November 25, 2011
By Richard McCormack

The recent mobile recorded demise of Gaddafi in Libya highlighted an undeniable fact in modern news media. Namely that citizen journalism, far from being a fad or short term trend, as some media reported a few years ago, is here to stay and is changing the face of news media across the planet.

Footage clearly showed rebel fighters with mobile phones recording images of Gaddafi’s capture which later appeared on the Internet and the newswires.

Social media and citizen journalism walk hand in hand and complement and feed each other. As reported in News24.co.za, within the first hour of the death of the Libyan despot last week the news generated five times more hits than any global mobile brand received across Europe, Middle East and the African region in an average month.

After the first hour almost 40 000 Tweets were sent regarding his death and the number continues to grow at a prodigious rate. A recent global search for “Muammar Gaddafi dead” resulted in a massive 13.6 million links on the Web alone.

There can be little doubt that citizen journalism and social media have become the core medium of sharing real-time news on a global scale, sometimes superceding traditional news networks in both speed and reach. The rise of citizen journalism means that traditional media outlets, such as TV news stations and newspapers, are now also the users, while their audiences can choose to be producers if they are present when a dramatic or momentous news story breaks.

The portability of mobile phone technology – to capture dramatic moments with pictures or video or update via SMS – coupled with the internet as a convenient distribution network, means that traditional media no longer have a monopoly on the news. The internet provides, if not a substitute medium, then a parallel one to the established ‘mainstream media’, a low-cost distribution mechanism that is newspaper delivery truck, paper boy, and radio and TV transmitter all in one.

Interaction and collaboration are the new buzzwords and the days of new services doling out news to a monolithic, passive audience are over.

The benefits of citizen journalism are that they can involve people in the news gathering process and excite them about the things the best journalism strives to do: explain, crusade and call to account.

Savvy journalists have accepted that the dynamic between audience and journalist has changed and they must find new, collaborative ways to tell stories.

The rise of citizen journalism means a more participatory news gathering process and mainstream news outlets that neglect to allow their readers to participate will risk losing those readers.

The quality and legitimacy of news and content will always be of primary importance but citizen journalism is here to stay and key for the media networks is that they adapt to these changing times and gives their customers useful online tools to customise, share and contribute to the news.