Citizen journalism changes the way news is reported

On Monday 15 May 2011 Blottr.com proved how powerful citizen journalism can be, as the online user generated news service broke the day's biggest story.

Blottr.com reported at 10:09am an area surrounding Trafalgar Square was closed off following a terrorist alert. It became apparent a bomb threat had been made and the authorities undertook a controlled explosion on a suspicious suitcase.

Over the next two hours, users of the citizen journalism news website updated the story, as it unfolded.

It wasn't until 12:30pm that the first news network other than www.Blottr.com covered the story.

Blottr.com Founder Adam Baker said "Blottr was the only full story available of the incident for two hours, until Sky News put it as their "breaking" news, followed by the BBC. By this time, everyone discussing the story, especially on Twitter, were linking to our story, as the main source."

Baker went on to say: "We often break news stories well before traditional mainstream news services. This demonstrates how powerful enabling people on the street to capture and report incidents they're witnessing can be".

"We hope this is the catalyst for people to realise they can report and break their own news stories on Blottr, which is often the best place to find breaking news before anyone else".

The emergence of social media and sites like Blottr have changed the way news is gathered and reported, reaffirmed by instances like this.

Whilst respected mainstream news services like the BBC still command the share of an authoritative voice when it comes to breaking news, habits are shifting, with people realising a crowd-sourced news service is often just as credible and nearly always quicker to circulate.

Blottr is a user generated news service enabling anyone to capture, report, collaborate and discover news happening around them as they see it unfold they can share it with others.