Online Newspaper Interactivity and e-Participation:A Balance

In the first stage of internet diffusion and appropriation interactivity has often been seen as one of the innovative forms of citizens’ participation in public life, a proof of citizenship social and/or political involvement. Unfortunately this vision is based on mythology rather than on empirical evidence. In this article I discuss the relationship between interactivity and e-participation, on the basis of four research projects that I carried out with colleagues on online newspaper interactivity and the influence of the Internet on journalists’ practices in newsrooms. The cross-cultural research projects were carried out from 2003 to 2006 inside the newspaper working group of COST A20 (a European funded research network on the influence of the Internet on mass media). In this article I will focus specifically on the results from the Italian context.