Mayhill Fowler never went to school for journalism, yet she contributed often to Huffington Post's "Off the Bus" where she broke two major stories during the previous election. The question is, was the way Fowler obtained her information ethical considering she did not make it known to Bill Clinton when she questioned him about his profile in Vanity Fair? She approached Clinton as an average citizen who happened to be holding a recorder and recorded their conversation. She went on to upload that audio and write an article which created quite the stir in the world of politics.
One problem that often comes up with citizen journalists is their reporting and writing. How are they able to obtain the information they get? Citizens may not always have the connections that journalists have made throughout their career and being a citizen journalist does not guarantee you a press pass to get inside an event. As for the writing, many times they don't have editors which means their writing may not be up to par, facts might not be checked leaving more room for errors.
Citizen journalism is a tough topic to tackle. Professional journalists do not need to register with any type of agency making it easy for anyone with a computer and an opinion to call themselves a journalist and yet there is no other profession out there that has this issue. One can only hope that come graduation everyone with a degree in journalism is able to find a job in their field.
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