ABSTRACT
It has become a truism that citizen journalists enhance the public sphere by empowering ’the people formerly known as the audience’ (Rosen 2006). Traditionally, the audience have been seen as essentially passive recipients of knowledge. It is often argued that the potential interactivity of the technological revolution contributes to a more pluralistic and interactive public sphere. There is no doubt that alternative and more participatory media could offer an alternative to the ‘subordinate role of audience as receiver’ (Atton and Hamilton 2008: 1) and contribute to the development of ‘active citizenship’, seen as essential to the continuation of participatory democracy (Harcup 2011). Some believe that the new networks of informed criticism of online commentators and the public on the internet, constituting the so-called blogosphere, are beginning to subject social and political institutions to account (see Allan 2009).
