A Ph.D. student of Communication Studies from the University of Tehran in Iran emailed two questions regarding ethics and citizen journalism. Allow me to share my answers.

1. What is most important challenge of citizen journalism? Could you please explain it?

Professional journalists should serve as good examples for citizen journalists, bloggers and social media users. They all publish media content in the “public domain” so they are all responsible in the shaping of public opinion. In the same way that professional journalists should be careful with the information they provide, other online users should be cautious in the opinions they share, as well as the contents they retweet or repost.

2. Journalists as experienced and expert people concern ethical issues in reporting news. But what about non-professional or citizen journalists? Is it important or not? What are the consequences which may result from this ignorance?

Professional and citizen journalists adhere to same set of ethical and professional standards. Just because one is a “mere” citizen journalist does not give the latter the right to be irresponsible in his or her reportage. If a journalist (professional or otherwise) is not aware of the standards of the profession, then he or she is likely to commit lapses in reporting, even if unconsciously. This would be a disservice to the media audiences. The irresponsible journalist then becomes part of the problem he or she is trying to solve.