Social Projects of Local Media in the Context of the Principles of Participatory Journalism

Section: Modern Journalism: Subjects and Issues

During the past decades, there has been increasing research in the area of relationship between the press and politics. According to the studies by Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, assumptions about the role of the media in disrupted public spheres should be rethought. Within the past decades, journalists have started initiating and organizing social projects aimed at solving social problems: they arrange discussions of key issues and fight for justice, raise money for medical operations and help the poor. The goal of this paper is to show that social projects can play a key role in involving polarized and fragmented public in social problem solving. A qualitative analysis of 126 social projects of Russian local media was undertaken, based on the concepts of participatory culture, participatory and public journalism. The paper defines a social media project, offers a classification of its structural and functional aspects. The article substantiates the necessity and public demand for such activity. The results of the analysis show that local media have become centers of local communities. Falling circulation and advertising revenues, decreasing government subsidies force journalists to search for new approaches to fundraising. It could be argued that social responsibility of journalists could help local media to survive.

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