Determinants of Participatory Journalism and Communication for Development of the Contemporary Press: Perspective from the United States of America

Abstract

Recent years have seen a dramatic change in the relationship between online media and the audience, and user generated content is a common feature of news websites in the United States of America. Control over the contents of the media space, once held by traditional news outlets, today is shared by bloggers and other social media participants. Participatory journalism’ has been anticipated as a form of journalism in which the audience no longer ‘merely’ receives news, but, enabled by digital technologies, is involved in its production and dissemination. First, participatory journalism and communication is considered in the context of the historical evolution of public communication. A methodological strategy for systematically analyzing citizen participation opportunities in the media is then proposed and applied. A sample of 16 online newspapers offers preliminary data that suggest news organizations are interpreting online user participation mainly as an opportunity for their readers to debate current events, while other stages of the news production process are closed to citizen involvement or controlled by professional journalists when participation is allowed. However, different strategies exist among the studied sample, and contextual factors should be considered in further research. Because of such pressing factors participatory journalism and communication is marginalized and genuine participation is the missing link in the development of the press process. To avert such trends, the paper calls for professionalism for the development of the press communication, structural change of the organization and holistic approach of development of the press for successful development of the press endeavors. Keywords: Participatory Journalism, Communication, Press development of the press, California, USA.