The Evolution of Citizen Participation in the Greek Online Newspapers (2014-2018): A Quantitative Analysis

• Main Authors: Theodora Saridou, Andreas Veglis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bucharest Publishing House 2019-12-01
• Series: Styles of Communication
• Subjects: participatory journalism; user-generated content; media; tools; control methods
• Online Access: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxzdHlsZXNvZmNvbW18Z3g6NzYzNjEyMTI2N2NjMWE

During the last two decades, the new media landscape has often been explored through the lens of audience participation in news production process. The diffusion of user-generated content both in news websites and on social media platforms has led media organizations to employ participatory formats that allow the audience to actively consume or co-produce content. As a result, journalists are often challenged by a vast amount of -vulnerable to problems- content that has to be handled in tandem with their other daily tasks. This paper focuses on the development of participatory journalism practices in Greek media. Specifically, in order to examine opportunities for users’ involvement in news organizations, a comparative quantitative study in all national daily political and financial online newspapers in Greece was conducted in 2014 and 2018. For this purpose, both the integration of participatory tools and the use of quality assurance methods in the relative websites were investigated. The findings indicate a rather reluctant attitude towards productive ways of engagement. Participation takes place through a limited number of tools and user-generated content is accepted only when filtered.