Citizen reporters broke much of the news, though they still needed broadcast media to help spread it. In some cases, citizens were able to capture iconic photos of events. Others were able to tell compelling stories about how the emergency affected their lives, including obeying the "stay in place" request by government officials during the manhunt. It has been widely reported how quickly social communities also got information wrong, including falsely accusing suspects. But I've seen a nearly equal number of reports showing how quickly these communities were able to self-correct their own misinformation.

There are plenty of examples of news outlets reaching out to citizens in the wake of a rapid-onset, large-scale crisis to tap into this data. The Boston Marathon bombings were no exception. NBC, for example, used Instagram photos to illustrate how creepy Boston's empty streets appeared during the manhunt for one of the suspects.

Outside of a crisis event, however, professional news outlets don't offer the same type of participatory engagement for citizens. That's not to say that news outlets ignore citizen reporting; indeed, their work is increasingly embraced. But for major outlets, citizen reports tend to be siloed off in many instances, even on a stand-alone site such as CNN's iReport and Al Jazeera's Sharek. Other outlets have formed creative partnerships to create citizen-specific sites -- Reuters and Global Voices, for instance, or the combination of YouTube, WITNESS and Storyful that makes up the Human Rights Channel.

There are compelling reasons, of course, that emergencies spark this type of reporting mash-up. For instance, I suspect the sheer scope of large-scale emergencies strain newsroom staff and editorial policy to the point of bending the rules. Accepting unprofessional photos and stories to capture the magnitude of each crisis is in many cases standard procedure now.

wrong place, wrong time

There's also the wrong-place-wrong-time scenario. The unpredictability of a crisis, combined with the ubiquity of mobile phones able to capture photos and videos, mean the average person is far more likely than newsroom staff to be in position to report information about a crisis as it unfolds.

I also think there's a sense that an emergency event also compels more people to want to participate in news. We saw a tremendous amount of frustration with limited media information in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, which prompted many people to seek other outlets to post their stories, photos, and information. Sites for collecting photos, such as Flickr and Instagram, often serve as a rallying point for people to organize visual information during crisis events. I bet many of these photographers don't think to share images that might be considered newsworthy in other contacts.

Still, it seems strange to me that a large-scale emergency event should be the only moment when this approach is adopted by news outlets. Couldn't citizens bring the same value -- personal stories, local context, and even volumes of personal data -- to nearly any news topic of interest?

In March 2013, Time magazine published "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," Steven Brill's account of flaws in the U.S. health care system. To their credit, Time has two areas allowing citizens to contribute further stories, one called "Sound Off: Are Medical Bills Too High? Tell Us Why" and another called, "Social Reactions: #BitterPill." The first isn't much more than a glorified comment section, and the second is a scattered collection of social media postings related to the article.

Surely, of all of the topics of national interest, citizens have the motivation, passion, and personalized context necessary to provide compelling additional coverage for a health care system that nearly everyone agrees is broken. It's great that Time has a place to collect these stories, but as near as I can tell, there was no reporter working to aggregate and share the follow-up information in a meaningful way, perhaps by using Storify to curate the most compelling stories. Nor was there a reporter trying to make sense of reader input or reactions, the way Andy Carvin approaches Twitter during breaking news events. Why is "regular" news different from an emergency event, when Time and others are clearly willing to invest in curating citizen contributions?

If news outlets are willing to bend the rules, so to speak, during times of rapid-onset crises, they should be able to develop engaging strategies to inspire citizen reporting for other events of local or national importance. This approach would complement the work already done during emergencies by providing nuance, context, and perhaps even overlooked voices in our professional news coverage.

Trevor Knoblich works as Project Manager for FrontlineSMS, a 2011 Knight News Challenge winner. He began his career as a federal policy reporter in Washington, DC, then spent 5 years working as a humanitarian specialist. He currently works on issues at the intersection of journalism, technology and developing countries. At FrontlineSMS, he is building tools to help journalists and media outlets around the world improve their ability to gather, track and share news.

1. SMS is growing, not shrinking

Indeed, SMS is continuing to grow at an incredible rate globally. In 2011, more than 7.8 trillion SMS were sent worldwide. That vastly outpaces every other messaging platform combined. Over-the-top (OTT) messaging (instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp, iMessenger, BlackBerry Messenger, etc., also known as application-to-person) represent 3.5 trillion messages, combined. Multimedia messaging service (MMS) adds another 200 billion. The rate at which SMS are sent is increasing, and is expected to increase each year at least through 2016, according to several research firms.

2. SMS is a major revenue driver for mobile network operators worldwide

SMS represents 63.5% of mobile messaging revenue globally. And it represents somewhere around 10% of an average operator's revenue streams. I have a hard time believing MNOs won't think of ways to add value to SMS, or reduce the cost enough that it still makes sense for consumers.

