Midterm Examination

 "differentiate citizen journalism and community journalism in only 6-10 sentences. no need to cite references and it has to be originally written by you."

Citizen and community journalism might sound the same to many people because who lives in a community? A citizen. To be honest, if I were not studying journalism, I would also see these terms as synonymous. As far as I know, citizen journalism can be practiced by anyone. You don’t need to have a four-year degree in journalism or any other program that studies and deals with media. It could be your mother, father, or a friend who has a phone or camera to record an event they are interested in. But, Citizen journalism is not limited in posting photos and videos, it can also involve engaging in and starting a discourse on the internet. On the other hand, Community journalism practices by a professional journalist—someone who has expertise and formal training in the field. These people are usually working with newspapers, television, and radio companies. They focuses on covering events that is about a certain communities, they often working hand-in-hand with the people in the community and help them to raise their voice about the problem that they have. Both citizen and community journalism contributes to disseminate information, but with these the public usually confuse the difference between the two. They don’t know who is a community journalist to a citizen journalist, and this brings conflicts with the role of the two and how the public perceived them. 

"choose a unique local issue which you think can be resolved by community journalism and why. explain in 6-10 sentences. no need to cite references and it has to be originally written by you."

Here in Pandi, there has been an issue or problem that most of the citizens have no idea if it’s really existing or not. Over the past months, the residents of Pandi gripped by fear, anxiety, and confusion because there are rumors of a serial killer casually roaming around the area. Personally, I had no idea if it’s true or not. According to my research, I have not seen any formal announcement made by our local government if this rumors are true. Recenty, I browse “Facebook” to browse updates about the killer, but I did not find any updates made by the citizens anymore. I find that suspicious, because the last time I browse the app, I see numerous post about that issue. I have this thought that maybe our municipal government is regulating the information that is being disseminated. Im not sure about it, but if it’s true I have no idea why they are doing that, perhaps,  they don’t want that to cause fear to the citizens? tourist? I really have no idea. With our situation, I believe that community journalists will play a big and crucial role in disseminating information to the residents. These people can check if the rumors about the serial killer are true, making sure Pandieños know what’s really going on. They can also make sure the government is doing its job and handling them accountable to give updates to keep everyone informed and less scared.