First of all, the primary purpose (at least in my opinion) is to report the news. Sometimes this is the news that professional journalists are unable to get to cover. For example, with the shooting on campus last month, the best reporting was coming from random people on Twitter and Facebook and blogs who were sharing what they were seeing. Journalist were restricted to where they could be on campus, but these citizen journalists were on lockdown and had seen what no one else had seen.
Second, a purpose of citizen journalism is to share opinions. Everyone has an opinion and people love sharing it with others. There is nothing wrong with sharing opinions, but at the same time people need to be careful with what they say. For example, back to the shooting, some people were being inappropriate with their comments they were sharing about what had happened. Some people chose to say that the shooter elected to do this because of the Texas football team losing a couple days before. Some opinions should not be shared.
Thirdly, citizen journalism can also be watching the watch dog. Citizen journalists have the opportunity to check on what the "professionals" are doing. They can question what the real journalists choose to say. They also can report on things that the paid media chooses not to report on.
Am I forgetting anything?
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