Participation in Location-Based News-Apps: Deriving Motivational Factors from Volunteer Work

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Traditional, predominantly print-based, media companies with a local or regional focus have been struggling for years with the consequences of increasing digitalization and the associated rise of social media offerings. For traditional media, this means fewer readers, less circulation, decreasing advertising revenue in the context of the advertising circulation spiral and further concentration processes in the industry. Current research clearly indicates that participatory forms of content creation can provide the urgently needed basis for necessary business model innovation in journalism due to their potential to further expand the limited scope of journalistic offerings provided by conventional media and thus contribute to the future viability of local media offerings. However, users themselves are usually not given the opportunity to become communicators in their local environment. A key question arising is what is necessary to successfully and sustainably implement participatory communication offerings in the media industry? This article aims to identify factors influencing the willingness to participate in (local) news applications. For this purpose, we interviewed people who have been awarded for their voluntary commitment in their local environment. The objective is to find out what motivates these people with high intrinsic motivation to participate. The results show that a network character, non-monetary reward systems and the possibility of recruiting further members (in this case users) can serve as motivating factors for active participation in (local) news applications. The article also highlights the interplay between volunteering and participatory journalism, which offers plenty of potential, especially on a digital level.