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Studying Online News Audiences

Trends, Issues, and Challenges

Deborah S. Chung

Introduction

Throughout the history of news, technology has played a critical role both in advancing the spread and status of journalism and in challenging the traditional boundaries and conventions of journalism's practices and products. The Internet's multimodal and multidirectional qualities are altering how journalists gather and deliver information and how audiences receive and understand news. Newspapers, for example, which have been experiencing a continual decline in readership and circulation, have migrated online, in the hope of regaining audiences through the interactive lure of the medium. The Internet enables the convergence of different media forms and offers numerous options for audiences to find and consume news. As readers and viewers increasingly seek out the Internet as a major resource – for information, entertainment, and news – the Internet has attained the status of an upstart mass medium that is beginning to pose a serious threat to the established old media. Facing declining revenues and a shrinking readership for print media, the news industry has turned its attention toward audiences online and toward the ways in which traditional notions of news and news workers and enduring business models of journalism are undergoing transformation.

Scholars have devoted substantial attention to the growth of online news in the last decade. Research on online news has attempted to advance our understanding of the differing impact that qualities of the Internet such as convergence, synchronicity, and interactivity have on audiences' news consumption experiences (Chan-Olmsted & Park, 2000; Chung, 2004; Greer & Mensing, 2006; Rosenberry, 2005; Salwen, 2005; Schultz, 1999; Thurman, 2008). Newer communication channels have enabled audiences to have more engaged and involved experiences in seeking out information, and also increased levels of participation in defining and producing the news. Studying these changes in audiences' modes of engagement with news can help us better understand the vital role that informed citizens play in supporting and sustaining democratic structures of governance. Online news publications potentially offer more egalitarian opportunities for audiences to participate in civic life and to encourage them to become more actively engaged citizens. Functioning as a gatekeeper of information, the news industry has traditionally enabled citizens to make more educated decisions; it has also been a venue where hosts of competing individuals and institutions voice their perspectives in the public sphere. Many believe that the Internet and online news have the potential to extend these interactive opportunities for communication between and among various social groups and thus to offer a solution to the current crisis of journalism in the United States – a situation in which it appears that the media have lost touch with their audiences.

Several technological factors have contributed to the changing character of news audiences, particularly those who seek out the news online. The penetration of broadband (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009) has dramatically altered the way people read and view news and what they choose to do with the information they acquire. News audiences are going online for more extensive news content from varied outlets and for entertainment and novel communication capabilities. Audiences' information-seeking behaviors are also changing because of saturation in media exposure and because of the exponential growth in options for media and communication tools. Consumers are also employing a high degree of multimedia switching and multitasking when they engage with new media technologies. Additionally, with Web 2.0 tools and social media taking center stage, the culture of active user participation and involvement has come to dominate some sectors of the media industry. In this rapidly changing media climate, we are witnessing a major departure from the traditional one-way dynamics of communication between senders and receivers of information to an interactive communication environment. As distinctions between senders and receivers blur in the online media environment, it is important to direct more attention to the processes that are creating shifts in journalism and in communication models of audience reception.

This chapter has five sections. The first takes a historical approach, in order to review and summarize the critiques directed at traditional approaches to audiences in mass communication. This section also considers the implicit promise of new media tools to alter and improve communication processes. The next section tracks the implementation of interactivity, a key quality of new media, in online news publications. The third section discusses how Internet news publications and blogs have affected news audiences – their consumption and reception of news – and explores the developing role of the Internet within the current interactive multimedia news climate. Noting the capacity of the Internet to enable audiences to become more independent agents of communication, the fourth section reviews scholarship on online news and participatory forms of citizenship, including on the impact of micro-blogging and social bookmarking tools. The concluding section examines future opportunities in the arena of online journalism and points toward the implications of an expanding active online news audience for research on the changing face of journalism.

Criticism of the Traditional Communication Model

The media have functioned as the gatekeepers of information in traditional mass communication models that depict a top-down, unidirectional approach to information dissemination. There has been a sacred distinction between mass and interpersonal communication channels, because senders of information in mass communication models have traditionally been separated from receivers of information. Shannon and Weaver's model (1949), which offered a linear and sequential process for the flow of information and communication, has reigned as the dominant mass communication paradigm for decades. Rogers (1986) refers to this model as “the single most important turning point in the history of communication science” (pp. 86–87).

