ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect
Studies
in
Communication
Sciences
j o u r n a l ho me p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / s c o m s
Amateurs
striving
for
news
production.
Can
they
compete
with
professional
journalism?
Stefan
G.
Bosshart
∗,
Philomen
Schoenhagen
1DepartmentofMassMediaandCommunicationResearch,UniversityofFribourg,BoulevarddePérolles90,1700Fribourg,Switzerland
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
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f
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Articlehistory: Received5October2012 Accepted20September2013 Keywords: CitizenjournalismCollaborativenewsproduction Journalisticstandards Contentanalysis Wikinews
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WiththeriseofWeb2.0thediscussionaboutprofessionaljournalismchangingradicallyoreven
becom-ingobsoleteinthefuturehasintensified.Uptonow,empiricalfindingsmainlystemfromresearchon
(micro-)bloggingandshowitscomplementaryratherthanequivalentfunctioncomparedwith
profes-sionaljournalism.Amazingly,theperformanceofcollaborativeamateurnewswebsiteswithanexplicitly
journalisticapproachhasrarelybeenstudiedsofar.Therefore,thispapercomparesthecoverageof
Ger-manWikinewswithaprofessionalGermanmassmediawebsiteandfindssignificantdifferencesinvarious
dimensions.Itthuscontributestothegrowingempiricalevidenceandliteratureoncitizenjournalism.
©2013PublishedbyElsevierGmbHonbehalfofSwissAssociationofCommunicationandMedia
Research.
1. Introduction
SinceWeb2.0technologyhassimplifiedonlinepublishingand empowerednearlyeveryonetodistributeanytexts, videosand photostoapotentiallyglobalaudience,someauthorshave antic-ipatedafundamentalshiftinhowjournalismwillbepracticedin thefuture.AsDanGillmorputsit,‘technologyhasgivenusa com-municationstoolkitthatallowsanyonetobecomeajournalistat littlecostand,intheory,withglobalreach’(Gillmor,2004,p.7). Whatdoessuchavisionmeanforprofessionaljournalism?Couldit soonbereplacedbyprivateblogs,userdrivenwikisanddiscussion forums,resourcesthatareoftenreferredtoas‘citizenjournalism’? Doamateurshavethepotentialtotakeontheroleofjournalists? Suchquestionshavebeendiscussedpassionatelyinthepastfew years.Inthiscontextmostattentionhasbeenpaidtoweblogs(e.g. Domingo&Heinonen,2008;Lowrey, 2006;Papacharissi,2007). Besides,themicrobloggingserviceTwitterisgainingmoreandmore attentionbyacademicresearch(André,Bernstein,&Luther,2012; Neuberger,vomHofe,&Nuernbergk,2010;Poell&Borra,2012). Meanwhile,relativelylittleisknownaboutthenewsproductionon amateurwikis,wherearticlesarewrittenbyacollectiveofusers withoutanyprofessionaleditorialstaffactingasgatekeepersor editingmaterial.Forjournalismstudies,thisbecomesparticularly relevantwhensuchwiki-sitesareexplicitlydedicatedtocurrent
∗ Correspondingauthor.Tel.:+41446352026;fax:+41446344934. E-mailaddresses:s.bosshart@ipmz.uzh.ch(S.G.Bosshart),
philomen.schoenhagen@unifr.ch(P.Schoenhagen).
1Tel.:+410263008394;fax:+410263009762.
newsreportingandcommittedtoajournalisticapproach.What kindofreportingdosuchcollaborativecitizenjournalismwebsites offer?Whichtopicsandnewsvaluesarepredominant?Howcloseis theircoveragetoprofessionaljournalism?Beforeansweringthese centralquestionswewilloutlinehowtheterm‘citizenjournalism’ isusedinacademicliterature.Onthisoccasion,itseemstobe nec-essarytoclarifywhatrolejournalismisplayingingeneralwithin society.Inanextstep,wewillreviewwhichphenomenaare usu-allyconsideredmanifestationsofcitizenjournalismandreportthe mainfindingsofthecorrespondingstateofresearch.Afterdoing so,wewillpresentastudyexaminingthecontentofferedonthe collaborativenewswebsiteWikinews,whichisexplicitlydedicated tonewsreportingandjournalisticstandards,buthasscarcelybeen investigatedyetinthiscontext.Wethuscontributenewempirical evidencetothegrowingliteratureoncitizenjournalism.
2. Citizenjournalism–acloudytermforvarious phenomena
Anincreasingamountofonlinecontent,rangingfromweblog entriestonewscommentsonthewebsitesoftraditionalmedia, is currently labeled as ‘citizen journalism’. Therefore, it is not surprisingthattheterm‘citizenjournalism’isalsousedvery incon-sistentlyin academicliterature.It sometimesreferstoamateur contributionstomassmedia(submissionofimages,postingof com-ments,entriesondiscussionpagesofnewsmediawebsites,etc.) ordescribesanyuser-generatedcontentavailableoutsideofnews mediawebsites(e.g.personalweblogs,discussionforums,etc.).In thislattersenseitisusedincreasinglyasasynonymforamateur publicationswithoutanyinvolvementofprofessionaljournalists 1424-4896/$–seefrontmatter©2013PublishedbyElsevierGmbHonbehalfofSwissAssociationofCommunicationandMediaResearch.
