Can you find any examples where "citizen journalists" have failed miserably to report accurate news? And if you do find examples (you should), does this make the concept of amateur journalism a bad thing? Why or why not?
I think that citizen journalism is in general, a good thing. I think the responsibility lies in the hands of the readers to know that they cannot believe everything they read. Citizen Journalism is a way to get information out as fast as possible and allows people a place to voice their own opinions for others to read. There were plenty of situations in recent history where people have used citizen journalism as a news source. In some cases, like the VA Tech massacre, it alerted people immediately of the tragedy. In less serious cases, people hold blogs and websites about celebrity gossip, sports news, cooking tips, etc.
There are definitely downfalls of 'citizen journalists' reporting news on the web. The facts that they are reporting can be completely fabricated and have no truth to them which could send people into a hysteria. The main thing is that people need to know who to trust for their news and also know that there is a very good chance of what they are reading is not true.
A great example of a 'citizen journalist' reporting false information is the recent CNN report of a Coast Guard Operation that went wrong. Although CNN is normally a credible news source, they must have gotten their information from a poor resource, which caused the miscommunication. I have provided the link below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/11/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5303828.shtml
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