Heard It Through the Newsvine

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"The news organizations that are the first to figure out how to responsibly, and that is the key word, harness the power that is out there in the citizen trenches will be our most successful news organizations," says Christine Tatum, assistant features editor at The Denver Post and past president of the Society of Professional Journalists. Last week, the SPJ announced a program to train would-be citizen journalists so that news sites can be reassured they have some professional grounding.

Nearly two years ago, ABC (DIS) began incorporating user-generated content on its site with a feature called "Seen and Heard,"which enables users to videotape themselves asking a question of a prominent newsmaker, such as President George W. Bush or Senator Hillary Clinton. ABC received so many submissions that it added a community section to the Web site and launched an on-air program this past summer featuring user videos. The program also runs online.

Developing a Loyal Following

Paul Slavin, senior vice-president at ABC News Digital, says the company started collecting user-generated content both to increase the loyalty of ABC News viewers and to augment the organization's news-gathering capabilities. "If users think that World News Tonight solicits, listens, and responds to them, they might be a little more loyal to the program… That has a huge impact on the ratings," says Slavin, adding that the news organization was also interested in what its audience had to say. "The other impetus was [that] we aren't everywhere all the time, there is news gathering that goes on outside of our ability to do it."

Indeed, online audiences have proven more than willing to chase news, often for free, in an attempt to join and shape the conversation on local and world events. Rachel Sterne, founder and CEO of citizen journalism site GroundReport, which shares advertising revenue with creators, says her site has grabbed more than 1,000 regular contributors since relaunching in August, 2006. "There has been such momentum," says Sterne, adding that she believes there will be more acquisitions or partnerships with user content sites. "I see it as the evolution of news media."

But while opening up news gathering to millions of citizens can increase a news organization's reach, it also increases the chances of publishing inaccuracies. That's why ABC, MSNBC, and others are careful to clearly distinguish between user-generated submissions and their own content. MSNBC, for example, plans to keep Newsvine a separate entity from its own news site. And though it plans to use Newsvine's technologies to augment the MSNBC site's community features, any user content posted to that section will be clearly marked as such.

ABC practices a similar separation between its own content and that generated by users. When a staff-generated report incorporates comments or photos posted in the user-generated content areas on ABC's site, that material is vetted by editors for accuracy.

Clearly, though, the line between citizen journalism and professional news gathering is blurring. David Bankston, co-founder and chief technology officer of Neighborhood America, a site that provides the technology for community message boards and social networks for newspaper Web sites, says his clients are already adding user coverage of local sporting events to their online sports sections. "In the near future, this content will be intermingled throughout the site," says Bankston. Though user submissions will still be clearly marked, they won't be exiled to a section designated specifically for such contributions. "It is a natural evolution."

Holahan is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in New York .