Citizen and Community Journalism - Midterm Examination

 Differentiate citizens and community journalism.

Citizen Journalism is the participatory practice of documenting an event or news. They are done by non-professional journalists who tell stories about the news they witness. Various news stories that were published by citizen journalists are commonly found on an online platform. These are information they gather and produce on their effort. To give an example, when a citizen witnessed and captured a burning residence and then published it along with some details, this kind of news article is considered citizen journalism. On the contrary, community journalism is the investigation and study of a problem in a particular community to produce a news story. This is when a journalist spends time in a community so that they can understand the residents and the issues they are living with. Professional journalists are the ones who seek and gather information for this kind of news. These news stories are produced with the view of informing the people, especially those who live within that community, so they can improve their situation.

Choose a unique local issue that could be resolved by community journalism.

One of the local issues that could be resolved by community journalism is the problem of neglected elderly people. There are a lot of mistreated senior citizens who are experiencing many kinds of struggles such as health and financial problems, lack of emotional and mental support, abandonment, and even physical abuse. Community journalism could help them by highlighting their situation by creating a news story that could enlighten the minds of the people about them and call for action. They could investigate the common situation of the elderly people in a certain community, learn about their lives, and what kind of support from family and government they should be receiving. In community journalism, the journalist spends a lot of time in a certain community. Through this, they could have a better view of their situation and this will help the process of resolving the issue. Community journalism could help with this type of concern because they would understand the problems of senior citizens once they spend time studying their situation. They could help them not only by sharing with the audience their stories but also by seeking and providing the elderly people with the information they need so they can find solutions to their struggles.