“…Limited press freedom indicates the absence of independent journalism, low quality of news, and lack of transparency, thus curbing the development of informed public discourse (Sen, 1999). Under such circumstances, citizens are motivated to seek additional channels for information dissemination, opinion expression, and engagement (Pestin 2011;Wang, 2009;Wei et al, 2014). For instance, citizen journalism in nondemocratic contexts contributes a great deal to the circulation of public opinion both online and offline, and sometimes, impacts how mainstream media cover social and political issues (Goode, 2009;Moyo, 2009).…”