A Comparative Study of Conventional Journalism and Citizen Journalism Practices in Nigeria

Advancements in new forms of information and communications technologies have continued to transform content, nature, and style of writing for the media. This study examines conventional and citizen journalism practices using a comparative analysis. The objective of the study was to do a comparative analysis of conventional and citizen journalism practices and to examine the extent of usage of gate-keeping by both conventional and citizen journalists regarding fake news dissemination. The theoretical underpinnings of this study are the Technological Determinism Theory and the Technological Acceptance Model (TAM). The study adopts the comparative research design. Information was sourced from secondary sources. Based on observation and relevant information gathered from secondary sources of data, the study concludes that new information and communications technology have shaped the media ecology or environment in innumerable ways. These dynamics have introduced a new concept known as “citizen journalism” – a new form of journalism. This new form of journalism is distinct from the highly guided and rule-based conventional journalism and due to lack of gate-keeping and code of ethics is inveigled with fake news and misinformation. The study, therefore, recommends that government should develop a functional regulatory framework to regulate the social media platform to ensure sanity in the digital media landscape as the media functions not in isolation but functions within the framework of a given society