Professional citizen journalist? It’s possible through media literacy

Abstract

This study’s objective is to examine the potency of media literacy in professionalizing citizen journalism in Nigeria. Since the emergence of citizen journalism as an alternative source of news gathering and dissemination, scholars have continued to debate its relevance and reliability compared to mainstream journalism. The relationship between citizen journalism and mainstream journalism has generated much debate to the extent that some researchers fear that the increased popularity of citizen journalism may signal an end to mainstream journalism. Yet on the converse, scholars who are core loyalists of the mainstream media think that citizen journalism and mainstream journalism are not at par. The study adopted Focus Group Discussion, which had five traditional journalists and five citizen journalists, purposively sampled from two cities of Awka, Anambra State and Jos, Plateau State. Both cities were selected to represent the southern and northern regions of the country. Findings reveal that media literacy is critical for professionalizing citizen journalists, even though the atmosphere is not conducive due to misunderstandings among journalists. It recommends that media literacy education should be extended not only to citizen journalists but traditional journalists and the citizenry.