This article looks at how citizen journalism can have a positive effect towards combating government oppression and the means utilised to do so. I first created a picture of the communication system with our government by looking at a well-known example. This fictional example, George Orwells 1984, describes the relationship between citizens and their totalitarian government in a dystopian setting. My research shows how close this actually comes to our reality. .
Next I looked at the differences between pure citizen journalism and media lead citizen journalism. The purpose of this was to examine the positive and negative effects a third party influence had upon the story. At the same time I learnt of how this relationship between the citizen journalist and the trained journalist could promote citizen journalism in a positive manner.
I finally researched examples where citizen journalism has been beneficial at combating oppression in order to justify my argument. .
Much of my research lead me to question my own opinions and views, which made me research deeper to get a better understanding to reeducate myself and allow me to express what I had learnt to others.
Introduction.
Many countries are currently putting measures in place to control the general public's ability to document and communicate their story. Through my research I have seen the need for these restrictions to be stopped and a free-press maintained. In this article, I want to start with a look at the power of citizen journalism against oppression starting with George Orwell's novel 1984. Orwell created a civilization oppressed by the Inner Party. They have no means of communicating with the oppressive tyrants. These people are trained and brainwashed to accept what they're told as gospel. A lot of the concepts he created have become commonplace in our societies, even though they were conceived in 1949.
To explain the methods used by the Inner Party in controlling Oceania's populace, I will look at the theories of Roland Barthes.