Whatistheauthenticroleofonlinecitizenjournalisminthedevelopmentprocessofpresscircle

陳奕

With the progress of technology and appearance of the new media，nowadays the new characteristics of communication forms are developing from traditional mass media to minority communication.This trend even penetrates into the news coverage.Alternative medias provide platforms and technological support for this tendency and have been widely utilized by the individuals and groups who are historically marginalized by mainstream media to gather diverse information，create and distribute wide-ranging news coverage and express variously commentary opinions independently（Antony，Grace &Thomas，2010），which makes the phenomenon called alternative journalism or citizen journalism engendered.The emergence of the alternative media and citizen journalism seems to challenge and shake the always monopoly position of the mainstream medias.

In the early years，the media displacement theory has been proposed and emphasized.It meant when a new media was introduced to users and provided them with functions which the old one cannot offer，the consumers would commence to move to new one.On account of this theory，the citizen journalism not only can challenge the mainstream medias seriously，but also has the potential to substitute them.Notwithstanding，the majority of scholars，in recent years，start to advocate complementary theory，which means if the old media and new one hold the overlapping functions，the definitely displacement between them hardly happen（Flanangan & Metzger，2001）.Meanwhile，the complementary relationship will be generated between them，which is likely to strengthen the development of both sides.The essence of this discussion lies in the consideration about the authentic role of the citizen journalism.

This essay stands by the complementary theory and adopts an approach of comparative analysis，examining three common components of citizen journalism and traditional journalism to show their respective advantages and disadvantages and demonstrate the nature of complementary relationship between them.The routine discussion about the journalistic value，norms and practice as well as significance of them for public sphere will be repeatedly absorbed into argument.

To begin with the perspective of the press business model.The press business models of the citizen journalism and mainstream media seems highly different，but each of them shows the inevitable advantages and limitations.The business model of mainstream medias dramatically rely on subscription fees paid by some large economic organizations and the income from the advertisements（Meyer，2008），and they recruit professional journalists to write the ‘objective content about certain topic which get from the authorities to pursue the commercial profits.For alternative journalism，they are characterized by proximately entire independence from any economical interest groups and run by small budgets with flexible employees and volunteering info-offers（Sheomaker，2001）.It is aimed at wider audience and local level.The independence of the alternative media contributes to identification of readers interests，deeper analysis，a wide-range of source and deliberate citizen comments（Kenix，2009）and generates more egalitarian relationship in society（Rodrigue，2001；cited in Kenix，2009）.Comparatively，the press business model of traditional journalism benefits from its professional quality and inflexible work-flow.However，reliance of the mainstream media limits its sources，embed the bias into its news，marginalize certain social groups （carpenter，2008）.The routine work seems to be a time-costing and low efficient flow （Antony，Grace，Thomas & Ryan，2010）.

Secondly，technological platforms like blog，YouTube and citizen news web appear to be one of the most important and decisive element in the relationship between mainstream media and alternative journalism，because the new functions of the internet technology offer consumers new gratifications.These new gratifications decide how and how much the alternative journalism challenges or supplements the traditional journalism.Referring to the features of the alternative media in the context of citizen journalism study，the three aspects seems noteworthy including interactivity，hyper-textuality and multi-mediality.They strongly influence the production，transmission，distribution and sharing information.First，Interactivity of the internet make the citizen journalism a participatory journalism and transform the news from a lecture to conversation（Dan，2004）.Second，function of Hyperlinks not only draw consumers attention to a blog，but also improve the capability of consumers to efficiently searching relevant information.Meanwhile，an ‘echo-chamber and like-minded group will be formed（Kumar，1999），in which readers can express and exchange their opinion deliberately.Third，the practice of uploading pictures，videos and audio files through multi-media makes the consumers more close to truth of event，which raise the transparency of the coverage.However，there exists some negative aspects.Some people believe that the fragmentation is detrimental to public sphere because of infringement of public mass concept in public sphere theory.On the contrary，some other scholars like Bruns（2008） said fragmentation online functioned as patchwork of public sphere and complement the gap in the mass media.

Thirdly，as with the development of the citizen journalism phenomenon，an increase number of people reconsider the traditional understanding for journalists and their journalism practices.Alternative journalists start from the curious readers of the alternative publications，and then，their sense of affinity to certain alternative publication stimulates them to voluntarily contribute to a variety of non-journalistic tasks，which later transforms to a full-scale journalistic operation.The advantage of alternative journalism also lies in its independence.Some of the alternative journalists reflects they will have more social consideration than professional journalists，because they will try to keep more citizen voice in their news coverage（Harcup，2005）.The disadvantages of the citizen journalism are their amateur quality and emotional discourse method.For journalists who work for mainstream media，they have a good understanding for traditionally professional quality and strictly comply with the journalistic practice norm and value，but even so，it is difficult for them to pursue the ethic and consciousness in the commercialized and politicized mainstream media（Whitaker，1981）.

Through the comparative analysis for online citizen journalism and mainstream journalism，it seems rational to draw a conclusion that both of them holds respective advantages and limitations.On the basis of media complementary theory，the claim that citizen journalism has potential to take a place of mainstream media is exaggerated.it seems that the authentic role of the citizen journalism can be defined as an excellent collaborator of the mainstream media.In the future，the nature of the relationship between mainstream media and alternative journalism should be reconsidered as an ‘ interpretive community.

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