The term citizen
journalism is used to describe the way in which citizens
play an active role in collecting, reporting and distributing
news and information (adapted from the Wikipedia
entry).
In Part
One of our review of citizen journalism, we examined innovative
online forums and blogs. In Part
Two we looked at Latin America on the Web. In this essay,
we look at how private enterprises are using the Web to craft
their own news.
News releases offer an effective means to communicate with
professional journalists and share news directly with colleagues.
For the past year we have paid attention to the PR
Web service. For a modest price, it distributes news on
the Web, most notably via the Google News and Yahoo News services.
RESPONDING TO MEDIA
Another way private businesses are using the Web is to provide
their perspective on news from journals and newspapers.