Is Citizen Journalism is Similar to Keyboard Warriors and Cyber Troopers? An Exploration and Meanings from Citizen Journalists’ Experience

Abstract

Citizen journalism has the reputation being generalized as having a negative affiliation more than its potentials. Many attributed citizen journalism with skepticism and cynical phenomenon. This qualitative study is conducted to find out if youth citizen journalists have the same philosophy and view about the phenomenon and if they associate themselves with keyboard warriors and cyber troopers as well as the ethical aspects of journalism practices applied among youth citizen journalists in Malaysia. Nine informants from various states in Malaysia participated in the phenomenological study. The research question as to ways they separate themselves from keyboard warriors and cyber troopers in citizen journalism landscape in Malaysia Findings based on the themes emerged suggested that they highlighted the differences between them and keyboard warriors as well as cyber troopers, the challenges they faced as citizen journalists facing keyboard warriors and cyber troopers.

Deliberative Democracy, Perspective from Indo-Pacific Blogosphere: A Survey

“…Although, some authors have compared citizen journalism in the blogosphere to the activities of keyboard warriors and cybertroopers. Mahamed et al (2020) examined the differences between citizen journalism and cybertroopers and how citizen journalism and participatory journalism promote democracy within a nation. First is the recklessness of cybertroopers who share what they believe to be true because they have no sense of responsibility.…”

“…Also, (Mahamed et al, 2020) highlight key challenges citizen journalists face. These are risks of misconception from the public that is compassionate toward keyboard warriors and cybertroopers risk of cyberbullying by cybertroopers and keyboard warriors.…”

“…These are risks of misconception from the public that is compassionate toward keyboard warriors and cybertroopers risk of cyberbullying by cybertroopers and keyboard warriors. Mahamed et al (2020) finally believed that citizen journalists, mainly the youth, use the online medium to express 19 themselves but are usually counter-twisted by the cybertroopers. According to Authors in Qiu (1999), The Chinese authoritarian regime uses the media as one of the strategies to diffuse the public sphere since it is a way of implementing virtual censorship to reduce the effects of public sphere deliberation so that the citizen will communicate in mediums like blogs in the old hegemonic way.…”