Citizen Journalists and the Evolution of Political Media

Author(s): Diana Owen

Source: St Antony's International Review , Vol. 3, No. 1, The Internet: Power and
Governance in a Digitised World (May 2007), pp. 64-79
Published by: St. Antony's International Review
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26227039

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64 Citizen Journalists and the Evolution of
Political Media

DIANA Owen

In 2006, Time magazine departed radically from tradition by naming

‘you’–the average citizen–its ‘Person of the Year’. This choice was
precipitated by the observation that citizen to citizen communication via
the World Wide Web was revolutionising relationships in all realms of
life. As the cover story proclaimed, ‘It’s about the many wresting power
from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not
only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.’1 The
rise in digital media celebrated by Time has influenced politics. Digital
communications technology offers opportunities for new actors to gain a
foothold in the political process and for established participants to recast
their political engagement. They can enable average citizens to redraw the
boundaries of authority in the political realm. This article will examine
the extent to which this possibility has or will become a reality.
A significant development in the era of digital media is the rise of
citizen journalists –amateur information producers who actively distribute
news, insights and opinion. Armed with readily accessible technological
tools that facilitate the transmission of information quickly, widely and
without gatekeepers, citizen journalists have proliferated online as the
sophistication of their efforts has increased. The presence of digital
citizen journalists has sparked much debate about their role in the political
and media systems. It may be the case that the privileged position held
by the institutionalised press will be eroded by citizen news producers
who have the ability and inclination to act as government watchdogs and
to champion public debate while gaining the attention of average people,
politicians and mainstream journalists. At the same time, the potential
power of citizen journalism may be undercut by its haphazard development,
disorganised content and freeform style–some of the very traits that
make this type of civic activation so compelling and accessible to
participants and audiences. Established journalists and media
organisations, envisioning a threat to their position in the communications
hierarchy, have been adapting their own behaviour to both embrace and
undercut citizen journalism.
This article will examine the state of citizen journalism today. This
is no easy task, as new developments in this emerging communications
form are ongoing and frequent. It will begin by defining the rather

D. Owen, ‘Citizen Journalists and the Evolution of Political Media,’

stair 3, No. 1 (2007): 64-79.

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slippery concept of citizen journalism. Then it will describe the varieties 65
of citizen journalism that are currently being employed, including
those that are primarily the domain of amateurs, those dominated by
professionals and hybrid forms. This overview will provide a context
for the consideration of the role of traditional journalism and citizen
journalism as news and information providers in the digital era. I will
argue that the digital environment creates unprecedented opportunities
for citizen forays into public communication. While radical changes
are far from apparent at present, the transition in the political media
environment that has been in the works since the late 1980s has the
potential to produce fundamental shifts in the power relations between
citizens, journalists and public officials. This discussion will be based
primarily on the situation in the United States (us), although the rise in
citizen journalism has been witnessed around the globe.

What is Citizen Journalism?

The term citizen journalism has come to mean different things depending
upon the context in which it is employed and the perspective of the
commentator. The concept has been labelled alternately peer group
journalism,2 do-it-yourself journalism, grassroots journalism and
‘we-media’.3 While citizen journalism shares certain characteristics with
traditional journalism, it differs in significant ways.
Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis, who prefer the label ‘participatory
journalism’, provide a generic definition that is a useful starting place
for explicating the term: ‘The act of a citizen, or group of citizens,
playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing
and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation
is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant
information that a democracy requires.’4 Like traditional journalism, the
citizen variety is concerned with providing accounts of events, issues and
actors that are relevant to an audience. One characteristic of citizen
journalism is the notion that news is not a one-way conversation in
which political elites and their journalistic compatriots talk down to
the public at large. Instead, citizen journalism represents collaboration
within communities that produce, consume and circulate content online.
What distinguishes citizen journalism from other conversational forms
of communication, like call-in talk radio and television, is that reports
have the informational components and form of a news story that
invites commentary in a semi-structured format. The model of the news