(e.g.Carpenter,2008;Goode,2009;Nip,2006;Thurman&Hermida, 2010).Thisisthedefinitionofthetermwewilluseinthispaper,too. Hence,citizenjournalismispracticedindependentlyandbeyond therealm of professionaljournalism. Considering itsdifference fromthemainstreammediaproductionmodel,itcanbesituated closetoalternativeorautonomousmedia(Atton,2009).In con-trast,thegrowingeffortsofmassmediatoengagetheirreadership toproducesomecontentaswellasthesecontributionsthemselves aremostlydenominatedas‘participatoryjournalism’(e.g.Deuze, Bruns,&Neuberger,2007;Paulussenetal.,2008;Singeretal.,2011; Thurman,2008).Thisengagementoftheaudiencemaytherefore comprisedifferentdegrees ofuserparticipation(e.g.re-actively commentingon published news stories vs. activelysubmitting picturesorarticles),butthecontrolanddecisionaboutwhatis pub-lishedandhowitispresentedremaininthehandsofprofessionals (Joensson&Oernebring,2011;Singeretal.,2011).Participatory journalismthuscanbeseenasanadaptationofprofessional jour-nalismtonewmediapracticesinthenet.Hence,thedistinction ofthesetwotypesofmanifestations–citizenjournalisminthe senseofindependentamateurpublishingontheonehand, partic-ipatoryjournalisminthesenseofcitizenoramateurparticipation inprofessionaljournalismontheotherhand–isratherimportant. Focussingoncitizenjournalisminparticular,itthenbecomes rel-evantwhetheritcouldbeseenasbeingfunctionallyequivalentto professionaljournalismandthereforepotentiallybecomeits sub-stituteornot(Schoenhagen&Kopp,2007,p.300).
Ifwe talk about citizen journalism and want to compare it toitsprofessionalcounterpart,we alsohavetoclarifythe spe-cificfunctionsormeritsofjournalismingeneral.FollowingJarren (2000,2008)andWagner(1995)journalism’smainfunctionisto provideanup-to-dateoverviewoftheongoingpublicdiscourse– bywhichsocietyisperpetuallygeneratedandmaintained(Berger &Luckmann,1966)–andtoserveasaplatformforthisdiscourse atthesametime(Pietilä,1992).Thus,journalismshouldmediate, inaconcentratedform,thefullspectrumofvoices,interests, argu-mentsandthemesthatexistwithinsocietyandthatareofgeneral (i.e.notofindividualorprivate)relevance.Thiscontinuous jour-nalisticobservationofsocietythuscoversdifferentsub-systems respectivelythematicfieldslikepolitics,economy,culture,sports, etc.(Meier,2007,p.32).Bymeansofashortliteraturereviewinthe nextsectionwewilltrytoworkoutifthisfunctionisequally ful-filledbythebroadrangeofonlinepublicationswhicharefrequently labeledascitizenjournalism.
3. Stateofresearchoncitizenjournalism
Mostempirical evidenceconcerningcitizen journalism origi-natesfromweblogresearch.Insummary,itshowsthatweblogsact asacomplementratherthanasubstituteforprofessional journal-ism(Neuberger,Nuernbergk,&Rischke,2007).Thisappliesbothto bloggers’predominantmotivesandtothetopicstypicallycovered inweblogs.Severalsurveyshaveconfirmedthatitisimportantfor bloggerstokeeprecordsoftheirownlives,toverbalizetheir opin-ionsandtoworkthroughtheiremotionsandexperiences(Efimova, 2004,p.6;Lenhart&Fox,2006,p.7;Nardi,Schiano,Gumbrecht,& Swartz,2004,p.43).Thissubjectivenaturehasalsobeenreported forweblogcontents(Papacharissi,2007).Bloggers’selectionof top-icsisdeterminedbytheirpersonalconcerns,theirexperiencesor bytheextenttheyaredelightedwithorannoyedbysomething (Armborst,2006,p.171).Accordingly,narrationsandepisodesof privatelife (oftencombined withphotos) are among themost frequenttopics,followedbystoriesaboutschoolorworkinglife (Lenhart&Fox,2006,p.9;Schmidt&Wilbers,2006,p.13).Other surveysfoundapredominanceofInternet-relatedtopics,butthey alsohighlightedthattopicslikepoliticsoreconomywerehardly
covered(Neuberger,2005,p.86–87).Ifsucharticlesappearatall theyrarelycontain‘originalnewsreporting’buttendto‘re-mediate thenewsreportingandcommentaryofmainstreamnews organi-zations’(Haas,2007,p.138).
Thelackoforiginalreportingseemstobecharacteristicnotonly forthemostcommon‘personal’blogtype,butalsoforlessfrequent blogtypessuchas‘political’blogswhichmay,however,reacha broaderaudience.Leccese(2009)foundinanexaminationofthe postingsprovidedbythesixmostpopularpoliticalUSblogsthat themajorityoftheirhyperlinksledtomainstreammediareports, meaningtheyheavilydependedonthemassmediaagenda. More-over,insteadofprovidinganoverviewaboutpoliticaldebatesthey mainlycontainedopinionsandcomments–resemblingthe con-tributionsofnewspapers’‘opinioncolumnists’(Leccese,2009,p. 585,587). Assessingtherelationbetweenpoliticalweblogs and massmediafromagendasettingtheory,otherstudiesconfirmthat traditionalmediaareamongthemostcitedsourcesinthepolitical blogosphere(e.g.Meraz,2009;Messner&Distaso,2008).Hence, itisoftenarguedthatfirst-levelagendasettingrathertakesplace fromtheoutletsoftraditional mediatoindependentblogsthan viceversa.Nevertheless,politicalblogsmayplayanimportantrole inso-calledsecond-levelagendasettingastheycanre-frameand resuscitateissuesonthepublicagendathathavebeencoveredby massmediabefore(Campbell,Gibson,Gunter,&Touri,2010,p.42). Oftendescribedasmicro-blogging,Twitterhasattracted signifi-cantattentioninthelastyears.EspeciallyduringtheMumbaibomb attacksinNovember 2008,thepost-election protests in Iranin June2009aswellasduringthe‘ArabSpring’in2011theservice becameafocusofmassmedianewsandcommentaries(Arthur, 2008;Friedman,2011;Weaver,2010).Itenablesitsuserstosend andreadeachother’smessagesofupto140charactersvia desk-topcomputerormobilephone(Armstrong&Fangfang,2010,p. 222).These‘tweets’ofindividualsororganizationsaresentto fol-lowersautomatically.Furthermore,onecansearchalltweetsthat haverunthroughtheTwitterserviceunlesstheyhavebeensent as‘directmessages’toselectedfriends(i.e.likeanemail). Some claim‘thatwhatTwitterisdoingiseffectivelyjournalism’(Ingram, 2008)orconsiderita‘formofcitizenjournalism’(Hermida,2010,p. 300)becausetheserviceallowssharinginformationfragmentsvery fastfromanywhere.AssessingthejournalisticvalueofTwitterone hastoconsider,however,thatmessages–eitherreceivedthrough subscriptionorretrievedbypersonalsearch–arenotsortedby importance,regionorinanyotherwaythatmakesfactualsense,but appearinthechronologicalordertheyhavebeenpostedin. Addi-tionally,theservicedoesnotdifferentiatebetweentheexpression ofpersonalopinionsorfeelingsontheonehandandinformation thatissociallyrelevanttoabiggergroupofpeopleontheother hand,noraretheaccuracyandtrustworthinessofthemessages checkedorguaranteed.Thesecharacteristicsapply,forthemost part,alsotoweblogsasmentionedabove.
