The idea of a "citizen journalist" is nothing new. The term itself and the increasing willingness by media outlets to use their work is simply a recent development in a long line of changes brought on by increasingly sophisitcated consumer electronics.
This is not much different than it was in say...1991. I'm old enough to remember watching the Rodney King beating being broadcast over and over and over on television. The footage was not that of a professional news crew but of an average citizen from Los Angeles who just happened to live on the street that King was pulled over on. The video and the subsequent trial galvanized the country and brought the citizen journalist into the spotlight.
Everyone wants to tell a story. Right now, there is more information available on the Internet than you could digest in a lifetime. A lot of it is the work of these so-called journalists. Some of it is credible written information that they back up with facts and supplement with other types of media. This defines a citizen journalist.
A lot of the information is also garbage. It's either fabrication or the work of bloggers. Bloggers are the modern equivilant of 20th century short-wave radio operators. For the most part, they post useless information about themselves and broadcast it to anyone who wants to receive it. They're playing a game that's been being played for years. The same can be said for citizen journalists; they're just in a more respectable league.
Right now, news organizations are relying more and more on the work of private individuals who send in the pictures they took on their cell phones. The advancement of technology and the widespread availability of that technology gives just about anyone the ability to become a "reporter." Just call in your news report on your cell, take a picture with that same phone and send it to a media outlet.
The technology is getting smaller, but the "citizen journalist" is nothing new. The more portable and the cheaper the technology becomes, the more widespread citizen journalism will become. That is, until someone gets a major media outlet sued and messes it up for everyone.
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