Thanks to the rise of new social media curation platforms, the same role can be played by independent professionals (whether journalists or amateurs), who are “independent storytellers”. They might be freelancers or amateurs, or they might be working for a news organization, although with such a level of independence and visibility to transform their job into a one-man-show.
My research shows that this increased participation has both its drawbacks and opportunities. For news organisations, one of the dangers is to assume that what you find and hear on social media is the real and only “voice of the crowd”, without taking the time to analyse in more depth other possible points of view. Resources are scarce and this could be a real temptation; but not everybody is on the Internet, especially in developing countries, and even if they are, it should not be taken for granted that they are willing to testify online what's happening in their surroundings.
As
for independent storytellers, they could play a double role in the
future: supplement, replace or somehow integrate the coverage done by
mainstream media; or just take advantage of the new possibilities
offered by curation tools just to transform them into propagandistic
platforms. To strike a balance, to make use of user-generated content
without “being used” by it, it's not an easy task”.
Ciao.
Grazie,
Federico