The Use of Social News Curation to Empower Citizens and Journalists: Findings of A Focus Group Study with Professional Curators

Citizen engagement in building user-curated narratives of complex or long-lasting news stories has been the key foundation of the design and implementation of the Acropolis virtual environment. Previous user studies have shown, by positive evidence, that this goal can be pragmatically achieved, but the challenge now lies in assessing: a) the extent to which an environment like Acropolis can be used to empower citizens; and b) whether and how the tool could be used to support the work of professional curators. Findings from a focus group study highlighted the tool's potential to engage citizens with news, the usefulness of the environment to build virtual memories, and the convenience of using Acropolis to support professional journalistic work.