How has Technology influenced Citizen Journalism?

According to Carole Rich in Writing and Reporting News (2010) Citizen Journalism is 'The concept of involving readers reporting and disseminating news.The contributors are ususually called 'Citizen Jorunalists', because they are not staff members of the news organization'. 

Members of the public can create their own news, especially local news, or they can contribute to existing news.

Who can forget the the infamous Britain's got talent Susan boyle performance, which reached thousands of hits over the first weekend! The video was uploded on the same day the programme aired. Citizen Journalism was at an advantage here, because through the use of the internet they would be able to watch the video. Newspapers were only able to capture a picture of the singer.
 
Susan Boyle's First 'Britain's Got Talent' Audition


Here is the video of  the woman who dumped her cat in a wheelie bin, recorded by a member of public.The story broke out first, on the Internet.
Of course, the public reacted using online tools. A facebook group called 'Mary Bale hate group' was created. It is alleged that the woman in question was given police protection because of this group, which was closed down in the end.


As a result of this news story, the 'Whack-Cat-Woman' game was created by the sun newspaper. This game allows players to 'whack' Bale's head as it peeps out  from the green bins on the street.

Whack-Cat-Woman Online game
This game also makes the player feel as if they are getting some sort of revenge on Bale, On behalf on the cat, through the use of technology.

The Cat also has the power to take revenge through technology via animals lovers....

Remediation

The representation of one medium in another medium is called Remediation. We could also that remediation involves new media updating older media formats. For example, If we the way most people look at maps now is different from how it used to be. Before people had to ask for directions or look at an atlas if they didn't know where they were going.


If we take a look at google maps, we can see it is remediating the atlas

You can still see the street names and how the roads link together, the difference is the option to choose 'get directions' from A to B.

An even more updated version of google maps is the Google street view where you can now see frozen images of the place you want to get to and the surrounding areas

Then we have facebook places which is remediating foursquare.  Facebook places claims to 'Share where you are, connect with friends nearyby and find local deals'

However, issues of secruity and privacy can come up with these tools. Nobody knows everybody on their facebook, and as they can 'check-in' using facebook places, this automatically comes up on their homepage for everyone to see. If someone is using facebook on their mobile, this can double the security risks. Privacy issues are also raised when google street view, as you can see people on street and images of people's front doors and gardens.