Who Should Be Called Journalist

We live in the digital age. The age where we are not just connected,  we are digitalized. We have a digital personality, a history and a predicted future. Today we live in the cyber world as much as we do in the real world.

Its won’t be false to say that the line b/w the two is disappearing  precariously. Digitalization has taken a swing at most of the world around us, but what it has affected the most is the field of journalism. New media technologies has revolutionized media to the phase of 24/7 news. With greater instantaneity and the greater degree of mistakes.

Before the journalistic process had a hierarchy, where everything was judged and reviewed , scrutinized to the littlest detail possible. Agendas and discussions  where done face to face and there was a civil format for everything.

Today we have joined a faceless mass, a mass of twitter followers and re-tweets. Where any news can be sensationalized , compromising the boundaries of private and public.

But what  really has altered the landscape of journalism is “citizen journalist” a group of journalist who chose to call themselves journalist on their free will , who have somehow entitled themselves responsible for distribution of information, which many of them do not have the means to verify or the authority to distribute.

It’s not hidden that citizen journalism  is a boon to investigative journalism as an abundance of sources.   There are many a e.g.  Where citizen journalism have had a great role to play. Yet, there are also e.g. Where their activities have led to disasters.

One such e.g. Was the recent incident when  a false report surfaced on CNN’S ireport that Steve jobs had a heart attack and apple’s stock took a temporary 10-point hit. The report has been removed, but only after silicon alley insider and others confirmed with apple that jobs did not have a heart attack and the stock jumped right back up to its opening levels.

These kind of reports on the behalf of the citizen journalist are common today.

Thus raise the question to what extent should this be tolerable and what does journalism stand for and should untrained people be allowed to call them journalists.

Click here for government certification in Media