ABSTRACT

This study examines how the United States community newspapers engage community members and how editors view challenges of citizen participatory and collaboration practices with particular focus on ethical issues. To address this, the study conducted a content analysis of interactive news features offered by online newspapers and in-depth interviews with news editors. Findings reveal various ways that local newsrooms seemingly invite citizens to participate in telling the community news. Letters-to-the-editor were discussed most frequently in all aspects of their discussions—both in positive and negative ways. Legal concerns did not arise as such concerns were avoided and filtered before inclusion and publication, but ethical considerations were also discussed modestly. Editors as a whole generally turned to ideas reflected in traditional journalism codes of conduct for citizens as a guide in their practice of submitting content with primary focus placed on truth telling, independence, and transparency. Implications are discussed in terms of citizen news engagement, news collaboration, and participatory journalism and the continued institutional control of content through normalization of the news and separation between professional and citizen.

摘要

本研究探讨了美国社区报纸如何吸引社区成员，以及编辑如何看待公民参与和协作实践的挑战，特别关注道德问题。为了解决这个问题，该研究对在线报纸提供的互动新闻功能进行了内容分析，并对新闻编辑进行了深入采访。调查结果揭示了当地新闻编辑室似乎邀请公民参与传播社区新闻的各种方式。致编辑的信在他们讨论的各个方面被讨论得最频繁——无论是积极的还是消极的。没有出现法律问题，因为在纳入和发表之前避免和过滤了这些问题，但也适度讨论了伦理考虑。作为一个整体，编辑们普遍转向反映在公民传统新闻行为准则中的想法，作为他们提交内容实践的指南，主要关注真相、独立性和透明度。讨论了公民新闻参与、新闻合作和参与性新闻以及通过新闻规范化和专业人士与公民之间的分离对内容的持续机构控制方面的影响。