Click here to vote for the Oakland Journal as one of 3 Citizen Journalism candidates…continue reading as to why you should vote – always – but specifically why you should vote now for citizen journalism.
Until 1908, when Missouri University opened the first school of journalism, there never existed a path to being a professional journalist. Early American journalists were not professionals; they were untrained news gatherers who shared news with their communities.
Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin are two of the better known citizen journalists in American history. The role of citizen journalists in the American Revolution was so critical to the war effort, that the founders of this nation guaranteed “freedom of the press” – Not just for companies like the New York Times, The Daily News, or The Bergen Record – but for the citizen journalist.
In the 1920’s, as the newspaper industry and professional journalism began to take root in America, an important public debate took place between the journalist Walter Lippman and the educator John Dewey. While they agreed on much, they disagreed on one fundamental issue which was the intrinsic purpose of journalism.
Lippman proposed that readers were merely consumers of the news; Dewey proposed that the only authentic purpose of journalism was to edify and engage readers in community life. Flash forward and citizen journalism is utilizing the revolution in communication to bring Dewey’s proposal to fruition.
Citizen journalism supplements and compliments the local and regional newspapers that have been serving communities for generations; but citizen journalists do not simply report information to a public perceived as spectators or victims – because a citizen journalist is a member of that public, they make an effort to engage, edify and empower.
The citizen journalist, as a caring and vested member of the community, is not writing for consumers but for fellow citizens, residents, and neighbors. Citizen journalism replaces the objectivity of mainstream reporting with a more appropriate open transparency.
Citizen journalism has grown dramatically in the last 5 years since The Journal came online in April of 2008….and it will continue to grow in the 21st Century.
Communication, conversation, debate, and dialogue are foundations on which we build democracy; and, citizen journalism promotes these fundamentals. Please take two minutes to cast a vote for citizen journalism, and specifically for citizen journalism in Oakland.