Today it is inconceivable that readers should not be able to react to news articles in their newspaper. every newspaper therefore has an online version with a facility to post a response. The website of De Telegraaf, for example, has a ‘your opinion’ tab, which sends the surfer to a separate website where he or she can post a reaction to any article in the paper. De Volkskrant has a separate section for posting readers’ replies, and on the website of NRC Handelsblad/nrc.next, the reader can write a reaction without even being referred to a different page. Various social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Hyves have intensified the trend of reacting to and participating in news distribution. The availability and the popularity of smart phones makes it easy to be online at all times and in all places, so that a reaction can be posted any time. The resulting trend of ‘civic journalism’ makes it possible for diverging points of view to be noticed and for new angles to be explored in the news media.
