Participatory journalism in practice: Assessing interactivity and citizen contributions in newsrooms

Digital news organisations offer audiences multiple opportunities to comment, share, submit information, and engage with journalists, but these mechanisms do not necessarily redistribute editorial authority. This article examines how interactivity enables, channels, and constrains citizen participation across the news production process. It combines a conceptual literature review, a comparative synthesis of 20 studies published between 1999 and 2025, a case analysis of The Washington Post , National Post , and The Guardian , and six written semi-structured interviews with journalists. The findings show that participation is concentrated in Access/Observation, Distribution, and Interpretation, with more limited involvement in Selection/Filtering, while Processing/Editing remains under stronger professional control. The article develops a qualitative evaluation model that distinguishes selective, communicative, and productive interactivity according to production stage, citizen agency, and implications for editorial authority. It argues that participatory journalism is best understood as managed openness: news organisations widen opportunities for citizen involvement while retaining control over the institutional core of news production, contributing to broader debates on digital participation and media power.