9/11: Social Media Analysis

There are differing opinions on when “citizen journalism” began, but many believe it resulted from the tragic events of 9/11 and has grown increasingly popular as social media platforms and available technologies improve (2013). First of all, we must understand what or who a citizen journalist is. Basically, it is an everyday citizen who is playing an active role in the coverage of newsworthy events in their community, including collecting, reporting and disseminating news and information (Haddow & Haddow, 2014). To put it another way, any one that possesses a cellular smart phone and has a cellular signal or internet connection can observe and report on events that they witness. It can be done in a myriad of ways by either uploading to know media outlets or making the information available …show more content…
We’ve all seen the images on our local news stations following horrific storms that were sent in by citizens in the damaged areas. This is certainly an example of citizen journalism in its basic form. I was able to find dozens of examples of citizen journalism following a disaster, including pictures and comments that were made following what was known as the Colby fire in southern California (Kurzweil, 2014). To put it another way, the days of waiting on a news anchor to make the scene before images of the event are available, are a thing of the past. I recall watching storm coverage in my area where there were more images sent in by the viewer than were provided by the TV outlet employees. The traditional media outlets seem to have embraced this style of reporting as they provide multiple platforms on which citizens can share and report information. Another benefit is the fact that the traditional media outlets only have