CITIZEN JOURNALISM
Citizen journalism is the concept of public citizens having an active role in the process of information gathering, collecting, reporting and analysing, as well as information dissemination (Bowman & Willis, 2003). Radsch (2013) corroborates this view, defining the term as an alternative way of new gathering and activism, a way that functions outside the mainstream media. This can happen due to the fact that mainstream media has a shortcoming of competent professionals or that mainstream journalism is driven by different ideals and objectives (is in the service of the government, for instance).
Rosen (2012), in the other hand, proposes the simpler definition: when individuals that were once the audience employ unique press tools, they are generating content to perform citizen journalism. Radsch (2013) observes that the terms citizen and journalism are the ones that best describe the online digital form of journalism, normally performed by amateurs.
Rosen (2012) also states that many major world events have launched citizen journalism to a new level, making it very significant when mainstream media is not effectively delivering to the public what they want. Examples of major events which have launched waves of citizen journalism include the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Arab Spring.