In order to answer this question, we first have to define the two terms. Citizen Journalism is the process of average people collecting, reporting, and spreading information. Journalism also includes collecting, reporting, and spreading of information, but also giving background for the story, analyzing the story, and placing it in context with other significant events.
I believe Citizen Journalism is not a true form of Journalism.
Journalism implies a standard for quality of content, a level of trust and reliability. When a journalist publishes work, it has been read and proofread by multiple other people, gutting it for holes, unbacked claims, and false information.
Citizen Journalism, while it has its value, is not Journalism because it lacks these quality standards. With the rise of personal blogging and sharing platforms, it has become easier and easier for people to produce user generated content. It is extremely valuable for people to be able to break the news of things like US Airways Flight 1549, and to keep people up to date on the situation in Syria. The main difference between the above forms of Citizen Journalism and true Journalism, is the analysis of the story and placing it into appropriate global, economic, political, etc context. Citizen Journalists often do a very good job providing local, real time updates from the point of view of someone on the ground, but they cannot provide the critical analysis provided by true Journalists.
Dualsurvival 