At the NAA Conference, Lisa Desisto of the Boston Globe, in her acceptance speech for the NAA's online innovator award, acknowledged Media Hub contributor Steve Yelvington as the "father of citizen journalism."

Yelvington, who has raised caution about the term "citizen journalism," considers his role in its development: "I've never thought of myself as the father of citizen journalism. I'll accept some credit for a decade of beating the drum for participation, but I don't want to go farther than that... It made me stop and think: Can anyone be the father of citizen journalism? I don't think it's possible."

Steve continues: "It's a spontaneous phenomenon, a completely natural outgrowth of the personal publishing power that is inherent in the Internet. And it isn't just a result of the blogging craze. Back in the last century I referred to 'a new kind of people's journalism' and the landscape at that time was dominated by sites like Angelfire, where the typical site was a rarely updated collection of jumping frogs and background sounds. I was thinking of those sites, but also of online group discussions (which have been around since 1973), photo galleries, and so forth. When people can tell their own stories, they do..."