Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Case Against Citizen Journalists

They're cheap, they're willing and they're woefully untrained.

While CNN may think not paying real photojournalists is the easy way out to balance a budget, they're doing so by sacrificing their quality. iReport gives you assignments with dead lines!  You can take pictures!  You can write what you want to see!  It's stupid.

I know many professors here are huge supporters of Citizen Journalist because they think that sometimes professional journalists miss the story.  I get it, I really do, but I can't help but think that these people have ZERO training.  They don't know how to put together a package, they don't know what's ethical, they don't know every law, they haven't had the ideals of a shield law and where they exist drilled into their heads.

It sounds elitest of me, but I hate them.  Do I think there is merit when Citizen Journalists who are participating in Occupy can really get inside and aren't afraid to get arrested do just that?  Yes I do.  But then again, nobody can protect their freedom of the press, because they're just some guy with a camera.

Journalism is like teaching, a lot of people think they can teach elementary school. You only have to know how to write and take pictures, but the truth is it's so much more than that which his why my teacher parents say they could never be journalists because they aren't willing to do the work.

I can't believe Final Cut Pro X would have an "export for CNN iReport" and no way to export to .mov.

I think my hatred stems from my need for a job and people thinking they can do it.

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