Abstract:
Citizen journalism has gained global attention. Daily, it has become more popular within the
global media industry. Our focus in this paper was to establish the perception of the Nigerian
public, using the chosen population, about this brand of journalism, which heightened in the
country during the 2020 lockdown caused by Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the popularity of
citizen journalism, this study, anchored on the Democratic Participant Theory and the Social
Responsibility Theory, set out to establish whether this brand of journalism is in any way a
threat to the mainstream media. Another objective was to examine whether, based on its
obvious public acceptability, citizen journalism can become an alternative to the traditional
journalism. Then, based on various opinions by scholars, the study also sought to establish
how the professional media can collaborate to maximise and utilise the potentials of citizen
journalism. Applying the qualitative method, the sample, purposively chosen, comprised 30
interviewees from the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. The outcome, which reflects views
from these zones, is that though Nigerians have sustained attraction to citizen journalism, it
cannot replace neither is it a threat to the mainstream media. This study demands further
findings on the specific slant and depth of collaboration that can help tame the excesses of
citizen journalism.
