Normative Commitments and Platform Logics: Understanding Journalism’s Adaptive Resilience Through Coverage of Democratic Innovations

This study uses participatory budgeting as a case study to examine why democratic innovations receive limited media attention, despite their alignment with journalism’s civic mission. We argue that coverage of democratic innovations is structurally disadvantaged in platformised media ecosystems where algorithmic visibility, audience metrics, and economic precarity prioritise speed, sensation, visuality, and simplified narratives over procedural or complex stories. Theoretically, the article draws on traditional normative frameworks of journalism and more recent perspectives on platformisation to analyse the tensions between journalism’s normative commitments and the pressures of platformisation. Against this backdrop, the concept of resilience is employed as a theoretical bridge between journalism’s normative commitments and the structural dynamics of platformisation. Empirically, the study draws on 90 semi-structured interviews with journalists in seven European countries—Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, the UK, and Ireland—to examine how journalists navigate structural constraints while maintaining professional judgement and autonomy. The findings reveal a paradox: Journalists acknowledge democratic malaise and recognise the potential of participatory budgeting to rebuild trust and participation, yet remain reluctant to assume roles beyond detached observation. Moreover, we find that journalists accommodate platform logics in ways that allow civic-oriented reporting to persist, albeit in diminished form. To sustain coverage of underrepresented issues, journalists deploy a range of micro-strategies, such as simplified framing, outcome-focused storytelling, and human-interest narratives. We conceptualise these as forms of adaptive resilience enabling journalism to survive in hostile conditions. However, such strategies risk legitimising the platform dynamics that undermine journalism’s civic mission. To address this tension, the study proposes a shift toward transformative resilience through regulatory reform and sustainable funding models as remedies for the progressive “dumbing down” of journalism.