The
first blog to be posted by a newspaper website was writen by
Dan Gilmore, who later authored the book "We the Media" on the subject
of citizen journalism. But the roots of citizen journalism
can be traced back much further. According to Gilmore,
citizen journalism first began to have an impact in the 18th century,
during the founding of the United States, when pamphleteers such as
Thomas Paine and the anonomoys authors of the Federalist Papers gained
prominance by printing their own publications.
In the modern era, video footage of the assasination of President John
F. Kennedy in the '60s and footage of police beating Rodney King in
L.A. in the '80s were both captured by citizens on the scene.
Then with the rise of talk radio and magazines average folks
were given the opportunity to share their views with a much larger
audience. In newspapers, there were letters to the editor and op-ed
pieces submitted by citizens.
However, it wasn't until the rise of the internet in the '90s before
the possibilities of world-wide distribution could be realized.
In 2001 weblogs were popular among tech-savy
audiences, but were more focused on reacting to the news.
September 11th would later become an important milestone for
citizen journalism, as the stories and images of many
on-the-spot-witnesses became a major part of the story.
Citizen journalism and bloggers also helped in the world-wide
reaction and response to the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, Hurricane
Katrina and Rita in 2005, and most recently the Virginia Tech shootings
in 2007.
We now live in a world that has been forever changed by technological
advancements in communication. Where there was once the
printing press, not the blog has given the press to us. Where
there was once the radio station, now podcasting gives radio to us.
Writing, shooting and editing once completly belonged to Big
Media, but now video and print is in the users' hands.