The place of citizen journalism from credibility and trust

Abstract

The concept of citizen journalism emerged strongly and full of expectations at the beginning of the 21st century, but not without controversy. Questioned by some sectors, it was seen as a re-founding of archaic and obsolete journalism for the new millennium with the help of digital technologies. With a short trajectory of two decades, the term is less and less used, repositioning itself in the space that corresponds to it, even though the informative actions of citizens have diversified and multiplied exponentially. Our hypothesis is that two factors, one technological and the other journalistic, have hindered the possibility of the term’s consolidation with all its initial pretensions and competences: social media and Fake News. The critical analysis allows us to conclude that the effect of fake news, and by extension of misinformation, on citizens undermines the trust and credibility of citizen journalism, achieving a new rapprochement with journalistic media.