New Media and Audience Participation

In a civilized society, the press has long held a distinct, almost sacred role. One of the main forces behind democracy and liberalism is a vibrant free press, and the absence of a free and independent press is a sign of a repressive and backward society. The liberal, independent media has obligations to society, the government, and even to itself. This duty entails establishing and upholding specific moral and ethical standards in order to keep society informed of news that is relevant to them in a fair and impartial manner. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to examine what citizen journalism is and how it has altered the field of journalism and the media. Leaders have always recognized the role of the free press in shaping public agenda and opinion. They have thus spared no effort in subverting the truth and in ensuring that the press only covers what is appealing. Indeed, the press has been an accomplice in some of the worst crimes committed in the past century like the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide. The United States has also suffered the vagaries of a compromised press, and this mainly manifests in war reporting to shape public attitudes. However, in the recent past, this sacred duty of Public journalism has been supplemented, almost entirely replaced, by citizen journalism.

Citizen engaged journalism facilitates increased citizen participation in public issues. The growth of citizen-engaged journalism has seen the media transform from merely a reporting vessel to become vehicles of public education and platforms where matters of public concern can be discussed (Rosenberry & St, 2010). The press no longer just reports, but it aims to help the citizens digest what has been reported and also actively tries to shape what it will be reporting on in the future. New media platforms have helped this age of journalism possible by actively and efficiently providing the audience with means to stay in the public discussion loop with their media channels.

One of the biggest news stories surrounding the United States Presidential Election in 2016 was the purported hack of the Democratic National Congress servers allegedly by Russia (Taibbi, 2017). This story was regurgitated incessantly by all the major news outlets with most of them interpreting it as a threat to America’s sovereignty. Countless debates on television and opinion pieces in the print and electronic media condemned Russia for such an audacious attack on America’s democracy. This story is still being investigated by the nation’s top security agencies.

Conclusion

Conclusively, it is hard to ignore that the fact that there have been certain milestones that have been witnessed in media in general. Given America’s history with Russia on the international scene, the media inherently knew how American’s would be enraged at the thought of Russia meddling with their treasured democratic processes. The media were in effect fanning embers for the next cold war. However, the presence of new media provided cynics and skeptics with an echo chamber to air their doubts about the authenticity of the story. The chorus of those doubting voices gave the American people an alternative opinion (Taibbi, 2017). Citizen engaged journalism has, therefore, not only made the media practice more responsible journalism, but it has also provided an opportunity for citizens to dispute the media’s authority over the truth.

References

Rosenberry, J., & St, J. B. (2010). Public journalism 2.0: The promisess and reality of a citizen-engaged press. New York, NY: Routledge.

Taibbi, M. (2017). Insane clown president: Dispatches from 2016 circus.