Despite technological advances, audience members are still not encouraged to participate in the news process. As an interviewed journalist pointed out, the most notable exception is public service television incorporating a citizens’ council – the so-called Social Monitoring Council – as a mechanism for audience participation. The council consists of volunteers, and through periodic meetings, proposals are made by the audience members on new content,
operational matters, and other regulatory issues. However, the council is not currently active, as its operation lies in the discretion of each administration.
Compared with the public service broadcaster, private television stations seem to be less active in terms of audience participation. As a private television journalist argued:
Public participation is a good idea in order to drive in a way that news comes closer to what the people think and to also see how people think. We are sometimes closed in a bubble. Having said that, we are part of the society. We are not superstars like the journalists in other countries. We are in the same place, in the same stores, in the same cafes; therefore, we have an understanding of the public. We are the common people. We do have a sense of how the society functions. So, it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
As for the press industry, the general practice seems to be a quasi-dependable version of people’s participation through opinions expressed either in the editor’s column (usually in the second page of the newspaper) or through opinion pieces. Journalists or other renowned experts usually express public opinion. In addition, the default stance of citizen journalism is to rarely employ videos or audio items taken straight from the Internet without further text or context later provided by the media themselves.
In contrast to traditional media, the new media are meant to be more participatory by design. However, under web anonymity, users tend to become offensive and sometimes even threatening. In order not to be legally liable for users’ comments, most online news platforms prefer to completely close down the comments section on their corporate websites instead of regulating discussion or removing offensive content. User comments are still prevalent on social media and online forums.
