Differences in Content between Legacy and Citizen Journalism Sites

Singapore.
The next speaker at ICA 2010 is Salim Al-Habash (?), presenting on behalf of the paper's actual authors. He begins by noting the large number of blogs now in existence; some 44% of online news users have their pages customised to include news sites; 75% of Americans get news via email and social network sites; 51% share their news in this way, and 52% get news from their followers on social network sites. We can also categorise types of blogging: founder/manager (single-authored blogs); hybrid sites (volunteers, part-timers, outside participation); and open sites (overseen by administrators).

News users favour online media due to their greater flexibility, but so far, financial models are problematic - models include subscription, advertising, small charges for content, as well as mixed models. Few attempts at generating money from online news have been successful, but the iPad is seen as a possible new hope. However, there is a real possibility that people are not prepared for online news.

The study divided between legacy newspaper sites, blogs, citizen journalism sites, and 'superior' news sites, and examined these across 46 markets across the US. Citizen journalism sites were selected based on local service, citizen participation, journalism content, and local origination. Finally, 'super sites' are a more narrow site type found through the literature and other means. The content of these sites was coded.

Legacy news sites were more likely to present policy information, citizen sites had more RSS feeds; legacy and superior sites had emal story functions and polls and surveys, while citizen sites had more discussion fora. Legacy sites also had more advertising, while random city sites relied more in individual support and contribution and were more often nationally linked.

Legacy and citizen sites were more likely than superior sites to have outgoing links (citizen sites most so); local sites linked most often to legacy sites; citizen sites linked most often; commercial legacy sites linked at a lower frequency. Citizen journalism sites could also be broken down into citizen journalism and superior sites; citizen news sites had much more imprint information. Legacy sites had far more news; blogs and citizen sites had more opinion pieces; legacy authors worked more often for the site.

So, contrary to claims, legacy sites were more welcoming of citizen participation; legacy media did not rely on external links; legacy sites offered richer content, and had a different topical emphasis. Superior sites did not exhibit a higher quality. So, citizen sites are far from able to replace legacy sites.

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