparent from this week’s readings that becoming a journalist can lead to many different specialised areas within the media, and enable us to reach more audiences that no more than a decade ago was unperceived. Journalists will today’s day and age need to be multi skilled in all aspects to be competitive for job placements. As pointed out in the readings the technological advancements in society plays a key role to becoming a successful multi-skilled reporter. If you are capable of reporting, writing, editing, shooting and transmitting your own stories your skills as a journalist is much more valuable to your employer. However, the advancement in technology and the role it plays in the media may have its negatives both for the reporter and the consumer. Sitting down with a hot cup of coffee and your favourite daily newspaper is fast becoming a tradition of the past with news online sites becoming more and more popular with the new generation. And why not? It’s easy, straight forward, everlasting and best of all it’s free! While these are exciting times in journalism it is also causing a lot of people to become insecure of their futures. Hopefully, the niche market of newspaper readers will be around long enough to be able to allow media owners to figure out how embrace convergence into a profitable and quality news source that will interest and inform its reader demographic.