Journalists may increase participation
A common complaint that I hear from journalists and academics is that the public simply does not care about important issues facing the nation and the world. To respond to this issue, news professionals should critically analyze how they can alter content to potentially encourage civic participation.
This post derives from the arguments of several researchers, whom are cited below. The authors argue that journalists cannot realistically expect citizens to be politically active by simply disseminating information from the mouths of sources. Instead, journalists should provide details that inform citizens of participation opportunities such as how they can get involved, where they can go to voice their concern, or whom they can contact. These researchers found that journalists rarely explain issues or provide information on how citizens can get involved with issues of direct concern to them. In the past, research has shown that journalists did not include this information because they viewed these details as a violation of the objectivity standard and there was simply not enough room to include them on-air or in print.
However, space is not as much of an issue online. Mobilizing or enabling information could be added in an information box adjacent to almost any type of story. Here is an example of how one news organization provided information to the public on how to participate. Look at the end of the story.
Gans, H.J. (1998). What can journalists actually do for American democracy? Press/Politics, 3(4), 6-12.
Lemert, J. B., Mitzman, B. N., Seither, M. A., Cook, R. H., & O’Neil, R. M. (1977). Journalists and mobilizing information. Journalism Quarterly, 54(4), 721-726.
Keefer, J. D. (1993). News media’s failure to facilitate citizen participation in the congressional policymaking process. Journalism Quarterly, 70(2), 412-424.
Hoffman, L. H. (2006). Is internet content different after all? A content analysis of mobilizing information in online and print newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(1), 58-76.
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[...] til praktisk engasjement. Det skriver professor Serena Carpenter på sin nye, men spennende blogg Online Journalism. Hun arbeider og underviser nettopp i online-journalistikk ved Universitetet i [...]
Nice column, Serena. I checked out the post you highlighted, but couldn’t see anything at the end of the story that smacked of engagement other than the webcast of the City Council meeting. That’s a good start, but we’ve got a long way to go.
Thanks Adam, I like to provide simple examples that can be easily incorporated in the newsroom. There are, of course, more interactive examples of mobilizing information such as maps and other items.