“It is my contention that the only way to adapt to the ‘new’ media ecology in an economically successful and, in a normative sense, socially desirable way is to include the former ‘audience’ as fellow narrators.”

—Mark Deuze in his paper, “Towards professional participatory storytelling in journalism and advertising” on First Monday.

“I would like to argue that a future professional identity of media work could only be maintained if it includes a participatory component—such as a notion of storytelling as a collaborative experience. In other words: advertisers and journalists should be trained to think about the stories they tell as co–created with those they once identified (and thus effectively excluded) as audiences, users, consumers or citizens.”

This is an interesting angle. I frequently throw around all of the words Deuze mentions, “audiences, users, consumers or citizens” but I also think of them as co-creators. I interview a lot of people before I ever start writing for a client. It is a very participatory process and he’s right to acknowledge the role of the person we’re trying to attract.