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66 audience as primarily passive consumers is reconstituted as users who
actively engage with the information environment.5
There is a tremendous quantity of digital content produced by
citizens, but only a small amount qualifies as citizen journalism. It is im-
portant to draw a distinction between a blog relating personal stories about
a family vacation to a small group of friends and legitimate journalistic
endeavours. There is a significant difference between a digital diarist or
storyteller and a journalist. Of the 12 million Americans who keep blogs,
34 percent consider their blog to be a form of journalism. Only 11 percent
publish information related to politics, government, and current affairs
broadly construed, and view this activity as a public service designed to
serve an audience.6 Citizen journalists in the digital age are individuals
who have acquired the knowledge of how communications technologies
work and the skills to convey successfully relevant information to audiences
in the public interest. Although citizen journalists are often freelancers
in the broadest sense of the word, their reporting efforts are sustained
and have garnered an audience base.
Kevin Kawamoto underscores the fact that digital journalism,
including the citizen variety, is largely limited to those who are tech
savvy and have access to high speed technology. For Kawamoto, digital
journalism is, ‘The use of digital technologies to research, produce, and
deliver (or make accessible) news and information to an increasingly
computer literate audience.’7 Acts of citizens engaging in journalism are
located in sophisticated technological spaces, including websites, blogs,
newsgroups, discussion forums, chat rooms and podcasts. They are
facilitated by collaborative publishing systems and peer-to-peer
applications like instant messaging. In fact, many of the most well
sustained, highly trafficked and widely publicised exercises in citizen
journalism are populated and promoted by members of the technorati,
academics, political elites and former journalists who have abandoned
their ties to established media organisations.8
The majority of citizen journalists are from higher socioeconomic
and educational groups. In the United States, younger people have
contributed significantly to citizen journalism, although the ranks of
citizen news providers increasingly include representatives from all
strata of society. Younger people also are responsible for innovating in
terms of exploring new formats and methods of expression.
A profile of bloggers, who represent but one aspect of the citizen
journalism movement, illustratesthis point. A 2006 study finds that of
the 12 million Americans who blog, 54 percent are under the age of
thirty, 54 percent are men, and the majority hail from urban and
suburban areas. Thirty-seven percent have a university degree, and an

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additional 38 percent are full or part time students. Sixty percent of 67
bloggers are white compared with 71 percent of the online population
as a whole.9

Citizen Newsgatherers
Some observers have made the claim that in today’s environment anyone
can be a journalist.10 However, a distinction must be made between
citizen journalists and ‘citizen newsgatherers’11 or ‘citizen witnesses’.
Much has been made about the fact that average people armed
with information-gathering technologies have provided important
contributions to breaking stories. The astounding proliferation of
handheld technologies has enabled unprecedented media coverage of
events from the significant to the mundane. In 2006, over 40 percent
of European households owned digital cameras. More than 60 million
Americans possessed camcorders. Over half of the mobile phones sold in
North America contained cameras, many of which were video-enabled.
Evidence suggests that people are using mobile phones in ways that facil-
itate their ability to receive and gather information. As Table 1 indicates,
35 percent of Americans use their cell phones to send text messages,
while 28 percent use them to take photographs.

Table 1: Americans’ Uses of Cell Phone for Purposes Other Than Calling in
200645

Purpose of Usage Percentage

Text Messaging 35%
Taking Still Photos 28%
Accessing the Internet 14%
Sending and Receiving Email 8%
Searching for Information 7%
Recording Video Clips 6%
Watching Television or Video 2%

Citizens used camera phones, camcorders and other digital devices to

capture the devastation of the tsunami in Southeast Asia in December
2004, the bomb attacks on the London transportation system in July

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68 2005 and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Images and stories from
people on the scene were incorporated into news reports of mainstream
organisations and posted on blogs, message boards and other digital
forums run by citizens. Newsgatherers can provide information
fragments, act as sources and express opinions. In the case of the London
bombings, the British Broadcasting Corporation (bbc) received over
1,000 photographs, twenty pieces of amateur video, 4,000 text messages
and 20,000 email messages within six hours of the event. The volume
of information, in fact, threatened to overwhelm the small staff of four
journalists assigned to the story.12 Average citizens can keep stories alive
by funnelling material to news producers to fashion into coherent pieces.
These efforts contribute to the richness of the reporting and provide
insights that may be overlooked by professional organisations.

