The “power of internet” allows people to interact with news, to “make their own response (Simons 2007, p. 67).”

The rise of Web 2.0 (Xin 2010, pp. 179) has resulted in mainstream journalism generating a deeper user-producer intertwined system–a sort of “do-it-yourself reporting (Allan 2006, pp. 123)”.

It’s called citizen or participatory journalism, and this democratic news writing empowers ordinary people to give a new face to news (Simons 2007, p. 68).

News has become a commodity, and “non-corporate journalism (Allan 2006, pp. 123)” is what participatory journalism sites like Newsvine need to produce, to counter ‘traditional’ style content production by sites like Mail Online.

However, the degree to which they are currently successful, is debatable.

Britain’s first daily newspaper, The Daily Mail begun publication in 1896 by brothers Alfred and Alfred Harmsworth. Mail Online is the internet platform on which The Daily Mail publishes its news.

The online version by-and-large follows a shovelware system; the news articles written for The Daily Mail are put online, but what makes it different is the incorporation of user interaction, to “enhance public participation (Xin 2010, pp. 179).”

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Journalism

The Daily Mail, published by Associated Newspapers Ltd., follows the ideology of “promising quality journalism at affordable prices1”. It is a middle-market2 newspaper, i.e it mixes hard and soft news mix with some entertainment value. It particularly caters to female audiences3, and literary middle class (Manning 2001, pp. 83).

The newspaper was set up “to set the social and technological agenda of the nation 4,” in accordance with the founding vision to “inform, entertain and persuade5;” and its coverage on the ongoing Libyan crisis does just that.

On the other hand, Newsvine.com is a MSNBC Interactive News (msnbc.com) owned social news platform that came about in 2006. It’s staff only manages Newsvine’s website, the content is produced by its users.

Newsvine’s website states its sole purpose to “… build a perfectly different, perfectly efficient way to read, write, and interact with the news.6”

Its coverage on the Libyan issue however doesn’t provide for perfect interaction for reasons listed further on.

Its target user groups are any individuals who want to report news from individualistic perspectives.

Newsvine supports stories from established sources like Associated Press or citizen journalist.

It’s thus more of a collaborative journalism website.

Editorial decision-making is democratic, as long as Newsvine’s Code of Honor7 is followed; the essence of which being: “…a place for people to share and discuss topics relating to the news.”