This study compares the characteristics and alternative possibilities of journalism practice through funding proponents and funding participants, who are directly involved in crowdfunding through funding sites. Specifically, based on the engagement j ...
This study compares the characteristics and alternative possibilities of journalism practice through funding proponents and funding participants, who are directly involved in crowdfunding through funding sites. Specifically, based on the engagement journalism and the co-orientation model, the study empirically examine how proponents and participants participate in crowdfunding journalism. To this end, we conducted an online survey of funders and participants. In the case of proponents, the research firm secured the final 61 responses by sending a survey link five times to the e-mail address of 853 crowdfunding proponents, which the researchers secured before the end of Daum Story Funding through the research company MicroMill Embrain. The genders of the respondents who participated in the survey for proponents were 42 males (68.9%) and 19 females (31.1%). The ages were 6 in 20s (9.8%), 27 in 30s (44.3%) and 19 in 40s. (31.1%) and nine in fifties (14.8%). Meanwhile, a survey of crowdfunding participants was conducted among those who participated in the crowdfunding journalism project who had participated in the crowdfunding journalism project. An email was sent to the survey company's panel 3,131 to retrieve 301 responses, and 270 responses were used except for 31 bad / faith data.
The research results are as follows. First, this study examined the difference in perception between proponents and participants about the production and distribution of articles in crowdfunding journalism. Both the proponent and the participant expressed more than three points that the article would be better shared, and that the proponent could control the production and distribution of the article. The perception of the proponent was higher than the perception of the participants, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, in relation to the participant's role in controlling the production and distribution of articles, the proponents perceived lower than the participants, while the participants perceived their roles higher with an average value of 3 or more. In addition, the difference in perception between the proposers and participants was statistically significant.
Second, as a result of how crowdfunding is perceived, both the proponents and the participants had a positive score for crowdfunding articles, with the average value exceeding 3 points. Proposers' evaluation of the crowdfunding article's novelty, professionalism, and credibility was somewhat high, but the difference between the proponents and participants was not statistically significant. In addition, the evaluation of the participants was somewhat higher in terms of objectivity, fairness, and accuracy, but this difference was also not significant. On the other hand, in terms of neutrality and thoroughness, the participants' recognition level was higher than that of the proponents.
Third, in the recognition of participants' engagement in crowdfunding journalism, the proponents and participants agreed that they could secure loyal readers as a funder and sponsor. The proponents generally recognized that the proponents' level of recognition was higher than the participants, with strong recognition that crowdfunding could lead to reader participation in the article production process. In particular, crowdfunding can lead reader participation (suggestor = 4.13, participant = 3.83), and the average value of the proponents is greater because the participant acts as the observer of the project (suggestor = 3.93, participant = 3.67). It can be seen that proponents put a higher value on participants' engagement than participants. On the other hand, there was no difference in perception between the proponent and the participant for those who raised the resources (proposer = 3.84, participants = 3.80) and loyal readers (proposer = 3.89, participants = 3.68).
Fourth, when examining how the social impact of crowdfunding journalism is evaluated, all the participants of the proposer valued more than 3.8 and highly valued the social impact. In particular, proponents and participants are largely agreed that crowdfunding journalism can lead to social change (proponent = 4.03, participant = 3.83), and that funding participation serves as a democratic social citizen (proponent = 3.90, participant = 3.85). However, regarding the fact that crowdfunding can produce socially meaningful news, the proponent's awareness level (4.20) is higher than the participants' awareness level (3.92), strongly suggesting that crowdfunding plays an important role in producing socially meaningful news.
Fifth, comparing the perceptions of proponents and participants about the journalistic value of crowdfunding, both groups perceived similarly that crowdfunding journalism is independent of power and capital. However, participants perceived crowdfunding more positively than proponents in recognizing crowdfunding as an alternative to overcoming credibility and distrust.
In practice, this provides an opportunity to explore the possibilities for what preconditions can be expressed in a more positive form, in the positive and negative possibilities that journalism practice through crowdfunding is expected to bring. Could. Academicly, comparing funding proponents and funding participants' views on the possibility of engaging journalism through crowdfunding was a necessary task to elaborate and expand the concept of audience engagement.