Mostly all discussions about the Internet and the future are positive, everyone can get all the information at the speed of light. It is thought there will be a democratized trend of unimaginable two-way or multi-directional information exchange in the world. Commercial companies can no longer deceive consumers; government departments can no longer buy virtue of their own control of news promotion channels; students who are from the poorest and most remote areas also have the right to use those educational resources in the past were only exclusive to the elite. In short, people will have unprecedented resources and power. In the history of mankind, not for the first time there was information equality among the people of all regions, but also for unrestricted immediate information exchange, and people have the right to use an unrestricted treasure trove of knowledge (J.B. Foster and R.W. McChesney, 2011).
It seems that from the Internet, journalism has been more democratic. However, The Internet is developed in a capitalist society, so it is largely subject to the accumulation of capital. Coupled with the extension of monopoly capitalism in journalism, so that the media groups or companies that have rapid development by virtue of their economic advantages. It makes news reports, social information, and other related resources increasingly concentrated.
From the rise of the Internet, citizen journalism has become a new mode of news communication. In emergencies or disasters, citizens use the Internet as a platform to report what they see and hear, most of the reports are their first experience. A series of coordinated attacks by gunmen and suicide bombers occurred in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis on the evening of 13 November 2015.“Social media was the place where millions of people around the world first heard about it.”(Tara Anderson, 2016). When witnesses logged in to their social media account, they immediately warned others and reported what happened around them. During the attacks, many people posted their remarks, images and videos about their own stories. Stephane Hannah, a Twitter user, utilized Periscope to provide live streams outside the Bataclan, her live stream gained more than 10,000 viewers and became a central point for new information, these reports were then used by mainstream media outlets.
To evaluate the power and influence of citizen journalism, I have to mention Korean OhmyNews. British Guardian praised OhmyNews as "the most influential news site in today's non-transnational media". To some extent, citizen journalism has changed the capitalist mode of production and relations of production. Citizens release news for personal interest rather than for profit.
the rise of citizen journalism
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