The Rise and Rise of UGC

 What is ment by the term 'citizen journalism' ?

citizen journalism is when private individuals do essentially what professional reporters do - report information. That information can take many forms, from a podcast editorial to a report about a city council meeting on a blog. It can include text, pictures, audio and video. But it's basically all about communicating information of some kind.
http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm

What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ordinary people ?

One of the first examples of news being generated by ordinary people was the Rodney King story, Rodney Glen King was an African-American construction worker who, while on parole for robbery, became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles police officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. George Holliday, a resident in the nearby area, witnessed the beating and videotaped much of it from the balcony of his nearby apartment.

List some of the formats for the participation that are now offered by news organisations 

• Message Boards
• Chat rooms
• Q&A
• Polls
• Having your say 
• Blog with comments enabled 
• Social media: Youtube, Facebook, Google and Twitter 

What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first hand ?

The difference professionally shot footage and first hand footage is that professional footage 

What is a Gatekeeper?

 The organisation which decides the types of text that is/is not news and whether it will broadcast the content provided by the Citizen journalists.

How has the role of a gatekeeper changed

A gatekeepers job role has become more important due to it having small access in the past because it used to do self representations with low income groups and youth groups. However it has now gained its own voice through the use of citizen journalism