EmpiricalfindingsconcerningTwitteraregrowing.Having ana-lyzedmore than 11.5million Twitteraccounts in 2009,Cheng, Evans,andSinghfoundoutthat24%oronequarterofalltweets havebeengeneratedbymachinebots,bycomputerprogramsthat runthesametaskautomaticallyandrepeatedly. Thesebotsare operatedbysourcessuchashotelsofferingdeals,regionalweather services,financialaggregatorsandsoon(Chengetal.,2009). How-ever,foranevaluationofTwitter’sjournalisticpotentialitismore adequatenottogivethesameweighttoeverysingularofmyriads oftweetsbuttoconcentrateonthosemessagesthatarere-tweeted (i.e.forwarded)byahighnumberofpeopleandthereforebecome publiclymoresalientwithinthetwittersphere.Theseso-called re-tweetsarethusdeemedtoberelevantbyagreateraudience(Boyd, Golder,&Lotan,2010).Twittercollectsthemostre-tweeted mes-sagesinitstoptweetlistsforvariouscountries.Giventhisfact, Neubergeretal.(2010)lookedatthetopre-tweets(n=963)from
Germanyduringathree-monthperiodin2010.Theyfoundthatthe vastmajority(91%)ofthesetweetsdealtwithanissueofpublic rel-evancelikepoliticsandonlyaminority(9%)wasdedicatedtousers’ personallifeortheirprivatesphere.However,Twitterauthorswere mainlycommentingonandlinkingtomaterialthathadbeen pub-lishedelsewhere.OriginalreportinginthesensethatTwitterusers reportedfromthesceneintheroleofaneyewitnessorobserver ofongoingeventsdidhardlyoccur(Neubergeretal.,2010,p.77). Thus,thesefindingsarequitesimilartotheempiricalevidencefrom researchonpoliticalweblogs.
Besides,manynewsroomshave adoptedTwitterasa further tool torapidlydisseminate breakingnews (Palser, 2009,p.54). Giventhisfact,Twitterseemstofunctionpartiallyasadistribution channelofcontentthatalreadyexists,includingnewsproduced byprofessionalmassmedia.AccordingtoArmstrongandFangfang (2010),whoanalyzedthetweetsdisseminatedbyninenews orga-nizationsduringafour-monthperiod,themainfunctionofTwitter seemstobe‘todrivetraffictothenewssite’(Armstrong&Fangfang, 2010,p. 232).In addition,Twittermayhave becomea relevant sourceforeyewitnessaccountsaswellasfornewsrooms,inthe firstminutesofanaturalcatastrophewhenprofessionaljournalists arenotonlocationyetortocompensateforlackingindependent mediainauthoritarianregimes(Armstrong&Fangfang,2010,p. 222).However,theservicedoesnotofferacontinuousand com-pactoverviewofdifferentsubsystemsofsociety(politics,economy, culture,sports,etc.).
Afurthermanifestationofweb-basedamateurpublishingare readers’platformswithonlylittleprofessionaleditorialcontrol.A quitepopularexamplethereofhasbeentheGermanforumOPINIO whichwashostedby thenewspaper RheinischePostfrom2005 until2011and haswontheEuropeannewspaper awardinthe category‘innovation’initsstartingyear.Theplatformcontained reports and anecdotesfrom readers of the Rheinische Post and otherregisteredusers.Aselectionthereofwasregularlypublished inthenewspaper.AsempiricalresearchconductedbyKoppand PhilomenSchönhagen (2008)hasshownOPINIOauthorsmainly reportedontheirpersonallifeandpostedshortstoriesaswellas poems.Likeprivatebloggers,mostofthemweremoreconcerned withsubjectsthat affectedthempersonallythan withissues of socialrelevance.Althoughtheycoveredabroadspectrumoftopics, journalisticissueslikepolitics,economy,localandculturaltopics orsportsplayedasecondaryrole.Inanalogywiththeresultsof researchonprivateweblogstheseauthorspostedwhentheywere pleasedorannoyed,personallyinterestedinanissueoriftheycould giveafirst-handreport(Kopp&PhilomenSchönhagen,2008,p. 84).Accordingly,theirmotivesforpublicationwerestrongly per-sonal,andtheypreferred‘ownexperiences’,followedby‘friends andfamily’astheirsources(Kopp&PhilomenSchönhagen,2008, p.85). Verysimilarresultshavebeengenerated bymeansof a surveyofamateurscontributingtotheGermanMyHeimatwhich isauserplatformwitha(hyper-)localfocuswherecitizenfrom smalltownsandvillagesalloverGermanycanposttheirarticles (Fröhlich,Quiring,&Engesser,2012).LikeinOPINIO,theseonline contributionsarepartiallytransferredtolicensedprinteditionsof variouslocaldailies(Huber&Kaspar,2010).2
(Hyper-)localcitizenmediaofferingsliketheGermanMyHeimat aremorepopularwithintheUnitedStates(Metzgar,Kurpius,& Rowley,2011;Schaffer,2006).Carpenter(2008,2010)compared
2Bothforumsanalyzedinthestudiesmentionedhereareadministratedby
pro-fessionaleditorialstaffthatselectsarticles,paysattentiontolawsandmorality, correctsformalflawsandsometimesprovidesapublicationofselectedcontent inoneorseveralprintednewspaper(s)(Engesser,2008,p.115).Thus,these plat-formsaresettledbetween‘citizen’and‘participatoryjournalism’accordingtothe terminologywediscussedinSection2.
