2.5 How do newsrooms use Web 2.0 tools?
Perhaps the most common participation tool is the possibility to comment on the articles:
Source: TimesOnline
This contributes to building-up a sort of community between the readers and a sense of closeness between them and the writers. It is good to make the readers feel that their voices matter, take their opinions seriously.
To enhance this feeling (and to make the job of searching for a topic easier) the readers are very often encouraged to submit their own stories and send self-made pictures or videos to illustrate the articles.
Source: The Sun
Another interesting example of how newspapers use the tools offered to them by Web 2.0 is the use of personal weblogs created by the permanent staff. Guardian.co.uk features 28 such diaries.
“Talk to the Newsroom” is another tool which newspapers are smartly using thanks to Web 2.0. An example comes from The New York Times which so far has invited the readers to interact with 43 of its editors, reporters or directors.
Interaction between readers, as well as between readers and writers is encouraged. What is all comes down to is the fact that newspapers are no longer simply newspapers and magazines are no longer simply magazines. By adapting to Web 2.0 well, they can bring their readers closer and create a community.
The article “Did the XXI Century Even Happen?” provides a much deeper discussion of how newspapers take advantage of the tools offered to them by Web 2.0
