We had an interesting debate the other day in my Comm 424 class. The two groups, uh, discussed heatedly whether or not the ever-growing presence of civic journalism will slowly edge out traditional journalism. And while I'm not going to recount the dozens of excellent points made within that hour by both teams, there was one idea that had made its way to the surface of the debate by the end that has me thinking.....what are the rights of the everyday citizen journalist, the common blogger?

(Ignoring the slight irony of me hashing out this question in a blog....)

In my opinion, ordinary people contributing to the multitude of media is a wonderful thing. True, not every blogger has to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth (one must keep this in mind when when getting information from any source other than the primary source, oneself), but blogs, opinion sections, letters to the editor, youtube and other outlets of the sort create a unique place for any individual to express their views of the world around them, complete with their own personal opinions of their day to day experiences.

When reading the writings of an ordinary citizen, you get to see things from a different perspective than that of the on-the-job reporter. A behind-the-scenes look, if you must. And while you have to take such accounts with a grain of salt (actually, I have no clue if that's the right saying.....but it sounds semi-right to me. You know what I mean.) it's almost refreshing to get the un-official look at what's really going on.

And what I think is the greatest thing about citizen journalists: they have the every right to write about their experiences and opinions (steer clear of libel. Opinions are seen as a tenant of freedom of speech, libel is not.), just like the readers have the right to form their own opinions on the subject.