Citizen Participation
This label encompasses all the initiatives and tools that citizens have to engage in journalistic practice. This participation can be seen in many facets, for example, the involvement of readers in finding topics, the dialogue between journalists and their audience, but also the possibility that everyone can now publish themselves and thus act as an agenda-setter. Citizen participation makes some tasks easier and faster for journalists and allows the media to better understand their audience
Reginamarie Austria is a legacy media company that produces free weekly newspapers. It is owned by the two large regional publishers Styria and Moser Holding. The 128 local print and online editions reach almost 50% of the Austrian population. Since its founding in 2009, the direct, large-scale participation of readers has been considered in the project design, which took on a new dimension with the societal spread of smartphones. Users can register, become “Regionauten” and publish local information for the website mein-bezirk.at. Then, editorial boards select articles which are published in the newspapers
Austria | Legacy media
Westfalenpost is a local newspaper based in Westphalia. The case was chosen because of their initiatives of including audience ideas through surveys. It is one of the most successful examples regarding the concept of citizen participation
Germany | Legacy media
Integrating material from the audience into news coverage is a significant component of editorial community building. The news scouts model at the tabloid and commuter newspaper 20Minuten has existed for around twenty years, is part of the DNA of the medium and is constantly being developed further. Here, the audience sends eyewitness reports via Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal or Threema
Switzerland | Legacy media
The Bristol Cable was launched in 2015. It is a “Citizen Journalism” type of innovation, and its characteristic is that it is 100% owned by its members, now made of 3000 shareholders. The members are involved in the project to the extent that they want to, the engagement ranges from financial support to volunteering. The community is not involved in the news production process, except for voting on specific topics, but they can contribute to the project in any other creative way. The aim remains the same: to provide relevant local news of high quality
United Kingdom | Digital natives