공공저널리즘과 수용자 관여: ‘프로슈머’로서 크라우드펀딩 저널리즘 후원자의 역할 인식과 저널리즘 실천

In order to reveal the public journalism properties of crowdfunding journalism, this study examines how people who support crowdfunding journalism perceive their role, and furthermore, how to practice journalism in the process of engaging in news production at the financial level through funding. Specifically, the study investigated relationships between the variables related to news prosumers’ involvement in news production including the sponsor’s motives for crowdfunding sponsorship, their attitude toward news funding methods, the general perception of the role of the media, and the perception of journalism authority, and the sponsor’s role perception and journalism practice behavior. As a result of the study, first, as for the relationship between crowdfunding support motivation and role recognition as a supporter, social recognition and connection motivation were the most highlighted, followed by social influence motivation. Second, the attitude toward the news funding method also showed various relationships with the role perception of crowdfunding sponsors, but those with a lot of experience in sponsoring through crowdfunding showed a positive attitude toward the perception of the sponsor role in all three dimensions, including the news ‘co-producer’. Third, looking at how crowdfunding sponsors practice journalism through project funding, when they recognize the role of crowdfunding sponsors as ‘co-producer’ and ‘transparency monitor’, the act of fact-checking and holding accountable for the results of funding is more appeared to be active. Fourth, in relation to the perception of authority on journalism, the motive for participating in crowdfunding journalism from the perspective of gatekeeping and the recognition of the authority of the producer that news should be written and distributed by reporters is positive in both fact checking and accountability through crowdfunding journalism. Based on the above research results, the discussed the implications of how news prosumers’ involvement in news production through crowdfunding journalism should be connected and continued with public journalism discussions to ultimately restore the publicness of journalism.