Citizen journalism is crucial because it keeps traditional news organizations honest. What do I mean by this? Quite simply, every outlet of news coverage has an agenda–for example, GE has a 49 percent stake in NBC. NBC was the only channel that failed to report that GE, despite its $14.2 billion profit for 2010, paid $0.00 in taxes. In fact, they claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion, meaning we, tax-payers struggling though school loans, mortgages, and a recession, are paying our taxes to GE. This is a huge story, but because of conflicting interests, NBC did not report it. Of course, the story was picked up by other news outlets, but what if that is not always the case?
The best example that comes to mind occurred last year in Dublin, Ireland. The structure of the news is different in Ireland–the news is an off-shoot of the government, so what the government wants covered, gets covered with the slant most beneficial to the Taoiseach (a position like the prime minister). Ireland had the worst financial crisis it’s ever experienced last year, and the budget for education was cut 50 percent. The government decided to raise tuition for university for Irish students, who formerly attended class for free. Understandably, the students were not thrilled with the idea of having to pay an increase of about $6,000 a year and organized a protest 3 November 2010. Somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 students marched down the streets of Dublin, and in a country with a population just over four million, that is a huge number of participants. It was the largest student organized march in the history of Ireland.
The product was chaos. It began peacefully, but 50 students rushed into a financial office for a sit-in protest. Someone brought a dozen eggs and pelted the exterior of the office. Compared to the extent of the London riots, the damage caused by the protesters is negligible; but after this incident the Gardai (the police force) lost all patience with the protesters. Students that were engaged in a peaceful sit-in outside of buildings were clubbed. One girl was scalped when a police force kicked her in the head–and she was not even involved in the protest but returning home from work. For the next few days–and this is not an exaggeration–I had to walk over blood stains to get to class.
The media, owned and operated by the government, failed to report anything regarding the protest. Finally, SIX DAYS after the event, they were forced to acknowledge and report on the protest. What forced them to finally report on the incident? Citizen journalism. Pictures like this circulated on blogs as far as California:
Videos of excessive force went viral on youtube:
See a collection of videos here: http://free-education.info/videos-from-the-national-student-protest/. Moreover, facebook groups were made to demand hearings on the Garda bruality (http://www.facebook.com/GardaAttackStudents/).
It took a combination of blogs, web-reporting, viral videos, and facebook groups caused the government-backed news channel RTE to finally report on the protest and allegations of gardai brutality.
RTE continued to slant its coverage in a pro-government slant, questionably phrasing their reports. In a video that clearly depicted the body of an unconscious young woman being dumped on the street by a garda official, the reporter quipped “apparently unconscious” and stated that there we “hundreds” of protesters, when videos clearly show their were thousands. Moreover, 28 complaints against the gardai emerged and RTE covered the story asL ” Students protest against garda ‘brutality,'” making it appear the charges were completely unjustified (http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1110/education.html). Despite the tricks of the government in failing to report and then slanting the coverage, the lwlabord was out–the government under former Taoiseach Brian Cowen is regarded as the most unpopular goverment in the history of the republic, with an approval rating of only 8 percent.
The case of the November 3 protests are significant because it highlights the need for citizen journalism. It forces mainstream media to be honest, and it forces people to be held accountable for their actions. Big brother may be watching, but we are watching right back.
karmaisabeach 
I agree completely. Having an eyewitness right in the midst of something is incredble, and ought to be a newsmans best friend. That helps simplify research and shows what actually happened – not after-the-fact bystander opinion. Great blog – wish I was as good a techy as you!
Suzanne