Citizen journalism refers to the collecting and reporting of information through social media, public platforms, and traditional news media, either by non-traditional sources or the public.

The Britannica defines citizen journalism as “journalism that is conducted by people who are not professional journalists but who disseminate information using web sites, blogs, and social media.”

According to Wikipedia, citizen journalism “is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information.”

Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism “as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism”.

According to Seong-Jae Min, “The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news.”

So, the fundamental principle that differentiates citizen journalism from Community Journalism or Civic Journalism is that both of the latter ones are practiced by professional journalists.

Citizen journalism has become easier and more popular because of the advancement of new technologies. Along with the development of various internet platforms including social media, media-sharing websites, smartphones, and concepts like user-generated contents, citizen journalism has become more accessible to people worldwide.

Citizen journalism, especially because of the increased support of new media platforms, has started to have a profound political impact worldwide (Gilardi: 2016).

Citizen journalism is also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism.

References

Gilardi, F. (2016). Digital Democracy. How Digital Democracy is Changing Democracy And Its Study.

Min, Seong-Jae (2016). "Conversation through journalism: Searching for organizing principles of public and citizen journalism". Journalism. 17 (5): 567–582. doi:10.1177/1464884915571298.

Radsch, Courtney C. (2013). The Revolutions will be Blogged: Cyberactivism and the 4th Estate in Egypt. Doctoral Dissertation, American University.