Thinking about Citizen Journalism:
Perspectives on Participatory News
Production at Community Newspapers
Seth C. Lewis
Kelly Kaufhold
Dominic L. Lasorsa
School of Journalism • University of Texas

Participatory Professional
Digitization and its tension

Clarifying our concepts
Citizen journalism
Smaller newspapers
Gatekeeping theory

Research questions
• RQ1. In general, what do community
newspaper editors think of citizen journalism,
and how likely are they to incorporate some
variation of it in their news operation?
• RQ2. How do community newspapers
negotiate citizen journalism, as a
philosophical concept and a practical concern,
in their role as community gatekeeper?

Methods
• Systematic sampling of community papers
• Semi-structured interviews with 29 top editors
• Clarified the question of “citizen journalism”
• Transcriptions textually analyzed

Results
• Papers took one of four approaches:
– 1. Disfavored citizen-J on philosophical grounds
– 2. Disfavored on practical grounds
OR
– 3. Favored citizen-J on philosophical grounds
– 4. Favored on practical grounds

Positive opinion of
citizen journalism
Philosophy
Negative opinion of
citizen journalism
Practicality

1. Disapprove on principle
• “News is meant to be reported professionally,
not through some random citizen.”
• “I guess we kind of feel like since we’re the
journalists we need to be the ones writing.”
• “I think citizen journalism detracts…. People
see us as the authority news source.”
• “(We) have to control the content…. We have
a good idea of what’s newsworthy based on
our experience.”

2. Disapprove for practical reasons
• “I’m concerned that … things can be
construed as fact when there’s nothing to
back them up as facts…it would be pretty
labor intensive.”
• “I see a lot of the citizen but not a lot of
journalism. There’s a lot of slander and
personal anger or bitterness, but not news.”
• “Things like editing issues, liability problems—
they can go unchecked with this sort of thing.”

3. Approve on theoretical grounds
• “It’s vital to engaging a community that wants
to have more ownership of their local media.”
• “…journalism will not be replaced by it but it
will be supplemented by it.”
• “We’ve got to figure out a way to get the
younger people involved and I think that’s the
way to do it.”
• “We have an open-door policy. We even have
students, student journalism.”

4. Approve on practical grounds
• “We’re a small paper, it allows us to get stuff in
that we wouldn’t be able to send a reporter to.”
• “We involve citizens extensively… We have
columnists writing about nature, humor, gossip,
etc.”
• “There is so much more to cover and (only) so
many people who are in a position to cover it.”
• “Any time you get input from your readers, it’s
good.”

Positive opinion of
citizen journalism
Philosophy
Negative opinion of
citizen journalism
Practicality
9 editors 9 editors
7 editors 4 editors

Thanks.
Seth C. Lewis
Kelly Kaufhold
Dominic L. Lasorsa
Contact: seth.lewis@mail.utexas.edu