Contextualising online participation through citizens’ discourses of public and media engagement

"The participatory dimension of the new media environment is generally perceived as one of the issues that more radically might affect the future of journalism. Professional journalists have been struggling to adapt to this new scenario in which there are more and more possibilities for audiences to participate, directly on news media websites or by producing their own content and freely distributing it to others. Despite being audience participation a relevant topic of research, the point of view of the audience has been traditionally under-researched. Former studies have preferred to centre the focus on media institutions or professional journalists, rather than on the people who consume news media, being their willingness to participate normally taken for granted.

The main aim of this research project is then to help to overcome this gap in research by giving the voice to the citizens, in order to better understand: a) how citizens perceive online media participation, focusing on their attitudes and motivations towards the different options offered by news media to participate in their websites and b) if the participatory dimension of the new media environment has affected the formerly existing hegemonies of traditional media institutions and professional journalists within the public sphere; and c) determine what news sources do citizens consider to better embody the democratic function of the media, and whether citizen participation enhances that function.

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"The participatory dimension of the new media environment is generally perceived as one of the issues that more radically might affect the future of journalism. Professional journalists have been struggling to adapt to this new scenario in which there are more and more possibilities for audiences to participate, directly on news media websites or by producing their own content and freely distributing it to others. Despite being audience participation a relevant topic of research, the point of view of the audience has been traditionally under-researched. Former studies have preferred to centre the focus on media institutions or professional journalists, rather than on the people who consume news media, being their willingness to participate normally taken for granted.

The main aim of this research project is then to help to overcome this gap in research by giving the voice to the citizens, in order to better understand: a) how citizens perceive online media participation, focusing on their attitudes and motivations towards the different options offered by news media to participate in their websites and b) if the participatory dimension of the new media environment has affected the formerly existing hegemonies of traditional media institutions and professional journalists within the public sphere; and c) determine what news sources do citizens consider to better embody the democratic function of the media, and whether citizen participation enhances that function.

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