Electronic News Division
2021 Abstracts
Research Paper • Faculty • Anthony Adornato, Ithaca College; Allison Frisch, Ithaca College • Longitudinal Study of Social Media Policies In U.S. Television Newsrooms • This longitudinal study analyzes survey data, gathered in 2014 and 2020, regarding local television newsrooms’ social media policies. The purpose of the study is to track changes over time to these policies. The researchers investigate if and in which ways newsroom social media policies are evolving over time in four specific areas: journalists’ professional and personal social media activities; social media sources and content; audience complaints; and ownership of on-air talents’ accounts. The researchers found a significant increase of guidelines regarding what is and is not appropriate on the professional and personal social media of journalists, with little distinction made between these two types of accounts. Although newsrooms have implemented policies to articulate what is appropriate social media conduct and a majority have recently revised policies, those guidelines do not always address the fast-evolving contemporary issues journalists face on a daily basis, specifically online threats against journalists and verification of user-generated content. The researchers found a trend towards news outlets retaining ownership of on-air talents’ professional accounts.
Research Paper • Faculty • Mary Bock, The University of Texas at Austin; Robert Richardson, University of Texas at Austin; Christopher T. Assaf, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN; Dariya Tsyrenzhapova, University of Texas at Austin • Production and Improvisation: Digital Native News Video as an Emerging Narrative Style • This project uses content analysis to examine the nature of video narrative form on the internet, comparing the news videos posted by legacy print, TV and digital native organizations. Using the lens of narrative theory, this research examines the way organizations use scripting and editing conventions to establish their standing as authoritative storytellers. The results found the three types of organizations use significantly different storytelling styles, with long-term implications for news organizations and their viewers.
Research Paper • Faculty • Jiyoung Cha, San Francisco State University • Factors That Affect Social Media Credibility as a News Channel: the Impact of Network Relationships, Source Perceptions, and Media Use • Recognizing the prevalent use of social media to get news, this study investigates the factors that affect the credibility of social media as a news channel. A survey of 488 U.S. adults who use social media reveals that individuals’ homophily with their social media contacts, source credibility, trust in alternative news sources, reliance on social media to get news, and frequent social media use to get news positively relate to the credibility of social media.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Stefanie Davis Kempton, Penn State Altoona; Carlina DiRusso, Hope College • Pressure to Perform: Gendered Expectations of Journalists’ Social Media Use • Social media expertise is essential for journalists to compete in today’s digital world. However, not all journalists experience social media the same way. This study is particularly interested in how gender influences these experiences. A survey of broadcast news professionals was conducted to explore social media trends in the news industry. Findings suggest that female journalists experience more online harassment than male journalists and face additional pressures to perform on social media in certain ways.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Kim Fox, The American University in Cairo; Yasmeen Ebada • Egyptian Female Podcasters: Creating Social Change Through Public Pedagogy • This research will examine the work of eight Egyptian female college podcasters. The researchers concluded that the podcasts were used as a platform to strengthen feminist epistemologies. The researchers posited that all podcasters adopted or would adopt either a Westernized or Black feminist epistemology. Public pedagogy theory helped determine that the podcasters utilized their podcasts as digital feminism to raise awareness to larger societal problems in a country entrenched in patriarchy.
Research Paper • Faculty • Sherice Gearhart, Texas Tech University; Ioana Coman, Texas Tech University; Alexander Moe, SUNY Brockport; Sydney Brammer, Texas Tech University • “Keep Your Politics Off of My Face(book)!” Online News & Hostile Media Bias in the COVID-19 Social Media Environment • Facebook offers a free platform for news organizations to foster audience engagement and expand reach. However, comments seen before reading news articles shape the visible opinion climate and negatively influence readers. Guided by hostile media bias, the influence of comments and a knowledge-based assessment on perceptions of bias and credibility are tested using a nationwide sample of Facebook users (N = 450). Findings show user comments and knowledge-based assessments enhance negative perceptions among audiences.
Research Paper • Faculty • Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu; Homero Gil de Zúñiga, University of Salamanca/Penn State University • Antecedents of News Avoidance: Competing Effects of Political Interest, News Overload, Trust in News Media, and ‘News Finds Me’ Perception • Recent changes in the media environment make it easier than ever for people to actively shape their news repertoires according to their habits, needs, and preferences. As convenient as these practices may seem, they also afford the possibility of disconnecting from news and current affairs more efficiently, with potentially deleterious effects on democracy. Building on the conceptualization of news avoidance as a general disposition and its consequential behavior, this study jointly examines key individual-level predispositions that may motivate individual news exposure avoidance. Based on a two-wave panel survey data collected in the United States, results show evidence that political interest and trust in professional news are negatively related with news avoidance, while news overload and—especially—the ‘news finds me’ perception are positively associated with news-avoidance behaviors. Our analyses suggest that the linkages between these cognitive antecedents and news avoidance are contingent upon the robustness of the empirical tests, with the ‘news find me perception’ yielding the most consistent association across models.
Research Paper • Faculty • Miao Guo, Ball State University; Fu-Shing Sun, Ball State University • Local News on Facebook: How Television Broadcasters Use Facebook to Enhance Social Media News Engagement • This study examines how local television broadcasters use Facebook to enhance social media news engagement. By scraping 1,063 news posts from nine local television stations’ Facebook pages, this investigation performs a content analysis on different features of news posts, including news topics, message vividness and interactivity, post time, and length of post. This study further explores how different news post features affect three dimensions of news engagement indicated by reactions, comments, and shares.