thecoverageof72US(hyper-)locallyorientedcitizenjournalism websites with theonline reporting of 50 US local newspapers. Significant differences have been found in various dimensions. Onlinenewspaperarticlesfeaturedlessjournalisticopinionthan citizenjournalismarticles(Carpenter,2008,p.539).Furthermore, they contained more external sources (e.g. statements of rep-resentativesofgovernment,profitandnon-profit organizations, witnesses,anonymousindividuals,etc.)(Carpenter,2008,p.538, 539).Thepercentageofofficialsourceswastherebysignificantly higher than in citizen journalism articles (Carpenter, 2008, p. 540).Concerningthecontentprovidedbybothpublicationtypes therewasnodifferencefoundwithregardtogovernmenttopics, but professionalnewspaper websites offered significantlymore information on economy, business as well as crime, whereas (hyper-)locallyorientedcitizenjournalismwebsitesofferedmore entertainment (Carpenter, 2010, p. 1074). Furthermore, citizen journalismwebsitesincludedmorehyperlinkstoexternalwebsites andofferedmoremultimediacontent(photos,graphicsandpolls). Ina similarwayLacy,Duffy, Riffe,Thorson,andFleming(2010) compared(hyper-)locallyorientedcitizenblogs(n=86)andnews sites(n=53)withthewebsitesofprofessionallocalnewspapers (n=63).Theauthorsfoundthatthetimelinessofthelatterwhich publishednewsarticlesonadailybasiswasunmatchedbythe citi-zenofferings.Besides,theyconfirmedCarpenter’s(2010)findingof awideruseofhyperlinksamongcitizenmediaandreported simi-lardifferencesconcerningformalattributeslikeuploadingabilities andinteractivefeatures.Insum,theauthorsconclude“that citi-zenjournalismWebsites(newsandblogsites)aregenerallynot acceptablesubstitutesfordailynewspaperWebsites”(Lacyetal., 2010,p.42).
Furthermore,so-calledsocialnewswebsitesarepartly consid-eredtobeaformofcitizenjournalism(Goode,2009).Websites suchasDigg(www.digg.com)orReddit(www.reddit.com)allow theiruserstodeposithyperlinksleadingtoanycontenttheyfound ontheInternetandtovoteforlinkstheyparticularlylike.Social newsservicesthusprovideauser-definedrankingoflinkedstories, picturesandvideos(Schmidt,Frees,&Fisch,2009),butusersdo notcreate contentonsuchwebsites.Social newswebsites may thereforecontributetothedisseminationofnews,butreporting isdefinitelynotapartoftheirservice(PewResearchCenter,2007). Tosumupthisliteraturereview,empiricalfindingssuggestthat themanifestationsofcitizen journalismanalyzedsofararenot functionallyequivalenttoprofessionaljournalism.Amazingly,the discussionsofarhasparticularlyneglectedthattypeofamateur publicationswhichareexplicitlyorientedtowardjournalistic stan-dardsandtypicallyclaim –incontrasttomostblogs–towork journalistically: collaborative news websites suchas Wikinews, whichwillbeportrayedbrieflyinthenextchapter.Couldtheyafter allbeabletorealizethevisionof producingjournalisticoutput withoutprofessionaljournalists?Toprovidesomeinitialanswers tothisquestionweconductedacontentanalysiscomparingthe outputoftheGermanversionofWikinews,aglobalnewswikiwith ajournalisticapproach,withthecoverageofa nationalGerman newspaper’swebsite.
4. Wikinews:journalisticstandards–lackofresearch
Wikinews–a citizen mediaprojecthostedbytheWikimedia FoundationinFlorida–hascertainlynotdrawnthesame atten-tionasitssisterproject,theonlineencyclopediaWikipedia,butit isprobablyoneofthebest-knownnewswikis.TheGerman web-site(www.wikinews.de)wentonlineinDecember2004.Withan archive of about11,500 articlesin September 2012it ranksas thefifthlargest(aftertheSerbian,English,PolishandFrench ver-sion)of33 Wikinewswebsites existinguptonow.OnWikinews
theentirepublicationprocessfromselectingacertainnewsitem tocontributinga firstdrafttoeditingandfinallypublishingthe finalversioniscollectivelydonebyamateurs(Bradshaw,2009). Accordingtoitsmissionstatementtheproject’sgoalis‘topresent up-to-date,relevant,newsworthyandentertainingcontent with-out bias’.3 Furthermore, Wikinews considers itself as a project ‘whichaimstocollaborativelyreportandsummarizenewsonall subjects’.4 In otherwords,theplatformdoesnot conceiveitself asamonothematicpublicationchanneltocoverspecialinterests butasanewsoutletwithabroaderthematicscope.Regardingits missionstatement5anddifferentguidelines,6Wikinewsdefinitely claimstobeajournalisticoffering.Thisisalsoconfirmedbya sur-veyofWikinewsreportersandprofessionaljournalistsindicating thatbothofthemhavesimilarself-conceptions(Krauze,2006).In sum,Wikinews’approachobviouslycorrespondstocentral dimen-sionsofthegeneraldefinitionofjournalismwegavebefore(see point2).Theplatformcommitsitselftoprinciplesliketimeliness (‘presentup-to-datenews’),socialrelevance(‘relevantnews’)and diversity(‘newsonallsubjects’)whicharekeyaspectsof journal-ismresp.journalisticofferingsingeneral.Wewillcomebackto theseaspectslater.Yet,howfarthisapproachisactuallyrealized bytheplatforms’newsoutputisanempiricalquestionthatremains tobeanswered.
