810 TERRA VEGETAL FERTILITZADA

Bowman and Willis (2003) define participatory journalism as the ability by publics to engage in an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information with the purpose of providing independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information as democracy requires (ibid: 9). Bill Kovach (2001) further expounds on participatory journalism:

In an era when anyone can be a reporter or commentator on the Web, „you move to a two-way journalism.‟ The journalist becomes a „forum leader,‟ or a mediator rather than simply a teacher or lecturer. The audience becomes not consumers, but „pro-sumers‟, a hybrid of consumer and producer (Kovach & Tom, 2001: 9).

Participatory journalism is said to have brought about what is termed „media democracy‟. The concept of media democracy entails the use of information technologies to both empower individual publics and promote democratic ideals through the spread of information and the democratisation of the media system itself by preventing ownership concentration or strong regulation (Exoo, 2010). A key idea of media democracy is that recently, media ownership concentration in the hands of few corporations (state and private) and conglomerates has limited the range of voices and opinions being expressed in the media and has led to an increase in the commercialisation of news and information (McChesney, 1997). A diverse range of information providers is essential for a democratic society to enable viewers, readers and listeners to receive a broad spectrum of information from varying sources that is not tightly controlled, biased and filtered (Golding & Murdock, 2000).

The ability of traditional media to conduct investigative reporting and act as a public watchdog has also been eroded, leading to an increase in prioritising infotainment and celebrity news over informative discourse (Zhao, 1998). Erika Rodrigues and Anya Schiffin (2015) talk about the inability of traditional media in Africa to investigate the activities and finances of the large extractive sector companies. African journalists have found it difficult to undertake evocative

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long-form investigative reporting to expose the environmental, economic and societal effects brought about by these extractive companies (Rodrigues & Schiffin, 2015: 124).

A significant characteristic of participatory journalism is dialogue, as there is no central news organisation controlling the exchange of information – as is the case with traditional media. The conversation mechanism improves on the traditional roles of journalism and generates a dynamic, egalitarian give-and-take ethic (Bowman & Wills, 2003: 9). The fluidity of this approach emphasises the publishing rather than filtering of information, as conversations happen publically, as opposed to traditional news organisations that are structured to filter information before publishing it through collaboration among the editors and reporters, without involving the public (ibid).

The different structures and organisations that produce traditional and participatory journalism also differentiate them. While traditional media are created by hierarchical organisations, participatory journalism is created by networked communities that value conversation, collaboration and egalitarianism (ibid: 12). While participatory journalism has been heralded as enhancing media democracy by greater participation of publics through the use of Internet-based tools such as Twitter and Facebook, research done by Daniels (2014) indicates that the level of that democracy, particularly on Twitter, is limited in access and content as it lacks a more inclusive diversity of voices. Like Facebook, Twitter is mostly used by the elite to affirm each other‟s views (Daniels, 2014: 309).

Participatory media has brought both challenges and opportunities for traditional media. Kristin Skare Orgeret (2015) states that the role of traditional media is under pressure today due to new technology and new media‟s facilitation of new cultural practices enabling societal change and shaping new practices of democracy and understandings of freedom of expression (Orgeret, 2015: 142). Apart from the challenge of being stripped of their role as news gatekeepers, traditional media, especially newspapers, have seen a „shift of press advertising to the Internet and fragmented audiences moving increasingly to non-linear consumption which is less susceptible to commercial impact and therefore less valuable to advertisers‟ (Barnett, 2009: 2). Newspapers are now competing for advertising revenues and audiences with participatory publics. Wilkinson, McClung and Sherring (2009) have indicated The Drudge Report, Flickr, and Rocketboom as independent websites that became Internet brands. According to them, these

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sites arguably compete with traditional media, because they attract advertising and audiences for particular types of news and/or content (Wilkinson et al., 2009). Traditional media are also in collision with non-media fields. Law firms create documentaries and multimedia presentations, while government relations people provide expertly crafted news reports and information services – as do hospitals and medical firms – which are professionally written and produced to the expectation of a standard news report (ibid).

Professional journalists have criticised publics‟ generated content as lacking journalistic ethical standards, impartiality, newsworthiness and trustworthiness (Bowman & Wills, 2003). Publics may rush to break news without verification of facts and often correct sources of stories are difficult to trace 41 as some people may use fake identities. However, professional journalists are now trying to cooperate with this digital disruption. Media companies are now trying to incorporate publics in their news making. For example, it is increasingly common for newspaper websites to feature photo galleries where local amateur photographers can post their work, which visitors can even purchase. Daniels (2015) examines how newsrooms struggle for survival and have even turned to native advertising – paid-for content – or sponsored content that merges editorial content with advertising, due to failure of online advertising to compensate adequately for the loss in print advertising. Native advertising has been practised by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and has also been adopted by Mail & Guardian, City Press, Sunday Times and other newspapers in South Africa.