Yet there has also been a long tradition of dissatisfaction with the traditional press regarding its insular and elitist information distribution practices. Media critics have argued that traditional mass media largely produce messages independently from the needs and desires of their audiences and that they have not provided opportunities for dialogue or political discussion with citizens. Habermas (1989) points out that the hierarchical structure of modern mass communication promotes a communicative model in which audiences are not invited to talk back. Christians, Ferre, and Fackler (1993) claim that the press has served primarily as a vehicle of expert transmission rather than as a network of community discussion. Rosen (1999) also called attention to the disconnect between journalists/news organizations and citizens/communities.

In response to such criticisms, newspapers have launched various movements such as the civic journalism movement, which aimed to re-engage with US citizens and their communities (Charity, 1995; Merritt, 1998; Rosen, 1992). For example, advocates of the public – or civic – journalism movement urged journalists to cover issues that are compelling to their audiences and communities and to frame stories that address people as citizens. Further responding to such criticisms, journalists attempted to provide, through polls and townhall meetings, feedback opportunities for citizen and community discussions, which then shaped journalists' reporting agendas (Nip, 2006).

In addition, promises about the unique qualities of the Internet, such as interactivity, have helped facilitate further opportunities for newsrooms to provide interactive experiences with news audiences, inviting them to participate in the production and presentation of news. The use of interactive features in online news publications allows audiences to experience an increased sense of agency (e.g., increased choice, personalization, customization, and interpersonal communication opportunities). These publications allow for various types of communication formats: one-to-one communications, for example email; one-to-few/many and few-to-few communications, for example chats; and even many-to-many communications, such as electronic bulletin boards (Morris & Ogan, 1996). The Internet allows news audiences to be active, prompting them to make choices with the help of an increased array of selection options in which the roles of senders and receivers are often merged. These transformations have significant implications for the existing mass communication theories, because traditional models no longer neatly fit a scenario in which audiences are increasingly refusing to stay passive. The Internet platform of online news publications allows for communication that may sometimes follow traditional models, but at other times may also give rise to altogether new configurations of communication.

Many professionals in the news industry and several media scholars have optimistically envisioned the new media as liberatory tools that can potentially undermine traditional forms of journalistic authority in the mainstream press and challenge the hegemonic power of traditional news content (Schultz, 1999; Schudson, 2005). The interactive and democratic capabilities of the Internet and its online news publications can, then – in principle – afford news audiences increased opportunities for participation and mutual discussion.

Online Newspapers and Interactivity

The exponential growth of online news publications and their steady consumption over the last 15 years have transformed the way news is delivered, presented, and received. Today, many century-old prominent news organizations have folded and many others have cut their print editions to a couple of days a week. Still others have opted to go exclusively online, ceasing print publication altogether. Web-based publishing continues to flourish, as many news organizations use the Internet as their primary platform. The following section documents how news publications make use of interactivity, a key quality of new media, in presenting daily news online as they seek to maintain their circulation – and presence – in the rapidly changing media environment.

Research documents the steady growth and development of online news publications. Interactivity, a buzz word dominating the news industry starting in the late 1990s, captured the potential and the promise of what could be accomplished with news websites. Outing (1998) argued that online news publications must embrace the task of facilitating communication between individuals and communities of readers, and that online news publications must strive to excel at such interactivity, in order to bring people together. New communication tools may offer audiences a newfound role as participants or as information providers, thus contributing to audience agency and to meaningful and relevant public storytelling. Sundar defines audience agency as

Agency allows users to feel involved as active participants engaged in the communication process. For example, hyperlinks allow users to choose specific news topics from an assortment of stories and to jump to content related to their personal interests. Tailoring news headlines offers a greater degree of control to the user. However, when examined more critically, the extent of the manipulability afforded to news audiences and the assertion of audiences' influence over content through such activities can appear to be limited. The audience may gain greater degrees of agency through other activities, which require more effort on the part of the user, such as using customization features (e.g., content submissions) or interpersonal communication options (e.g., message boards, chat features).

Several scholars found initially, however, that many news organizations had not pursued the full implementation of interactivity. These scholars criticized the media for failing to fully exploit the various interactive options available through the Internet. Initially, interactivity was implemented in limited ways, merely allowing audiences a wider range of choice and selection options through multiple hyperlinks or audio and video files. In addition, the information was mostly dominated by text. Very few news organizations went the extra step to install more sophisticated interactive online features – byline links within stories, chat options, and discussion forums – that genuinely facilitated active human-to-human discussion. These observations about limited interactivity are documented in various studies going from the end of the millennium into the first decade of the new one (Chan-Olmsted & Park, 2000; Kenney, Gorelik, & Mwangi, 2000; Massey & Levy, 1999; Rosenberry, 2005; Schultz, 1999; Ye & Li, 2006).

