Newspapers, stations turning to 'citizen journalists' to help fill reporting void

Mele Mason recalls the days when the newsroom at Omaha TV station KMTV had journalists covering city hall, the county courthouse, the statehouse and the “cop shop.”

Reporters attended multiple other governmental meetings and community gatherings, said Mason, who worked as a news videographer at the station in the 1980s.

But those days are gone, she said, with her old newsroom now about one-third the size.

So when Mason saw that an effort was underway to address shrinking newsrooms by enlisting local residents to document actions taken at government meetings, she signed up.

“It just has been fr...