Varieties of Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is a fluid enterprise encompassing a wide expanse of
digital content that is difficult to categorise and constantly morphing. These
efforts can be entirely amateur operations, the work of professional
journalists, or a combination of both. Citizen journalism differs as well
based on whether the effort is entirely independent or has some level of
organisational commitment, such as being sponsored by a media corporation
or a nonprofit group. It also varies in the degree to which the effort is
sustained or episodic and the platform that is used to disseminate the
information. Finally, the audiences targeted for particular offerings by citizen
journalists range in size from a handful of concerned locals to millions of
people worldwide.13
The purest form of citizen journalism is entirely produced by amateurs,
which include lone individuals who use digital technology to create their
own mini news organisations14 and those who write blogs that are hosted by
mainstream news operations. Stand-alone citizen journalism sites often deal
with local news, rather than tackling national issues. They may be subject
to some level of editing to screen out inappropriate or illegal postings by a
site owner or moderator, or the content may be entirely unedited. Citizen
blogs hosted on news organisations’ websites generally are subject to some
form of oversight and editing. The development of ‘citizen bloghouses’ that
invite individual bloggers to publish in a variety of areas that are catalogued
on a website is a growing trend.15 A form of amateur citizen journalism
that fully incorporates the notion of collective composition allows people to

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write and post stories that anyone can edit. Wikinews is the model for this 69
type of journalism.16
Amateurs generally lack formal training in journalism. However, the
digital environment gives them access to many of the tools used by
professional journalists. As news organisations have cut back on their field
units, professional and amateur journalists frequently rely on the same
online sources of information.17 Lacking a formal institutional structure,
amateurs have developed their own collaborative methods for fact-
checking by the community of content users who scrutinise their work. In
some instances, this process has been akin to investigative reporting, as
amateur journalists have uncovered incidents of government malfeasance,
hoaxes and other improprieties.18 Proponents of amateur journalism
contend that this form of self-policing weeds out irresponsible report-
ers as audiences gravitate towards high-quality content and away from
uncorroborated information.
Low-cost production tools enable amateurs to easily publish their own
writings, share photos and stream audio and video. Some amateurs have
been ahead of the curve in technological innovation, as they employ a wide
range of digital formats to disseminate their work, including websites, blogs,
chat rooms, discussion boards, Web zines and podcasts. Their efforts can
serve as an experimental laboratory from which professionals can learn.
The information amateurs disseminate is as diverse as newspaper-style
accounts; facts and opinions about issues, events and political leaders;
neighbourhood crime watches; and highly-personalised ramblings about
individual experiences. Amateur citizen journalists can be effective
facilitators of community conversations, inviting comments, moderating
discussions and encouraging others to engage in political discourse.19 The
peer-to-peer dimension of amateur enterprises facilitates the development of
active collaborative communities, as users are more likely to feel comfortable
taking part in a conversation with people like themselves than with
professional journalists.
In contrast to purely amateur productions is ‘citizen journalism’ practiced
by professional journalists. While most professionals who engage in
citizen journalism are hosted formally by their news organisations, some
have branched out and published on independent sites or their own personal
sites. Professional citizen journalism differs from traditional journalism in
that stories are written in a more conversational and colloquial style than
typical news articles, and accounts tend to be more personalised, detailed and
lengthy. Practitioners claim that they are stepping out of their professional
role and writing as members of the citizenry at large, which gives them
greater leeway to stray from journalistic conventions and to express
opinions. One tactic professionals use is to engage citizen ‘add-on reporters’

