https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917694399 Journalism 1–18 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1464884917694399 journals.sagepub.com/home/jou The public doesn’t miss the public. Views from the people: Why news by the people? Michael Karlsson Karlstad University, Sweden Christer Clerwall Karlstad University, Sweden Lars Nord Mid Sweden University, Sweden Abstract One of the main debates within journalism research during the last decade has been the role of citizens as contributors or, conversely, as threats to the practice of journalism. While participation has been explored from many different theoretical, empirical, and methodological perspectives, one perspective remains noticeably underexplored – the perspective of the citizens themselves. Using social contract theory as a backdrop, this study draws on a representative survey (N = 2091) and focus groups (N = 82) in Sweden. The results show that although citizens do not bring up participation as an important element of journalism, they become more skeptical the more participation affects journalism. Furthermore, they expect journalists to moderate citizen contributions according to established journalistic standards. From the perspective of social contract theory, participation in journalism appears to be more of a problem than a benefit to citizens. Keywords Gatekeeping, online journalism, participatory journalism, social contract theory, user-generated content Corresponding author: Michael Karlsson, Karlstad University, Universitetsgatan 2, 651 88 Karlstad, Sweden. Email: Michael.karlsson@kau.se 694399JOU 0 0 10.1177/1464884917694399JournalismKarlsson et al. research-article 2017 Article