Reader construction in online journalism: Bourdieu and the imaginary user in three Danish online newsrooms

Interactivity and participatory journalism have long been buzzwords in the literature of online journalism studies, but are difficult concepts to realise in practice. In this seminar Pierre Bourdieu's field theory is used to explore theoretically and empirically why some forms of online interaction are often rejected in the newsroom, while others seem more acceptable. I also draw on Ien Ang‚s (1991) audience construction framework to look at how Danish online journalists are imagining their users as both reader/consumers and as reader/citizens. Media interactivity, and forms of resistance against it, will be analysed as strategies to position the reader in relation to the field of journalism in different, complex and inter-related ways.

Jannie Møller Hartley, is a PhD Candidate in Roskilde University's Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies and a visiting scholar with the Department of Media and Communications in Semester 1, 2010

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