My understanding of citizen journalism

Citizen journalism is a kind of journalism different with professional journalism. The act of citizens report and publish the news. Citizens do not receive the professional training. They just want to report and analyze whatever they are interested. So the citizen journalism also called democratic journalism. The whole people can participate and then become the journalists.

With the catalysis of modern technology, the citizen journalism with lighting speed development. Especially, with the use of internet and the mobile phone, the citizens can easily publish news and images. What is more, they can comment other people works. Because these people are not belonging to the companies, they can fair delivery information.

According to the media theorist Terry Flew states that ‘three elements in citizen journalism are that: open publishing, collaborative editing and distributed content.’ The birth and development of blog, it basically promotes citizen journalism.

A blog is a web site. People can publish whatever they are interested, like a diary. Other people can share each other stories and comment it. The blog is a tool of expression that promotes the development of citizen journalism. The joy of free expression and the great product of a free society is the interplay between the professional journalists and the citizen journalists to create more democratic journalism environment.