Gowallais a solid check-in location app in its own right, but it definitely needs to pull some clever moves to get out from underFoursquare‘s shadow. AMEX partnerships? Not worth it. Photo sharing integrations? Kindergarten stuff.

Gowalla has just become a citizen-supported, news community forCNN. Starting today,CNN iReportwill turn Gowalla users into citizen news crawlers using its brand new iReport Highlight feature.

Here’s how it works: When you check-in on Gowalla, add the iReport Highlight and your story will be uploaded to the CNN iReport. News stories will be vetted by the CNN newsroom and used for the network’s reporting. If your story is amazing, you will receive an iReport Pin from CNN for your Gowalla Passport. Gowalla users can also share their CNN iReport highlights onFacebook,TwitterandTumblr. I haven’t seen the iReport feature added to the app yet, but I expect it will be there soon.

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Gowalla users will expand the network of CNN iReport’s 740,000 iReporters. “Opening up iReport to the Gowalla community is an exciting step for participatory journalism,”said Lila King, participation director for CNN.com. “By bringing the power of location services to our iReport community, we are connecting our audience to the precise places where news events are happening.”

Gowalla also recently upgraded its Android app, check out our hands-on featurehere.

Story byCourtney Boyd Myers

Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder of audience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups gr(show all)Courtney Boyd Myers is the founder ofaudience.io, a transatlantic company designed to help New York and London based technology startups grow internationally.

Previously, she was the Features Editor and East Coast Editor of TNW covering New York City startups and digital innovation. She loves magnets + reading on a Kindle.

You can follow her onFacebook,Twitter @CBMandGoogle +.

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