Pebbles of a Bridge

 

I created this video last year in response to citizen journalism and I feel that it is fitting as to recap citizen journalism as a whole but then use as an expansion on the notion of gatewatching and social media. Identifying how these have effected and changed what we have come to know citizen journalism and traditional journalism as.

Over the years the increase of citizens posting about news events on social media has taken the traditional media by storm.

[Twitter] was built entirely out 140 character messages but sum total of those tweets added up to something truly substantive, like a suspension bridge made of pebbles.

– Steven Johnson

With the expansion of such media platforms like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook the speed at which news and updates can be received is higher. Therefore allowing the explosion of information and the speed at which its accessed becomes more valuable. The example of social media coming into play by citizen journalists can be best seen through the Boston Bombings back in 2013. For obvious reasons the speed at which The New York Times could capture the fact and figures of the situation lacked tremendously and often portrayed inaccurate information. Whereas the coverage seen on Reddit was accurate and fast. However, there has been some backlash on the situation stated by The New York Times.

Although, in the light of more social media being used to convey news stories and any other form of information, big news corporations have taken to creating their own social media accounts as to keep up with changing times.

5 thoughts on “Pebbles of a Bridge

  1. The video was a great break down of citizen journalism and how it has grown through social media. Although, there are definitely some problems that need to be addressed with the rise of citizen journalism. People are able to spread misinformation which can be dangerous in serious situations like shootings or terrorist attacks. For example, just a few months ago during the Dallas shootings, a man was wrongly accused as the suspect when police posted an image of him on Twitter. This resulted in many death threats online, but could have turned more sinister in reality in a state where many carry around guns: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/dallas-police-wrong-suspect-shootings-mark-hughes-2016-7

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  2. Great remediation this week! I like how you drew back from previous work you had conducted as well. The ways in which we have shifted from the consumer and prosumer is undoubtedly monumental, the notions of authorship, curation and aggregation have taken on whole new roles which we have adapted to. With this, credibility is a factor that needs to be taken seriously into consideration within this intangible space of the internet. Here’s a link relating to the Boston Bombings and the backlash of social media during the event: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-22214511. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. That video was awesome! great breakdown of the citizen journalism! the blog itself this week was also really well done in delving into citizen journalism, and the references to the Boston bombings and social media further expressed your point!

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  4. Nice news intro haha very funny. I liked your example about the Boston Bombings and the speed at which first hand information was able to get out there faster than traditional journalists could. Just wondering what your opinion is on the whole concept of privacy when it comes to citizen journalism. Obviously the traditional published news style takes a lot longer but it is often because they have to go through all the legal rigmarole of asking people if they want to be filmed. This is an especially delicate process when dealing with victims of disaster like the bombings. I guess it comes down to the whole ethics debate over absolute truth vs privacy. Should things be depicted as they are and let people witness the true gruesome nature of the world or should we respect peoples privacy and in doing so show a tame highly mediated version of events?

    I found this article about it, you might enjoy reading..

    https://sixestate.com/030910-citizen-journalism-and-privacy-rights/

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  5. I like how you’ve used the video and blog to build on each other. The speed of communication that is occurring in our modern day is facilitating the rise of citizen journalism and I expect the trend will only get bigger. I found your links helpful to add to the blog post. What is your personal opinion about the concept of the bridge of pebbles?

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