Citien Journalism

The concept of citizen journalism derives from public citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. Citizen journalism is practiced by professional and non-professional journalists working together. Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.

New media technology, such as social networking and media-sharing websites, and the increasing prevalence of cellular phones have made citizen journalism more accessible to people all over the world, who can often report breaking news much faster than traditional journalistic avenues. Notable examples of citizen journalism being used to report major world events include the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement. At the same time, the unregulated nature of citizen journalism has drawn criticism from professional journalists for being too subjective, amateurish, and haphazard in quality and coverage.

September 11, 2001 seemed to be the first time I notice citizen journalism. People all over New York were showing what they had seen from their point of view. News stations were streaming these videos on TV and on the web. People were able to show what at that moment they witnessed. All over the web, you could see various web videos of the event. People were in shock over what they witnessed. People were also able to see the hard work our firefighters and rescue personnel put in live as the activity took place.

With the technologies we have today, people are able to simply record information on their phone. We often see videos on the news in poor quality because those videos were from citizen journalists. It takes time for a news team to get to a site. What they have missed is covered by citizens. Due to private ownership of social media technology, it has allowed professional news teams to rely on citizen journalism to report the news.

In the future I believe citizen journalism will evolve even more. Look at the popularity of U-TUBE as a prime example.  Many people are beginning to find that the news is slanted and prejudice depending on who is telling the news and their political beliefs and agenda. Since most people believe they cannot trust the news, new websites will be created for people to enjoy what others have to offer. We will be able to make our own decisions and formulate more valid opinions based on viewing the facts with our own eyes based on first-hand citizen journalism. With each new social media technology finding its way into our hands, we have to ask, "What is next for Citizen Journalism?"

Hit me with Your best shot! :p

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or cell phones. Throughout this semester, I have discussed the harms technology has on our youth. My main focus has been on cyberbullying.

Recently, the Bert Show on radio station 99.7 had an episode on the right age for a kid to have a cell phone. Some parents called in and said they gave their kids a cell phone at four years old; others said they waited until their kid was a teenager. The average was around the age of twelve years old. I remember I did not receive a cell phone until I was 14 years old. This made me seriously disturbed.

My nephew, who is eight years old, uses his mother’s phone to play games.  He has no need or desire to use the cell phone for calls and/or texting. The real topic on The Bert show was... "What do young kids have to text about?"

This is where cyberbullying comes in to the picture. Kids are able to spread rumors on their cell phones. Articles in the newspapers are indicating that kids are being subjected to being cyber bullied at younger and younger ages. Why are parents opening them up for this abuse? A recent movie was even released called Cyberbully. This issue is becoming so popular that celebrities are even starting a movement to stop the cyberbullying.

Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident. Cyberbullying may rise to the level of a misdemeanor cyberharassment charge, or if the child is young enough, may result in the charge of juvenile delinquency. Most of the time cyberbullying does not go so far as to be criminal in nature, even though parents often try and pursue criminal charges. When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right.

~These facts raise several questions. Should cyberbullying be illegal? Are parents not paying attention to their children? How far can cyberbullying go until we actually see it as a problem?~

Technically, we cannot pass a law about cyberbullying. Why? People say bad things about politics! People dislike movie stars! People will not like other people! It is our first amendment to practice our freedom of speech and courts cannot take it away. People can stop it though. Parents can start by monitoring their children’s internet and cell phone activities more closely.  Educate children on how to use proper use the Internet and cell phone.  Use parent blocking on websites that utilize social interaction medias and chat rooms to when they can watch the conversations that take place.  Educators and coaches can listen to the conversations kids are having at school and during extracurricular activities and call attention to incidents that they feel may be suspect of cyberbullying.  Most of all, provide opportunities for youth to convene together under adult supervision to discuss the harm cyberbullying does to the self-esteem of peers.

