Citizen Journalism Vs Professional Media During Crisis

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of new, media active, audience during crises in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013 and 2014. During the general protests in February 2014 and protests in July 2013 in Sarajevo, a significant information factor was citizen journalism. It used the new-media platforms, the availability of wireless internet and an exponential growth in the number of smartphones and contributed to a clearer and more complete picture of what actually happened during the periods of social unrest. This paper comprises a survey of 500 respondents from all BiH cities and gives answers to questions like: what were the primary sources of information of BiH citizens during crisis, how much did citizens (as communicators) contributed with their media engagement (through citizen journalism), and how much and which role alternative communications (blog, social media, comments on portals etc.) actually had in relation to the mainstream - professional sources of information. Also, the work brings opinions from nine prominent media theorists (communication experts) and pragmatists (citizen-journalists, free-lance journalists and owner of one community radio) given in indepth interview and also gives an analysis of citizen journalism in relation to the professional media.