NEWSFLASH we are the media.

Citizen Journalism is the formal name for it, the concept that we all make up the media. Open your eyes! Speak out! There is no dark overlord controlling and spoon feeding you information and news. That was then and this is now. You control what you see. You create. With every post, share, like, search, text or photo you shape the world around you. This culture has been evolving rapidly. You are the modern journalist, you don’t need a desk stacked high with press releases or an editor. You have an iPhone.

Citizen journalism isn’t just based around the “collection, dissemination, and analysis of news” but rather any practice involving sharing thoughts or ideas for others to see. I consider myself to be practicing citizen journalism through my ongoing project ‘The Paws of Figtree Park’. I have created a web page, Facebook page and an Instagram presence open to the world wide web. The pages are still a work in progress and I have documented part of this process to demonstrate how simple citizen journalism can be, It is not always iPhone videos or interviews that have made in onto the 7pm news, but can be any tiny move you make online. Own it.

The image below provides some food for thought, all these ideas, thoughts and snippets being constantly shared every minute of every day of every week. How naive were we to ever think the ‘real journalists‘ have all the power? Go forth and take the reins.