The Journalist behind the Curtain: Participatory Functions on the Internet and their Impact on Perceptions of the Work of Journalism

Overview The overall of this study examines the consequences of increasing audience participation in journalism processes. It also suggests that increased transparency between readers and journalist may weaken the occupation's authority too by leaving the jurisdictional area of journalism vulnerable to rival occupations, such as bloggers. News organizations have invented a variety ways to increase audience participation in the journalistic process. However an increased interest in reader participation has also derived from the unique characteristics …

…on the metropolitan area. In contrast findings were a mixed in regard to the research question. The findings from this study suggest that audiences are open to fairly broad definition of journalism. To the extent that the work of journalism becomes defined as commentary rather than reporting, the budding occupation of blogging may gain some control. This is because occupations are weakened when they allow rival occupations to alter the definition of their work area.