Such findings may reflect the failure of news organizations to fully recognize and understand the evolving roles that both news producers and active consumers may concurrently play; by contrast, traditional communication models isolate the senders from the receivers of information. During these early years of online news site development, the speed of information delivery and the space allotted to that information were particular issues of interest, with greater emphasis being placed on text-based information. Initially users viewed the Internet as merely serving a companion role to traditional media outlets. Because newspapers, which rely mainly on particular arrangements of words and photographs, were traditionally considered the primary channel of information, the presentation of information online also modeled newspapers' methods of displaying content.

It is important to note that various news organizations – large or small, national or local – had recognized the dialogic qualities that the online medium offered and in consequence had made efforts to implement various novel interactive experiences for their audiences. However, research suggests that, while such transformations in storytelling may seem constructive in theory, the implementation of these presentation styles has proven difficult in practice. In a study of online news producers in the United States, Chung (2007) found producers to be generally interested in utilizing interactive options. However, producers identified various problems that emerge with the provision of interactivity. The heightened workload associated with such presentations of news has made journalism an increasingly labor-intensive job – one with higher expectations related to catering for audiences. Dialogic communication spaces have also enabled some audience members to hijack the online discussion environment – particularly message boards and forums – to express hostility and anger. Often conversations became uninteresting, unrelated, and even offensive. Concern for the quality of discussion online has raised red flags for online news producers; hence many experimented with screening practices and moderated forums or removed such discussion spaces entirely. Still other concerns pointed toward the technological clutter brought about by emerging communication tools that can take away from the actual content of the stories. Additionally, maintaining interactivity in online news publications was found to be costly because the organization needed a more extensive technological infrastructure to fully implement story formats that encouraged interactive experiences. The training of staff to monitor and facilitative interactivity presented yet another burdensome expense.

Overall, while some concerns were attributed to costs, the main hurdles to achieving interactivity had to do with the changing roles and expectations of news audiences as their members become more active participants online. Chung found that certain news organizations were more innovative in their approaches, while others adopted more cautious methods. In addition to the above-mentioned practical barriers that have hindered the implementation and adoption of interactivity, these patterns reveal differences in news organizations' philosophical approaches to the role of the newsroom. In general, independent media organizations and smaller, local news media were more enthusiastic about supporting forms of interactivity that engaged news audiences as informational sources and also allowed them to participate in dialogic communication.

In discussing different types of online journalism, Deuze (2003) identified a continuum ranging from superficial interactivity in editorial content to deeper kinds of public connectivity. In most mainstream journalism sites' online portals, the content is generally aggregated with extensive editorial content and limited forms of participatory opportunities. Here news sites offer mainly navigational interactivity, which allows news audiences merely to browse a site through the use of hyperlinks or menu bars. Deuze has argued that mainstream news media have not only merely transferred their content online, but that, in the process, these media have also imported their traditional journalistic culture into the online climate. Boczkowski (2004) also observed that early online newspapers have “neither ignored nor wholly embraced electronic publishing” (p. 20) but have “embedded as much sameness as possible while building something supposedly new” instead (p. 20).

Over time, online news publications have indeed become more sophisticated through the adoption of deeper content and increased multimedia features (Salwen, 2005; Greer & Mensing, 2006). The development and accessibility of broadband and newer media tools also contributed to such advancements. However, media scholars expressed continued concern over the limited opportunities that organizations have made available to news audiences for the latter's participation as engaged citizens.

The Engaged Audience: Interactive Features and Blogs

The previous section assessed how online news publications have integrated interactivity and its functionality in their presentation of news. The current section addresses how these interactive news presentation styles are used and received by news audiences. Christians and colleagues (1993) have declared that, when news audiences are finally invited to join the debate as conversational partners, they will awaken and function as competent citizens in society. The Internet and Web 2.0 tools seemingly offer such opportunities for news organizations. As Outing suggests (1998), online news publications can excel at bringing humans closer together by extending options for conversations and exchanges of opinions among citizens.

