Social Network Sites for News and Citizenship. SNS are online services that allow users to create an individual profile, connect with other users—usually people known offline—and navigate through these networks of contacts (Boyd & Ellison, 2008, p. 211). Profiles allow users to learn detailed information about their contacts, including personal background, interests, music tastes, and whereabouts. Users can also communicate with each other through a variety of tools within the same site, including chatting, sending private messages, leaving public comments in users' profiles, linking to outside content and sharing photos and videos.