CITIZEN JOURNALISM AND IT'S IMPACTS ON PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM IN PROGRESSIVES SOCEITY: A STUDY OF 2019 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION IN CROSS RIVER STATE

Abstract

The paper aimed to examine citizen journalism and its impacts on professional journalism in progressives society: A study of 2019 governorship election in Cross River State. There is no doubt that citizen journalists play a salient role that compliment professional journalists through their reportage they contribute to the public. For instance, the just concluded 2019 general elections was reported to be characterized by irregularities via the videos and pictures reported online. The paper used Democratic participants media theory to backup its views. The study revealed that citizen journalists played a sacrosanct role during the 2019 governorship election in Cross River State. They reports a lot of stories across the nooks and cranny of the State which shows all manners of irregularities and violent that occurred during the election. Some of which varies from snatching of ballots boxes, multiple voting, vote buying and many more which was posted on social media platforms. The study concluded that citizen Journalism has become an integral part of the modern-day society because it has given voice to the voiceless in the society. The researcher recommend that Journalism profession should fashion out modalities on how to check excesses by its members and they should be campaigns and advocacy that targeted the abolition of fake news reports and they should enlighten the public on the dangers of fake news so that even if they want to participate on news coverage, it will dissuade them from reporting fake news.