My Opinion On Citizen Journalists

I was recently asked how I feel about Citizen Journalists and I can't say that hate them because that would be an oxymoron especially since that refers to all of you, the audience following my blog. In fact that's why we are using Blogger to be reporters, writers, commentators and critics who express their opinions on the Internet about a variety of topics. However, as Citizen Journalists we have a responsibility to show that all of us are more than a pajama wearing army of people who spread gossip around the Internet by giving ourselves credibility as writers. Giving yourself credibility as a Citizen Journalist if you have a working career is just as simple as posting a link on the bio for your Blog that connects to your profile on the website for the company you work at or professional articles that you may have written.

The Blogger profile for professional TV Critic Alan Sepinwall linked from his Blog What's Alan Watching.

Although for those of us who are students in Writing for New Media Class the idea of giving ourselves credibility as Citizen Journalists or Bloggers is more complicated because we may say that we are film, sound or web site design majors but we don't have the credentials like a degree. This is where posting movies, pictures and hyperlinks comes in handy because we can use another person's credibility to back up our thoughts and opinions that we leave open to the audience of the world wide web, thus making us true Citizen Journalists.
A screencap of Beatnik Babble Broadcast a Blog that does a great job of backing up its information with movies, pictures and hyperlinks.

In a nutshell that is why I think that Citizen Journalists are needed to allow us, members of a Writing New Media Class and the rest of the world to see each others thoughts and opinions without needing to travel. With that being said there needs to be more true Citizen Journalists like our New Media Class who backs up their posts with sources and less of the Gossipers who live in their Mother's basement. This will benefit the Internet because if more Journalists like us come into existence we might force the Gossipers upstairs in to the world of backing up facts with sources.