Citizen Journalism has become more common in few years, due to the rise of social media and other digital technologies. Information are gotten and passed to people directly without any fact-checking or gatekeeping process. And this practice is highly unprofessional and unethical to journalist code of conduct.
Citizen journalism also known as participatory journalism, grassroots journalism or Street journalism, plays an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information by members of the public using website, blogs and social media.
Similarly, Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism “as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideas and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism.”
Bowman and Willis see this brand of journalism as “the act of a citizen,or group of citizen, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. This kind of journalism has been widely and prominently practiced in Nigeria with the use of microblogging sites, like Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, you tube, Tiktok and other blogsites. Information are disseminated on daily basis with the use of the use of blog sites to the public and due to availability of technology, citizens often can report breaking news more quickly than traditional media reporters.
In a 2007 article, editor J.D. lasica called it “participatory journalism,” though he described it as “a slippery creature”. However citizen journalism disseminate fake and misleading news.
Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow defines “fake news” as “News article that are intentionally and verifiably false and could mislead readers.”citizen journalism report unconfirmed and unverified information and publish it as factual and true piece of information for the public’s consumption.
Back in 2014,when the Ebola virus hit Lagos state,the city’s health care team had to contend with the spread of misinformation regarding it prevention and treatment. A piece of fake news claiming Ebola could be prevented by drinking and bathing with salt water went viral. According to symplur, a company that tracks health misinformation on twitter, Nigerians began using the words “Ebola,” “salt”, “water” and drinking” together in tweets from 2014 on August 4. Four days later two persons were reported dead in his, the capital city of plateau state.They had consumed an excessive amount of saltwater. People tends to believe what they see online completely and even act based on it.
Also, in guise of citizen journalism a social media report claimed that the only son of the rivers state Governor, Barr. Nyesom woke, was shot dead in the United States of America over the Governor’s alleged involvement in the just concluded general election in Nigeria. This turned out to be a fake news as the report was later debunked by the rivers state commissioner for information and communication, Mr. Chris finebone, who condemned the report and in his words, stated, ” The public should disregard and throw it into the trash can where it belongs.”
Journalism has expanded its worldwide influence despite continuing concerns over whether citizen journalist are as reliable as trained professionals. Citizen journalist post or report news and information in disaster zone they provide instant text and visual reporting from scene.
Today, citizen journalism has made in road in Nigeria. According to the National Bureau of statistics, the number of smartphone subscriber and users worldwide stands at over 7.26 billion in 2022/2023, representing 69 percent of the global population of the number,170 million are Nigerians. This shows that Nigerians are active users of mobile phones and therefore constitute a large number of citizen journalists.
The Nigeria constitution recognised press freedom as key to people right and liberty, section 39 sub section 1 of the 1999 constitution States that ” Every person shall be entitled freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without Interference.”This provision confers liberty and freedom of expression on citizens to share and disseminate information to the public. And this also allows citizens to freely practice citizen journalism in Nigeria.
Nigerian senate tries to regulate social media in order to prevent the spread of fake news; the latest one being the introduction of a bill titled “protection from internet falsehood and manipulation bill,v2019 (SB.132).” On 5th November 2019 to criminalise the use of the social media in bill, sponsored by senator Mohammad Sabi Musa, was able to pass first and second reading in the senate, but when the details of the bill were made public, it was criticized and opposed by civil society organisation, human right activists, international right group and the Nigerians. They strongly disagreed the introduction of the bill saying the bill was meant to restrain freedom of speech which is a universally recognised fundamental human right.
According to Prof. Okocha, advancement in technology has made citizen journalism to attain greater heights in practice and spread. It has changed event witnesses into reporter; passive media audience have become unstoppable media.
Since there’s nothing that’s absolutely good or absolutely bad, there are both pros and cons to the concept (citizen journalism). This is include; Greater access to information. With anyone able to publish information online, more information is available to the public. More diverse perspectives is as well made available. With a wider range of people contributing to the news, there is more diversity in the perspectives that are represented.
Speed of information is another merit it give to the society. With the ability to publish information instantly, citizen journalist can break news stories faster than traditional journalist. And accountability to the people: Citizen journalist can help to hold powerful institutions accountable by reporting on stories that traditional journalists might.
There are also numbers of demerit that go with this innovation in information dissemination. This include but not limited to; Lack of fact-checking: without the resources and training of professional journalists, citizen journalists may not have the ability to fact-check their stories. Bias, citizen journalist may have their own biases, which can affect that accuracy and objectively of their reporting.
Also, Lack of credibility: without professional standards and credibility, citizen journalist may not be seen as credible source of information.
And Lack of training: citizen journalist may not have the training to report on complex issues in an objective and balanced way.
Also, keep in mind that unlike a traditional media journalist, a citizen journalist can be subjective while this can be helpful to get a proper look at one side of the story, ensure that you read a few viewpoint on the same issue so that you get balanced look at a topic.
Advisorily, always have it at the back of your mind that you and other citizen journalist are human, make sure you verify information properly and be mindful in how and what you share because people react to what they see or hear.
– Olowosegun Modupe Bridget
300 Level Student of Mass Communication Department,
Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba, Kogi state.
