Research Into China’s Citizen Journalism In The View Of Micro-blogging Communication

The micro-blogging is a new type of social networking application. It allows the users to update short text regularly by a variety of channels such as the Short Messaging Service, Instant messenger, Web site and Application Programming Interface. By virtue of the advantage of real-time information sending and simple operation, the micro-blogging soon becomes a new favorite network application after the forum, podcasts and blog. The flourishing of the micro-blogging propels the rise of Citizen Journalism. Since the launch of micro-blogging, when the2008U.S. presidential election, the American star Michael Jackson’s death, the earthquake in Qinghai of China, Yihuang demolition or other breaking news occurs, the news was published by citizen journalists in the micro-blogging at the first time. As for timeliness of information released, micro-blogging passed the traditional media and other network applications can offer. Micro-blogging allows users to release their thought and life trifles whenever and wherever they wanted by connecting mobile phone network and Internet, therefore, it attracts a lot of users.Citizen journalism can be traced back to the early1990s when the United States "citizen journalism movement" occurred. It wins the popularity of the public accompanied by the development of Internet technology and digital cameras and the popularity of mobile phones. Citizen journalism means the non-professional journalists (and anyone else) could use the mass media and personal communication tools to collect or publish recent special and important information in order to guide public concern, and then import the depth reports of the traditional media. In the era of micro-blogging, the micro-blogging user is not only the news commentators and disseminators, but also the news release. Double identity greatly extends the connotation of citizen journalism. For this reason, the micro-blogging has been praised as a leap of the "citizen journalism" era.The first part discusses the reason on the topic and literature review. The second part introduces the relevant concepts and development background of micro-blogging. The third part analyzes the meanings that micro-blogging brings to society, including communication, journalism and sociology. The fourth part analyzes the limitations of the Citizen Journalism under the background of micro-blogging, and tries to solve these problems. In the fifth part, the paper from the practice facet of citizen journalism, takes "the death of qian yun hui" as an example, analyzing the "five features" including dissemination of subject, content, media and effects. I hope this thesis could illustrate the process and reasons behind the communication mechanism of micro-blogging, and offer powerful fundament for the theories that referred in each chapter.