AUDIENCE - JENKINS

Evaluate the usefulness of Jenkins on participation in understanding audience use of online newspapers such as The Guardian and MailOnline.

ESSAY ONE:

Jenkins's work has been instrumental in highlighting the transformative impact of new media on audience participation and engagement. He argues that the proliferation of digital platforms has accelerated the shift towards a participatory culture, where audiences are no longer passive consumers but active and creative participants in the production and dissemination of content.

In the realm of online news, platforms like The Guardian Online and MailOnline have embraced user-generated content to enhance reader engagement.  Both outlets encourage audiences to contribute comments, share articles on social media, and even submit their own stories and multimedia content. By opening their platforms to user participation, these news organisations empower audiences to play a more active role in shaping the news agenda. Jenkins's framework helps us understand how the development of new media technologies has democratised the news-making process, allowing for diverse voices and perspectives to be heard in the digital public sphere.

Jenkin’s work points to the idea of “collective intelligence,” which manifests in online news in the form of citizen journalism. The Guardian online has embraced citizen journalism; its "Comment is Free" section, for instance, allows readers to contribute opinion pieces and commentary on a wide range of topics, amplifying diverse voices and perspectives. By embracing citizen journalism, The Guardian online has reaffirmed its commitment to journalistic values of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity, while remaining at the forefront of digital innovation in the media landscape. Jenkins is therefore useful in identifying the way that some newspapers have embraced participatory culture as a way to enhance content within their liberal agenda of offering a voice to a wider demographic.

Even though both Guardian Online and MailOnline, encourage participatory culture, this makes up only a fraction of their content or it serves as a tool to bring more clicks to what they see as their ‘real’ work. Furthermore, professional journalists adhere to ethical standards, fact-checking procedures, and editorial oversight to ensure the accuracy, credibility, and accountability of news reporting. While citizen journalism and user-generated content have expanded the range of voices and perspectives in online news, they may lack the journalistic rigour and resources to navigate complex issues and provide in-depth analysis. Guardian Online and MailOnline, as reputable news outlets, value journalism as a professional practice, employing trained journalists to investigate stories, and uphold editorial standards. Jenkins’s work is focused primarily on the fandoms that grow up around media phenomena like TV shows, film franchises and the like, so it is limited in its scope to address an industry that is, at least ostensibly, built on truth and rigour.

ESSAY TWO:

Jenkins’ theory of fandoms offers a compelling way to understand how audiences engage with media, particularly through ideas such as participatory culture, collective intelligence, textual poaching and spreadable media. Although developed with fan communities in mind, these concepts can be applied to online newspapers such as The Guardian and MailOnline. However, while Jenkins captures the active role of modern audiences, the theory does not fully account for the influence of algorithms, polarisation or platform-specific dynamics, limiting its usefulness in this context.

Jenkins’ idea of participatory culture suggests audiences now contribute meaningfully to media content. Readers of The Guardian, for instance, frequently use comment sections to question journalistic framing or add expertise, particularly on political or environmental issues. Similarly, MailOnline readers often reinforce the publication’s tone through reactive, highly emotive comment threads. This supports Jenkins’ claim that readers participate in shaping meaning. Yet this participation is often superficial or polarised, and many online newspapers now limit comments, undermining the idea that audiences are widely empowered. Therefore, participatory culture offers insight into audience interaction with online newspapers, but its impact is uneven and often overstated.

Collective intelligence, can be seen when readers add context or correct errors, especially in fast-moving news stories. MailOnline’s sensationalist approach frequently draws scrutiny from readers who challenge its claims, while The Guardian’s more analytical tone encourages contributions from professionals and academics. This creates a richer dialogue around news. However, Jenkins underestimates the misinformation that can also spread in these spaces. Much of the so-called intelligence is shaped by ideological bias rather than fact, making the concept less reliable in evaluating audience use of online newspapers.