ThesparsenumberofstudiesanalyzingWikinewshavedifferent scopes.Thorsen(2008)aswellasMcIntosh(2008)focusedonthe policyofneutralpointofviewasmentionedabove.Wheneveranew articleisproposed, theuserscannegotiatethisprincipleonthe so-calledcollaborationpagesattachedtoeacharticle.Bothstudies examinewhatnotionofnewsandneutralityWikinewsusershave andwhatstrategiestheyapplytoestablishaneutralpointofview. Inasimilarway,Traesel(2008)lookedatthenatureoftheuser interventionsduringthecreationof sevendeveloping Wikinews articlesandfoundthatthemajorityoftheeditswasconstructive andpluralizing,notdisruptive(Traesel,2008,p.79).Yet,neither thesenorotherstudieshaveanalyzedthepublishednewsarticles andcomparedthemtotheoutputofaprofessionalnewswebsite. SomeauthorssuggestthatthecontributionstoWikinewsaremostly ‘recycled’andslightlyadaptedarticlesthathavebeenpublishedby massmediabefore(Allan,2006,p.137;Bruns,2006;Thorsen,2008, p.937).Uptonow,empiricalevidenceforthisthesishasonlybeen providedbyacontentanalysisconductedbyVis(2009)who ana-lyzedatotalof78WikinewsarticlescoveringhurricaneKathrina, whichdevastatedNewOrleansinAugust2005.Onlyeightoutof the78examinedarticles(8.9%)turnedouttobe‘first-handnews itemswrittenbyWikinewscontributorsreportingnewseventson thespot’(Vis,2009,p.67).Visconcludesthat‘[...]thesite, strug-glingtoproduceoriginalreports,continuedtorelyonasyndication ofothernewsmedia’(Vis,2009,p.72).
Summing up these findings, there is a lack of research on Wikinews’ thematic profile and output in general. Moreover, researchcomparingcollaborativecitizenjournalismtoprofessional newswebsiteshardlyexistsuptonow.Thus, anexplorationof similaritiesanddifferencesbetweenWikinewsandaprofessional news website seems to be a reasonable first step of research. Asshown above,thereisonlylittleevidenceontheproportion ofWikinewsarticlesthataretakenoverfrommassmedia.Thus,
3 Wikinews. (n.d.). Wikinews: Mission statement. Retrieved from
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews.
4 Wikinews. (n.d.). About Wikinews. Retrieved from http://meta.
wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikinews.
5 AvailablefortheGermanversionunderhttp://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:
WasWikinewsnichtist,retrieved.
6 AvailablefortheGermanversionunderhttp://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:
JournalistischeGrundsaatze,retrieved.
ourfirstresearchquestionis:(1)Howmanyarticlespublishedin Wikinewsarebasedonmassmedianewsingeneral?
AswehavementionedinSection2,journalism’smainfunction istoprovideanup-to-dateandpluralisticoverviewofthe ongo-ingpublicdiscoursebycoveringnewseventsofsocial(i.e.public) relevance.Itscoreaspectsliketimeliness,diversityandsocial rel-evanceareguiding principlesof Wikinews,too.Thus andas far asthesedimensions areconcerned,a functional equivalenceto (professional)journalismisatleastclaimedbytheamateurnews outlet.Therefore,ournextresearchquestionaddressesthe the-maticandgeographicaldiversitywithinthepublishedarticles:(2) WhichtopicsandregionsarecoveredbyWikinewscomparedwith thereportingofferedbyprofessionaljournalism?Ourthirdresearch questionthenpertainstotheaspectoftimeliness:(3)Howtimely aretheWikinewsarticlescomparedwithprofessionaljournalism?In alaststep,weaddressthesocial(i.e.public)relevanceofnews cov-erage.Withrespecttoitsoperationalization,theconceptof‘news values’isbroadlyacceptedwithinmediastudiesandjournalism research(Arnold,2009;Eilders,2006).Newsvalueslike‘impact’, ‘conflict/contestation’and‘valence’(includingthenotionof dam-ages/risksandbenefits/opportunitiesforsocialgroupsandsociety ingeneral)areindicatorsofthepublicrelevanceofselectednews items(Hagen,1995;Schatz&Schulz,1992).Consequently,afourth researchquestionreferstothisdimension:(4)Whatnewsvalues arepredominantand whatintensitydothey havecompared with professionaljournalism?
WhilethestudiesmentionedabovefocusedontheEnglish ver-sionofWikinews,empiricalresultsonotherlanguageversionsof theservicearelackinguptonow.Therefore,wehavedecidedto examinetheGermanWikinewsinourstudy.
5. Methodandsample
Asourresearchquestionsentailacomparisonbetween ama-teurreportingonWikinewsandprofessionaljournalism,wehave conductedour analysiswithsueddeutsche.de, anarchetype of a journalisticwebsitehostedbyatraditionalnewscompany.Two reasonsmayaccountforthischoice:Firstly,sueddeutsche.deis affili-atedwiththesamenewscompanythatpublishestheSueddeutsche Zeitung,oneofGermany’stopqualitynewspapers(Schrag,2007, p.152).Many ofthearticlesareboth publishedonthewebsite andlaterinthenewspaper.Secondly,sueddeutsche.deisoneofthe mostvisitednewswebsitesinGermany.7Nevertheless,itseems tobeevidentthatneithercanthewebsitesueddeutsche.detotally representprofessionaljournalismnordoesWikinewsreflectthe varietyofcitizen mediaprojectsin German-speakingcountries. Anyinterpretationofourresultswillhavetotakethisinto con-sideration.However,ourcomparisonwillshedsomelightonthe relationbetweencollaborativenewswebsites withanexplicitly journalisticapproachandprofessionaljournalism.
