The article approaches one of the most actual missions of mass media, that of reflecting and supporting the processes of democratic participation, the mobilization of society for solving the emerging problems. These concerns integrate in the mass media strategy oriented towards the highlighting and stimulating the participative practices. In fact it is a consequent and scrupulous mass media activity of promoting new values. Centred on supporting positive moments in developing social issues, media attention is directed towards the search of new ways of optimizing social interactions, towards the implication of citizens into identifying and solving the problems of the society. The appearance of a specific type of journalism named „social journalism” is justified in this context. The authors are concerned with determining the identity of social journalism, which represents a resource capable of boosting the development of the society. The article explains the specifics of social issues, presents a methodology for reinforcing the social dialogue, based on the principles of tolerance, adequacy and openness.