Jenkins’ notion of the textual poacher also appears in digital news. Headlines from MailOnline are often turned into memes or used as evidence of media bias. Likewise, The Guardian’s articles are frequently reframed by both supporters and critics on social media. While this supports the idea of audiences resisting or reshaping meaning, such activity often occurs in echo chambers. Rather than productive reinterpretation, it frequently reinforces tribal positions. As a result, textual poaching does exist in the context of online newspapers, but its critical and creative potential is limited by polarised digital environments.

Spreadable media, the idea that users actively circulate content across platforms, is perhaps the most visible element of Jenkins’ theory in the news context. Articles from both The Guardian and MailOnline are widely shared, particularly on X and Facebook, often stripped of context or reframed for outrage or affirmation. While this supports Jenkins’ emphasis on user agency, it ignores how algorithmic platforms prioritise certain types of content, skewing what gets shared. This undermines the idea that audiences freely determine what spreads. Therefore, while spreadable media is clearly present in the way readers use online newspapers, Jenkins fails to consider the structural forces that shape what circulates.

In conclusion, Jenkins’ theory offers some valuable tools for analysing audience engagement with online newspapers such as The Guardian and MailOnline. His focus on active readership helps explain how users comment, share and reinterpret digital journalism. However, the theory lacks sufficient attention to the political and technological conditions that now shape online media use. Its optimistic tone overlooks the reality of polarisation, misinformation and platform manipulation. As a result, Jenkins is partially useful in understanding how audiences use online newspapers, but his theory must be applied critically and with caution.

Consider the following evidence, which indicates the way that The Guardian and Mail make use of social media platforms to encourage participatory culture.

The Guardian

• Twitter / X:

  • Official @guardian account has ~10.7 million followers en.wikipedia.org+11socialblade.com+11reuters.com+11

  • Older Reuters report said “more than 80 accounts and approximately 27 million followers” collectively, but after they paused posting it’s more accurate to cite the @guardian primary account at ~10.7 M theguardian.com

• Facebook:

  • Regular posting account: ~8.9 million followers

• Instagram:

  • Official @guardian: ~6.0 million followers (between 5.8 M and 6.0 M) reuters.com+11dolphinradar.com+11speakrj.com+11

• Snapchat & TikTok:

  • No clear public data on followers or presence—Guardian is much less active on Snapchat Discover or TikTok compared to Mail.

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Mail Online (Daily Mail)

• Snapchat:

  • ~15 million subscribers on Snapchat Discover—the largest of any UK news publisher pressgazette.co.uk

• TikTok:

  • ~3.9 million followers

• Facebook:

  • Operates 20+ Facebook pages, though exact follower totals are unclear. Likely tens of millions combined media.info+2reddit.com+2pressgazette.co.uk+2

• Instagram:

  • No reliable overall follower data found—likely under 1 million. (Guardian’s is ~6 M, Mail ranks lower with ~940K in comparison studies)

• Twitter / X:

  • Daily Mail international main accounts (2 combined) have ~3.58 million followers media.info+1avasam.com+1

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Summary Table

Platform	The Guardian	Mail Online
X	~10.7 M	~3.6 M
Facebook	~8.9 M	Combined tens of millions (20+ pages)
Instagram	~6.0 M	~940 K (approximate)
Snapchat	(no data)	~15 M
TikTok	(inactive)	~3.9 M

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Observations

• The Guardian maintains strong followings on X, Facebook, and Instagram, but is less visible on Snapchat and TikTok.

• Mail Online dominates on Snapchat (15 M) and has a big presence on TikTok (3.9 M), while its Facebook reach is broad across multiple pages.

• On X, the Guardian has roughly triple the followers of Mail, but Mail is still a major player with ~3.6 M.

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These figures show how each outlet tailors its social strategy: Guardian leans into traditional platforms for news audiences, while Mail aggressively targets younger demographics via Snapchat and TikTok.