Also as part of this redefinition of news, the mainstream news media are giving some opportunities for users to publish their stories. Do you think this involvement of users helps achieve the goal of enhancing public life? If so, in what ways?
In theory, I don’t think there is any limit to how much user-generated content could contribute to the enhancement of public life. In practice, however, I am very disappointed with how mainstream news media are soliciting such content. Instead of encouraging citizens to comment on a wide spectrum of public issues of concern to them, most mainstream news media operate in terms of a journalistic division of labor whereby journalists assign themselves the responsibility of covering properly public, political issues while encouraging citizens to cover private, personal issues.
News organizations that are serious about public journalism could do much to make user-generated content more collaborative throughout the reporting process, rather than simply being a place to publish.
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