The Meaning of Sharing Information in Citizen Journalism

The practice of citizen journalism in an era of freedom and ease of access of information makes citizens as active users of digital media technology. Various mainstream media in Indonesia (pasangmata.detik.com and kompasiana.com) provide websites and citizen journalistic applications to make space for audiences to talk, share information and stories. This study aims to found out how the meaning of sharing information from application media users as a citizen journalistic media. The paradigm of research uses interpretive with the phenomenology method. The data collection technique uses focus group discussion which focuses on the experiences of various actors as research subjects who were directly involved as contributors to information in citizen journalistic media.The results of the study indicate that citizens are interested in sharing information. It usually gives an understanding of something. The information they send was useful for the public interest, such as information about the latest traffic conditions. Besides that, being a contributor helps others in their own way. They gather facts from what they saw themselves, according to the process of producing their own knowledge. Moreover, the interesting thing of being a contributor is being able to give a digital footprint for old age. They were proud to be witnesses of events that dissolve in the event itself. The implication of learning about journalism is that events reported from the perspective of citizens are a form of authentic journalism. Citizen involvement in the editorial space through a smartphone application creates an open and democratic society.