Public journalism, which started in the late 1980s, has lost its momentum after experiencing a period of flourishing. Citizen journalism subsequently emerged at the turn of the 21st century, and is currently being subjected to various experiments. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the relationship between public journalism and citizen journalism, and their respective implications for the democratic mechanism, by scrutinizing media theories and history. Although these two schools of journalism followed each other in chronological succession, they might not have any causal relationship between them regarding their theoretical development, but they may have a significant mutual influence. Citizen journalism, which exemplifies the essence of direct democracy, can absorb the deliberative element entailed in public journalism. Public journalism, with its deliberative spirit of democracy, can emulate the principle of openness demonstrated in citizen journalism. Thus, both schools of journalism can thrive in the contemporary news environment, and contribute actively to democracy.