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70 by soliciting personal accounts to enliven reports on topics ranging from
road rage at cyclists to experiences with government officials.20 For some
of these efforts, the claims to being citizen journalism are tenuous, as user
participation is absent or restricted to allowing citizens to post comments on
stories that can be pulled at any time. Much professional citizen journalism,
in fact, represents another venue for those who already have plenty of
opportunity for expression and does little to facilitate community dialogue.
The amount of legitimate citizen journalism practised by amateurs
without professional intervention or sponsorship is limited. A snapshot
of this reality can be observed in Table 2, which indicates the number of
significant news-related blogs published in conjunction with professional
media organisations, by professional journalists outside of their official
organisational affiliation and by amateur citizen journalists in November
2006. The list, compiled by cyberjournalist.net, includes blogs that publish
significant public affairs content, including ‘hyperlocal’ blogs. While not
comprehensive, the list includes blogs from the United States, United
Kingdom, Israel and other English-speaking nations. Of the approximately
500 blogs represented, only 77 or 15 percent are amateur citizen initiatives.
The majority of blogs (56 percent) is published by news sites as either ongoing
or event-specific efforts, and primarily host work authored by professionals.
Twenty-nine percent of the blogs belong to professionals who post them
either on an independent site or on their own personal site.

Table 2: Number of Professional and Citizen Journalist Blogs, November 2006

Journalist Blog Type Number of Blogs

Ongoing Blogs Published by News Sites 198
Authored primarily by professionals, with some citizen
journalists
Limited Time Blogs Published by News Sites for Events 85
Authored primarily by professionals
Independent Blogs 95
Published by journalists, but not on a news site
Personal Sites of Journalists 51
Amateur Citizen Journalist Initiatives 77
Significant, sustained initiatives

Source: “J-Bloggers: The CyberJournalist List,” Retrieved on November 24, 2006 at

http://cyberjournalist.net/cyberjournalists.php.

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 Hybrid forms of citizen journalism in which amateurs and professionals 71
interact to produce a story are becoming increasingly prevalent. Some
observers believe that these collaborative efforts have the greatest
potential to provide quality information, by subjecting stories to formal
journalistic standards while giving citizens a meaningful voice in the
process. Networked journalism is the most sophisticated of the hybrid
forms of citizen journalism. It represents the collaboration of professional
journalists and members of the public with the goal of investigating and
reporting on news stories, many of which may fly under the radar of
established news organisations or fail to generate in-depth coverage. The
approach relies on open source methods to sustain a network where
‘professionals and amateurs work together to get real story.’21 Professional
journalists act as editors who manage the process in terms of soliciting
story ideas; commissioning reports from the field, interviews and other
source material; supervising fact-checking; and overseeing the production
of the final piece. In the most advanced forms of networked journalism,
participating parties circulate drafts of the piece, in order to develop a
final copy. Acting in this capacity, professionals ‘are less the manufacturers
of news than the moderators of conversations that get to the news.’22
A prime example of hybrid citizen journalism is OhmyNews, a South
Korean online news site established in 2000 that has introduced Japanese
and English language versions.23 Between 70 and 80 percent of the
stories on OhmyNews are the result of joint professional-amateur
interactions. OhmyNews maintains a staff of ninety professionals, fifty-
five of whom are journalists, and has a network of over 44,000
citizen contributors who receive a small stipend for their work. The
online paper produces between 150 and 200 articles per day.24 Unlike
Wikinews, which is an entirely amateur operation that permits anyone
to edit a post, OhmyNews requires articles to be vetted by a professional
staff.

A Media System in Transition: The Digital

Environment and News
The rise of citizen journalism coincides with a significant transformation
of the news media system that has been in evidence since the late 1980s.
Existing communications platforms, such as radio and television talk
programs, and novel formats, like Internet websites and chat rooms,
have acquired significant political roles. A distinguishing characteristic
of these formats is the enhanced opportunities they provide for citizens

