by Kurt D. Moore

Created on: December 03, 2009

With tools such as the Internet and blogs, everyone can be a journalist.

That can enable people to help change the world without necessarily having to go to college or become a media professional. But while having more watchdogs is not necessarily a bad thing, citizen journalism does have its drawbacks.

Journalism students are not only taught how to write stories and take photographs. They are also taught ethics and journalism law. Professors share scenarios where journalists have to put their ethics on the line and live with the consequences whatever direction they take.

As an Ohio University journalism professor once said, "Ethics are easy when nothing's at stake." It is easy to say you would be unbiased. But what if you are covering an issue that strikes home, such as pollution that affected your neighborhood? In one such case an opponent of a local egg farm asked if I could help her get a job so that she could write about the egg farm. She had an obvious agenda and could not understand why the newspaper could not just come right out and print everything that she and others alleged.

That is not to say that professional journalists are totally unbiased. It is only to say that we are taught to recognize our biases and to not let them influence our mission of serving as the watchdogs and informing the public about issues that may affect them. We understand that we must be objective about the news, no matter what issue we cover. Citizen journalists do not always follow that same creed.

Professional journalists are often seasoned. They are experienced at finding news and distinguishing it from innuendo and gossip that may or may not shine light on the issue at hand. They are also experienced at presenting it in a way that is more usable by the public.

An online article in the Huffington Post provided some valuable advice that should be practiced by all journalists but can specifically increase the credibility of today's citizen journalists.

The article, "Citizen Journalism Publishing Standards," suggests that journalists should only stick to the facts and never embellish details. They should exercise caution when quoting people so that their words are presented correctly. Adjectives should be used sparingly and never to exaggerate the details of an event.

Hearsay should be avoided by checking out claims, not taking people at face value. Journalism pieces should not include the writers' opinions. They are much stronger if the people in the articles are left to

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