Opportunities for content co-creation in digital native newspapers

Abstract

The participation of readers in the creation of information products increases the value of the media and the satisfaction of co-creators. Such involvement of the public especially affects productive processes, although without ignoring their participation in development and marketing, and implies a democratization of information, personalized experiences, and diverse points of view that favor informative pluralism. In this research we analyze an international sample of five digital native newspapers to verify the extent to which they allow their audiences to co-create content. We use an exploratory methodology to verify the existence of spaces designed for co-creation and prepare evaluation scales for the level of utility of these sites and examine their accessibility from the perspective of citizen empowerment, openness of content, and web architecture. The results show that the degree of implementation achieved by newspapers is lower than may be expected for purely digital media and provide a warning about the need to devise new formulas for co-creation and involve audiences more in generating content, while also indicating the need to review in depth the role of readers as sources. The limitations on citizen empowerment that derive from the absence of advertising in business models restrict open access, while web hierarchies hamper collaboration. The need for citizens to clearly identify which products have been produced by journalists versus co-creators is also diagnosed.