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72 to become active participants in the political and media systems.25
During the early phase of the new media era, citizen engagement with
these formats was sporadic and often came in response to a significant
event, such as a presidential election, the 1990 Gulf War or a high profile
legal case, like the O.J. Simpson murder trial. As the novelty of new
media wore off, audiences waned and reliance on traditional media
persisted. New media served primarily to supplement traditional
mainstream media, such as television news and newspapers, especially for
‘news junkies’ who already were established participants in the political
process. The media system is currently in the midst of a second phase in
this transition, which is characterised by an increasingly sophisticated
digital environment coinciding with a fundamental change in the nature
of news.
Digital technology enables a collaborative and flexible environment
for journalism. The dominant one-to-many model of traditional journalism
is no longer relevant, as communication can take place multi-directionally.
Ever improving digital technologies that are faster, lighter, smaller, more
mobile and cheaper have become widely available to the general public.
These technologies, including laptop computers, mobile phones, PDAs,
and iPods, accommodate more flexible platforms for disseminating
information that are readily integrated. Broadband and wireless
technology further facilitate access to and dissemination of information.
The public seems anxious to adopt these new technologies. For example,
between 2002 and 2006, Apple sold 67,642,000 iPods.26 The number
of mobile phone subscribers worldwide has reached 859 million.
It is important to note that the proliferation of technologies enabling
citizens to take part in this type of digital revolution in information
production is not uniformly distributed throughout the population.
Particularly excluded are individuals from lower educational and
socioeconomic status groups.27 At the same time, there is evidence
that the digital divide between those who have access to and use new
technologies and those who do not has been shrinking.28
Data indicate that audiences are migrating to formats facilitated by
digital communications and are beginning to abandon older platforms,
such as newspapers.29 In the United States, the number of people who
use the Internet to find information about politics has increased notably
in recent years.30 It should be noted, however, that the number of people
who use the Internet for finding news and political information lags
far behind those who use it for other purposes, such as for tracking
the weather; finding information on sports, entertainment and travel;
gaming and financial management. Table 3 indicates that 19 percent of
adults, or 26 million Americans, sought political information online

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from traditional news sites in 2006 on an average day. During the 73
height of a political campaign or other major event, the number of
people accessing news online can reach 54 million. More impressive
is the increase in the proportion of people who are accessing
information via non-traditional alternatives to standard news sites.
Thirty-nine percent of American adults, or 57 million people, read
blogs regularly.31 A November 2006 study revealed that 12 percent
of American adults have downloaded a podcast so that they could
listen to or view it at a later time, up from seven percent six months
earlier.32 A joint study by the bbc and Independent Communications
and Marketing (icm), conducted in November 2006, found that
online and handheld video use had increased rapidly in Britain.
Forty-three percent of Britons claimed to have watched video online or
on a mobile device at least once per week, and three quarters of these
users reported that they were watching online video more than they
had a year earlier. A full 20 percent of those who watched online had
reduced their viewing of traditional television. Online watching
was most prevalent among 16-24 year olds, whose rate of watching
traditional television had declined by 2.9 percent over the preceding
year. Of those who did not watch online video, two thirds said that
they hoped to begin watching within the year.33

Table 3: Percentage and Number of Adult Americans (Over 18) Who Access
Traditional Online News Sites Daily46

Year % of Adult Population Number of People

July 2002 13% 11 million
November 2004 18% 21 million
August 2006 19% 26 million

In addition to these technology-related developments, the core notion of

what constitutes news has changed. The traditional definition of news
as significant current events has given way to news as information in
the broadest possible sense. What journalists provide and audiences
accept as news ranges from fact-based reporting and rigorous
investigative journalism to casual observations, gossip and rumours.
Opinion content runs the gamut from professional editorials, opinion
polls of vastly fluctuating quality with related commentary and personal
viewpoints that are slimly invested with fact.34 Citizen journalism, with

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74 its emphasis on the collective accumulation of material and on seeking
untold stories, no matter how small, contributes to this shift in the
perception of what constitutes news itself.