In this digital age, news organizations have the unique opportunity to facilitate discussion and dialogue among their readers. Literature suggests that citizens' interactions with media institutions and citizens' collaborative production of journalism with news professionals can lead to various positive outcomes. For example, Ball-Rokeach, Kim, and Matei (2001) argue that collaborative storytelling has transformative potential – namely potential for facilitating feelings of belonging and attachment: for example, people in a neighborhood can evolve from being occupants of a house to being members of a community. These researchers studied residential areas in Los Angeles where they tested the communication infrastructure model, and they eventually found that a system that involves residents, community organizations, and local media through an active and integrated storytelling system was the most critical factor in creating feelings of belonging. Further, Rojas, Shah, Cho, Schmierbach, Keum, and Gil-De-Zuniga (2005) also found that media dialogue, or participation in a discussion forum for example, contributed to awareness of an issue even more than content by itself, and also contributed to increased willingness for further engagement. Additionally, Shah, Cho, Eveland, Jr., and Kwak (2005) found that using the Internet as a resource and as a forum strongly influenced both civic engagement – often even more than its traditional media counterparts (print and broadcast media) did – and interpersonal communication.

The implications of the studies mentioned above are significant in that they highlight the potential positive outcomes (social capital, civic duty, civic engagement) of dialogic communication, especially online. These findings suggest the need for a more extensive examination of how news media can strategically use various types of new interactive media features to engage news audiences through community discussions.

While there has been much criticism of online news publications' lack of provision of meaningful interactivity, there are conflicting research results regarding the extent to which online news audiences actually make use of such features. General findings on audiences' activities online show that 44% of Internet users have created content such as photographs, stories, and audio or video files (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2004). More specifically, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (2006) monitors online news audiences' use of search engines, alerts, and news updates. Reports issued by the Pew Internet & American Life Project track audiences' engagement with online news videos (2007a) and their comment-posting activities in online news group forums (2007b). Over the years, studies have offered general portraits of online news audiences – who their members are, what uses they make of online news sites, and why they visit online news publications (see Ferguson & Perse, 2000; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2003; Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 2006).

A few scholars have made efforts to further understand the online news audiences' uses of interactive options. For example, Ye and Li (2006) examined how much online news audiences participated in opportunities that facilitate the democratic deliberation of ideas. They found that a majority of online newspapers they examined supported a limited number of public forums. They also noted the relatively low levels of user involvement in existing forums. Ye and Li concluded that online newspapers have yet to develop into spaces that can advance democratic public discourse. While there appears to be potential for this kind of active engagement online, Internet newspapers offered few channels – such as online public forums – to help their readers engage in dialogue and in conversations with other individuals.

Chung has conducted various studies examining online news audiences' uses of interactive features. In classifying various interactive features commonly found on news websites, Chung (2008) found that online newspaper audiences frequently use features that increase their choice and selection experiences. However, features that call for more active involvement – getting involved as a source of information – were utilized significantly less frequently. Chung states that interactivity is not a homogenous concept and can be promoted through various interactive features that lead to distinct user activities. For example, video links offer news consumers a visual way of experiencing a news story. Users may also engage in multimedia galleries in order to view photographs that illustrate the stories they are interested in. However, participating in a question and answer (Q&A) forum is a considerably different user experience. An individual may submit a question, and that question may be answered by the participating “guest” of the day. This is often described as vertical communication. Users may also engage in message board discussions that center around a particular topic. In this case, news audiences may converse with other news consumers like themselves. This type of communication is described as horizontal communication. Thus users can choose to engage in an array of different kinds of news consumption experiences.

Chung's study demonstrates that online news audiences may not be making full use of this wide range of interactive opportunities; they are choosing options that demand less investment of time and labor. It appears that the online news audience does not engage equally with all the interactive features offered, especially those that require more effort to be made. More interestingly, certain demographic variables and user characteristics predicted the likely use of specific types of interactive features. For example, people who perceived themselves to be Internet savvy were more likely to use interactive features that involved multimedia technology. Users also carried their offline behaviors online with politically active individuals, and those involved with community organizations are more likely to make use of features that facilitated the expression of ideas.

Additionally, Chung's study recommended that online newspapers should strive to build their reputation for providing credible news, because news credibility acts as a positive predictor for various kinds of interactive feature usage. Establishing trust with audiences encourages them to participate actively and to provide feedback when they seek out news online. This study also reveals that online audiences are not using interactive features as extensively as they could, contrary to the anticipation and predictions of some media scholars and experts in the news industry. Different users seek out different kinds of interactive experiences; thus news organizations need not worry about implementing all the options and tools of interactivity in their online news publications. In particular, such findings reveal that the potential of, and the need for, interactivity was cast in a rosy light as a result of exaggerated excitement over the results it could promise for audiences and for news organizations.

