What is citizen journalism?

Citizen journalism can take many different forms. The term broken down signifies the creation of news by the majority; each citizen becoming a journalist. So the term encompasses all forms of journalism. Whether it is by video, podcast or the written word- citizen journalism is an amalgam of many different methods but only one common feature: the regular person creating the news.  

But what is a regular person? 
A person who is independant from any news connection. Citizen journalisms strength comes from their separation from the source of news. Due to the seperation what we are left with is less reliable (to an extent) and unedited news. Its raw nature is its strength and weakness. It does lose credibility but in turn casts a light on stories that could or would not be told. This information will come as opinionated blogs and local news stories. This varied opinion will reach alot of people due to the high saturation of the internet. There is no shortage of people willing to tell their story. The cheap nature of hosting a blog and the sporadic nature of the internet allows a high rate of hits on any one site and therefore an easy spread of ideas.

- While not perfect, it is a beginning of the true news watchdog, your information guarded by your peers.

References.
http://www.ireporter.org/2007/05/what_is_citizen.htm

http://blogs.theage.com.au/media/archives/2006/10/citizen_journal.htmll