Sustainable Journalism through the concepts of engagement and relevance: a scoping review

Abstract

The concepts of relevance and engagement provide an approach to understanding the current situation of news media companies in their search for a new sustainability model. This new model must complement the advertising revenue with various membership forms. Media need to ensure their various sources of funding. In the process, they must regain relevance, on the one hand, and achieve engagement with their audience, on the other. This paper presents the results of a scoping review. The objective is to identify and synthesize the academy's vision on the relevance and engagement applied to the sustainability of journalism. The academy analyzes with keen attention the innovation processes in news media outlets and the attempts to leverage its business model on paying users. The results show a growing interest in the economic viability of the news media, given the exhaustion of the advertisingbased business model. The in-depth analysis of engagement shows us no consensus definition of the academy, although new research has valuable contributions. In addition, there are significant differences in the vision of academics and professionals. To a lesser extent, relevance is also present in the debate concerning news media sustainability through brand visibility and trust.