Innovation Journalists and Participatory Audiences

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify how journalists perceive the roles of their audiences in networked and participatory innovation environments. The focus is on different levels of interaction between innovation journalism and the public, and the types of roles audience is interpreted in journalistic discourse and practices. The study is based on the semi-structured interviews of 69 journalists in Finland, the United States and Japan.

The context of this study is today's communication environment, which enables various possibilities for participatory practices and collaboration. This part of the study aims to 1) identify the roles of audiences in journalistic discourse, to 2) describe the types of interaction and collaboration between journalists and audiences in the examined countries, and to 3) open up discussion about the potentials of collaboration in innovation journalism.

The comparative analysis of the three countries indicates that there are expectations related to user generated contents, but the editorial improvements for collaboration are lagging behind the growth of public activism in social media. Most journalists are willing to embrace and utilize the tools of social media, but the editorial practices for collaboration are mostly conventional. The amateur contents are seen separate from professional journalism. However, some new online media startups with new business models seem to pioneer in finding new concepts in collaborative practices.