Normative Ideals vs. Actual Daily Practices: A Reality-Check on Audience Participation and Social Media in Spanish Online News Websites

• In Event: Conceptualizing the Uses of Social Media in Journalism: Networked Audiences, Participation, and News Production

Abstract

Online news audiences have high normative expectations regarding the role of journalism in society, and they embrace the ideal of participation as a new way to strengthen the quality of news. Most respondents of our representative survey (n=641) agree that it is important to be able to participate, though only a small part actually interact with online media. In this context, social media reshapes the relationship to media brands, as users increasingly rely on recommendations made by people they know. Newsrooms, on their side, still privilege traditional forms of journalism where production rests in their hands, adopting participatory strategies and practices while trying to keep the news production cycle unchanged. This study offers a holistic assessment of the contradictions stemming from online news uses and audience participation in Spain: users’ and journalists’ perceptions, legal considerations and the implications of the semantic web in social media news uses.

Authors

• David Domingo, U Libre de Bruxelles

• Bella Palomo, U de Málaga

• Pere Masip, U Ramon Llull