“They’re Making It More Democratic”: The Normative Construction of Participatory Journalism

Based on the framework of discursive institutionalism, this study analyzes metajournalistic discourse about participatory journalism from 2002 through 2021. The focus is on how institutional actors sought to normatively position participatory journalism against the backdrop of technological, economic, and social changes transforming the institution. Participatory journalism was identified as a loose aggregate of practices cohered by a participatory "spirit." Throughout the discourse, commentators treated participatory culture as an empirical given and one that journalists and news organizations had an obligation to respond to and embrace. Participatory journalism was legitimized as a means of both saving and adding value to journalism, with institutional actors drawing on familiar scripts to imbue a new practice with normative purchase. However, the analysis shows that discourse about participatory journalism has declined in recent years.