Citizen engagement in news production and dissemination has been one of my major areas of research since graduate school. For years I have studied why and how people participate in journalistic storytelling. I have produced multiple studies related to this phenomenon and in 2023, I published a chapter titled, “Participatory Journalism: A New Approach for Increasing Public Trust and Engagement.”
The chapter has been published in the book “Issues in Contemporary American Journalism” edited by Hans C. Schmidt along with other essays of more than 20 journalism scholars.
In this chapter, I explained the phenomenon of participatory journalism which is made possible by new technologies that allow two-way communication between news producers and news consumers.
The chapter starts with the historical overview of citizen participation in storytelling in which I argue that participatory journalism is not a new phenomenon but rather, it represents an old journalism concept that is taking a new form in a contemporary media ecosystem. I have also discussed challenges facing participatory journalism, including fake news and dark participation on the web reflected in trolling and offensive comments.
Finally, I have proposed a new approach to citizen participation in storytelling which should prevent dark participation and lead to increasing public trust in journalism.
If you are interested, you can purchase the book through the Taylor & Francis Group or contact me to get access to this chapter.
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