This book provides a much-needed analytical account of the implications of interactive participation in the construction of media content. Although web journalism is a fast-changing technology this book will have sustained appeal to an international readership by seeking to critically assess Internet news production. With the rise of blogging and citizen journalism, it is a commonplace to observe that interactive participatory media are transforming the relationship between the traditional professional media and their audience. A current, popular, assumption is that the traditional flow of information from media to citizen is being reformed into a democratic dialogue between members of a community. The editors and contributors analyse and debate this assumption through international case studies that include the United Kingdom and United States. While the text has been written and designed for undergraduate and postgraduate use, the book will be of use and of interest to all those engaged in the debate over Web reporting and citizen journalism.
Preface; Introduction: Participation & Incorporation?; News Blogs, Mainstream News & News Agendas; Gotcha: How Newsroom Norms are Shaping Participatory Journalism Online; We Are Not All Journalists Now; The Case Against the Democratic Influence of the Internet on Journalism; Blogging Journalists: The Writing on the Wall; "An Essential Service in the Life of the Nation"; Citizenship & Public Service: The Case of BBC News Online; Shut Out But Switched On: Web Forums, Border Identities & the Evolving Narrative of Post-Devolution Wales; Local Voices: The Regional Press & User-Generated Content; Changing Auntie: A Case Study in Managing & Regulating User-Generated News Content at the BBC; A Free Market of Ideas? The Utility of Citizen-Generated Content; The Blog in Slovenian Traditional Journalism: Gate-keeping, Audience & Citizenship; A Study of Journalistic & Source Transparency in US Online Newspaper & Online Citizen Journalism Articles; Seeing the Unseen: Is New-Media Journalism Reshaping Questions of Race?; Citizen Journalism Online: Promise of an Alternative Conflict Discourse?; Rehearsing Democracy: New Media, Political Freedoms & Censorship in Uganda; Facilitating Participatory Communication in China: An Analysis of Citizen Journalists & Media Regulators in the Qiangguo Forum & its Discussions on Income Inequality; Web-Oriented Public Participation in Contemporary China; Online Journalism: The Changing Media Ecology from an Indian Perspective; Let's Talk: How Blogging is Shaping the BBC's Relationship with the Public; Online Television: A Threat to Balanced Political Reporting; Index.
