To put it bluntly, I think the concept of citizen journalism undermines the validity of journalism and makes the time that each of us in the journalism school have spent practicing our future profession a waste. If anyone can become a journalist, then why do we need our degrees?
This personal assumption may a harsh, but it did change slightly after a little research.
While I still think that citjour decreases the validity of journalism as a profession, in small doses it may be ok. For example, MSNBC has its own Citizen Journalist page. To add something similar to the tv.ku.edu site could prove beneficial. Here, citizens have the ability to submit photos of their life experiences and post responses to questions about life. Here, the average person can make images available through the internet for anyone to see. When the news allows it, this can tell a better story than a simple text or AP story would. And those photos may not have been available any other way.
On the other hand, when news sites are created for the citizen journalist, we must be cautious. Are these "news" statements something to trust? Not necessarily. And when this is the case, these forms should stay for away from the University's television site. Still... it is inevitable that some form of citizen journalism will be around and we must adapt to the times.
The only place for the citizen journalist on tv.ku.edu would be in the form of photographers who come upon breaking news and capture a picture of it and are willing to share it on our site.
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