Cyberbullying will continue because society can’t catch all the bullies especially when the activities usually happen when others are aren’t watching. However, awareness must continue to be escalated to the extreme so that the innocent can be protected. New forms of cyberbullying will soon emerge and perhaps laws will be passed. My voice is for protecting our innocent children and not allowing technology to stir up more mayhem. Let’s try to use good judgment and open our eyes wide as we become the future parents, educators and coaches of children in a cyber-world of closet bullying.

Thoughts

It is coming to the end of my class and I thought I would share some insight on what I have learned. My basic focus this semester has been my concern over some of the negative aspects of today’s new communication technology. I also have focused on the control that the web world has created.

Every day when we talk in class I always say, "My kids will not live this way." My class mates can see that I have genuine concern for kids in today’s generation. One of my favorite stories to tell is of my nephew Ayden. My nephew is eight years old and is in love with zombies. He also loves to play XBOX online. I often sneak into his room and see him sitting in his boxer shorts with his head set placed tightly over his ears yelling at the television monitor. He strategizes with other kids and they kill those zombies! 

This sounds ridiculously cute, but it worries me. I often hear him telling other players to stop cussing. After sometimes hours of playing, he turns into a zombie himself! His eyes turn red from constantly staring at the television and his skin is pale with lack of sunlight. What is my sister thinking!

During my childhood, my sister’s and I were constantly running outside and getting into trouble. We would climb trees and scratch our knees. We would explore muddy creek beds and bring home “critters”, dead and alive. I would come in filthy from the day outside and exhausted from the activities. This of course comes with a few hospital visits due to nails going through feet, arms being broken, and cuts and scrapes to be proud of. But I lived life in the real world.

This virtual world that has evolved is not healthy.  We are not meant to live our lives through a television or computer screen. We are meant to go out into the world and actually play tennis, river raft, build forts, and explore and experience life.

These games offer some opportunity for activity while playing them, especially the WII and XBOX Connect where you have a motion detector and are prompted to move accordingly. The games do not allow kids to experience real life though and so their perception of the world is through fantasy and illusions of what someone else has created. Where are the treasured memories of playing outside and running around? My nephews will be sitting around a television watching a fantasy land created for them. I created my own fantasies. I was a mermaid in the pool; Barbie in my convertible; a monkey when I climbed a tree and hung from the tree limbs. My brain allowed me to create my own fun and God added the natural vitamin D from the sun to complete this healthy lifestyle.

Video games, electronic toys and virtual reality have become today’s playground for our generation. Kids do not create their own games with their own imagination. Their imagination is focused on a world that is trapped inside in computer box. My lectures from class show that I am not supportive of parents throwing their kids into video games. My values somehow have remained a little “old-fashion” consisting of taking your kids somewhere they can experience what the world has to offer. As I drove by the local daycare today, I couldn’t help but to reflect on the empty playground.  It was a beautiful sunny day with Spring blooming everywhere.  Why weren’t the children in the play yard watching a bug, hanging from the jungle gym, or hiding in the mock forts?  They were probably inside playing video games or learning from a computer screen…..

TELEVISION!

My childhood consisted of me walking in from school and seeing my dad in front of the television. He was constantly on his island. Even today, when I see him, he is in his chair watching television. I see my sister's husband and he also sits on his couch and puts himself in television mode. Reality shows and even television become part of peoples schedule. Are people living their life through the television set?

The book, DigitalCulture by Glen Creeber and Royston Martin, addresses how television and programming has evolved over the years. In the 1990s, I remember huge wood TVs that took five people to move. We also had a huge satellite in the yard that my dad's friends seemed to be obsessed with. As I grew older, bigger TVs evolved into plasma screens and flat screens. The new big thing to have now is 3D television.

Not only have TVs evolved but also programming has evolved. We started off with tapes and then converted over to DVDs. People started to have satellite and cable with more and more channels. Programs have evolved to have different genres for different people. People can purchase sports packages, movie packages, and even gaming packages.

Digital age has evolved so much that many people live their lives through the TV with Reality shows. I frequently have to quickly do homework in order to watch my scheduled program. My sister's husband had to get HD because it made the television seem more real. Television is not supposed to be real. It is supposed to inform us and help give information faster, but now it has lost its purpose.

