The spate of bomb attacks that shook London last July 7

has spurred a rise in activity in citizen journalism.  Not only

did blogs and photo galleries provide firsthand accounts considered

complementary to mainstream media news releases, they have become the

de-facto authoritative sources of information.

As mainstream media outfits rushed to capture images and gather

accounts, individuals in the immediate vicinities or even in the actual

attack sites were already snapping photos with their phone-cameras and uploading to online galleries and blogs moments after the actual attack, effectively sharing their very own perspectives to the rest of the world.

What’s interesting is that mainstream media outfits picked up these

stories and ran their own headlines with the information and media gathered by

the citizens themselves.  Talk about copyright infringement.

Arguably, bloggers are considered to be more of pundits

than journalists.  Hence, you can’t be 100% sure that you’re reading

level-headed, objective and verified information from from blogs.  But

you get honest-to-goodness, transparent firsthand accounts.

Here in the Philippines, I’m wondering whether citizen journalism

will

be as powerful as it is becoming in the west.  In the first place,

I tend to think that the mass audience here is not yet ready to take on

alternative sources of news and information.  Take for instance

the dumbed-down and useless news reportage that the (two) major TV networks

are shoving down our throats: it’s yellow journalism masquerading as

mainstream news.  We get the same recycled crap all day.

Blogs?  Podcasts?  Videocasts?  What about

online/internet penetration rate?  I’m wondering how many

Filipinos actually use

the ‘net for content?  Hopefully this will soon no longer be a

problem.  That’s what blogging and alternative-media advocates like myself are here for.

Come to think of it, I find myself gathering my local news and views on the political front more from Jove, MLQIII and PCIJ Blog

more than the newspapers and TV.  And more people are doing so, judging

from how the major news outfits are scooping up stuff from blogs every

now and then.

The rise of the citizen journalist in this nation is just around the

corner.  With good timing, too, with the hot political situation we’re

currently in.  And it’s getting me pretty excited.

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