In the blog titled “Nine Propositions Toward a Cultural Theory of YouTube”, Henry Jenkins examines the influence that social media sites like YouTube are having, and potentially will have, on society. One of these nine propositions that Jenkins investigates is the notion that YouTube functions as an important site for citizen journalists. With the technology that is present today, the amount of people who can contribute stories and images has significantly increased. However, that being said, an interesting point to take into account is if because of sites like YouTube, do we need to alter who we define as an actual journalist? Previously the belief was that Journalism was an actual profession or career. However with sites like YouTube, where posters literally need no credentials whatsoever and yet who Jenkins still terms “citizen journalists”, this aspect of Journalism as a profession is severely undercut.
You can read Jenkins full article here:
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/05/9_propositions_towards_a_cultu.html
Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communications, Journalism, and Cinematic Art at the University of Southern California. Until recently, he served as the co-founder of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More about Henry Jenkins isavailable here.
p.s. Here is a perfect example of citizen journalism at work:
UC Davis Pepper Spray
I also agree with you about the fact that we need to rethink what a journalist is because with todays technology I actually get a lot of my news from quick youtube videos which talk about a few important news which happens each day instead of watching an hour long news report or reading the actual newspaper.