Family time now consist of sitting around a TV and watching a movie or a show the family enjoys. We have become inactive in life, and with the people we care most about. Television alone has increased obesity levels because kids are no longer seeking the outdoors for entertainment. Parents allow their children to live their lives on the television instead of giving the attention and physical activity they need.

As television evolves, I can see us sitting around as a bunch of people in the movie Wall-e. We will all be sitting in our own personal island with a television in front of us living out our lives. We need to look back to when television wasn't in our lives and see what we have lost.

Wiki-Wiki

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration.

This is all very interesting to those of us that live every minute of our lives using mass communication but to people who do not know or even care about mass communications, an article or book like this could be easily passed over. Wait! I can tell you about this book in a way that sounds more interesting. I can tell you what the book discusses and my opinions about the book. All of this is what the book refers to as Wikinomics.

First let’s start with the term Wikinomics. Wikinomics includes the sub-word “wiki”. Wikis are typically power by wiki software and are often created collaboratively multiple users. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, and notetaking.

The book talks about peer production, Ideagoras, and prosumers. As an individual who did research on the topic, again a part of wikinomics, I can tell you in laymen terms exactly what the book has to say. I also can give you a review about the book in case you want to research this book. I consider calling this review research, but it now has its own technical term.

In our period of time, which I have referred to often in my blogs, we have changed how we buy and how we look at production. For example, I wanted the kindle fire really bad! When I want something I start to look it up online. I can read reviews about what people are saying about the kindle fire. In my research I learned, even though they had excellent reviews, it did not have 3G. My view of the product changed because of what people had to say.

When I was a child, I remember I wanted toys because I would see my friends on the playground with these toys. I wanted them too! Wikinomics has evolved into its own playground for adults. We can write reviews about jobs we have experienced, teachers who we have had, products we enjoyed, and anyone can read about it. The good thing about this is as adults we seem to have more money to actually get it (or else more credit). It makes me think that we have more control then we actually think about products.

Product information about a product that consumers are not happy about can spread instantly and we can save others from buying a bad product. Products and companies will then either fix the products or take it off the market. This might sound blunt but people who do not use wikinomics will ultimately buy faulty items and later post disgruntled reviews, thus helping those people who use wikinomics.  Money is saved and companies are put on notice to improve poorly manufactured products.

Wikinomics maybe a crazy word to use for something so simple, but it is a word we can learn from. The consumer needs to know we have more control over companies, because we are allowing these companies to rip us off. We are allowing people to treat us unfairly and they are able to do so. Blog about them, write a review, we have the control. TAKE IT!

Subculture it!

 Technology has become a way for people to express themselves over the web and for a vast amount of people to hear about what others have. Since technology has increased so rapidly, subcultures have formed over the web. Subcultures are a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture they belong to. This can include hackers who steal credit cards online or people who make their own websites for people to communicate the so called “truth” about what they believe.

Blogs have become a culture of their own. People are able to discuss their lives and their views for anyone to see. Blogging has become a new type of writing in our generation that has never been experienced before.  Stories like The Diary of Anne Frank took years to be written let alone published. Now our personal diaries can be published online to be read by those who want to hear our personal everyday life stories. These blogs can change people's lives and we do not have to wait anymore for them to be published in a book.

Online webcams have also become popular in our generation. We are constantly using youtube or skype to view people's lives. This can include funny videos and even heartfelt videos. We can relate to these videos and have feelings for those in the videos even though we have never met the people viewed. We no longer need to wait for the scheduled programmed news to come on the television to find out what’s happening in the world.  It most likely will be posted via a video of some sort on the web seconds after it occurred. The other weekend my mom laughed and laughed about a talking dog video that was posted. Another video showed in class was of a boy confessing he was gay online. It received a lot of media attention and people began to support him.   We can support other people we have never met because the web allows this. Online video can elicit instant truth in the eyes of the beholder because there aren’t all the FCC regulations standing in the way