In an attempt to further understand why audiences use certain types of interactive features, Chung and Yoo (2008) identified three primary motives for visiting online newspapers: information-seeking/surveillance, socialization, and entertainment. They also found that particular motivations led to audiences' preferences for and use of specific types of features. For example, all three motivations were predictors of use of medium interactive features, which increased users' choice and selection options to find and read news stories. However, the information-seeking/surveillance motivation was not a significant predictor of use of features that allowed for customization and interpersonal communication capabilities. Indeed online users appeared to be goal-oriented in their activities and chose specific features to advance their goals.

Additionally, Chung and Nah (2009) investigated the associations between audiences' uses of interactive features offered in various news presentations and their perceived satisfaction with community news publications. Online community newspapers were of interest to the authors because previous literature had focused exclusively on larger metro dailies and some studies have documented that, among the newspapers that publish online editions, a significant percentage is made up of small, community non-dailies. In addition, smaller communities offer greater opportunities for audience–journalist interactivity (Lowrey, 2003).

In this investigation, Chung and Nah (2009) found that overall use of interactive features is positively associated with readers' perceived satisfaction with the community news site. Forums and Q&A features were the few exceptions where positive correlations did not emerge. Further, the authors grouped various interactive features conceptually and found, as a result, that customization features – such as content submissions, letter to the editor, and email byline links – were the sole significantly positive predictor of perceived satisfaction with community news publications. While much literature in the communications discipline reports the significance of human-to-human interactivity that may facilitate democratic deliberation online (Schultz, 1999; Stromer-Galley, 2000; Chung, 2007), this study demonstrates the importance of customization features that allow individuals avenues to express their ideas.

Such findings are initially confusing, given that Chung's (2008) study the year before had indicated that customization features were used least frequently. The findings of Chung and Nah (2009) suggest that the size of a community and its distinct characteristics can influence how certain interactive features are implemented and used. Hence further research should examine such variations among different communities, in order to understand more thoroughly online news audiences' uses of a range of interactive features.

The rise of blogs has also played a key role in the evolution of news online and in the debates over audience participation in the making of news. The entrance of the word “blog” into the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003 signaled the impact of the corresponding reality on the news industry and on society; it also conveyed the idea that blogs have to be taken seriously, as legitimate forms of public communication. Academics consider blogs to be socially interactive and community-oriented channels and emancipatory tools that have the potential to counter hegemonic processes of traditional information delivery (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004). The practice of linking to and commenting on online resources produces a radically different kind of news discourse from that of the traditional media (Haas, 2005). As blogs are relatively simple to set up and maintain, millions of citizens have created their own personal blogs and thus have acted as informational sources, sometimes even participating in the public sphere as amateur journalists. Much of the excitement surrounding blogs was based on their perceived potential to counter mainstream media coverage and to provide alternative perspectives.

Mainstream news professionals have expressed concern about blogs and bloggers in relation to their objectivity, credibility, and training. However, journalists and bloggers have become increasingly aware of a possible mutually beneficial relationship. For example, bloggers can offer traditional journalism outlets with fresh perspectives and increased interactivity (Lasica, 2003). Kahn and Kellner (2004) describe bloggers as technoactivists who take advantage of, and enjoy, the democratic expression and discussion of ideas. They also suggest that bloggers may function at times as media critics. On the other hand, bloggers can learn traditional news values, rigorous editing, and the importance of original reporting from traditional journalists (Regan, 2003).

While blogs have secured their place in the online news landscape, here too there are conflicting messages in the scholarship, regarding the role of blogs in countering the hegemonic power of mainstream news outlets. Some scholars (e.g., Singer, 2005) discovered that certain blogs have adopted the journalistic role of gatekeeping in order to advance their authority, while others (e.g., Harper, 2005) show that blogs offer audiences an accessible forum for engaging, interpreting, and discussing news issues, and thus for exerting more control. Nonetheless, blogs have become a main staple of online newspapers and have fueled the popularity and success of online news publications. Blogs have allowed ordinary citizens to voice their opinions and perspectives as individuals and as members of different communities, and hence to challenge the authority of the mainstream press. Harnessing the availability of new, interactive tools, individual citizens are now able to contribute their own stories and interpretations of events to the public sphere.

The visibility of blogs to mainstream society can be attributed to a number of high-profile political cases. Most notable among these events was bloggers' prominent coverage and criticism of former Senator Trent Lott's (R-MS) racially insensitive comments at former Senator Strom Thurmond's (R-SC) 100th birthday celebration in December 2002, which forced Lott to resign from his position as Senate Majority Leader. The mainstream press, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, had offered limited coverage of the event. But, once Lott's remarks appeared on a popular blog, the story was circulated in the blogosphere and received a great deal of attention among bloggers, which subsequently fueled the mainstream media, directing their attention to this story.

