The rise of digital media empowers users to produce “news” autonomously while
bypassing the institutional media. This article selects four user-generated news cases on digital
media during the COVID-19 epidemic to summarize the types and characteristics of User
Journalism. With the help of social media, the private interpersonal communication becomes
public, while the public events have users’ particular versions; users actively learn to gain
more visibility through online self-exposure, and by the way of rewriting news, more texts and
meanings are reproduced. “The whole world is talking” refers to more ordinary users' voices
emerging through digital media to form an open and updated news stream, simultaneously, the
collision of various discourses is accompanied by the shadow of conflict.
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“The Whole World is Talking”: Research on User Generated
Journalism Cases via Digital Media during the COVID-19 Epidemic. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2020, 42(9): 62-84