Gate keepers should wake up and smell the coffee!
CITIZEN JOURNALISM: THE RISE OF DISENFRANCHISED VOICES
Finally, the reason citizen journalism has been on the rise is because many qualified journalists are biased to certain takes, whether in music curation, political discourse, and sport. This bias is not subtle; it is glaring. It is evident in the way mainstream platforms repeatedly push the same narratives while ignoring others. It is in the way they champion the same artists, the same political figures, the same teams, while conveniently silencing or downplaying alternative voices. The audience has noticed. People are not blind to the fact that certain perspectives are deliberately given prominence while others are strategically buried.
So the internet empowered many disenfranchised voices to give their takes as well. Those who were ignored, overlooked, and deliberately kept out of the conversation now have platforms of their own. They no longer have to wait for approval from the so-called gatekeepers of media. They can write, record, and broadcast their own opinions without being filtered or edited to fit someone else's agenda. Social media, blogs, podcasts, and independent news sites have given power to the very people that mainstream media once deemed unworthy of attention.
You were not platforming their community’s artists, their change-makers, their comedians, and actors. You had yours that you wanted to repeatedly shove down our throats. Year after year, the same faces, the same voices, the same perspectives. You built your own exclusive club and expected everyone else to accept it. But people saw through it. They saw how you conveniently ignored rising talent that didn’t fit your mold. How you sidelined activists who didn’t push the narratives that suited your interests. How you pretended certain movements didn’t exist while amplifying others that aligned with your networks and paymasters.
Now people can choose who they really want to hear news from, whose opinion editorial they prefer to read, and which curated playlist has better bangers. They are no longer subjected to your friends and paymasters being shoved down their oesophagus. The monopoly is broken. Instead of being force-fed what the mainstream deems worthy, audiences now have the autonomy to seek out alternative sources that resonate with their realities. They can listen to commentators who speak in a language they understand, who address the issues that matter to them, and who don’t tiptoe around hard truths just to maintain industry relationships.
The only rebuttal is to then label them as lacking class, lacking education, as being vulgar, all while ignoring their talking points and concerns. Instead of engaging with the substance of their arguments, the strategy has become to discredit them. Call them unprofessional. Call them unrefined. Call them uneducated. Dismiss them as “just people on the internet.” Anything to avoid addressing the fact that their words are striking a nerve. Anything to avoid admitting that mainstream journalism has lost its grip on the people. It’s easier to insult than to acknowledge that independent voices are now leading the conversation.
Apparently, if you study journalism for five years or so, you now have a monopoly on telling other people’s stories or the format in which they should be told. But storytelling has existed long before journalism schools. People have always told their own stories in their own way, and they don’t need permission to continue doing so. The public is no longer fooled by credentials alone. They don’t automatically trust someone just because they have a degree or speak in polished grammar.
And that’s why the public doesn’t read your stuff anymore. That’s why they read and watch content from those who are more in touch with their true reality. Because authenticity matters more than formal training. People care less about your graduation garments, square hats, eloquence, and so forth when you are a buyable mouthpiece. A degree in journalism means nothing if your words are dictated by the highest bidder. The audience sees through the pretense, and they are choosing truth over theatrics.
They much rather listen to Malloti, because she is more truthful (not saying she is a journo) lol. And that’s the point. People are choosing raw honesty over polished deception. They are supporting those who speak freely, who don’t answer to editorial boards or corporate sponsors. The shift has already happened, and mainstream journalism has no choice but to watch as the audience walks away.