There are consequences though to all this online technology. Because we have become so evolved in technology, we now have hackers and cybercrime. Sexual predators are now seducing younger children over the internet through IMS. Hackers can now steal your identity because all of our information is available and always exit out of websites.  The internet has become dangerous in a way we are only beginning to really discover.  Just consider all the financial information, bank accounts and National Security documents that are on a website……

As I stated before, the web is a tool that can hurt us AND bring us together as we join online communities to support each other.  For example, as teen suicide has increased because of cyber bullying, other teens have been able to come together and combat these bullies over the web. The web will increasingly be used for the good and the bad because anyone and everyone have access and are allowed to use it. Regulation is impossible because it is so enormous and so instantaneous. The internet is unique in the fact that everyone has a say even those we believe shouldn't.

GAME IT UP!

One of the earliest examples of video games was produced in 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith. Since then video games have become part of the everyday digital culture. We are even able to go to a certain channel on our cable and play video games with a remote. Video games have evolved not only by their historical/ cultural development, but also their academic development.

The book Digital Culture explains many games and how they evolved over time. In 1958, Tennisfor Two came out and ran on a oscilloscope. Video games really came out when the cold war came about. Both parties of war decided to rely on technology for attack and defenses. Because of the competitions between America and Russia, games like Spacewar emerged in 1962.  This game used a micro computer. The object of the game was to shoot torpedoes at one another without hitting other space objects.

As more and more video games started to come out, many countries started to jump on board like Japan with SEGA. Not only were computer games popular, but hand held devices started to become popular and then TV games broke out. These games were becoming so popular more space for these games were then formed. Better graphics and colors were added to enhance a “gamers” experience.

During my life I have watched video games become more and more important in the daily lives of my friends, nephews and even my older siblings.  When I was young video games were not that big of a deal to me. Now I am fascinated with all the Just Dance games. I am able to work out and move around over a video game and I find that pretty cool. Even though Just Dance is one of my favorite games, I don’t consider myself a “gamer” and don’t spend as much time playing video games as guys do.

I often hear males talk about video games and what are the best video games to play. Playing online with friends has become one of the biggest things to do now. With guys, I feel like it is a masculine thing to do. I have had several boyfriends and my nephews who will not let me play because I might mess up their score. The same goes for my brothers. It is as if they stereotype women video game players as not being very good.  I am not going to be good at twiddling my thumbs around. Huh??  Personally, I find I have more important things to do with my time.

As for the younger generation, I feel sorry for them. I recall many childhood activities such as playing in the woods, reading books, playing “Barbies”, making mud pies, scuffing up my knees riding my bike or playing soccer, and spending countless hours in the swimming pool. When I am babysitting my nephews, all they want to do is sit in front of the TV playing video games and that is great fun for them. After a while they start to look like zombies they are trying to kill in the games. I often try to turn the games off, but they can’t stand it.  They say they are bored and soon return to the video games. It’s as if they have to or need to play because they don’t know what else to do.

Video games are cool virtually because you can be someone else that you never thought you could be. However, I do believe that there is a difference between playing video games occasionally and being dominated by them to a point where they run your life.

Beep... I got a TEXT!!!!

As I was reading the chapter, The Nostalgia of the Young, in Alone Together, I realized how I was not really actively absorbing the information that I was reading.  It was as if the book wasn’t even there with me. Yes, I was reading and sitting in my living room, but I was not there reading my book. I was paying attention to my phone and wanted to talk to someone instead of reading. As a college student, I did not think that it was out of the ordinary that I did not want to do homework. However, it WAS weird that even though I appeared to be doing homework, I was really in another world with the person I was texting.

Author Sherry Turkle discusses in chapter 14 how teenagers are often in a world of texting or IM instead of in the world they are actually living. It’s as if the people involved in texting have stepped into a zone oblivious of the real world. We are constantly waiting for that text and IM and thinking about it instead of concentrating on the task at hand. I should be concentrating on my best ever blog, but I answer my text again. The way I see texting is that it is not rude to text; it is rude to keep someone waiting for a message! That is when I looked at my book and thought... TURKLE IS RIGHT!

