Studying a journalism course and being a blogger is great as I can not only learn how to become a journalist but I can put it into practice. However, as a journalist in training I know that in a few years I will have a qualification that means I can write like a journalist. Yet, with an increasing amount of people turning to blogging platforms and twitter to air their news what's stopping anyone from being a journalist nowadays? Do we really need qualifications or can we just turn on our laptop and tap away some old rubbish with the hope that someone will read it one day?

As citizen journalists increasingly come to the surface why do we as everyday people read what they write and believe it? If we were waiting to have surgery and we were told that the surgeon was a 'citizen surgeon' but had watched lots of doctor programmes so had a rough idea of what he was doing. Would we roll over and let him start stabbing us with needles and performing surgery?

Of course not, so why do we allow citizen journalists to tell us the news and secondly why do we believe it so much. For many people nowadays they receive most of their news via Facebook and people commenting on the days headlines. Why do we believe them and pay attention to them? They have no qualifications, they are just 'Joe Bloggs' but as a nation we seem to be turning to these citizen journalists and reading what they have to say for one simple reason. They are quick, to the point and easy to comprehend.

A 'good' journalist will try to be open minded when writing a hard news story and retain all of their own views, a citizen journalist can carefully write from an angle to display their own viewpoint rather than an open minded one.

Yet citizen journalists are still crucial to the world, are they ethical? Probably not. Are they accurate all the time? Probably not. Are they increasing in popularity? Definitely.