Emerging online platforms and channels of communication are allowing lay citizens to contribute to the collection and dissemination of news like never before. This shift in the media landscape is often described within the context of participatory journalism, which is a broad term that is generally understood as the increasing amount and various ways in which an audience actively contributes to journalism, such as through commenting on articles or submitting images taken on smartphones.
To better understand how user-generated content informs the newsgathering process and thus the media agenda, this thesis borrows from previous agenda-setting research to examine how journalists use audience feedback submitted through digital channels such as Facebook, Twitter, article comments and emails. Twelve senior and mid-level editors at major online newspapers in the United States were interviewed in qualitative one-on-one, in-depth interviews.
The results suggest the sampled editors view online audience feedback channels as an increasingly integral part of the day-to-day newsgathering process. As a result, user-generated content—and the public agenda by extension—does seem to inform the media agenda to various extents, as evidenced both by increased audience engagement as well as published content that is directly attributable to audience-generated story ideas, tips and news leads.