The European Conference on Media and Mass Communication 2014

The European Conference on Media and Mass Communication 2014

The European Conference on Media and Mass Communication 2014

In a world facing rapid technological advancements and a continuous occurrence of events, citizen journalism has become widely used in the news business. Many news agencies are actually implementing citizen journalists and depend upon their reports on breaking news as they are faster and less expensive. There is a plenty of confusion regarding this concept. Many editors have real concerns regarding engaging audience to truly participate in news media. Media professionals often suspect citizen journalists with doubt, especially when they are supporters of the issues they write about. As only professionally-trained journalists can understand and effectively apply the reporters’ code of ethics. This research aims at investigating how usage of new media methods and the new trend of citizen journalists affect the credibility of news gathering. How can news stations guarantee the truth behind such videos and how can this affect its credibility among viewers. The researcher is conducting a comparative study between BBC and Al Jazeera News Networks in terms of how they measure the ethical code of videos sent by citizen journalists. According to the objective of the study, the two main research methods that apply for this research are focus groups and intensive interviews. This research aims at explaining how usage of digital media can be able to either enhance or decrease the credibility of news, and how it can actually affect audience perceptions and understanding of reality in terms of broadcasted news.

Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi