Ear to the ground or useless entities? Citizen journalism and mainstream media in India

ABSTRACT

Citizen journalism is on the rise in India. Through the lens of the intermedia agenda setting theory, content analysis and qualitative interviews, this study looks at how one citizen led media outlet, CGNET Swara, works to influence the agendas of India’s largest print media organisation, The Times of India. News done by the two media organisations and 30 interviews with local, mainstream and citizen journalists, show, that while mainstream media may routinely ignore citizen produced news; for local journalists from smaller local language newspapers, such news has much value. News produced by CGNET Swara is often highlighted, though with little credit to the original reporters.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizen journalism
• Times of India
• citizen journalists
• India
• CGNET Swara

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr. Magdalena Saldaña, assistant professor in the School of Communications at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and Dr. Terry Flew, Assistant Dean (Research), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, for their kind help in revising this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. http://CGNETswara.org/index.php?id=28514.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paromita Pain

Paromita Pain is a doctoral student in the Department of Journalism at The University of Texas At Austin.