The Power of Citizen Journalism

The emerging digital news media environment provides improved
opportunities for democratic representation by enhancing average
people’s ability to engage in political and civic life. Citizen journalism
allows ordinary people unprecedented access to the public sphere.
Political leaders and the mainstream media have become attentive to the
writings of citizen journalists, who can provide insights into public opinion
on issues and act as watchdogs monitoring the actions of government
and the mainstream press. Citizen journalism has the potential to limit
the professional journalist’s role as the essential gatekeeper between
government actors and the general public.35 It allows average people to
set the agenda for public affairs and to decide which issues and events
they consider to be consequential for their lives. Further, digital media
can be used to strengthen associations by allowing people with similar
concerns to come together in virtual communities and to exercise their
strength in numbers.
Citizen journalism has had a tangible influence on traditional
journalism. At the very least, the movement has made it clear that
journalists are agents of their audiences and need to be more attentive to
their public. Citizen journalists make visible small news stories that people
care about–stories that are often neglected as professionals working
for media conglomerates chase down the same big story. Eyewitness
accounts and personal storytelling that are the hallmarks of citizen
journalism create personal connections between users. Citizen journalists
can also bypass the filters imposed by the professional press. During the
war in Iraq, citizen journalists posted photos deemed by the mainstream
media to be unsuitable for consumption by the American public,
sparking strong reactions by citizens.
As revelations of shoddy reporting practices have undermined the cred-
ibility of even the most revered news organisations, such as the New York
Times, and citizens have been increasingly dissatisfied with tabloid-style
news content, the potential for citizen journalism to carve out a
significant audience niche is evident. The popularity of citizen news
sites, especially at the community level, has encouraged the mainstream
press to adopt some of the features of citizen journalism, such as the

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use of amateur newsgatherers and add-on reporters who contribute 75
to stories. Some organisations have hosted citizen journalists on their
news sites. For example, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the u.s.
news organisation msnbc established ‘citizen journalist’ features on its
website, asked eyewitnesses to share their accounts and images and invited
reactions from users. They maintained the feature for several months,
but it did not become a permanent part of the news product. Alternately,
the bbc views citizen journalism as part of its mandate due, in part, to
its public funding as well as its desire to strengthen the level of audience
trust in its broadcasts. It has taken steps to reconstitute its news coverage
by forging partnerships with the public. These include the development
of digital storytelling projects, in which people make their own videos
for broadcast, and the creation of Action Network, a website which
allows people sharing similar concerns to exchange information and
organise campaigns.36

Limitations of Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism faces co-optation by the mainstream press. With few
exceptions, mainstream press organisations embrace citizen journalism
reluctantly and often in name only. They are not inclined to take actions
that will shift established patterns of authority in which they hold a
privileged position.37 Despite their claims to the contrary, few online
newspapers provide meaningful opportunities for citizen voices to be
represented on their sites. Those that incorporate citizen content are
careful to maintain traditional authoritative hierarchies by editing
content and limiting the potential for interaction with other citizens,
journalists and public officials via the site.38
There are practical considerations that limit the potential power of
citizen journalism as well. As political scientists Arthur Lupia and Gisela
Sin note in their study of blogs, ‘Evolving technologies can make some
collective endeavour harder to maintain or easier to destroy.’39 One of the
major drawbacks, especially for amateurs, is the challenge of maintaining
ongoing projects. Doing journalism well is difficult, as is sustaining a
quality product. The time investment, commitment and skills required to
keep up with a constantly changing media and technological environment
are substantial. The financial investment in equipment and connectivity
is unlikely to be recouped. Citizen journalism is unprofitable, especially
in a media market that is saturated with choices.40 Concerns have been
raised that in some instances news organisations are exploiting citizen

