Chapter 4. Traditional vs. New Journalism

The ability to opine, report information, and track daily news in the twenty-first century has changed. The traditional journalists of years past are not the only “reporters” interested in covering the news and offering their opinions about events affecting their lives. Everyday people are now part of the equation. Armed with digital cameras, camera phones, handheld video cameras, podcasts, blogs, and social networks, we’ve entered the era of citizen journalism and user-generated content.

Today’s major news outlets recognize the significance of citizen journalists and rely on their active participation in the news-reporting process. CNN’s iReport is just one of the great examples of how the news media turns to the public to report and provide firsthand accounts with photos of events worldwide. Easy to access on the CNN Web site (www.cnn.com), iReport invites and encourages everyone to report: “See it first. Your stories. No boundaries. You won’t believe what people are uploading.” From the Tibet protests to the tornado destruction in Atlanta, Georgia, CNN turns to bloggers for play-by-play photo news. As of April 2008, iReport.com stated that 80,532 iReporters exist worldwide, with 1,108 of them on CNN.