In fact, there are multiple examples of them taking this step. For instance, SMS sent via first delivery attempt mechanism can potentially save money on 80%-90% of text messages. Clever bundling can also drive revenue: Here in the United States, we bundle SMS with our calling plans, meaning there's no ceiling to how many messages a given subscriber sends in a month on his or her plan. What's the disincentive to use SMS?

3. SMS is platform agnostic and highly reliable

I can (and do) use iMessage with friends who also have iPhones. But what about friends who have Android-based mobiles? Colleagues whose businesses use BlackBerry devices? My mother, who uses a feature phone? To reach them, SMS is the most reliable option. This is due to the simple reason that it's hard-coded into the global mobile infrastructure, requiring distribution across all phones and carriers.

What's more is that I find iMessage and other chat applications to be unreliable. SMS, on the other hand, works even in extremely resource-limited conditions, including lack of Internet access and even moments of cell tower traffic congestion. For example, in emergencies, texts have a higher chance of reaching people than other forms of communication. This level of low-resource ubiquity is unmatched in the global communications infrastructure.

4. Increasing use in business, government and non-profit sectors

SMS is seeing a dramatic increase as a tool for businesses, governments and non-profits to interact with large populations. For example, Detroit recently introduced a Text-My-Bus program that allows people using public transport to learn when the next bus is arriving at a given stop. Businesses are increasingly looking to SMS as an opportunity for advertising special prices or events to clients. UPS, for example, uses SMS to notify clients as to the progress of their package deliveries. And non-profits are increasingly participating in text-to-donate programs, where donors can send a brief message to a short phone number and a small donation is added to a cell phone bill. Most famously, the American Red Cross raised more than $43 million with its text-to-donate campaign following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

I suspect they choose SMS over a messaging service largely because user adoption rates are so high -- see my previous point about SMS being platform agnostic. With so many mobile phones in circulation, there's only one global messaging platform at the moment. For people wanting to reach a large audience via a convenient messaging feature, SMS is the only real option. As these services gain more traction, people will continue to interact with them via SMS.

5. Chat Is Attempting To Emulate SMS Success

Many analysts see built-in messenger apps, such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Mxit and others as a threat to SMS. These apps operate on a user's data plan, rather than through the SMS protocol. The argument follows that in cases where data plans are cheaper than SMS plans, users will choose the least cost route, thus supplanting SMS as the most popular platform. To be fair, we've seen this happen in a few places. Hong Kong, Australia, and Finland have seen drops in SMS usage. In the U.S., SMS usage leveled off in 2011 for the first time. But a dip in usage does not translate to an evaporation of an entire platform. Indeed, SMS is still the most popular platform in the U.S., despite the relative ubiquity of iMessage, Blackberry Messenger, and Facebook chat.

Portio Research takes this argument a step further, suggesting that messaging apps may only be an addition to an increasingly fragmented market, rather than being an SMS killer:

Does a boost to one messaging type have to equate to a usage drop in another? Does it have to mean cannibalization of SMS? What about synergy? Side by side traffic growth? And what of the other messaging mediums of MMS, mobile e-mail, and mobile IM? After all, while messaging users love to communicate seamlessly, popular modes of communications do vary - and maybe OTT isn't a replacement, but rather just one more segment of the messaging mix.

At FrontlineSMS, we'd agree -- multi-channel engagement doesn't mean the end of SMS. It means a boom in mobile messaging across the board, including for SMS.

In an increasingly device-rich society, with wild differences in access to infrastructure and technologies of all kinds between the very poor and even the moderately well-off, multi-channel communications are critical if service providers and businesses are to engage effectively with everyone in a community, all of the time. Each platform and channel of communication has trade-offs, and as we've argued elsewhere, your choice of platform not only presents opportunities -- to sharing video, or messaging more cheaply across cell data -- but can close doors to those without the kit or the credit to access them. Multi-channel approaches, such as the Praekelt Foundation's Young Africa Live, which combines SMS with feature- and smartphone apps and a website, offer the broadest possible number of options for individuals to engage with its message. Despite the brevity of the format, SMS has a valuable place in this spectrum, both as a lowest common-denominator technology, and as a communications platform that often works when all others fail.

In a multi-channel world, where successful engagement and data capture are increasingly critical, and as businesses focus more and more on reaching previously difficult markets in low- and middle-income countries, who can afford to discount the world's most accessible, most widespread, digital communications medium?

