Every citizen a reporter in southern Africa

Wondering what to write in my blog. The idea that came forward from Wits Journalism school while attending an online journalism course was born. I therefore decided to write on the changing phase of citizen journalism in southern African region and its influence.

There had been some discussions during the duration of a course as to whether citizen journalism is a threat to so called professional or real journalism. In my view and that of other scholars, the emergency of the internet in the region has demostrated that the advent of new technology has ushered in new ways for ordinary citizens to engage and participle in the production of online news.

The use of blogging, mobiles, internet and other new modern communication tools have changed the way in which people communicate with one another. This shift in communication put forward old practices in which new media or rather citizen media set an agenda in a society and encourage debates in shaping public opinions.

The author of the book, We the Media, Dan Gilmore says "readers are no longer satisfied with being on the receiving end of the news". I agree with Gilmore and share the notion that readers such as our online communities have taken the internet into their homes, bedrooms and tranform worldwide audience via the Internet.

This suggests to me that conventional media is on its way out to be overtaken by citizen journalism or so-called participatory or public journalism. I turn to believe that the emergence of mobile phones, ordinary citizens input into media production by writing their own articles has broaden the scope of exchange of information in southern Africa and offers citizens the most sounding opportunity to write their opinions, comments and stories in the manner they want.

This contributed a lot in how pepople change the way citizen journalism is being perserved locally, regionally and globally. I think that citizen journalism will shake-up southern African media even though there are challenges around access to internet. The region has became a cornerstone of every citizen a reporter in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries seem set to unfold with online journalism opportunities, in particular with the buse of new media forms such as facebook, twitter, Youtube, MySpace and many more.