In recent years we have grown accustomed to the idea that media coverage of conflict is far less restricted and controlled than in the bad old days of war propaganda. In particular, citizen reporting, through new, online media, was supposed to have led to a freer, more open and diverse information environment – an idea that came to a head in the Arab Spring.

Yet today these optimistic assumptions are being thrown into question. The relative freedom of the digital world is now increasingly seen as dangerous, allowing groups like Islamic State to publicise their gruesome activities and use social media to radicalise and recruit – killings are performed for the cameras rather than simply captured by them. Meanwhile, governments have sought to find new channels of influence in the fluid, online media system, via initiatives such as the US State Department’s Digital Outreach Team or the Pentagon’s Bloggers Roundtable.

Mainstream media organisations face difficult dilemmas as they scramble to catch up with news breaking via YouTube or Twitter. Should they resist the temptation to use eyewitness video and user-generated content without first vetting and verifying it? Or by holding on to their gatekeeping role do professional journalists quash the potential for cosmopolitan grassroots reporting and allow official sources to shape the news agenda?