Today's Sacramento Bee features "Out of the mainstream: 'Citizen Journalists' are using the Internet to offer news coverage that is all their own." The article lays out some citizen journalism debates and developments over the last year. It also features Berkman fellow Dan Gillmor --

In a blog posting in April, Gillmor defended citizen journalism from charges that it's amateurish and little more than a fad. "Citizen journalism doesn't replace the professionals -- at least I hope not," he wrote. "But we're going to have to recognize that the old systems are expanding. We are learning new ways to gather, sift and recombine what we know and learn together." Later in the posting, after detailing how he believed mainstream media have ignored stories, Gillmor rose to the defense of average Joes and Janes taking the place of the pros, writing, "I'd argue that some coverage, however amateurish, is better than none at all."

You can read the full article here.