ABSTRACT
The interactivity of the web, the growing popularity of reality shows, and interest in celebrity culture, are some of the named reasons for the recent increase in possibilities for ‘ordinary people’ to feature in media (Turner 2010: 1). This demotic turn, as Graeme Turner (2010) has termed it, has spilled over into journalism; there is an increasing role to play for citizens in the news process. There is a great paradox underlying the changing relationship between journalism and its publics, however: the public seems to have ever-greater access to the media; more opportunities to produce its own media content, or even its own media; comment on and challenge mainstream news; and seek alternative platforms of public information. At the same time, the public’s discontent with (news) media and its ‘elite’ sources is as widespread as ever, if not continually growing (Coleman and Ross 2010: 154).
