UGC Status and Levels of Control in Argentine, Colombian, Mexican, Peruvian, Portuguese, Spanish, US and Venezuelan Online Newspapers

Abstract

In this paper we present a comparative analysis of UGC status and levels of control in 24 quality online mainstream newspapers from Argentine, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, US and Venezuela. The study addresses the conditions in which users provide content, in terms of constraint, and the recognition given by mainstream media to the users activity. "Participatory journalism" is defined as the evolving materialization of an increase in message interchange activity between producers and consumers in two dimensions: content and relationship.