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Interactivity is among the main characteristics of online journalism because it helps to build bridges between the media, journalists and the users to whom the news is directed. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 35 journalists, examines the concept of interaction as understood by media sources in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. These three countries are culturally and historically similar and have similar levels of Internet access. Most of the journalists indicated that they have adjusted their practice to incorporate some aspects of Internet-based interaction, such as social network presence and increased transparency to users. However, the media organizations for which they work have adopted few such procedures and maintain limited capacity to manage online participation. The journalists expressed their desire for the development of further ways to facilitate interaction with users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactivity is a factor on which cyber journalism is based and summarizes participation options between a user and the medium, a user with other users, and a user with editors. In this study, we focus on the latter in three countries—Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador—, which have been identified owing to their technological gap and the emerging importance of online communication for their respective societies. Through 35 in-depth interviews with journalists from these countries, we analyzed the concept of interactivity of these professionals and their relationship with users. The results revealed that the journalists positively valued civic contributions as a space for diagnosis, although they do not perceive its informational value, as they relate them to the context of opinions. These results verify the prevalence of journalism as strongly influenced by conventional offline production routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]