Green Open AccessAnalyzing the active audience: Reluctant, reactive, fearful, or lazy? Forms and motives of participation in mainstream journalism
Journal
Journalism
Date Issued
June 1, 2019
Author(s)
Abstract
Participation has become a key issue in contemporary journalism studies, yet research on how the participatory space is being appropriated by users is rather limited. This article attempts a methodological contribution by offering a way to analyze participatory journalism in reference to variant participatory affordances enabling different levels of creative effort, control, and editorial permeability. To do so, it understands participation as the active involvement of users, and makes an analytical connection among technological affordances, motivations, and contextual factors. The article offers empirical evidence challenging both cyber-optimist and cyber-pessimist assumptions about participation. Drawing on insights from a web-based survey, it is argued that the ‘reluctant audience’ paradigm may be interpreted in terms of the ‘lazy audience’ and the ‘fearful audience’, which seem to coexist along with the ‘reactive audience’.
Affiliation
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Name
Analyzing the active audience.pdf
Size
109.88 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
28c1abb645dff62b4348305a6a0daf62
Scopus Subject Areas
Communication
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Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)