Author: Salima Bouchefra*

There has been much debate in recent years about the positive role played by citizen journalism in enabling average citizens to participate in gathering news, dissemination and analysis thereof. Traditional media now depends on social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and personal blogs to report the facts. The new media medium does not only allow for both the sender and the receiver to exchange the roles of the communicative process, but it has revolutionized the quality of the communication content which is varied in terms of texts, images, audio files and video clips. These have gone viral over the past two years such that it requires us to investigate the communicative position in terms of its dimensions and effects. The phenomenon of the new media is characterized by a high degree of interactivity and post-interactivity. In the past, the contribution of the Internet audience was limited to the echo circle of the content that is broadcast or posted through e-media sites. Despite the positive features that have accompanied the wave of citizen journalism, the idea of dispensing with the traditional media, which is characterized by professionalism in performance thanks to the ABCs adopted in conveying the news to the citizen, is still questionable.

Keywords: Citizen journalism, interactivity, professionalism, traditional media, social networks, sender.

*PhD. Media and Communication Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mostaganem, Algeria. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.