Abstract (eng)
Information, networking and participation change the structures of existing communication systems and have a certain influence on society and its culture. In particular, models of participatory journalism, such as weblogs activate the distribution of an enormous amount of content and therefore pose new challenges for users, as well as for established systems of media. This thesis deals with possibilities of participation in Web 2.0 and their influence on journalism. Especially weblogs as a new sort of alternative information system are put into discussion more and more in order to put pressure on traditional media. However, missing hierarchies, complex structures and the abolition of the gatekeeper, which was institutionalized in classical journalism require high competences of evaluation and selection by recipients. Part of the empirical study constituted the traceability of quality and authenticity of online contents as well as the influence of the blogosphere on journalism. In terms of structure the survey was based on expert interviews which were conducted with journalists of Austrian daily newspapers, who blog themselves frequently. The interviews include questions of citizen journalism, weblogs as well as quality in web 2.0 and were evaluated by means of analysis of content and consulted for the answering of the questions of research.