Togetasamplethathadapproximatelythesamestructureas thetotalreportingofbothmediatypes,wehavechosena three-monthperiodofcoveragefromSeptembertoNovember2009.The Wikinewssamplecoveredall199articlesthathadbeenpublished withinthisthree-monthperiod.Thisequalstwotothreearticlesper dayonaverage.Incontrast,nearlyeightyarticleswerepublished onsueddeutsche.deperday.Tocompensateforthesmaller num-berofWikinewsarticlesavailable,aconstructedone-weeksample (MondaytoSunday)ofsueddeutsche.dewascreatedoutofthesame
7TherangeofGermannewspapersandwebsitesisverifiedandpublishedby
theIVW(InformationsgemeinschaftzurFeststellungderVerbreitungvon Werbe-trägern).Retrievedfromhttp://ausweisung.ivw-online.de.
80,4% (160) 23,6% (47) 15,6% (31) 28,6% (57) 14,1% (28) 1,5% (3) 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Fig.1.NewssourcesofWikinews(n=199).
three-monthperiod.8 Thissamplecovered533articles.The cor-pusoftotally752articleswasexaminedbystandardizedcontent analysis.
6. Results
6.1. Amountofarticlesandnewssources
Asoursamplingprocedurehasalreadyshown,thenumberof articlespublishedwithinthesamethree-monthperiodhighly dif-feredforbothpublicationswithWikinewsposting2.2articlesper dayonaverageandsueddeutsche.de publishing78.8onaverage daily.Thisconsiderabledifferencemaybea firstindicationthat theamountandvarietyofinformationofferedtotheiraudiencesis notequivalentforbothmediaoutlets.
TofindouthowmuchofWikinewsreportingisbasedonmaterial thathasalreadybeenpublishedbeforeinthemassmedia,we exam-inedthe‘sourcesection’ofeacharticleintheWikinewssample.This turnedouttobeasuitableprocedurebecauseWikinewscommits itsuserstodeclaringallsourcesofinformationtheyhaveusedat thebottomofeacharticle.Afterhavingdoneapretestwe distin-guishedsixdifferentcategoriesofsourceswhichweusedinour subsequentcontentanalysis:massmedia,wireservices,websites ofgovernmentandadministration,websitesofprivateenterprises, personalwebsitesandothers.Fig.1showshowfrequentlythese categorieshavebeenmentionedassources(takenotethatmore thanonecategorycouldhavebeenmentionedatthesametime; sum>100%).
FouroutoffivearticlesonWikinews(160resp.80.4%)mention massmediaastheirprecedentinformationsource.Amongtheseare websitesofpopularnewspapers(e.g.welt.de,faz.net,suedkurier.de) aswellasofprivateorpublicradioandTVstationsandtheir pro-grams(e.g.heute.de,tagesschau.deandothers).Thismeansthatonly onefifth(19.6%)ofthearticleswereinvestigatedindependently andproducedwithouttheuseofmassmediaresources.Giventhe factthatWikinewsonaverageonlypublishestwotothreenew arti-clesperday,itbecomesevidentthatitsjournalisticperformance doesnotcorrelatewithprofessionaljournalism.Wikinews’ repor-tingratherappearstobeareproductionofmassmediacontent,e.g. whenseveralarticlesaboutthesamenewsitemarecollectedfrom differentonlinenewspapersandsummedupinonearticle.Theuse ofothersourcesismarginal,ontheotherhand.
8Aconstructedweekconsistsofsevenrandomlyselectedweekdays.Itisusedto
compensatefordaysthatfeatureagreaternumberofarticles(Riffe,Aust,&Lacy, 1993,p.139).
6.2. Newstopics
Themaintopicofanewsarticlewasencodedwithhelpofa threelevelvariable.Onthetoplevel,tendifferentthematicfields weredistinguished:politics,economy,nationalandforeign secu-rity,socialorder(health,family,work,etc.),culture,sports,nature andenvironment,accidentsandcrime,services(insurances,career, fitness,etc.),humantouch(celebrities,sensationalism,etc.).These fieldsweredivided intomorespecific topicsona secondlevel, whichservedasclustersofdifferentincidentsatthethirdlevel.If wehavealookattheoccurrencesofthetopthematicfields,there arestrongdifferencesparticularlywithregardtoeconomy, cul-tureandsports(seeFig.2).OnWikinews,sportsreportingisalmost completelyabsent(2.5%),whereasitmakesuponefifth(20.3%)of allarticlesonsueddeutsche.de.Thethematicfieldlabeledas ‘cul-ture’coveredseveraldifferenttopicslikeeducationandresearch, religion,arts(literature,visualarts,music,film,dance,etc.),folk festivals,customsandmediathemes.OnWikinews,almostevery thirdarticle(29.1%)isdedicatedtooneofthesetopics;on sued-deutsche.deitisonlyeveryninth(11.6%).‘Economy’encompasses botharticlesaboutthegeneralmarketandtheeconomicsituation (economiccycle,priceincreases,wages,taxes,etc.),aswellasabout individualenterprises(insolvency,annualprofit,dismissals,etc.). Whileonsueddeutsche.deeveryeightharticle(12.8%)dealtwith oneofthesesubjects,only3.5%onWikinewsdidso.Differencesin otherthematicfieldsaresmaller.Overall,thereportingofthe pro-fessionalmediaoutletisthematicallyslightlymorebalancedthan onthecitizenmediaplatform.9Giventhefactthatmostarticleson Wikinewsarebasedonmassmediaoutput,itisnotsurprisingthat asimilarspectrumoftopicsisreproducedonthecitizenjournalism platform,althoughwithsingularverysignificantdifferences.
