"My Missourian: A case study of open source journalism" documents the creation of "a demonstration publication using resources and procedures that could be freely adopted by any newspaper".
It reports that My Missourian's most popular sections are also those that cover issues most overlooked by mainstream media - spiritual issues and civic life.
It also reports that the most notable increase in activity on the site followed the shooting of a local policewoman. The story resulted in the site's most popular article, while a special section dedicated to the story received more than 10 contributions in two days - "the greatest number of contributions to the Web site in that time period", according
to the study.
Clyde Bentley, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, said: "Readers and potential contributors are not interested in a rehash of events and issues that are already covered ad nauseum by the city's other news media. Rather, they are interested in issues that go largely ignored on the nightly news."
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