The New Rules of Audience Participation in Digital Media. Analysis of Seven European Newspapers

Abstract

The article analyzes and compares the changes produced in texts such as the op-eds published in tradicional press and the messages from readers published in the digital media. Through this analysis it is shown that the rules that applied to the op-eds have been modified in the new areas of digital participation. Such rules as identity, significance, brevity, authority, entertainment and civility have given way to other new rules: anonymity, confrontation, “ultrabrebity” and in the case of the Spanish digital press, the rule of disqualification. The analysis has been carried out in seven European newspapers: ABC, El País, La Vanguardia, The Guardian, The Times, Le Figaro and Le Monde.