Impact of Citizen Journalism in india.

India has numerous News Channels but very few of them have invested heavily into recruiting and training Journalists.Generally one journalist is stationed in the capital of any state.Some of India's states are bigger than many countries of the world, so the journalist stationed in the state capital can just cover the Press briefings and any major incident that occurs around the state capital.Recently,news from far flung areas are also being shown as they happen.These have had major impact on the government and action has started in the right earnest on their account.Those channels which have broken most stories have garnered massive viewership and suddenly advertisers are rushing to them and distribution networks are competing with each other to bring them on their platform.This has all happened due to the phenomenon called "Citizen Journalism",that has swept India lately.The right to information and citizen journalism have given power to the people in the true sense.
Bhagalpur is a small town of the state of Bihar.A citizen Journalist captured in his camera how a man accused of snatching a chain was being beaten brutally first by the mob and then by the police, who even tied him to their motorcycle and dragged him for a distance.The visuals caught the attention of the nation and media pressure coupled with widespread condemnation of the open abuse of human rights forced Bihar government to act against the policemen involved .Another story by a Citizen Journalist was the headline of all the news network.The story about the stripping of over 1000 men in the village of Boraj,near Ajmer shook the conscience of the whole nation.The local elected body at the grassroot level,the village Panchayat had asked the men to strip to establish whether any of them was involved in the rape of a 35 -year -old woman from the village.
Another story of a punjab based citizen journalist exposed theft from trains that ferried oil.Many Children,men and women filling their buckets with oil was shown and as a result many guilty officials lost their jobs.
The story of how the forest department people looted and burnt down a tribal settlement for encroaching on forestland was picked up by the National and International Media.Based in the remote corner of the country ,Betul,this citizen reporter has broken many stories till now.
When a woman stripped and walked on to draw attention to the harassment she faced from her in-laws, a citizen journalist quickly broke the story to mainstream media.Similar was the case of Gudia and Imrana.
Gudia,the wife of a prisoner of war who married another man after her husband didn't return from the war front.Imrana,a Muslim woman who accused her own father-in-law of rape.
As of now only television News Channels are benefitting because broadband networks have yet to reach the remote corners of the country.Once the Internet is available everywhere,stories would be broken online first.