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This article presents a comparative study about the evolution of the use of blogs in Spanish regional press to analyse if the performance of blogs has changed significantly on the basis of the content and the level of updating in recent years. A first analysis was conducted in 2006 when the boom of this phenomenon. Following a new analysis in 2009, this work carries out a comparison of the evolution of the same performance parameters in both years. It can be stated that no clear evolution patterns exist, that the number of blogs has no relation with the updating of these in either of the periods (the beginning period or the establishment period) and that the main difference detected is that in 2006 more attention was paid to the personal contents that provided blogs with the indisputable character of a tool for personal expression, while in 2009 bloggers appeared to be more interested in what is local and current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the assumption that user-generated content in mass media websites gives audiences greater power over influencing news making. Employing a content analysis of readers' comments in various Greek online mass media, the study examines whether commenters assume any of the core journalistic functions regarding news production, in terms of setting the agenda, providing original information, and airing oppositional views on reported issues. From a public sphere perspective, it also examines the degree of diversity of users' opinions within media outlets. The results suggest that whereas users challenge journalistic viewpoints to some extent, this type of audience participation is not likely to render audiences co-producers of news content in significant ways or offer opportunities for cross-cutting political exchanges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Television networks in many European countries have launched web participation channels in recent years, so that viewers can send a variety of news content. For some authors, they are a new form of "citizen journalism"; a more proper term for this concept, it is argued, seems to be "user generated content". This article deals with the essential aspects of this kind of participatory journalism in television websites, by analysing the initiatives of several television networks in Spain, Great Britain and France. It examines the nature of user generated content in those television websites case studies, and it enquires to what extent these initiatives can be regarded as "citizen journalism" and what kind of content they promote. Finally, it explores the challenges and opportunities posed by citizen journalism and user generated content to professional online television news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wikinews is a news website which allows anyone with internet access to publish and edit journalistic content directly on its site without prior authorization or registration. This article examines the way in which Wikinews contributors negotiate its 'neutral point of view' policy, which differs from the traditional sense of journalistic objectivity in the way that it is both defined and implemented. The study encompasses a detailed review of 2332 news articles and their associated 'talk pages', published in the period from November 2004 to July 2005. Close textual analysis is used to conduct a qualitative study of a selection of these Wikinews articles, their documented editorial history and referenced sources, so as to offer a thorough critique of the 'neutral point of view' policy, as assessment is made of the importance of the Wikinews model for online journalism more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic study of day-to-day practices of citizen reporters, compared to their mainstream counterparts, suggests that ordinary citizens can serve as a vital complement to mainstream journalism, however not as its substitute. The paper develops a version of the “news access” theory, which sees citizen journalists as hindered by their inferior access to news sources, unlike mainstream journalism, where the problem is seen as the superior access of some of their sources to extensive and favored coverage. There are several symptoms for citizen reporters' limited news access: their modest use of human sources; the high proportion of one-source items; their reluctance to interactively negotiate versions with sources; and their contacts with sources tend to be ad hoc exchanges, rather than long-term role relationships. On the other hand, citizen reporters have adopted several mechanisms that help them make up for their comparably limited access. They are much more likely to pursue stories at their own initiative. They tend to predicate their stories on firsthand witnessing, technical sources (mainly Internet), personal acquaintances, and on their own experience. Data were gleaned from a series of interviews in which reporters from Israeli citizen and mainstream news websites explained how they formulated their sampled items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]