There have been countless times when I have been talking to my mom and she is on her Treo planner busily attending to her schedule. What I have to say never enters her brain. I know of times where my mom has given me a chore and I am on my phone and I am completely oblivious to what task she has given me. The bad and sad part is everyone does it.  We either make an “actively listened to” face to face conversation non-existent or we make it known to everyone.

The other day I wanted to do something sweet for my boyfriend. My first thought was to write something sweet on his Facebook wall. A personal message that I wanted to express to him was then made known to everyone reading Facebook. To make matters worse, his family and friends commented on it. A special comment that I wanted to be sweet and personal became a joke. I could have written him a letter, sent a card, or left a message on his voicemail, but instead I let the whole world in.

Again I came to the realization that Turkle was “spot on” about personal conversation.  In my mind and in the minds of many others, calling someone and verbally telling them something is not good enough anymore. We have somehow been conditioned to believe that we have to post our most intimate and personal messages in a manner in which it is made known to everyone. The input and feedback from others actually matters in my personal relationship. If I post a status or comment that generically deals with men, people automatically assume it specifically refers to my personal relationship. Because of Facebook and blogs, my life is no longer private but worldwide!

I often have people who I haven't seen or communicated with in a very long time, write comments on how wonderful my relationship is with my boyfriend. Yes, I love my relationship, but they are making assumptions by blogs and what they see over Facebook. They really don’t “know” what is real. And when we actually get together face to face and those people have the opportunity to see my relationship in person, they chose to be elsewhere…. On their telephone engrossed in a text conversation or examining someone else’s Facebook posting.  They never actually see what my relationship is or even who I am.  Eventually, we start to lose those relationships because we are not capable of making real life personal and caring.

This is the last Sherry Turkle chapter that we will be discussing in class and what I learned in this book has become dear to me. I do not want to be just another intangible someone on the internet. I want people to see who I am in person as well as to know me over the web. I also understand that I must Chose to live my life without technology running it for me.  Sure, I want to stay in touch with my family and friends interactively on the web, but I also have come to understand the value of looking someone directly in their eyes and express an intimate emotion or comment without the drama of everyone else’s opinion.  

If true communication is7% words, 38% voice tone, 55% body language, how in the world do we understand each other if we are missing out on all of the nonverbal stuff by texting, IM and Facebook?

PostSecret IT!!!

PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits.

I was introduced to PostSecret my freshman year of college. My soccer teammate showed me the website and I immediately became hooked. People share intimate secrets of their life anonymously. I noticed that in blogs and comments these secrets impacted people's lives. Other people manage to apply these secrets to their personal lives and overcome so much just from hearing these secrets.

In the book Alone Together by Sherry Turkle, Turkle discusses PostSecret in chapter 12, True Confessions. Turkle says that these confessions are therapeutic because people are getting these thoughts out thus releasing issues that may be burdening them in some way. By people revealing their secrets anonymously, they do not feel they have to be judged, hurt, or criticized for speaking what is on their mind.

As I read Turkle’s Chapter 12, I became intrigued. I started to research why people confessed online instead of to their friends or close family members. Websites then started to pop onto my search screen with thousands of people sharing their personal lives to people they do not even know. Then it made me think. Why do I share secrets with friends? Why do I have to tell someone's secret even though I am not supposed to?

When I share my secrets with others, I want people to relate to what I am going through or feeling. I do not want to feel alone! Sending in secrets to PostSecret or posting anonymous comments allows for people to read other peoples secrets and relate to them. They are able to identify with people and get things off their chest without revealing their shortcomings, faults or mistakes.

One secret that interested me was of a kid who wanted to kill himself for being different. After reading his PostSecret, a person sent in nearly the same PostSecret and wrote that the secret had saved them.

PostSecret is a way for people to interact with others and be heard without people knowing who they are. We can impact people's lives in some ways and PostSecret is a small way to make a difference by providing meaning and understanding of the intimate thoughts that sometimes haunt us.