Our paper on „Audience Engagement In a Post-Truth Age“ has been published in the journal „digital journalism“. In any discussion about a “post-truth age,” the audience is both part of the problem and part of the solution. The authority of journalism is called into question if everyone can participate in generating and spreading verified and unverified, relevant and irrelevant “news.” At the same time, journalism can integrate the audience into the editorial process and dialogue in an unprecedented variety of ways, thereby disclosing the way journalism works and raising awareness for the difference between journalism and any form of mis- and disinformation. Thus “Audience Engagement” is becoming a key factor for journalism in a post-truth era. This article analyses dimensions of audience engagement in a holistic sense. Key findings were gathered through interviews with practitioners within the innovative training format “Learning Lab Audience Engagement.” Factors for a successful audience engagement comprise a paradigm shift away from a “lecturing” towards a “dialogue” approach. This approach changes not only journalism, media and newsroom cultures: Educational institutions have to change their attitude accordingly. The experience of the participants suggests that a broad understanding of media and training organisations alike as “engaging organisations” brings with it several challenges and limitations but can help to raise trust.

Klaus Meier, Daniela Kraus, and Edith Michaeler: Audience Engagement in a Post-Truth Age. What it means and how to learn the activities connected with it. In: Digital Journalism, online first, 25 September 2018 (DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2018.1498295). If you do not have access: For the full paper, please send me a mail or use this link which provides some free eprints: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/zvKe58EtVWEJdvqYMNay/full.