Reader Response 'Mirror, mirror on the web

Lakshmi, you have address a great concern about our youth in today’s society. The thought in western culture that your life ambition is to get your 15 minutes of fame is a sad and tragic concept. I agree with you in the fact that with the inductions of Web 2.0 devices such as youtube, facebook, myspace that anyone can now have the opportunity to become a celebrity.

This is evident in myspace with Sandi Thom a Scottish singer songwriter with her song “I wish I was a punk rocker” where she became globally recognized. So it is possible to become famous of these sites, however it appears to be harder and more difficult than it appears. I feel it takes more than Joe Blogs and his camera to become a success and famous which I agree with you has become devalued and ‘tragic’.

To conclude I feel it’s an age thing when it comes to people having the desire to become a celebrity and that you grow out of that desire when you look at how people like Lindsay Lohan and how tabloid media treats them. This being said web 2.0 does provide a platform and medium for those with the desire to indeed become famous to be seen and indeed become a punk rocker, well at least for 15 minutes.

So what is Citizen Journalism?

Citizen Journalism has taken the world by storm and appears to be continuing to grow in size and popularity. This is for a number of reasons, however none more so appealing than the fact that it offers people around the world a chance to report on stories that not only are seen as important to them but also stories in which they are interested in.

This appeal also works to the audience as Citizen journalism offers a larger and more diverse range of news topics and mediums to view news information. Whether it be through photography, videos or even blogs citizen journalism can cover stories from the insignificant to the controversial.

Citizen Journalism also offers the ability for these stories to break faster as witnesses can be on hand to take photos of events and have a first hand perspective on what is unfolding. This has its advantages to the public with information being accessible at a faster rate. And not only is it fast but unlike Professional Journalism its raw news, news that isn’t censored.

It is for these reasons that Citizen Journalism has increased in the era of Web 2.0. The ability to access breaking and uncensored news from around the world as the events happens is the key reason that Citizen Journalism is so successful and why I feel that it will continue to grow in the future.