The Canadian network CTV launched MyNews.ctv.ca in May 2008, a site dedicated to material sent in by the audience. The press release was headlined “Attention all Citizen Journalists!” and told Canadians that anyone with a digital camera or video phone could now contribute to CTV News, with footage and images potentially used to complement the network’s newsgathering.
The wording gave the design away. Contributions were solicited on the condition that CTV newsrooms would monitor the site to determine the news value of what arrived. The gate-keeping role stayed exactly where it had always been, with the network’s journalists deciding what counted as news, and nothing in the launch suggested an interest in using the site to find alternative perspectives or to involve the audience in that decision.
That made CTV’s version of citizen journalism a matter of publication rather than participation: the web treated as a source of free newsgathering rather than as a place to have an argument with an audience. It was a common shape for broadcaster projects of the period, and the reason many of them produced a flow of pictures without producing any change in editorial practice. The post appeared as a cross-post from Newslab.ca.