While plenty has been written and discussed about the fate of photojournalists in this time of citizen-generated images, not much attention has been devoted to the actual content of citizen photojournalism– how and when it is incorporated into news coverage.

A new study from the Missouri School of Journalism found the use of citizen photographs by news organizations tends to be restricted to specific types of events or circumstances. Newspapers, for example, primarily rely on the work of staff photographers and wire service images.

To this, they will add citizen-generated photos and videos on a very sporadic basis, often drawn from social media, according to Keith Greenwood, associate professor, and Ryan Thomas, assistant professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, authors of  “Locating the Journalism in Citizen Photojournalism: The Use and Content of Citizen-Generated Imagery.“

Online news outlets often will incorporate citizen-generated photos in breaking news situations especially when the images are received before photojournalists are on the scene.

While photographs by citizens are widely shared on social media, the research found that “there is not widespread incorporation of user-generated photography in mainstream channels, and what is used does not generally reflect professional aesthetic standards.“  Citizen-supplied photographs were often about community events that help the community-building interests of newspapers that do not have the resources to cover such events.

The study involved four organizations:  the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Columbia Missourian, the Chicago Sun Times and CNN iReport page. The study has been published by the online journal Digital Journalism. It will be published in print in an August 2015 special issue of the journal.