Blogs have also proved to be influential during the national and international disasters of 2005. Mainstream media took advantage of blogs during the London bombings, from which it received 22,000 emails and text messages, 300 photos, and several video sequences (Douglas, 2006). As demonstrated during the London bombings, it was for the first time that citizen-produced coverage was considered more newsworthy than professional material (ibid.). Blogs also played a critical role during the Katrina disaster that same year. News media organizations used blogs to communicate constant updates of these events and to share compelling perspectives from ordinary citizens. The incorporation of this citizen-produced content in the space of mainstream news had significant implications: now the agenda of traditional journalistic operations must make room for citizen-generated coverage. Whereas content production was once considered an exclusive function of the mainstream press, ordinary citizens are now able to produce it more quickly and in more compelling ways than the mainstream media. For example, Delwiche (2005) examined stories most often linked to by blogs in 2003 and found that, aside from stories about the Iraq War, there was little correspondence between the media that the blogs linked to and the issues that appeared on the blog agenda. He concluded that there was an erosion of a unified media agenda, which presumably happened because bloggers seemed to construct an alternative agenda within the blogosphere.

Participatory and Citizen Journalism

The emergence of these new information communication technologies has generated greater enthusiasm about audiences' roles as information producers and as agents able to shape the public agenda and the policy agenda. Research also indicates that the use of the Internet carries civic potential and may enable effective collective action (Shah et al., 2005). Thus, news producers hoped to employ online media tools so as to bring audiences “closer” to the news and, in the process, to build and regain the public's faith in the credibility of the news media, which has been diminishing quickly over time.

Many believe that news publications' embrace of various interactive new communication technologies unleashes increased opportunities for individuals to become involved and engaged as active citizens of society. Audiences are becoming more active in their roles, as is evident in their growing participation in commenting, sharing, rating, tagging, and even producing news (Picone, 2007). Web 2.0 technology has made it easier for audience members to generate their own content (user-generated content) and become prosumers (producer-consumers) of information.

Specifically, “participatory journalism is the act of a citizen, or a group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information” (Bowman & Willis, 2003). Participatory journalism takes place when news audiences supply content independently of professional journalists, yet professionals ultimately publish and market the news product as a whole (Nip, 2006). South Korea's OhmyNews is a representative example of participatory journalism. As Korea is one of the most wired nations in the world, nearly everyone there has high-speed Internet access, and its broadband network is also the fastest and most developed in the world (McCurry, 2010). This online environment enables a growing interactive approach to participatory news – one where citizens who register on the site can serve as reporters and information providers. OhmyNews's founder, Oh Yeon Ho, was determined to counter the eroding journalistic culture in South Korea and to revitalize it (Allan, 2006). Indeed OhmyNews has been remarkably successful and has become one of the most powerful news sites in the country, directly challenging established media outlets of the traditional sort.

Newer information communication technologies have thus facilitated a kind of journalism in which the formerly distinct roles of information producer and consumer are increasingly blending. However, the extent of the participation and engagement offered depends on the type of interactivity permitted by the owners of the news sites. Picone (2007) says that participation is not necessarily enforced; rather, participation may be enabled at different levels and audiences may take advantage of it to different degrees. Thus the fullest participatory qualities of online news publications may be practically unachievable, or even undesirable (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007). Deuze, Bruns, and Neuberger (2008), however, found support for successful participatory relationships. In their investigation, they found that several news sites have managed to sustain and stabilize their online presence through the provision of participatory features, and these features have helped news sites to generate relevant and important news, thus pointing to the legitimacy of participatory forms of journalism.

Yet, to a large extent, participatory forms of journalism rely on the very mainstream news organizations that they seek to critique and expose. In the process of evaluating mainstream media, they further reform and combine existing ideas and new perspectives from both the traditional press and the new information producers, namely from news audiences. Thus the idea of journalism becoming a channel for conversation rather than a one-way lecture is beginning to find a foothold among journalists and news audiences, albeit it is not brought to full fruition. The increased possibility for users to generate customized content and participate in the production of news is altering the relationship between news organizations and their readers.

