The (R)evolution of Audience Power: Or does the rise of user-generated content signal a radical power shift between media organisations and their audiences?

'Will the internet set us free?' is the provoking question McChesney (1999) raised a decade ago (pp. 119). By this he means if new modes of communication will relativise the supposed dominant power of media organisations. It would not be the first time in the history of media that a new form of media challenges the power of established media organisations (Curran, 2002). Especially with the rise of user-generated-content - finally enabling the audience to create their own meanings (Bruns, 2...