Inafurtherstep,welookedatthethematicfieldsoforiginal reporting.Wedefinedarticlesas‘originalreporting’iftheydidnot refertomassmediaastheirsource.InthecaseofWikinews,only 39articles(19.6%)fulfilledthiscondition.Asfarassueddeutsche.de isconcerned,theoriginalreportingsample(n=451)consistsofall articlesthathavenotbeentakenfromthenewspaperSueddeutsche Zeitung (printversion) orothermass mediawebsites. AsFig.3 shows, thedifferences concerningeconomy, cultureand sports getevenbigger,whenarticlesbasedonmassmediacontentare subtracted.Althoughthereisquiteasmallamountofarticleson Wikinews(n=39)tobeinterpreted,aclearthematicprofilewith anemphasisonculturalsubjectsemerges.Almosteveryother arti-cledealswithoneofthesetopics.Politicsiscoveredcomparatively frequentlyaswell.Economyandsportsaretotallymissingaswell asservicesandhumantouch.Overall,thecitizenjournalism plat-formdoesnotcoverthewholerangeofpossibletopics.Itisunclear whetherthesmallnumberofarticlesinthesamplecanfullyexplain thesedeficits. It appears thatsubjectswithhighfrequencies in thetotalsamplewereevenmorefrequentintheoriginal repor-tingsample,whereassuchwithsmallfrequencieswereevenrarer (orcompletelyabsent)intheoriginalreportingsample.Lookingat theoveralldistributionoftopicsaswellastheoriginalreporting, Wikinews’performanceinreportingavarietyofthemesdoesnot correspondtoprofessionaljournalism.
6.3. Geographicalreferencesandtimeliness
Besidesexaminingthesubjectsofreporting,anotherresearch goalwastofindoutwhichregionsWikinewsiscoveringandhow
9Forthispurpose,Simpson’sDwascalculated.Thisvaluerangesfrom0.0to1.0
andshowshowevenlyelementsaredistributedtoagivennumberofcategories(see McDonald&Dimmick,2003,p.64).Themoreitapproaches1.0,themorebalanced thedistributionis.ForWikinewsDis0.820,forsueddeutsche.deDis0.856.
22.1% (44) 3.5% (7) 9.5% (19) 5.5% (11) 29.1% (58) 2.5% (5) 3.5% (7) 16.1% (32) 1.5% (3) 6.5% (13) 17.9% (99) 12.8% (71) 4.3% (24) 9.2% (51) 11.6% (64) 20.3% (112) 0.7% (4) 11.8% (65) 5.6% (31) 5.8%(32) 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Wikinews (n=199) sueddeutsche.de (n=533)
Fig.2. Subjectsofreporting.***Extremelysignificant(p<0.001),**verysignificant(p<0.01),and*significantdifference(p<0.05).The2-testshavebeencomputedonthe
basisofallarticleswithacertaintopic(k)comparedwiththetotalnumberofarticlesofothertopics(notk)withinbothmediatypes.
currentitsnewsarticlesare.Asfarastimelinessisconcerned,the percentageof‘highcurrentnewseventsfromthelast24hours’is notloweronthecitizenjournalismplatformthanonthe profes-sionaljournalisticwebsite(bothabout30%).However,Wikinews seemstohavesomeshortcomingswithrespecttothedeclaration oftimeingeneral.28.6%ofthearticlesdonotindicatewhenthe reportedeventtookplace,whereastimedeclarationisonlymissing in17.5%ofthecasesonsueddeutsche.de.
Theregionsandcountriescoveredbybothmediatypesdonot differsignificantly(seeTable1).Everyothernewsarticleis deal-ingwithalocal,regionalornationaleventinGermany(Wikinews: 51.8%;sueddeutsche.de:52.8%).CountriesfromalloverEuropeare followingwithsimilarproportionsinbothmediatypes(Wikinews: 15.1%,sueddeutsche.de:12.8%).TheUSAcomesecond(Wikinews: 11.1%;sueddeutsche.de:7.8%).22%ofthearticlesonWikinewsand
26.6%ofthenewsonsueddeutsche.dearereferringtootherregions andcontinents(MiddleEast,Asia,Russia,SouthAmerica,Africa). Thedifferencesconcerningthesecountriesaresmall.For exam-ple,3.0%ofWikinews’reportingcoversSouthandMiddleAmerica, whereasonly1.4%ofthenewsonsueddeutsche.dedoesso.Again, thesesimilaritiesmaybeexplainedbytheconsiderableamountof massmediacontentunderlyingWikinews’reporting.Howeverthe highpresenceofforeignnewsmayalsoindicatethatWikinews can-notbeclassifiedasoneofthe(hyper-)localcitizenmediaprojects thatarequiteprevalentintheUSA(Metzgaretal.,2011;Schaffer, 2006)andwhichconsequentlyshouldbecomparedwith profes-sionallocalmedia(Carpenter,2008,2010;Lacyetal.,2010).Alook attheoriginalreportingonWikinewsseemstoconfirmthis impres-sion.59%ofthesearticlesrefertoGermany,thusforeignnewsstill isveryfrequent. 23,1% (9) 0.0% 5,1% (2) 10,3% (4) 46,2% (18) 0.0% 10,3% (4) 5,1% (2) 0.0% 0.0% 18,4% (83) 12,2% (55) 5,1% (23) 7,5% (34) 8,2% (37) 23,1% (104) 0,7% (3) 13,3% (60) 5,3% (24) 6,2% (28) 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Wikinews (n=39) sueddeutsche.de (n=451)
Fig.3.Subjectsoforiginalreporting.***Extremelysignificant(p<0.001),**verysignificant(p<0.01).The2-testshavebeencomputedonthebasisofallarticleswitha
Table1 Geographicalreferences. Wikinews (n=199) sueddeutsche.de (n=533) Germany 51.8% (103) 52.8% (292) Europe(others) 15.1% (30) 12.8% (71) USA 11.1% (22) 7.8% (43) South&CentralAmerica 3%
(6) 1.4% (8) Africa 0.5% (1) 1.8% (10) MiddleEast 3% (6) 6.3% (35)
Asia&Russia 7%
(14) 3.4% (19) Others 2.5% (5) 1.3% (7) Multipleregions 2.5% (5) 8.5% (47)
Regionnotrecognizable 3.5%
(7) 3.8% (21) Total 100% 100% 199 533 6.4. Newsvalues
Asfarasnewsvaluesareconcerned,therearesignificant
differ-encesbetweenWikinewsandtheprofessionaljournalismwebsite.
