Effectiveness of citizen journalism: evaluating the credibility, bias, and impact of user-generated news content in the digital age

Abstract

This research investigates the shift of citizen journalism during the 21st century with special attention to how new technologies affected the whole process of news production, distribution, and public participation. With the help of online platforms and the internet, a great deal of society has been given the opportunity to speak up and has started to participate in the news-making and distribution through social media and other internet channels. This change of events has made it difficult for the previously existing power of gatekeeping to be held by professional journalists who determined the credibility and impartiality of the news, besides having an impact on public opinion and the entire mass media world. In order to investigate the mentioned issues, a quantitative approach was employed. The research data were collected through an online survey where the participants were self-reported and were 486 in number who usually participate in citizen journalism. The replies of the participants were evaluated using descriptive statistics, and reliability analyses were performed to assess the consistency of the measures. To investigate people’s beliefs about the credibility, bias, and their impact on the audience, latent construct modelling was applied with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) included. The survey results reveal that citizen reporting gives rise to speedy, unpretentious, and public-influencing news; albeit, it struggles against a major trustworthiness issue caused by misinformation and bias. The corresponding results stress the necessity of equipping people with media literacy skills, conducting verification practices, and adhering to moral standards so that the trust in citizen journalism is maintained and its democratizing potential is unlocked. These revelations are a great source of information for decision makers, media, and well-informed citizens.