Citizen Journalist
Although Murdock’s media empire may be a dramatic example of biased reporting and/or the sidestepping of certain controversial issues, by no means are they alone. Many newspapers endorse certain political candidates and all are sensitive to content issues that may negatively impact their ad revenue. Consequently several issues that I find pivotal are often not even covered by the news media.
Citizen or Participatory Journalism has begun to evolve as more and more citizens realize that user generated content is often their only assurance that news issues of importance will get any coverage at all. If you want examples of this fact just watch this film, it is full of them.
Citizen journalists are not bound by ad revenue - in fact - by any revenue at all. Consequently, this form of news reporting may help to break the media bias that exists as well as to highlight the engineered ignorance that is occurring.
Part 1 of becoming a citizen journalist is easy. If you can afford it - buy a flip video. This is a shirt pocket video camera that ranges from $100 to 175. Or, use you cell phone to take pictures of events that you witness that are reflective of an injustice. If you have enough money - a microphone and some sort of internet phone system is even better. This would allow you to upload your video to a server and thus could not be confiscated. The first part of being a Citizen Journalist is just being a witness - to capture and report on any injustice that you happen upon. This can be done as an individual -- but is best done as a “stringer” attached to a private newspaper, TV station, or “independent” media. This will provide some journalistic integrity and perhaps some needed editorial support.
So, pick up your pen or your camera - write, photograph or by any means possible document the injustices, the designed ignorance and the voter apathy that characterizes politics in this country. I truly believe if our citizenry does not get involved soon we will be steam rolled into a world run by an ultra elite group of companies and individuals. The signs are everywhere. deceptions exposes them.
Additional Citizen Journalist links can be found by clicking Resources.
Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street journalism" is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information." (Wikipedia)
Although I am not a trained newspaper journalist it has been my experience along with millions of others that traditional sources of information can no longer be relied upon for fair and balanced reporting of the facts. On the high end - the News Corporation and Fox - have been caught on several occasions directly manipulating and editorializing the news to reflect the political orientation of its founder and CEO Rupert Murdock.
Also, do not neglect your local Community Access or Public, Education, Government [PEG] TV station. By law, they exist in almost every location in the country and by law, they have to publish whatever it is that you submit, that’s right - by law. Citizen journalism and local, active engagement in community reporting are foundational missions of these organizations.
Part 2 of being a Citizen Journalist is much more proactive. In this environment, aspiring Citizen Journalist’s develop scripts and then interview local and nationally elected and government officials to ascertain their “candid“ replies to questions that most of them have never been asked. This can be done prior to primaries and elections to give voters a more in-depth and unbiased profile of who they are voting for and what their positions are.
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