You can share images, videos and files almost instantaneously thanks to the uprise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This means that when an event occurs, people all around the globe are fully aware of what has happened through citizens viewpoints of people who witnessed the event happening.
Because these images and videos have come from the general public and not journalists or professional photographers, they are almost always completely objective and reliable sources.
One of the largest demonstrations of citizen journalism in 2013 was the bombing at the Boston Marathon. This event was vastly popular and there was a large amount of people who attended. Because the bomb went off near the finish line, there were hundreds of people, both journalists and citizens who actually caught the explosion both with video and photography.
Here is a photograph from the event that shows citizen journalism in action:
This photograph was taken by a viewer from one of the office blocks on the side of the track. You can tell from the quality of the image that it was taken on something like a mobile phone from the pixelated grainy aesthetic. Also the composition and framing of the image is not very photographic, the 'shooter' was obviously just trying to document what was clearly an emotional event.
It has been suggested that social networking is now used as a method of dealing with trauma, sharing your own personal version of the event with people who have also experienced it is used as a way of dealing with the emotions that have come with witnessing the atrocity.
As journalists often incorporate their own emotional responses to documented events, having a completely objective outlook is not only good for the knowledge of the public, but also the police, and in the past it has actually been incredibly helpful in capturing criminals, particularly in the incident where a group of men bombed the tube in 2012. The 4 men involved were captured entering the tube, and all their faces were clearly identifiable, leading to their identification and eventual capture and prosecution.
Citizen journalism continues to grow more and more as technology advances and I believe that in a lot of ways this is an incredible thing. We are living in a society whereby technology is a major part of life, where sharing is instantaneous. If things continue to progress at the speed which they have done, it is only fair to assume that in the near future the results will be incredible. We will no longer have our heads in the sand, and will be completely in the know about major and minor events across the globe, with photographic evidence from reliable sources.