A growing number of ordinary citizens have also contributed their views as citizen reporters or amateur journalists, delivering stories to their communities through various interactive media tools (Nah & Chung, 2009). The Knight Citizen News Network (http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/) reports as of September 2011 that there are more than 1,200 citizen media sites, covering all 50 states of the United States and other areas of North America. There are different types of citizen reporters engaging in content contribution at various levels. Some merely post their thoughts or add comments to news publications. Some produce news content side by side with professional journalists. Still others also participate in the news-making process through major news organizations' websites and/or citizen-based news media (Nah, 2008).

Nip (2006) describes this movement, which is based on citizen participation, as the second phase of public journalism, a phase that has been largely facilitated through interactive electronic communication tools. Nip argues that citizen journalism offers ordinary individuals the opportunity to influence the news agenda and to take control of the production and distribution of news, which departs significantly from predecessors such as traditional, public, interactive, and participatory journalism.

The increasing reach of online news and the subsequent popularity of blogs have demonstrated that many news consumers are open to interactive opportunities that allow for more active experiences in the reading and interpretation of the news. The Internet has increasingly come to be defined as a platform for user-generated content (UGC), and sites such as YouTube and Wikipedia are offering consumers avenues to publish comments, photos, and videos online, thus encouraging new forms of participation from ordinary citizens (Hermida & Thurman, 2008). Contributions from news audiences to online news sites come in various forms, such as online submissions of news stories and cell phone images of eye-witness accounts. Oftentimes, citizens are simply quicker and already on site, able to provide fresh perspectives and visuals – especially during crisis situations. In fall 2008, the micro-blogging tool Twitter was used during the Mumbai bombings in India to inform fellow citizens about the location of nearby hospitals, blood transfusion sites, and the whereabouts of family and friends. This kind of citizen-produced coverage often created alternative perspectives and generated a greater sense of community than the sensationalist perspectives of the mainstream press.

Such changes in the dynamics between the traditional senders and receivers of information have challenged professional journalists to re-evaluate their roles and their news practices (Chung, Kim, Trammell, & Porter, 2007). Furthermore, these changes have affected news audiences' perception and reception of news. Online news publications, powered with various interactive features and social media tools, are providing audiences with more engaging and meaningful news experiences. For example, social bookmarking tools such as Delicious (http://delicious.com) for web resources and Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) for pictures allow news audiences to store and share with other users news of their own liking, through the web, rather than consume news that is filtered to them through traditional media channels. Thus individually customized news preferences may be propagated to mass audiences much as they have to traditional news media sources. Such tools provide important opportunities for news audiences to participate in information production, which has traditionally been confined – or restricted – to the journalistic profession. These features are part of a larger collection of tools, called social media, which have also contributed to strengthening the shift toward participatory and citizen journalism.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism (2007) reports the results of a study that compared the news agenda of the mainstream press with the news agenda featured on three prominent news user-sites – Delicious, Reddit, and Digg – during a random week. The study investigated whether citizens defined news differently from professionally trained mainstream media journalists; it also examined what individuals do with their newfound power to act as disseminators of information. The findings from the study show that the news agenda of the three user-sites was significantly different from that of the mainstream media. Many of the user-selected stories that appeared in the three sites did not appear anywhere as top stories in the mainstream press. The stories on user-sites also had little follow-up and appeared only once. About 70% of the stories on user sites came from blogs or other social media sites, such as YouTube.

Most interestingly, this study found Delicious to have the most fragmented mix of stories and the least overlap with mainstream news topics (3%). Delicious drew more from blogs and non-news information sites than the other two news user-sites. Digg users drew from blogs more than from any other source, while Reddit's information sources were more evenly distributed among blogs, mainstream news media outlets, and non-news sites. The study concludes that the news agenda for news user-sites was not only more diverse in terms of story topics, but also more fragmented in terms of story sources. The authors state, however, that this does not necessarily point to the audiences' disapproval of mainstream media, but rather to the potential of user-sites to act as supplementary sources of news.

Chung and Yi (2009) also conducted an investigation into the selection and sharing of news stories from Delicious in order to identify the most frequently consulted news information sources and topics among news information consumers. Their findings document the diverse nature of the stories collated on this site – both from traditional mainstream media outlets and from new media channels. Social media sources and blogs in particular are growing as major news sources. As in the study reported above from the Project for Excellence in Journalism (2007), prominent traditional news media were not used exclusively, and the sheer volume of uncategorized pages suggests that online news audiences are considering alternative web pages encountered during casual navigation as sources of news. The authors conclude that the definition of news for online news audiences is becoming increasingly broad and complex as unclassified sources dominate tagged stories. It also appears that new information sources are compensating for deficient story topics in the mainstream media. Thus this study adds to the growing literature that documents an increasingly active news audience, seeking out news online in different ways. Information consumers are now able to participate as independent agents, if they so choose, and thus to contribute to the discussion and dissemination of ideas.

