Citizen Journalists' Uses And Gratifications On Citizen News Media

With the high speed development of internet skills and its popularization, especially the appearance of web 2.0, passive audience in traditional opinion can make information public through internet easily and conveniently by using the digital equipments they own. Citizen journalism has been paid much attention by press and academic circles since the conception of citizen journalism appeared. There are many researches about citizen journalism, but few researches about the behavior actors, citizen journalists, in academic circles home and abroad, let alone empirical studies. This study draws on the uses and gratifications approach of media use and aims to fill the void by surveying citizen journalists'motivations.In the history of journalism, every major innovation related to the technology advancement. But this time, the innovation is far more different from every innovation in the history. At that time, only the news media used new technologies to publish the information, while passive audience in traditional opinion are active to make their own news public as the new technologies are widespread and user-friendly now. This phenomenon of citizen journalism and wide trend user generated content bring new challenges and opportunities for mainstream media. Some traditional news media like CNN began to learn integrating user-generated content. CNN showed a great success in doing this, so the community of CNN citizen journalists(superstar ireporters)was chosen as a case in this study.This research shows that citizen journalists are motivated by the"Value"most, and then in turn"Fun","Seeking Information","Self-enhancement"and"Social Connection". Besides, there are no significant gender difference in citizen journalists'motivations and the subjects of their generated contents. This study also shows that citizen journalists'behavior of journalism is continual, not just a passing fad.