November 14th: Will Evolving Forms of Journalism Be an Improvement?

The rise of new technology and the further developments with the internet has brought forth a new type of Journalism. This new form of Journalism is called participatory journalism according to this week's readings. In my opinion participatory journalism has really been a blessing. It has given a voice to the voiceless. When thinking about participatory journalism, I immediately think of role that social media had on the Arab Spring. Because social media allowed for the oppressed people in the Middle East to have their stories heard I think that it made all the difference in the world for them. More specifically, I am talking about the people in Libya. Their conditions were so bad that there were obvious crimes against humanity taking place. Once their situation got dire, we had sent in military force to protect the people. I really feel that this would not have happened if it wasn't for participatory journalism. If you take a look at other genocides, especially the holocaust, the US could have so many times lent out a hand to Jews in their time of need, but they didn't. I really feel that this was because there was no pressure for them to do so. People were unaware of the atrocities that were going on in Nazi occupied Europe because there was no technology for them to let the world know. In short, based from this week's reading, i do agree with the yes article that evolving forms of journalism will be an improvement.