Communication and Citizenship Revisited: Theorizing Communication and Citizen Journalism Practice as Civic Participation

Abstract This study integrates communication mediation, communication and social capital, and communication infrastructure to investigate how locality-oriented communication activities, including media use and interpersonal communication, are associated with citizen journalism practice conceived as a form of civic participation. To test an integrative model, we collected data through a web survey of a U.S. national online panel (N = 1,201). Results reveal that local newspaper use and interpersonal discussion were associated with citizen journalism participation both directly and indirectly through organizational membership and neighborhood belonging. Results also show that local newspaper use and interpersonal discussion were linked with citizen journalism participation through organizational membership and neighborhood belonging, respectively, and collective efficacy in serial. These results entail theoretical, practical, and policy implications.