'Nation, Mirror Mirror On the Web', by Lakshmi Chaudhry

This article talks about the worlds fetishism with celebrities. According to YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley "Everyone, in the back of his mind, wants to be a star." YouTube is only the beginning of what people will do for a few minutes of fame. YouTube if full of people lip-syncing to Britney, talking rubbish to the camera, and about anything else to show off. "We now live in the era of micro-celebrity" (Chaudhry, 2007), if your not famous your just a nobody. Just look at shows on TV such as Big Brother, the whole purpose of this is to record people doing everyday things live on air.

Today, fame is now perceived as the new American Dream, which everyone aspires to. The issue is that fame is now reduced to public attention, which means, people will clearly do anything for that micro-second of fame. Celebrity-ism has become another commodity of our commodity fetishized world, where fame is no longer an attribute of success but an ulterior motive. 

A study conducted by Twenge and her colleagues showed that 12% of teenagers in 1950 agreed with the statement "I am an important person" where as by the 1980s the percentage reached to 80. Twenge believed that this 'spike in narcissism is linked to an overall increase in individualism'. This increase is a result of a combination of factors, the main one being an increase in traveling. As its become more popular it has broken up traditional tight communities. Now we are brought up repeatedly being told, 'You're special' and 'You can be what you want to be'. Unfortunately advertisements have picked up on this, now feeling good about yourself is associated with commodities. 

Branding, the internet and celebrity over exposure has created the impression that our normal, everyday lives are less significant and unworthy compared to a celeb lifestyle. Therefore, people believe if your not famous, your nobody. We have to remember the internet isn't completely at fault. Our culture has created famous celebrities through ALL forms of media. The internet's sole purpose is not to create micro-celebrities, but to inform and to communicate with the world. 

Journalism Today

The internet has become a worldwide phenomenon which is becoming more popular and influential each day. The hot topic of the moment is how the internet has influenced journalism.

Today, ordinary citizens have the ability to get their opinions heard through the use of blogging or blogs. For those who still don't know what a blog is; it refers to a webpage which you create to post images, videos, music and most of all opinions. Websites such as this allow people to obtain a blog for free, meaning each person who creates a blog, in theory, is a journalist. 

However, we mustn't forget that some blogs are for personal and non-academic content. So another popular form of citizen journalism is websites such as www.newsvine.com where people can comment on news stories and then comment on other peoples posts. Both of these are forms of citizen journalism and have been very influential. Yet, there has been much controversy over citizen journalism. Professional journalists believe that ordinary people don't possess the skills to understand the complications of news reporting, due to their lack of training and knowledge of ethics to stand by.

On the other hand the positives to citizen journalism is endless. No longer do we have to take one sources point of view, which sometimes can be subject to bias. For example, Murdoch's Australian Newspaper is pro-Bush, therefore the news content is affect by this. With this in mind, blogs on things such as the Iraq War allow feedback and comments from people who are actually there. Eye witness accounts allowed us to understand what really was going on over there Mark Glaser (a blogger himself) believes that "..after 9/11, many ordinary citizens became on-the-spot witnesses to the attacks and their stories and images became a major part of the story." This also highlights how our media sometimes hide the truth from people, usually because of an ulterior motive. Citizen journalism therefore allows everything to be public. It also tests professional journalists as incorrect sources will be found and commented on immediately and published via posts online.

Citizen journalism removes the barrier of time and flourishes international knowledge between one another. The possibilities are endless and are leading some to believe that in the future professional journalists may no longer exist.