News media are increasingly using Facebook as a platform for distribution and user interaction. This article focuses on how Dutch media use Facebook and how audiences participate. By using Facebook, media outsource part of their distribution to a third party platform, avoiding maintenance costs while also hoping for additional revenues because of the increased website traffic. Results indicate that offline and online presence of legacy media do not predict their footprint on Facebook. Media do not seem to have a clear strategy on using Facebook, which leads to an underperformance on the social media platform with low participation and minimal interaction. As users ‘like’ media and ‘share’ stories, ‘audience distribution’ would be a better term to describe these practices than ‘audience participation’.
BakkerP (2010) Journalistiek zonder infrastructuur – een reële optie?Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap38(3): 250–258.
2.
BakkerP (2012) Expectations, experiences and exceptions; Promises and realities of participation on PBS and commercial media websites. In: LoweGFSteemersJ (eds) Regaining the Initiative for Public Service Media. Stockholm: Nordicom, pp. 237–251.
3.
BergströmA (2008) The reluctant audience: Online participation in Swedish journalistic context. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture5(2): 60–80.
4.
BowmanSWillisC (2003) We media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. The Media Center at the American Press Institute. Available at: www.hypergene.net/wemedia.
5.
DeuzeMBrunsANeubergerC (2007) Preparing for an age of participatory news. Journalism Practice1(3): 322–338.
6.
Dias LimaHReisAI (2012) TVI and SIC news websites: Public participation and editorial criteria. Observatorio (OBS*) Journal6(2): 177–200.
7.
DomingoDQuandtTHeinonenAA. (2008) Participatory journalism practices in the media and beyond. Journalism Practice2(3): 326–342.
8.
GillmorD (2004) We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
9.
HermidaADomingoDHeinonenA. (2011) The active recipient: Participatory journalism through the lens of the Dewey-Lippmann debate. In: International Symposium on Online Journalism 2011, University of Texas, Austin.
10.
HilleSBakkerP (2011) Publieksparticipatie in de journalistiek: Omgaan met publieksreacties. In: Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap, Enschede.
11.
JönssonMÖrnebringH (2011) User-generated content and the news: Empowerment of the citizen or interactive illusion. Journalism Practice5(2): 127–144.
12.
KarlssonM (2011) Flourishing but restrained. The evolution of participatory journalism in Swedish online news, 2005–2009. Journalism Practice5(1): 68–84.
13.
KeenA (2006) The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture. New York: Doubleday Business.
14.
KlaverM-J (2006) Weer omstreden blog bij Volkskrant [Again problems with Volkskrant blog]. NRC Handelsblad, 3October. Available at: weblogs.nrc.nl/klaver/2006/10/03/.
NewmanN (2011) Mainstream Media and the Distribution of News in the Age of Social Discovery: How Social Media are Changing the Production, Distribution and Discovery of News and Further Disrupting the Business Models of Mainstream Media Companies. Oxford: University of Oxford, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
17.
NipJYM (2006) Exploring the second phase of public journalism. Journalism Studies7(2): 212–236.
ÖrnebringH (2008) The producer as consumer – of what? User-generated tabloid content in The Sun (UK) and Aftonbladet (Sweden). Journalism Studies9(5): 771–785.
20.
PanttiMBakkerP (2009) Misfortunes, memories and sunsets: Non-professional images in Dutch news media. International Journal of Cultural Studies12(5): 471–489.
21.
PaulussenSUgilleP (2008) User generated content in the newsroom: Professional and organisational constraints on participatory journalism. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture5(2): 24–41.
22.
PurcellKRainieLMitchellA. (2010) Understanding the participatory news consumer. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Available at: www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/OnlineNews.aspx (accessed 29 November 2011).
23.
ReichZ (2008) How citizens create news stories: The ‘news access’ problem reversed. Journalism Studies9(5): 739–758.
24.
SingerJBDomingoDHeinonenA. (2011) Participatory Journalism: Guarding Open Gates at Online Newspapers. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.
25.
ThurmanN (2008) Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media. New Media and Society10(1): 139–157.
26.
ThurmanNHermidaA (2008) A clash of cultures: The integration of user-generated content within professional journalistic frameworks at British newspaper websitesJournalism Practice2(3): 343–356.
27.
Van DijckJ (2009) ‘Users like you?’ Theorizing agency in user-generated content. Media Culture and Society31(41): 41–59.
28.
WardleCWilliamsA (2008) ugc@thebbc; Understanding its Impact upon Contributors, Non-contributors and BBC News. Cardiff: Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies.
