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Synopsis Citizen journalism, also known as public journalism is the concept of members of the public playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.

One of the main concepts behind citizen journalism is that mainstream media reporters and producers are not the exclusive centre of knowledge on a subject -- the audience knows more collectively than the reporter alone. Now, many of big media outlets are trying to harness the knowledge of their audience either through comments at the end of stories they post online or by creating citizen journalist databases of contributors or sources for stories.

The present book investigates the status and growth of citizen journalism around the globe. It engages with several of the most significant topics for this important area of inquiry from fresh, challenging perspectives. Its also assesses the contribution of citizen journalism to crisis reporting, and encourages new forms of dialogue and debate about how citizen journalism may be improved in future.