Research Paper • Student • Kendal Heavner, The University of Arkansas • The Impact of Media Algorithms on The Habermassian Public Sphere and Discourse • Media algorithms are increasing in use among popular social networking sites (Geiger, 2009). Widely influential in the media sector, algorithms create a highly personalized experience for the individual viewer. However, some scholars argue the specified curation of media based on a user’s personal preferences leads to a “filter bubble,” an online-based self-fulfilling prophecy in which users’ pre-existing opinions are continually reaffirmed. A survey will examine the impacts that media algorithms have on traditional media theories.
Research Paper • Faculty • Steven Collins, University of Central Florida; William Kinnally, University of Central Florida; Jennifer Sandoval, University of Central Florida • What Influences the Influences?: Examining National Culture, Human Development and Journalism Influences • This study examines how social systems level variables may help shape electronic journalists’ perceptions of the forces influencing their work. We combined Worlds of Journalism Study data with Hofstede’s cultural orientations to consider how the levels of the Hierarchical Influences Model may coalesce. In six analyses across four levels, culture was significantly correlated with perceived influences. Our findings support the belief the social systems level is the hegemonic level on which the others levels rest.
Research Paper • Faculty • Michael Koliska, Georgetown University; Neil Thurman, LMU; Sally Stares, City University of London; Jessica Kunert, University of Hamburg • Exploring audience criteria for perceptions of online news videos • “Journalism professionals and media experts have traditionally used normatively framed criteria to define news quality. But the digital news media environment has disrupted the status quo by putting a greater emphasis on audience reactions as markers of news quality. Little research has addressed the criteria audiences themselves use to evaluate news and particularly audio-visual news. We conducted in-depth group interviews with 22 online news video consumers in the UK to explore the criteria that they use in their perceptions and evaluations of online news videos. Thematic analyses suggest many intersecting criteria, which we group under four headings: antecedents of perceptions, emotional impacts, news and editorial values and production characteristics.”
Research Paper • Student • Wendy L.Y. Leung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Distant Suffering of Coronavirus Outbreak: Comparing BBC World and Al Jazeera English Epidemic Reporting in China • This research aims to compare how BBC World and Al Jazeera English (AJE) report the “distant suffering” of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus in China through critical discourse analysis. While BBC World highlighted the situation of “western victims” in Wuhan to domesticate the event with audiences, AJE tried to relate audiences through illustrating the outbreak in both China and surrounding infected countries, previewing its possible impact in the globe.
Research Paper • Student • Heidi Makady, University of Florida • I Wouldn’t React to it Because of the Algorithm: How Can Self-Presentation Moderate News Consumption. • While algorithms govern the display of our newsfeed on SNS, studies sought to explore conditions to encourage audience interaction with news content. However, few aimed to understand how audiences may refrain from interaction. This study explores how audience awareness of algorithmic recommendations may drive their news interaction. Through self- presentation framework, results indicate that the higher the level of self-monitoring and algorithmic awareness, the more likely passive news consumption is. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Extended Abstract • Faculty • Dylan McLemore, University of Central Arkansas • Ten Days of Twitter’s “Who to Follow” Algorithm as the Architect of an Election Season Social Network • This study attempts to learn how Twitter curates election information for new users by letting the “Who to Follow” algorithm select accounts for followers of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The results suggest the algorithm creates a partisan echo chamber by prioritizing ideological agreement. However, it varied significantly in the types of accounts it used to create this bubble, including the number of news personalities and verified accounts suggested to followers of each candidate. A summary of the study is presented in the format of a 1,500-word extended abstract.
Research Paper • Faculty • Kaitlin Miller, University of Alabama • Hostility toward the press: a synthesis of terms, research, and future directions in examining harassment of journalists • While there is an upsurge of research examining hostility toward the press, there continues to be a lack of critical and robust theoretical foundation and agenda for such inquiry. Therefore, the objective of this article is to synthesize literature in the study of abuse and harassment of journalists, set forth clear definitions of terms, situate that literature within a larger theoretical context, and ultimately establish future lines of inquiry for research examining harassment of journalists. The principal objective is to unify work in this growing field to help not only answer important questions about a topic gaining more and more attention, but to also do so with a critical foundation in how hostility toward the press is theorized.
Research Paper • Faculty • Bruno Takahashi, Michigan State University; Qucheng Zhang, Michigan State University; Manuel Chavez, Michigan State University; Yadira Nieves • Touch in disaster reporting: Television coverage before hurricane maria • This study examines the use of touch by television reporters in their interactions with sources — mainly residents and government officials — before Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. We used a qualitative approach that allowed four themes to emerge inductively. The themes — engagement and participation, empathy and caring, easing tension, and collective empowerment are described in relation to the literature on touch across cultures. Implications for the emotional turn in journalism are discussed.
Research Paper • Student • Melissa Williams, The University of Southern Mississippi; Lindsey Maxwell, Southern Mississippi • The View of the Blue is Bigger than Black and White • Using the social identity theory, this study explored how mass media, race, age, gender, and politic affiliation contribute to Americans’ attitude towards the police. Findings indicate one’s social identity and identification with police play a substantial role in how people choose to view police. Additionally, increased media trust and resulted in more positive perceptions of police, and people who listened to radio news more frequently were more likely to consider police part of their in-group.
Research Paper • Student • Anna Young, University of Connecticut; David Atkin • An Agenda-setting Test of Google News World Reporting on Foreign Nations • The current study examines the international news section of Google News by investigating the frequency and valence of international coverage. The content of news headlines and snippets about other countries are compared to the public perception of those countries, based on a dedicated survey. Although study findings fail to detect a second-level agenda-setting effect, they demonstrate the impact of other variables–such as political philosophy and perceived cultural proximity of the nation–on media agenda-setting.
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