An interesting article by Sruthijith K K who illustrates the power citizen journalism has to encourage participatory journalism; dialogue between readers and the mainstream media.

To illustrate his point the author uses the example of media coverage of the murder, at the hands of the “oil mafia”, of Indian businessman Shanmugam Manjunath.

The Influence of the Blogsphere
In the immediate aftermath of Manjunath's murder (November 19th) little coverage was given to the event in the mainstream media. On November 21st and 22nd the blogs Vantage Point and India Uncut both published posts condemning this lack of media coverage. A blog was then set up by the murdered man's friends, called Remembering Manjunath.

This blogsphere activity spurred on coverage in the mainstream media: "a trickle had begun. The same day, two newspapers, one news channel and a website carried the story. On November 25, 11 stories appeared in print and channels ran marquees with condolence SMSes."

Bloggers demanded that justice be done for the murdered man and that his family be compensated, they had a good response from readers: "signatures piled up online, condolence messages poured in from all over the world."

The readers' response also prompted serious discussion about important issues tied up with Manjunath's murder.

The Moral of the Story
The moral of the story is that "When readers influence editorial decisions and prioritisation, it shows the power of participatory journalism."

Conclusion
The author concludes that "The world over, citizen journalism is inspiring (or coercing) main stream media into take participatory journalism seriously. Blogs play a significant role in both, and like in the present case, may be examples of both at the same time."

Source: DNA