Original scientific paper

Reconsidering Participatory Journalism in the Internet Age

Igor Vobič ; FDV Sveučilište u Ljubljani
Peter Dahlgren ; Department of Communication and Media Lund University Sweden

Abstract

Participatory journalism is embedded in larger dilemmas of access, interaction, and participation, where it is used as a general rubric to refer to all forms of non-professional activities of journalistic conduct that capture the ideas of collaborative and collective action. The article suggests that the relations between journalists and the audience have changed significantly in the last decade or so: where the members of the audience have started to operate as co-producers of the news. Simultaneously, journalists are beginning to develop a sense of how to reinvent themselves as the co-creators of the content. In this regard, thinking about, and exploring, participatory journalism demands some conceptual precision; we will not be helped if it becomes a signifier for any- and everything that is not mainstream journalism. The article discusses the contexts, practices, and dilemmas of participatory journalism in three sections. In doing so, it looks at the key conceptual difficulties regarding the complexities of citizen access to public life, where various interactive possibilities of online platforms are evolving. These are set against the manifold difficulties of contemporary democracy and traditional journalism. In the concluding section, the article sets possible future paths for participatory journalism research.

Keywords

participatory journalism; democracy; Internet; news; audience

Hrčak ID:

112379

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/112379

Publication date:

19.12.2013.

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