Instead, community members have a wide range of online elements, such as blogs, websites and social media, to disseminate their stories. Therefore, media outlets have been forced to widen the definition “of mass media from ‘one-to-many’ to ‘many-to-many’ communication.” Interactive journalism is similar, but not identical, to collaborative journalism, in which rather than converse with the reporter, individual reporters without affiliation to the parent organization contribute and provide news items and reports.
Community members now utilize various online tools, such as blogs, websites, and social media, to express their stories. This has led media outlets to redefine mass media, shifting from a "one-to-many" to a "many-to-many" communication paradigm. Interactive journalism shares similarities with collaborative journalism but is not identical, as individual contributors without affiliation with the main organization provide news content.