People around the world capture unexpected, entertaining, historical and newsworthy moments on their smartphones everyday. These photographs and videos are utilised by broadcasters and publishers who seek to feature them in their own reporting and storytelling.

We wanted to know how some of the most popular online newspaper sites use eyewitness media. We chose eight publications from around the world, and then every day for three weeks (21 consecutive days), we digitally captured their homepages, as well as all of the articles linked to from those homepages.

We analysed each example to understand when, where and how eyewitness media is being used by the most popular online newspaper sites.

We then contacted a number of eyewitnesses whose content had been published during our three week sampling period to provide a snapshot of some of the emerging issues relating to rights, permission, crediting and context.

Download the study here.