🤖 AI Summary
This study investigates the decline of citizen journalism and user-generated content (UGC) in online news media and the transformation of participatory mechanisms. Through a systematic literature review, it critically examines audience participation behaviors, journalists’ efforts to uphold professional boundaries, and media organizations’ commercial strategies, uncovering the underlying causes of UGC’s waning viability. The research introduces the concept of “mediatized participation” to reconceptualize the nature of audience engagement in the digital era and argues that citizen journalism, as an institutional innovation, may have largely failed. Key findings indicate that widespread audience reluctance to produce content, journalists’ reinforcement of professional authority, and media prioritization of profitability collectively undermine the sustainability of UGC models.
📝 Abstract
The second generation of web tools shook the journalist profession approximately two decades ago with the proactive incorporation of audiences into the media. Citizen journalism and user-generated content arose as an object of interest due to the democratising value of participation attributed to them, with empowered citizens who could emulate the professional and institutional practises of journalists. However, difficulties soon came to the surface, and audience participation in news media began to be limited. Within this context, this article conducts a critical review of studies on audience participation in news media based on a systematic literature review. The results indicate that, in general, audiences showed low interest in the creation of informative content and that their participation has grown increasingly problematic. In addition, journalists are reticent as they defend their professional role above all else, while company strategies have prioritised making participation profitable. For this reason, the idea of citizen journalism that offers user-created content through the media appears to be a thing of the past, with many characteristics that could define it as a failed innovation. Therefore, the text concludes that audience participation in the media could be defined as mediatised participation.