A Dutch current affairs programme transformed its newsroom by making real-time audience interaction a core editorial practice, using chat products to surface questions, clarify reporting, and build trust
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Interaction with the audience is often discussed as a goal (engagement, trust, relevance) but much less often as a concrete editorial practice. At Dutch current affairs programme EenVandaag, we learned that interaction only becomes meaningful when it is organised as part of journalism itself.
Over the past few years, EenVandaag has structurally embedded interaction into its newsroom. The approach, methods and lessons are documented in a practical handbook: Interactive Journalism - The Voice of Everyone. This article is based on that handbook and explains how interaction, with chat at its core, became a fixed part of editorial work.
Starting small: inviting questions
The starting point was modest. In the autumn of 2022, EenVandaag launched EenVandaag Asks: a simple call-out inviting the audience to submit questions about a current topic. The aim was not participation for its own sake, but clarification. Where are people stuck? What do they not understand? Which assumptions do journalists make that audiences do not share?
The response confirmed something important: many people have questions, but only ask them when explicitly invited. These early call-outs forced the newsroom to explain concepts it had long considered self-evident. They also demonstrated that interaction works best when it starts before stories are finished.
From experiment to permanent team
Insights from EenVandaag Asks led to internal discussions and, eventually, to a concrete plan: a permanent interaction team with a clear journalistic task. The proposal was approved, resources were allocated, and in spring 2023 a new team of editors started.
Their mandate was specific: listen to the audience daily, answer questions, gather signals, and translate public input into editorial insights. Interaction was no longer something ‘extra’, but a structural part of the newsroom.
Chat as the central listening tool
At the heart of this approach is the chat. The interaction team set up a continuous chat environment using existing software, integrated into the website, the app and later WhatsApp. Since May 2023, the chat has been available on weekdays from 10:00 to 20:00, with journalists actively responding especially during TV broadcasts, when viewers are explicitly invited to use it.