Challenges Ahead

As Chung and Yi's (2009) study illustrates, new interactive tools facilitate more active user experiences for news audiences. However, such studies have important implications for traditional communication theories and for the discussion of core issues such as source credibility. In addition, these results raise questions about the fundamental matter of how to define the boundaries of journalism, given that audiences' views of news are evolving in the current media landscape and these changing perceptions of news will continue to challenge traditional journalism and its perceived authority. As news migrates online and technological advancements provide users with newer communication tools and with a multitude of novel user experiences, the practice of journalism today is in constant transition.

Additionally, a greater role for the audience as an active participant in influencing the form and content of news must also be accompanied by a greater sense of duty and responsibility. Online news audiences, empowered as they are with a broad array of interactive tools designed to help them offer their opinions and tell their stories, must draw upon a variety of information sources in order to separate fact from commentary. Individuals are now bombarded with information from unverifiable sources; hence the veracity of online news content is often questionable. Studies have found a positive relationship between the frequency of visits to a site and audiences' perception of the credibility of its content, which shows that the trustworthiness of a site is strongly related to how often one uses it (see Wanta & Hu, 1994). For example, research shows that, overall, most patients who suffer from cancer and use the Internet as a source of health- and cancer-related information have positive information-seeking experiences and they find the information credible (see Mills & Davidson, 2002). Online news audiences must be aware of these connections between use and perception and should be cautious about ascribing too much credibility to all online sources. Instead they must be mindful to gather news and data from a diversity of sources, including both traditional and newer media channels, in order to ensure that their information pool contains competing and alternative perspectives.

As the agenda-setting function of mass media is eroding and gatekeeping practices are no longer exclusively restricted to traditional media outlets, online news audiences are exposed to, and thus may develop, different agendas from those developed by consumers of traditional media outlets. Several studies note the potential of new communication technologies to contribute toward the fragmentation of news audiences (Katz, 1996; Sunstein, 2001). More options related to content choice and selection, along with the ability to act as sources, allow users to personalize their information environments, which may lead to the neglect of critical public information. Thus citizens may come to be ill informed about important current events and political issues (Katz, 1996; Sunstein, 2001). Such processes are of great concern to some media scholars, as the mass media have long facilitated shared collective experiences and have offered common symbolic anchors for making sense of politics and of public life (Althaus & Tewksbury, 2002). Critics, however, also note the potentially positive outcomes of online news consumption as greater in-depth exposure to particular topics might enlighten and help readers become more educated experts on those topics. These citizens may gain specialized and deep knowledge on a certain set of issues rather than shallow, superficial information on a broad range of issues (Althaus & Tewksbury, 2002).

Other pressing questions include online news audiences' experiences with social media tools, as major news sites are now linking their pages to social bookmarking and social networking features. These are critical questions, since social networking, for example, has surpassed even the largest circulations (or viewerships) of mainstream media. At the time of writing, Facebook boasts more than 750 million active users. A year before that it had 400 million active users, thus demonstrating that its users have nearly doubled within the past year. USA Today and The New York Times reach just over 1 million readers. As of September 2011, Facebook also reports that more than 30 billion pieces of content, such as web links, news stories, and blog posts, are shared each month. Research also reveals positive relations between the intensity of online social network participation and civic engagement and political participation (Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009). Therefore news publications should consider the potential of social media to retain and attract readers, especially at a time when online audiences are actively creating and maintaining relationships and sharing information through such platforms.

Today's news environment is one of the most unsettling for journalists, but perhaps also one of the most exciting – both for journalists and for news audiences – as news is moving toward a model of audience connectivity. Ultimately, the most important challenge for journalism today is to foster a more meaningful consumption of news and to find ways of revitalizing the relationship between the press and its audiences. Rather than focusing on the distinct roles of senders and receivers, it may be more fruitful to examine the changing media climate and the emerging tools that are available to enable journalists and citizens to work together in order to produce more meaningful and resonant stories. Kolodzy (2006) says: “participatory or citizen media is a convergence strategy that news audiences are using to get journalism back to its roots” (p. 4). Today's journalism requires creative strategies to think about more effective ways of producing and delivering news, incorporating technology and innovative tools, and including diverse new sources to help individuals become citizens in a global society. Most importantly, audiences should be invited to participate in this challenging endeavor.

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