CITIZEN JOURNALISM

News is becoming increasingly conversational. You look at the number of blogs mushrooming with a distinct voice of their own, sometimes in angry resonance to the million voiceless and you are set thinking - Citizen Journalism - it is happening! How will it impact our life in the near future and what can be its pitfalls? Can this vehicle of dissent be manipulated to let's say create a war someday?It is fairly easy today with the kind of technology we have to mobilise a small force. Vested interest can take the lot for a ride. This was a spirited topic of discussion on BBC yesterday. You can hear more about it here.

For a freelance journalist like me this is of immense interest. There is no doubt an element of bias when you report anything subjectively and you are not really concerned about the impact it may create when you are blogging just to vent yourself. If that voice is powerful enough its will start a small ripple somewhere. And if it is sustained it can turn into a movement...Interesting. I was just writing about how the advertising gurus are gunning at digitising the whole concept of consumerism and marketing. Citizen journalism is another side of that very prism... a potentially more catastrophic one.