Journalism as social networking: The Australian youdecideproject and the 2007 Federal election

The increasing prevalence of new media technologies and the rise of citizen journalism has coincided with a crisis in industrial journalism, as the figure of the \u27journalist as hero\u27 is fading, new media forms have facilitated the production of news content \u27from below\u27 by citizens and \u27roam\u27 journalists. Participation in an action-research project run during the 2007 Australian Federal Election, you decide 2007, allowed the authors to gain first-hand insights into the progress of citizen-led news media in Australia, but also allowed us to develop an account of what the work of facilitating citizen journalism involves. These insights are important to understanding the future of professional journalism and journalism education, as more mainstream media organizations move to accommodate and harness user-created content. The paper considers the relevance of citizen journalism projects as forms of R&D for understanding news production and distribution in participatory media cultures, and the importance of grounded case studies for moving beyond normative debates about new media and the future of journalism