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This article do an approach to the impact of citizen activism during the earthquake of Ecuador on April 16, against the responsiveness of the mass media. The methodology considers the review of the activity of users on Twitter with two tools: Trendinalia and Twitter Reach, during 24 hours following the earthquake. First results indicate the importance of the user activity for informative production; however, Twitter, as an anarchic tool, it was evident the quantity of sources and much of the information was made about emotional issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an experiment comparing traditional news reporting to citizen blogs, university students rated traditional journalism as more credible than citizen journalism. Also, participants assessed straight news articles as more credible than opinionated reports of the same news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase in citizen-generated news, the need to understand how individual predispositions interact with news sources to influence perceptions of news credibility becomes increasingly important. Using a web-based experiment, this study examines the influences individual predispositions toward the media and politics have on perceived credibility of mainstream and citizen journalism. Analyzing data drawn from a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, results indicate that media skepticism and political cynicism interact, such that cynics and skeptics perceive citizen journalism as more credible, while non-cynics and non-skeptics think mainstream journalism is more credible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2009 protests in Iran and the 2011 Arab uprisings took place in complex and fast evolving media ecologies. The BBC's Persian and Arabic language services, which reach millions, drew heavily on content created by ordinary citizens to cover events. This paper traces the flow of this content through the news process to examine how collaboration between newsrooms and citizen journalists changed from 2009 to 2011. The article argues that participation in the news process hinges on the congruence between newsroom practices, and the practices of those producing content on the streets. Such congruence requires mutual knowledge of broadcasting requirements. It finds that by 2011 journalists felt more comfortable and effective integrating user-generated content (UGC) into their news output. Importantly, UGC creators appear to have taken on board the broadcaster's editorial requirements, making them savvier content creators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Journalists have traditionally focused on a small range of elite sources. Far less attention went to ordinary or common people, resulting in little visibility for that community in news output. However, bottom-up Web 2.0 technologies have given common people new communication tools, allowing them to disperse information autonomously. This has made traditional news media aware of a public desire for bottom-up participation in the news production process. Accordingly, some news media have begun to offer their own participation features. Bearing this context in mind, we address the question whether Web 2.0 has helped increase the visibility and importance of the common people in daily news output. Via a content analysis of five Flemish newspapers, the current representation of ordinary citizens is compared to a decade ago, before the appearance Web 2.0. The analysis shows that citizens appear more prominently in the news nowadays. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article highlights the role of the Internet in press freedom and how the press is being obliged to use script for reporting. Fact checking of news reports is hardly made by editors due to deadlines that must be met, but bloggers are able to detect mistakes, deception and manipulations produced through computer software like Photoshop. Bloggers are now encouraged to question the reporting style and decisions of the press as learned from the case about the reprinting of "Jyllands-Posten" cartoons on "The New York Times." Other issues discussed are the sharing of information from unapproved sites and topics and the role of citizen journalists.

In this article the author discusses incorporating social media in professional news. He notes that there are much debate on the part of citizen reporters to the changing environment of news. He mentions that the emergence of citizen journalism, which was further fueled by social networks, has encountered hostility in some sectors. Moreover, he explores the advantages and disadvantages of integrating citizen journalists' works into professional news.