ParticipAid
Reader engagement and participatory journalism for sustainable newsrooms
ParticipAid is a digital toolkit that helps newsrooms involve their audiences directly in the journalistic process.
Through interactive surveys, polls and other participation formats, media organisations can gather perspectives, experiences and local knowledge from their readers. Participants can also see how others have responded, turning a one-way interaction into a shared and transparent experience.
What does ParticipAid offer to you?
ParticipAid enables newsrooms to:
- Create and publish interactive polls and surveys.
- Use different question formats depending on their editorial needs.
- Collect audience perspectives and first-hand knowledge.
- Show participants selected results in real time.
- Embed participation formats directly into their websites and stories.
- Build closer relationships with their communities.
- Use audience contributions to inform reporting and identify relevant topics.
The toolkit is designed to make participation easier to integrate into everyday newsroom workflows – without requiring extensive technical resources.
ParticipAid in practice
ParticipAid is currently being tested with European news organisations in different editorial contexts.
Urban Journalism Network
How to map stories of people affected by the housing unaffordability? For our collaborative data project The Housing Games, we created a survey collecting experience from key workers across European cities. The survey allowed to find out about people struggling with high housing costs across countries such as Germany, Norway or Czechia.
Tagesspiegel, Germany
Ahead of the Berlin elections, Tagesspiegel is using ParticipAid to publish polls and surveys about readers’ political priorities, preferences and the issues that matter most to them. Participants can see how others are responding, creating a more engaging and collective experience. The pilot has also supported the development of new question formats adapted to the newsroom’s editorial needs.
iTromsø, Norway
Local media outlet iTromsø is testing ParticipAid to explore how audience participation can contribute to local journalism. Through interactive formats, the newsroom can invite residents to share their perspectives and knowledge about issues affecting their city and community.
These pilots help us understand how participatory tools can work in different newsroom settings and how they can be developed around journalists’ and readers’ actual needs.
How can you access ParticipAid?
ParticipAid is currently in development and being tested with media partners of the Urban Journalism Network.
If your newsroom is interested in exploring the toolkit, testing a participation format or learning more about future access, please get in touch with the UJN team.
