Media scientists Roger Blum and Marlis Prinzing weigh up the opportunites and risks presented by 'public journalism' and 'citizen journalism'. "There's no ignoring the fact that citizens are back in the limelight - and (finally) receiving more attention from journalists, many of whom had become alienated from the general population. They were self-content and confident of a passive audience that would swallow anything they saw fit to dish up. Awkward issues were simply neglected. The new civic movement is giving journalism a boost, and this has been stepped up by the recent wave of mergers and synergies within the media. It's still unclear in which direction this is heading: ultimately it depends on how editorial departments opt to tackle this new development. In countries such as Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, newspapers are experimenting with public journalism."