Citizen and Community Journalism Midterm Examination | John Krist U. Martinez

1. In 6 to 10 sentences, differentiate citizen journalism and community journalism in your own words. 

Studying this college program for two years now has led me to experience both types of journalism. The people who produced the news are the normal people or non-professionals living in the society without any media background and didn’t undergo any types of professional training and they operate independently from any media organizations and may not follow any journalistic standards or ethics.

Community journalism focuses on a specific location or community to serve information for the public, these are professionals and they work for different media organizations like local newspapers, radio stations or online platforms. These community journalists are rooted to these communities highlighting issues and events that can be a public interest or concerns. Both types of media are important because they both raise awareness within the community and share information to the public. These forms of journalism play a crucial role in today’s media landscape because they offer different perspectives and bring something new to the table.

2. In 6 to 10 sentences, choose a unique local issue that you think can be resolved through community journalism and explain why in your own words.

I live in a subdivision in San Jose Del Monte Bulacan and in my neighborhood I think one of the problems is that there are a lot of cars parked in the road where there are supposed to be no cars in sight. I remember growing up, I couldn’t even play on the street because there are lots of cars parked and now I realized that this can be a potential hazard. I think this issue can be a really big problem in the future because what if there is a tragedy like fire spreading across the buildings, the fire fighters could have a hard time passing through the scene because of cars scattered across the street. 

Through the power of community journalism, I can encourage the local government to create a public space that ensures the safety of the cars that will be parked. Also, I can raise awareness for the people to think holistically about car ownership and have this mindset that prioritizes community safety and accessibility over individual convenience. We can work together and create alternative responses on parking issues so that once we settle, we can alleviate excessive car parking on the streets where vehicles shouldn’t be obstructing passage and ensure that emergency responses in the future will be much more efficient and run smoother.