Deconstructing the discourse of citizen journalism: Who says what and why it matters

Abstract

Since it emerged early this century, 'citizen journalist' and its related terms have been increasingly contested among groups including professional journalists, academics, and citizens themselves. This article creates a typology of five key participant groups in this contest and uses it to analyse the discursive constructs each group uses to advance their position. We argue that the terms citizen and journalist are multivalent discursive constructs, and that recognising the various contexts in which they are deployed is essential to understanding the ways in which changes to relationships between media participants are occurring and being resisted.