ABSTRACT

Journalists’ increasing focus on news users is often seen as diverting the news agenda away from the core issues that are important to democracy. Hence, the practices of connecting journalists to the audience tend to be assessed as detrimental to the democratic function of journalism: informing citizens and facilitating public opinion. However, this normative link between practice and ideals has rarely been empirically addressed when studying audience engagement. In this article we use a case study (BiobioChile) to provide a more precise understanding of the democratic relevance that everyday engagement with the audience—through and beyond metrics—entails for journalism. First, our analysis suggests that audiences can be integrated into journalism’s democratic framework by moving beyond the dilemma of informed citizenship versus news user’s metrics to include what we propose to call living citizens: empirical concrete living beings grounded in journalistic practice. Second, we distinguish three audience oriented roles—observer, listener and connector—aimed both at maximizing the attention of news users, and at making sense of their needs as living citizens. These roles cover verifiable routines and values, thereby enabling a better assessment of the fulfilment of the democratic ideals of journalism.

摘要

记者越来越关注新闻用户，这通常被视为将新闻议程从对民主很重要的核心问题上转移开来。因此，将记者与观众联系起来的做法往往被评估为不利于新闻业的民主功能：告知公民和促进舆论。然而，在研究观众参与度时，这种实践与理想之间的规范性联系很少通过经验来解决。在这篇文章中，我们使用一个案例研究 (BiobioChile) 来更准确地理解与观众的日常互动——通过指标和超越指标——对新闻业的民主相关性。第一的，我们的分析表明，通过超越知情公民与新闻用户指标之间的两难困境，将我们所称的活公民包括在内：以新闻实践为基础的实证具体活人，可以将受众融入新闻的民主框架。其次，我们区分了三种面向受众的角色——观察者、听众和连接者——旨在最大限度地提高新闻用户的注意力，并理解他们作为活着的公民的需求。这些角色涵盖可验证的惯例和价值观，从而能够更好地评估新闻民主理想的实现情况。听众和联系者——旨在最大限度地吸引新闻用户的注意力，并了解他们作为活着的公民的需求。这些角色涵盖可验证的惯例和价值观，从而能够更好地评估新闻民主理想的实现情况。听众和联系者——旨在最大限度地吸引新闻用户的注意力，并了解他们作为活着的公民的需求。这些角色涵盖可验证的惯例和价值观，从而能够更好地评估新闻民主理想的实现情况。