Thenewsvalue‘impact’isequallyfrequentinbothmediatypes,
meaning that fourout of five articlesgivesome specific
infor-mationabouttheamountofpeopleinvolvedinoraffectedbya
givenevent(Wikinews:80.9%;sueddeutsche.de:79.7%).However,
as Fig.4 shows, theintensity ofthis news valueis very differ-ent.OnWikinews,articlesabouteventswithalowimpact(single personsorsmallgroupsareaffected)aremorefrequentthanon sueddeutsche.de(52.2%vs.39.7%).Consequently,morearticleson sueddeutsche.dethanonWikinewsarereportingoneventswitha highimpact,wherethepopulationofamajorcity,astateora coun-tryisaffected(60.3%vs.47.8%).Similarly,thenewsvalue‘conflict’ (perceptibledescriptionofdifferentpointsofview)occurswithin both mediatypeswiththesame frequency (about 36%).Again, theintensityofthevalueisdifferent,however.Wikinewsseems topreferreportingoneventswithlowconflict(descriptionof dif-ferentopinionsonanimpersonalbasis),whereassueddeutsche.de moreoftencoverseventsandstoriescontainingheavyconflicts (passionatequarrel,insultingaccusations,legalactions).Thelarge amountofcontributionsdisplayinglittleconflictonWikinewsmay
47.8% 60.3% 33.3% 47.1% 41.2% 50.5% 52.2% 39.7% 66.7% 52.9% 23.6% 32.9% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% conflict* valence* impact** high low high low damage profit
Fig.4. Newsvalues.**Verysignificant(p<0.01),*significantdifference(p<0.05).
beexplainedwithitsusersinterpretingWikinews’mission state-mentandguidelinesinaparticularway.Theymayinterpretthe policyof neutralpointof viewas a callfor complete abstinence fromcontroversialnewsstories.Butdoingsowouldcontradictan all-embracingrepresentationofdifferentpositions andopinions withinsociety–andthusacharacteristicfeatureofjournalism(see Schoenhagen&Kopp,2007,p.310).
The news value ‘valence’ (reporting on advan-tages/disadvantages resp. profits/damages) occurs unevenly withinbothmediatypes.Onsueddeutsche.denewsarticlesmore oftenindicatesomeprofitsordamagesassociated witha given newsevent thanonWikinews (damage:50.5%vs.41.2%;profit: 32.9% vs. 23.6%). The fact that news values generally are less intensive onthe citizen journalism portal may indicate citizen journalists’differingnewsselectioncriteriaaswellasa comple-mentaryfunctionofcitizen journalism,whichalready hasbeen pointedoutinthecontextofweblogresearch(Neubergeretal., 2007).
7. Conclusion
This study examinesthe question whether so-called citizen journalismcouldbeseenasbeingfunctionallyequivalentto pro-fessional journalismand thuspotentially becomeitssubstitute. Thisquestioncouldonlybeaffirmedifcitizenjournalismoffered newscoveragethatissimilartothatofprofessionaljournalism. Aftera review oftheliteratureondifferentonline publications thathavebeenlabeledcitizenjournalism,wehavefocusedonthe examinationofWikinews,awebsitewithanexplicitlyjournalistic approachthatisfullymaintainedbyamateurs.TheEnglishversion ofWikinewshasalreadybeenthesubjectofseveralstudies,butwith perspectivesdifferenttoours.Theassumption–especially formu-latedinEnglishliterature–thatWikinewsismainlyusingnews articlesthathavebeenpublishedbymassmediabefore,insteadof doingsomeoriginalreportinghasbeenconfirmedbyourstudy.The factthatabout80%ofWikinews’reportingisbasedonmassmedia coverageperfectlymatchesthefindingsofaspecialreporton‘new media’bythePewProjectforExcellenceinJournalism.Theongoing analysisofmorethanamillionblogsandsocialmediawebsites findsthat80%ofthelinksaretoU.S.‘legacymedia’(PewProjectfor ExcellenceinJournalism,2010).Wikinewslargelylivesfrommass mediacontents.Consequently,thereplacementofmassmediaby citizenmediaprojectslikeWikinewsisnotplausibleatall.Our ini-tialgoalwastofindoutifso-calledcitizenjournalismcouldoffer thesameinformationandorientationasprofessionaljournalism. ForWikinews,thishastobenegatedwithregardtothemere publi-cationoutput.Inourthree-monthperiodsamplefromSeptember untilNovember2009,onlytwotothreenewarticlesperdaywere postedontheplatform.Itshouldbeobviousthatthiscannotbe equivalenttoaprofessionaljournalisticoutletlikesueddeutsche.de, whereeightyarticleswerepublishedperdayonaverageduring thesamethree-monthperiod.Furthermore,acloserlookatthe originalreportingrevealedthatWikinewscoversasmallerrange ofsubjects,focusingespeciallyonthemeslikecultureandpolitics. Otherthematicfieldssuchaseconomy,sportsorhumantouchwere notrepresentedatall.
A limitation ofour findings certainly is the fact that a case studyfocusingonWikinewscanneitherprovideevidenceforother collaborativenewswebsitesnorforothercitizenmediaformats. Furthermore,giventhefactthatahugeamountofWikinews’ cov-erageinourinitialsamplewasbasedonmassmediacontent,the resultingoriginalreportingsample forfurtherexaminationwas quitesmall.Afterall,ourinterestinWikinewsasajournalisticoutlet wasbasedontheexplicitmissionstatementandvariousguidelines underlyingtheproject.Thus,itwouldbeappropriateforfurther researchtoalsoexaminetheauthors’roleconceptionsandmotives
toparticipateintheproject.Dotheyreallythinkofthemselvesas journalistsperformingjournalism?Furthermore,wedidnot con-sidertheaudience,sowe donot knowwho isactuallyreading Wikinewsandifreadersareauthorsatthesametime.These ques-tionsremaintobeansweredbyfutureresearch.However,with respecttotheprovisionofcurrentnews,ourfindingscontribute newempiricalevidencetothegrowingknowledgeaboutvarious citizenjournalismofferings.
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