Citizen Journalism?

Citizen journalism sites? After reading Stephen Bryan’t commentary http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/060209bryant/ about journalism 2.0 and the new revolution of ordinary citizens publishing their stories on the web on user edited sites, I was a bit astonished, appalled and scared. Although Dan Gillmor lectures on the importance of this new medium, as I guess you could call it, I still adamantly believe that traditional news media outlets, for the sake of news integrity, are more important than ever. How is it that everybody and anybody can be called a journalist simply because of their additions to the world wide web? As a journalism student, I am a bit insulted. I do agree that citizens have important contributions, but not everyone and everything can be trusted now a days. Who is a regular joe schmoe accountable to? How do we know that their sources are credible and that in fact everything in their report is factual and not a farce or a hoax? Furthermore, a citizen’s account is less likely to follow the principles of journalism and contain a balanced story. Bryant does point out that this new medium is not as prominent as Gillmor thought it out to be, and I have to say I believe that is for a reason. People need credible news sources to give them a complete, accurate end of the story. Furthermore, I believe traditional media outlets have to work harder than ever to maintain reliability with the public by relaying a good product.