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76 newsgatherers by making money from information and images that they
receive for free. Citizens may eventually rebel against this practice with
the likely result being that news organisations will discontinue their
public outreach efforts rather than pay for material. Further, the effort
required of audiences to seek out, evaluate and potentially contribute to
citizen journalism is greater than that needed to attend to established
media.
Some observers contend that the haphazard underpinnings of
citizen journalistic efforts limit their long term viability, including their
acceptance by audiences and their ability to attract the attention of public
officials. The New Yorker columnist Nicholas Lemann laments the presence
of ‘journalism without journalists’. He believes ‘Citizen journalists are
supposedly inspired amateurs who find out what’s going on in the places
where they live and work, and who bring us a fuller, richer picture of
the world than we get from familiar news organisations, while sparing
us the pomposity and preening that journalists often display.’41 Critics
are concerned that citizen journalism lacks the accountability in terms
of established standards of quality and responsibility practiced by media
institutions to safeguard the public interest. Where formal, institutionalised
editorial procedures are lacking, as is the case for some forms of citizen
journalism, fact checking and sourcing are compromised. Critics contend
that the egalitarian, free-for-all ethic that characterises amateur
journalism is at odds with professional goals, privileges entertainment
over fact and even invites fabrication. Overly aggressive citizen journalists
can compromise the privacy of their subjects with paparazzi-style
photography and rumour mongering.42 As Fred Brown concludes, ‘A
professional journalist’s No. 1 concern is to be accurate. A citizen
journalist’s No. 1 obligation is to be interesting.’43 It should be noted
that these charges against citizen journalism mirror those levelled
repeatedly against the mainstream media.44

Conclusion
Professional and amateur journalists are striving to generate news
products that exploit the characteristics of the digital environment–
capacity, immediacy and interactivity. They are seeking to establish their
roles in a communications milieu that is in an unprecedented state of
flux. Consequently, information disseminated by mainstream press and
new media actors is becoming increasingly indistinguishable.

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 Established press institutions are slow to change, and emergent 77
media systems always maintain vestiges of previous eras. The transition
in the political media environment that has been developing since the
late 1980s may signal a shift in the patterns of influence established
between citizens, journalists and public officials. In particular,
citizens will no longer be relegated to negotiating through media elites
to gain access to political leaders. The digital tools now available to the
public are historically unlike any other technologies in their ability to
empower citizens to challenge established hierarchies. The virtually
limitless ability to quickly disseminate content using readily available
digital tools has enabled citizens to broker information and create new
services that will strengthen their collective position in society.

Notes
1
Lev Grossman, ‘Time’s Person of the Year: You,’ [Available Online] Time 168,
no.26, 25 December 2006 [cited January, 2007]; Available from http://www.time.
com.
2
Jay Rosen, ‘Terms of Authority: Readers and Viewers,’ [Available Online] Columbia
Journalism Review (Sept./Oct 2003): 35-37. Available from http://www.cjr.org/
issues/2003/5/alt-rosen.asp.
3
Dan Gillmor, We the Media (Sebastopol, ca: O’Reilly, 2006).
4
Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis, ‘The Future is Here, But Do News Media
Companies See It?’, Nieman Reports 59, no. 4 (2005): 6-10.
5
Rosen, 2003.
6
Amanda Lenhart and Susannah Fox, ‘Bloggers: A Portrait of the Internet’s New
Storytellers,’ [Available Online] Pew Internet and American Life Project, 19 July 2006;
Available from http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP.
7
Kevin Kawamoto, (ed.) Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons
of Journalism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
8
See, for example, pressthink.com; BuzzMachine.com.
9
Lenhart and Fox.
10
Joyce Cohen, ‘Armed With Right Cell Phone, Anyone Can Be a Journalist,’ The
New York Times, 18 July 2005, Technology Section: 1.
11
Allison Romano, ‘Why Everybody is a Reporter,’ [Available Online] Broadcasting
and Cable, 22 August 2005; Available from http://www.broadcastingcable.com/
article/CA6249821.html.
12
Richard Sambrook, ‘Citizen Journalism and the BBC,’ Nieman Reports 59, no. 4
(2005): 13-15.

