EFFECT OF CITIZEN JOURNALISM ON NEWS OBJECTIVITY IN NIGERIA

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: The mass media are seen as advances in science and technology in a culture, as well as catalysts for social and economic transformation in that society (Melkote, 1991). The mass media's actions are assumed to mobilize human and material resources toward a certain social and cultural life in this setting. Furthermore, according to UNESCO (1980), the mass media has the ability to transmit ideas and values that may be viewed as the major drivers of social change in society.

As a result, the underlying changes disseminated by media forms and technologies have the potential to alter people's experiences and relationships. This is due to the mass media's capacity to produce compelling impressions, words, or symbols that allow viewers and listeners to see and hear events as they happen, and hence alter popular conceptions of reality, especially those of faraway nations (Mckee, 2004).

Masterman (1985) said in support of UNESCO's(1980) definition, "The mass media are the methods for disseminating messages and symbols to the broad people." It is their job to amuse, educate, teach, and instill in individuals values, ideas, and behavioral rules that will allow them to fit into the wider society's institutional frameworks. As a result of the above, the mass media plainly have the ability to enlighten and educate the public. They can, at the absolute least, provide the groundwork for people's behavior modification and society acceptance. They may influence people's perceptions of social norms via mass media reporting and contacts with other society institutions, which in turn supports people's efforts to modify behavior. Furthermore, the media may play a significant advocacy role for policies that encourage population-level sustainable behavior (Fatusi and Jimoh, 2006).

Objectivity has always been a contentious topic in journalism, and as a result, there are many diverse perspectives on it. Objectivity, according to media experts like Gauntlet (2001), is defined as an analysis of the substance of gathered news items. Objectivity, according to Glasser (1992), is a balancing of views reconstructed by a journalist and presented against autonomous thought. It's tough to judge a journalist's objectivity since the trustworthiness of data obtained by the journalist is at the core of objectivity. The "notion" of impartiality, in Glasser's perspective, is defective in comparison to the newsman's mission of reporting responsibly. As a result, objectivity is a professional concept by which journalists properly produce news and deliver it to their audience as a finished product.

In as much as the mass media encourages societal behavior change, the nature and interaction of the mass media with the society, as well as how they relate to individual and collective growth or change, are determined by the society's communication policy and system. The contents, ownership, and organizational structures of the mass media are reflections of the society's socio-economic, political, cultural, and technical systems, since they do not exist in a vacuum. The mass media has traditionally functioned as a watchdog on government transparency and various operations in every democratic society. It has aided in the assessment of any arbitrary measures taken by government officials and parastatals by educating the general public about them and holding them responsible.

The journalistic task of gathering and disseminating news has not been an easy one largely due to limited freedom occasioned largely by government firm grip and control of the mass media. Thus, Bowman,(2016) notes that “relationship between the mass media and the government in Nigeria has been a cat and mouse affair”. This implies that, the free flow of information has been trampled upon. Journalists have had no access to vital information let alone the masses. In struggling to get detailed, factual and balanced reportage, journalists have had to continue to nose around for information, exposing themselves to high levels of risk that got them victimized,  jailed, tortured and sometimes killed (Caroll, 2017)

Citizen journalism is simply the process by which the public takes the responsibility of collecting, disseminating and analysing information or news especially via the internet. Citizen journalism has been on a rise. ‘Everyone and anyone can be or better still, is a journalist’. Nevertheless, Citizen Journalism has definitely also helped in putting our leaders on their toes and enabling us to have ‘eyes everywhere’. Citizen journalism is the reverse of the straight-jacket, near unilateral top-down communication system of the mainstream media. Bowman and Willis (2016) state that, “Participatory journalism is a bottom-up, emergent phenomenon in which there is little or no editorial oversight or formal journalistic workflow dictating the decisions of a staff. Instead, it is the result of many simultaneous, distributed conversations that either blossom or quickly atrophy in the Web’s social network.” They observe that “the fluidity of this approach puts more emphasis on the publishing of information rather than the filtering. Conversations happen in the community for all to see. In contrast, traditional news organizations are set up to filter information before they publish it.” In its true nature, citizen journalism allows no room for gate keeping. In this brand of journalism, information gets to the members of public, who are directly involved in content creation, raw, ‘naked’ and undiluted.

Citizen journalism is fast becoming a potent force to be reckoned with in relations to building open and democratic societies. The emergence of new media technology and their integration in the field of politics is yielding some benefits in contemporary times. According to Educause Learning Initiative (2017) the term citizen journalism is a broad term and still shifting in meaning. Banda (2020) notes that citizen journalism is a rapidly evolving form of journalism where common citizens take the initiative to report news or express views about happenings within their community. He further observes that it is news of the people, by the people and for the people. Citizen journalism is therefore a people centered type of journalism where the interests of the ordinary people are taken into consideration.  Citizen journalism is also known as “public”, “participatory”, “democratic”, “guerilla “or “street journalism” is the concept of members of the public playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. Quoting Darnton(2017) they further opined that citizen journalism emerged as a result of democratization of the multi-media technologies by the people and for the people.