Trevor Knoblich works as Project Manager for FrontlineSMS, a 2011 Knight News Challenge winner. He began his career as a federal policy reporter in Washington, DC, then spent 5 years working as a humanitarian specialist. He currently works on issues at the intersection of journalism, technology and developing countries. At FrontlineSMS, he is building tools to help journalists and media outlets around the world improve their ability to gather, track and share news.

Image courtesy of Flickr user YayAdrian.

This post originally appeared on the FrontlineSMS blog.

Recently, Hurricane Sandy here in the United States demonstrated this, with Twitter and Instagram in particular serving as major platforms for people to participate in an unfolding, news-worthy event. And media outlets took notice, with extensive reports around the effort of citizen participation. Some lauded the efforts of individuals to share information on Twitter; while others noted the changing flavor of the tweets, which evolved from humorous pokes at media coverage to critical information exchange. And of course, one user's account was famously unmasked for its false and potentially dangerous tweets. Instagram also received a lot of coverage, in part because of its popularity for those sharing photos of the storm, but also because it became a hub for major media outlets to find photos of storm-affected areas. The popularity of Instagram even sparked a debate about whether the site, generally used for sharing fun photos between friends, was appropriate for sharing disaster-related photos. (Disclosure: I think it was perfectly appropriate.) And as access to some news sites failed due to power outages in New York City, people began gravitating to other news sites that fit their needs instead, such as Tumblr.

How sms came into play

SMS played a large role in the event was well. The U.S. Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), a free, SMS-based emergency alert system, was deployed for the first time since it became operational six months ago, largely with successful results. In fact, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission asks people in emergencies to use SMS when possible, in part because SMS is generally reliable, even when networks aren't fully operational, and in part because SMS is highly efficient and reduces congestion on cell networks. NBC News notes that people can even use SMS to pull information from the Internet when they otherwise lack web access. In New York City, community relief operations created an SMS-based reporting platform, among other tech-related reporting tools. Here in Washington, D.C., the Washington Post requested reports of power outages via SMS.

One intriguing aspect of communication was that as the emergency unfolded, information sharing became increasingly specific to location, starting with general observations about the anticipated effects on the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, then on the New York City metropolitan area, then Lower Manhattan and Hoboken, N.J., as those areas took the brunt of the storm in that region. On Twitter, hash tags were first created for the storm, then broken out by city, e.g., #SandyDC or #SandyNYC. Over time, community members were working in a nonlinear, moderately coordinated way to share critical information, and this phenomenon is not unique to Hurricane Sandy or to the United States.

the growth of participatory news communities

Around the world, we are seeing a growing assembly of what I'll call participatory news communities, or groups of people who have the opportunity to participate and provide feedback to news. I've written about this before, largely from a theoretical perspective, but I recently attended two conferences that indicated just how large this phenomenon is becoming. As an aside, it also framed for me how desperate we've become to fill the language gap around how communities participate in news. No two people seem to agree whether we should call this citizen reporting, participatory news, or even just recognize that social media IS the media of the future, and drop the whole "social" pretext.

Regardless of how we choose to characterize this - let's call it citizen reporting and social media as a shorthand for now -- it has become an established part of newsroom strategy. First, take a look at the 40 finalists of the African News Innovation Challenge. I had the pleasure of meeting most of these finalists as a technical adviser at a recent conference. By my count, 15 of the 40 finalist projects -- 38 percent -- focus on community participation in news, in one form or another. Of these, several projects are actively trying to establish community dialogue about news. Others are looking to source news tips or basic citizen reporting. So, does 15 data points make a trend? I would argue it does, especially as the ANIC finalists are a select, distinguished group chosen from a larger pool of applicants.

At another recent conference hosted by the International Center for Journalists, called Turn Up the Volume: Bringing Voice to Mobile Citizen Journalism, discussions focused on seeking ways to incorporate voice into news gathering and sharing processes using Interactive Voice Response (IVR). An IVR system is essentially an automated telephone response system that guides callers through a menu of options and allows them to perform certain tasks. Via this mechanism, it is easy to see the potential to include even more people in a participatory news community, including those with low literacy skills, or those who have difficulty texting due to high rates or language barriers on mobile key pads. Again, at that conference, a key point continually raised was how people could not only receive news, say by calling a number and hearing headlines read aloud, but also participate in news. This might include sharing news tips, reporting on certain local issues, or providing feedback such as questions related to ongoing news topics.

Generally speaking, many communities worldwide are are largely in a social, participatory news culture. Sharing Facebook news posts, commenting on blogs, interacting with reporters via Twittter, and CNN's robust iReport are but a few examples of the means for communities to influence and access news in compelling new ways. But any professional journalist will tell you it's been a long slog to reach this point, largely because it's reshaped the thinking of large media outlets. But in places where the concepts of professional journalism are only now taking root, and participation is built into the fabric of this effort, we may yet see new models for community participation. The most successful models, those that will drive the next round of innovation in journalism, will not only have a community focus, but will also follow the lowest barriers to participation -- technology that feels like home.

