ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a longitudinal study of CNN's iReport to examine the adoption of participatory journalism in mainstream media. It examines in what context audience participation was encouraged and integrated into CNN, and how audience participation may shift the journalist–audience relationship over time. The chapter also presents participation as a collaborative and collective action during which professional journalists work with audiences to create news. CNN iReport presents an excellent landmark to document the progress of the professional-participatory relationship. The chapter explains the extent to which participatory journalism has influenced the journalistic field, it is necessary to understand what form(s) of cultural capital participatory journalists have brought to the journalistic field and whether that capital differs from existing principles. It also explains the three stages of institutionalizing participatory journalism. The first stage is defining iReport as participatory journalism. The second stage is investing cultural capital in iReport. The third stage is accumulating institutional cultural capital.
