Bloggers have become a new generation of columnists. Bystanders with digital cameras are spot news photographers. And folks with personal causes have branded themselves investigative reporters.
News Web sites featuring videos, pictures, viewpoints and stories by users are flourishing.
"Citizen journalists" have been either reviled as an infinite number of monkeys banging away at keyboards or regaled as an Internet-age army delivering news from every nook and cranny of the globe.
"It is essentially a whole group of people who have had no formal training but an interest in joining the big debate," said Christine Tatum, president of the US Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).
In December Yahoo launched YouWitnessNews, a Web site that posts offerings from users after the submissions pass muster with professional editors.
Founded two years ago in Canada, news Web site NowPublic.com taps into legions of people that post pictures, videos, or commentary online.
NowPublic has more than 60,000 contributing "reporters" in more than 140 countries and expects that number to climb to 150,000 by the end of the year.
NowPublic and YouWitness News have alliances with traditional international news wire services and provide them photos or other worthy content.
Web sites such as Newsvine and Slashdot are community-driven, with users writing stories and sharing opinions.
Reddit and Digg are popular news-ranking Web sites that let readers summarize and link to mainstream online news and then shape "front pages" based on the popularity of items.
The number of Web logs, or blogs, in which people post commentary online is reportedly growing at a rate of one per minute.
Traditional news organizations worldwide are yielding to the inevitability of readers, viewers or listeners changing from passive consumers to contributors.
Citizen journalists were the sole source of images fed to cable news colossus CNN's I-Report from Thailand last year after a coup there.
Contributors with cellphones were the first to get pictures of the 2005 London terrorist bombings on the Internet.
"Citizen journalism is something that is taking off huge at newspapers and all levels of journalism," said Mark Fitzgerald, an editor-at-large for leading news industry publication Editor and Publisher.
Citizen journalism is a seductive trend that is poisoning traditional news organizations, argues Andrew Keen, author of a book titled Cult of the Amateur due out in June.
Keen refers to the online maelstrom of opinions, pictures and videos as "ignorance meets egoism meets bad taste meets mob rule, on steroids."
Society stands to benefit if reporters are augmented, not replaced, Tatum said.
"The downside, and it's a big downside, is a lot of these people have no exposure to media practices -- laws and fundamentals of sound and responsible news reporting," Tatum told reporters.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
SHOT IN THE ARM: The new system can be integrated with Avenger and Stinger missiles to bolster regional air defense capabilities, a defense ministry report said Domestically developed Land Sword II (陸射劍二) missiles were successfully launched and hit target drones during a live-fire exercise at the Jiupeng Military Base in Pingtung County yesterday. The missiles, developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), were originally scheduled to launch on Tuesday last week, after the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday long weekend, but were postponed to yesterday due to weather conditions. Local residents and military enthusiasts gathered outside the base to watch the missile tests, with the first one launching at 9:10am. The Land Sword II system, which is derived from the Sky Sword II (天劍二) series, was turned