citizen journalism | Eduardo Collado

Citizen journalism, participatory journalism or user-generated content it is defined as “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Bowman and Willis 2003:9). So, Twitter could be a tool for citizen journalism?, why?

First step is to define stages in the news production process (Domingo, et al. 2008):

Access/Observation: The initial information-gathering stage at which source material for a story is generated, such as eyewitness accounts and audio-visual contributions.

Selection/Filtering: The “gatekeeping” stage when decisions are made about what should be reported or published.

Processing/Editing: The stage at which a story is created, including the writing and editing of an item for publication.

Distribution: The stage at which a story is disseminated or made available for reading and, potentially, discussion.

Interpretation: The stage at which a story that has been produced and published is opened up to comment and discussion.

Domingo’s proposal talked about “citizen media”, “citizens blogs”, “citizen stories”, “content hierarchy”, “social networking”, “collective interviews”, “comments”, “forums”, “journalists blogs” and “pools” locating Twitter in the phase of information distribution, but the following article attempts to demonstrate content located on Twitter can be considered widely, reaching more phases in the process defined by Domingo. Continue reading →

Jane B. Singer, Alfred Hermida, David Domingo, Ari Heinonen, Ari Heinonen, Thorsten Quandt, Zvi Reich and Marina Vujnovic have published a book called “Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers” edited by Wiley-Blackwell available at:

This book is maybe driven by the most important people around research in social media and journalism. Right now I have read a few pages, but the first sentence it is a great “The English word “journalism” and “journey” are cousins”.

“Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers offers fascinating insights into how journalists in Western democracies are thinking about, and dealing with, the inclusion of content produced and published by the public.

Recent years have seen a dramatic change in the relationship between online media and the ‘audience’, and user–generated content is a common feature of news websites. Control over the contents of the media space, once held by traditional news outlets, today is shared by bloggers and other social media participants.

Such an environment requires a significant conceptual and practical shift for journalists, who face a rapid and radical decline in their power to oversee the flow of information. The ability to productively incorporate user contributions within traditional media spaces is becoming a vital skill.

This book is based on a collaborative research project by a team of journalism scholars from Europe, North America and Israel.” - http://participatoryjournalism.org/

Maybe you want to see some slides about this before buying anything … why not?:

Here are the slides from my @screen_futures keynote on the promise and practice of participatory journalism http://bit.ly/r9Qrtb