digital interactivity/citizen journalism

Journalists can use the internet both to gather information and to interact with their audience; they use sources such as blogs, social networking sites and YouTube to find stories.

An online newspaper will be different to its print edition.

- For example, on its homepage it will have many more headlines (and intros) than on a newspaper front page.

- It will also have a rolling ‘breaking news’ column as stories come in – a feature not possible in a print newspaper. 

- Online versions of newspapers merge different forms of communication – print, audio, and video - all of which can be incorporated into one webpage.

- Videos can be embedded into ‘print’ stories’. 

- Blogs can be created for developing stories. 

- Online multimedia tools can be used to support a story, e.g. 

• Videos
• Timelines
• Maps
• Image slideshows
• Word clouds

Interactive journalism means encouraging interactivity with readers, to enable them to take part in a story, share and comment. This is encouraged with features such as:

• Polls
• User-generated content/ comments sections
• Link-ups with social networking sites

Anyone with a smartphone can capture a story and become a ‘citizen journalist’.

Citizen journalists are members of the public who find themselves on the scene of events before journalists arrive. They record or film events and may break stories, by posting on social media platforms like Youtube or Twitter.

However, because citizen journalists are not trained or accountableto any organisation or regulator, their information is less reliable and must be handled with care.