There are five primary types of participatory journalism, all of which allow non-journalists to partake in the journalistic process. These types of participatory journalism have varying levels of audience involvement and can oftentimes overlap. Additionally, participatory journalism is becoming more prevalent in the digital age, especially with the popularity of social media platforms.
Using sources is the oldest and most common method of participatory journalism. For as long as journalism has existed, sources have been crucial to the development of stories. It can be argued that stories cannot exist without sources, which proves just how important sources are. Typically, sources are individuals who either have knowledge in a certain field or who are directly affected by a certain event. For example, a story about the COVID-19 pandemic could use an epidemiologist and someone who has lost a parent to the illness. While sources allow for some audience participation, oftentimes the participation is limited to those who are responsive to a journalist’s request. Some sources, specifically experts, can be frequently contacted for different stories, leading to them being overused. One example of sources in journalism is present in this article I wrote for my community college’s newspaper. For this story about a new research paper requirement for certain history courses, I interviewed three distinct sources. I spoke to the history department chair, a history professor, and a student taking a course affected by this requirement. By discussing this change with these individuals, I gained different perspectives and brought a human voice to a non-human concept.
User feedback, while not a new concept, has increased through the invention of the internet. Before the digital age, people could send letters to the editor for publication. However, since more journalism organizations are moving online, individuals can now engage with journalistic content, especially on social media. For example, if the BBC were to post a story about Pope Francis’s health crises on their Instagram page, users can engage with the content through likes, comments, reposts, and shares. User feedback is done by those who are not journalists and can take a variety of tones. Some users may react negatively to content, while others can react positively. User feedback allows for a large amount of audience participation, as anyone with access to the internet can interact with anything online. One example of user feedback is present in this article I wrote in high school. After writing this story about the increase of violent physical altercations on campus, my grandma left a comment on the story expressing her hope that the fighting between students stops. This example demonstrates that the public can comment on journalistic pieces that they read.
User-generated content is also common in the digital age of journalism, especially on social media. While many argue that this term can be used to describe any creations by users on the internet, it has a narrower definition when applied to journalism. User-generated content in journalism is defined as users posting content about or in reply to a news story. For example, a news organization can post on its social media pages about the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and users can react to this content through writing, video, or audio posted to their own pages. User-generated content regarding journalism has become more common with the number of sociopolitical movements occurring around the world. Certain social media platforms such as TikTok allow for easier ways for users to create user-generated content through features such as Duet and Stitch. Similarly to user feedback, anyone with internet access can create user-generated content.
Crowdsourcing can be used in a scientific context, but many do not realize that this concept also applies to journalism. Crowdsourcing is a collective process that involves many individuals contributing to journalistic works. Since this is usually undertaken in a digital medium, there are little geographical restrictions to crowdsourcing, as anyone can partake in a crowdsourcing operation. This also allows people to connect with one another over a shared interest. For example, a sports news outlet can invite fans to sift through data, such as game statistics and player salaries, to determine if there are any trends. The fans would then report their findings back to the outlet, which would then be used in a story. Crowdsourcing allows for a substantial amount of audience participation, but not on the same level as user feedback and user-generated content.
Citizen journalism is also another form of participatory journalism. This concept occurs when an individual with little journalism experience goes out into the field and does their own reporting and writing. Citizen journalists are typically independent and post their work on their own social media pages, websites, or blogs. Citizen journalism does allow for some audience participation through the usage of sources and on the individual level for the journalist. While citizen journalism is not too prevalent, there are determined individuals out there who have a knack for newsgathering who do conduct their own investigations.
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