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78 13
Diana Owen, ‘‘New Media’ and Contemporary Interpretations of Freedom of the
Press,’ in Freeing the Presses, ed. Timothy E. Cook (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana
State University Press, 2005), 139-161.
14
Bowman and Willis.
15
Steve Outing, ‘The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism,’ [Available Online] Poynter
Online, 13 June 2005 [cited 20 October 2006]; Available from http://www.poynter.
org/content/content_view.asp?id=83126.
16
See http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page.
17
Jay Rosen, ‘Terms of Authority: Readers and Viewers,’ [Available Online]
Columbia Journalism Review (Sept./Oct 2003): 35-37. Available from http://www.cjr.
org/issues/2003/5/alt-rosen.asp.
18
Dan Gillmor, We the Media (Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2006).
19
Rosen, 2003; Gillmore, 2005, 2006; Bowman and Willis, 2005a.
20
Outing.
21
Jeff Jarvis, ‘Networked Journalism,’ [Available Online] BuzzMachine, 5 July
2006[cited 19 November 2006]; Available from http://www.buzzmachine.com/
index.php/2006/07/05/networked-journalism.
22
Ibid.
23
See http://english.ohmynews.com.
24
Moon Ihlwan, ‘OhmyNews’ Oh My Biz Problem,’ [Available Online]
BusinessWeek.com, 1 November 2006 [cited 20 November 2006]; Available from
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061101_539412.
htm; Outing.
25
Richard Davis and Diana Owen, New Media and American Politics (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1998).
26
Steve Dowling, ‘Apple Reports Preliminary 4th Quarter Results.’ [Available
Online] Apple press release, 18 October 2006 [cited 18 November 2006]; Available
from http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/oct/18results.html.
27
See World Internet Project for information on specific countries; http://www.
worldinternetproject.net.
28
See World Summit on the Information Society, 2005; http://www.itu.int/wsis/
tunis/newsroom/stats.
29
Michael Hill, ‘Transforming the News,’ [Available Online] Baltimore Sun [cited
19 November 2006]; Available from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/
ideas/bal-id.newspaper19nov19,1,5275384.story.
30
World Internet Project, 2005.
31
Lenhart and Fox, 2006.

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32
Mary Madden, ‘Data Memo: Podcast Downloading,’ [Available Online] Pew 79
Internet and American Life Project, 22 November 2006 [cited 23 November 2006];
Available from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/193/report_display.asp.
33
‘Online Video ‘Eroding TV Viewing,’ [Available Online] BBC News, 27 November
2006 [cited 27 November 2006]; Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
entertainment/6168950.stm.
34
Hill, 2006; Owen, 2005.
35
Mark Deuze, ‘Journalism and the Web,’ Gazette 61, no. 5 (1999): 373-390.
36
Sambrook, 2005.
37
Bowman and Willis, 200b.
38
Jack Rosenberry, ‘Few Papers Use Online Techniques to Improve Public
Communication,’ Newspaper Research Journal 26, no. 4 (2005): 61-73.
39
Arthur Lupia and Gisela Sin, ‘Which Public Goods Are Endangered?: How
Evolving Communication Technologies Affect the Logic of Collective Action,’ Public
Choice 117, no. 3-4 (2003): 316.
40
Ihlwan, 2006.
41
Nicholas Lemann, ‘Amateur Hour,’ [Available Online] The New Yorker, 7 August
2006 [cited 1 November 2006]: 44. Available from http://www.newyorker.com/
printables/fact/060807fa_fact1.
42
Mark Glaser, ‘Did London Bombings Turn Citizen Journalists Into Citizen
Paparazzi?’ [Available Online] Online Journalism Review, Annenberg School of
Journalism, University of Southern California, 12 July 2005 [cited 16 October
2006]; Available from http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050712glaser/print.htm;
Romano, 2005.
43
Fred Brown, ‘‘Citizen’ Journalism Is Not Professional Journalism,’ Quill 93, no. 8
(August 2005): 42.
44
See Davis and Owen, 1998; Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser, The News
About the News (New York: Vintage Books, 2002).; Stephen J. Farnsworth and S.
Robert Lichter, The Nightly News Nightmare (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,
2003); James T. Hamilton, All the News That’s Fit to Sell (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2004).
45
Lee Rainey and Scott Keeter. ‘How Americans Use Their Cell Phones,’ [Available
Online] Pew Internet and American Life Project, 3 April 2006 [cited 20 October 2006];
Available from http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/179/report_display.asp.
46
John B. Horrigan, ‘Data Memo: Politics Online,’ [Available Online] Pew Internet
and American Life Project, August 2006 [cited 3 September 2006]; Available from
http://207.21.232.103/PPF/r/187/report_display.asp.

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