Trevor Knoblich works as Project Manager for FrontlineSMS, a 2011 Knight News Challenge winner. He began his career as a federal policy reporter in Washington, DC, then spent 5 years working as a humanitarian specialist. He currently works on issues at the intersection of journalism, technology and developing countries. At FrontlineSMS, he is building tools to help journalists and media outlets around the world improve their ability to gather, track and share news.

Photo by @nueves via Instagram on Loisaida Ave. in Manhattan.

This post originally appeared on the FrontlineSMS blog.

So many elements of news have evolved that many experts think we're on the verge of a revolution in digital journalism, including Google's director of news and social products, Richard Gingras. "The media landscape is in the process of being completely transformed, tossed upside down; reinvented and restructured in ways we know, and in ways we do not yet know," Gingras argued recently during a keynote address at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass and Communication. "The process of change is far from over. Indeed, it will never be over."

News as a participatory process

When thinking about all of these changes, I find one shift particularly inspiring: the growing concept of news as a participatory process. In the past, news was produced largely by media outlets and consumed by readers, viewers, or listeners -- a passive audience. Of course, now we view news as a lively and active discussion, in which former "consumers" participate in sharing stories, providing news tips, raising questions, and adding depth and context to stories.

Chris Lehmann, former chief of Yahoo News, recently told the New York Times' David Carr, "News is an activity, a verb really." He was primarily referring to the editorial room, but I think this now equally applies to all people who regularly read, share, write, and contribute to news. We live in an active news culture, in which stories are rarely static, breaking news reaches the world in a matter of seconds, and average citizens have access to many tools to provide news tips, content, and context nearly instantaneously.

This access has been described as public, participatory or citizen journalism, with varying definitions for each -- and no definition that everyone can agree on. That said, regardless of the title we give to this shift in news culture, the combination of ways in which people can contribute to news is encouraging. The more people are seeking, discussing, and shaping information, the closer we may get to a common understanding of the issues and challenges we face in our community, region, nation, or planet. This shift also allows information to spread quickly, and reach more people.

Expanding global participation

With this in mind, I accepted my role at FrontlineSMS with a specific purpose: to extend global participation in news to people who otherwise would be left out of this shift, meaning those with no or infrequent access to the Internet. Lack of Internet access should not exclude people from receiving, discussing, and shaping the news that affects their lives. And while many people still lack Internet access, nearly everyone has access to a mobile phone, and by extension SMS.

SMS is the most pervasive digital communications platform in existence. As such, news outlets can use SMS to invite more people to participate in news in a variety of ways. Participants may be trained citizen journalists, eyewitnesses sharing news tips or photos, or even commentators on important stories.

Yes, this brings with it the challenge of vetting information, verifying senders, and devising clever mechanisms for being inclusive of a variety of different voices. But I believe we can meet those challenges, and the result will be a more robust audience participating in news in a more informed way. In fact, I've already seen inspiring examples of this from our user base at FrontlineSMS.

In one example, Al Jazeera noticed that while many people around the world were discussing the viral, controversial Kony 2012 video, there was a glaring gap in input from people in Uganda, where much of the discussion is focused. In response, Al Jazeera established the Uganda Speaks program, allowing people in Uganda to join the conversation in a variety of formats, including SMS, e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. For those without Internet access, SMS became a critical channel to weigh in on the global dialogue.

In another example, Indonesian television station RuaiTV trained citizen journalists in a method for texting information on illicit activities by palm oil companies. Citizen journalists would text or call with information about suspected wrongdoings, and RuaiTV would follow up on the news tips. In this manner, citizens were actively working to hold companies and governments accountable to the local legal framework.

Citizens in Indonesia collaborate with local media to change the practices of palm oil corporations.

At FrontlineSMS, we are motivated by these and similar user stories. These organizations are working to lower the barriers for participating in news debates, whether they are local or global. Via SMS, we can now invite many more people to receive news, share new ideas, and foster discussion around topics that are important to them. In many cases, people have this type of access for the first time in their lives. Thanks to the creativity of our users, potentially millions of new voices are now invited to participate in news. It will be thrilling to hear what they have to say.

Trevor Knoblich works as Project Manager for FrontlineSMS, a 2011 Knight News Challenge winner. He began his career as a federal policy reporter in Washington, DC, then spent 5 years working as a humanitarian specialist. He currently works on issues at the intersection of journalism, technology and developing countries. At FrontlineSMS, he is building tools to help journalists and media outlets around the world improve their ability to gather, track and share news.