In theory, most editors and journalists are in favour of increased citizen participation in newsrooms, as this strengthens connections between news media and their audiences. In the first years of the digital revolution, most news media also opened up for readers’ comments on news stories and argued that there was great value in an ongoing discussion with the public on news published.
This has changed significantly in recent years, as commentary fields often tended to be dominated by extreme, often far-right, opinions not in line with ethical publication principles. The resources required for editorial monitoring of commentary fields have resulted in more restricted policies for citizen participation in general. However, leading news media may open up for commentaries on carefully selected – and less controversial – topics, and there is still a huge demand for amateur pictures or videos from eyewitnesses at accidents or dramatic events.
Generally speaking, the main reasons given for user participation are democratic values, more perspectives, more value for readers in online forums discussing the relevance of news, and possibilities to develop new forms and formats of journalism. On the other hand, user participation is perceived as costly to monitor and with a lower level of quality than professional journalism.
Several newsrooms provide live chats with their audiences on current topics, use external firms for moderating comments with support of artificial intelligence, and monitor their audiences’ news preferences on social media platforms.
