ABSTRACT
The impact of citizen journalism on the established journalism industry, and its role in the future news media mix, remain key topics in current journalism studies research, not least in the context of the current crisis facing many news organizations around the globe. The centrality of this issue is also refl ected in the substantial number of ‘citizen journalism’ monographs and collections published across the last few years (see for example Paterson and Domingo, 2008; Boler, 2008; Allan and Thorsen, 2009; Neuberger, Nuernbergk, and Rischke, 2009; Gordon, 2009; Russell and Echchaibi, 2009; Meikle and Redden, forthcoming). With relatively few notable exceptions, much of the research and wider public discussion surrounding the citizen journalism phenomenon has employed a relatively narrow defi nition of the term, with many researchers focusing on citizen journalism projects that provide mainly political news and commentary, and on their role in infl uencing the political process especially in countries like the US.
