Newspaper and Online News 2019 Abstracts
Open Competition
Embracing the visual, verbal and viral media: How post-millennial consumption habits are reshaping the news • Chris Gentilviso, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Deb Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • The post-millennial or Generation Z constitutes people born in 1997 or after. This study theorizes how news consumption habits of the post-millennial generation are reshaping the news. Based on a 2019 meta-analytical research review of 16 key studies (published between 2017 and 2019) of media consumption habits of post-millennials, this research study delineates news consumption habits of post-millennials. It theorizes how this new generation of media users are embracing the visual, verbal and viral media and, in turn, reshaping news content. The propensity of the post-millennials to participate in the news cycle shapes their rapidly-changing preferences and usage patterns
Written in code: Exploring the negative effects of acronyms and abbreviations in news headlines • Alyssa Appelman, Northern Kentucky University • Through an experiment (N = 131), this study looks at whether the negative effects of acronyms and abbreviations in news articles are based on their presence or their difficulty. In all, it finds support for a presence/absence effect rather than a difficulty/ease effect. Rather than explaining acronyms and abbreviations in news articles, this suggests that journalists should strive to avoid such constructions altogether.
Journalistic compatibility: How social networking sites fit with users’ preferences for consuming hard, soft news • Steve Bien-Aime, Northern Kentucky University; Mu Wu, California State University, Los Angeles • Through a MTurk survey, this study explored whether users perceived Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat as compatible with consuming hard and soft news on those platforms. Participants reported Twitter and Facebook as the most compatible social networking sites in terms of consuming hard and soft news. Additionally, heightened perceived compatibility was significantly positively associated with individuals’ future intentions to use a SNS for news consumption.
(MacDougall Student Paper Award) Newspaper editors’ interactions with journalistic serendipity • Matt Bird-Meyer, University of Missouri • This mixed-methods study explores the information behavior of newspaper reporters regarding their serendipitous encounters with information that lead to story ideas, and how newspaper editors affect their ability to pursue such encountered ideas. As an interdisciplinary examination in human information behavior and journalism studies, behaviors and routines emerged that encouraged and potentially limited certain behaviors and routines. The findings also identify behaviors wherein newspaper editors match reporters with certain traits to certain story assignments.
Misrepresentation of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery in the American and French press • Sandrine Boudana, Tel Aviv; David Boudana • Research on media representation of plastic surgery has focused on American television and magazines to conclude that these media give a distortedly positive image of plastic surgery. Our study tests the hypothesis that, due to a more critically-orientated tradition, the print press rather emphasizes the negative aspects of plastic surgery and raises concerns about the procedures. Extending our study to a comparison with the French press, we also test the hypothesis that, given its polemicist tradition, the French press might be more critical than the American press towards plastic surgery. Content and framing analyses of 500 American and French newspaper articles show that the press is equally – although in different ways – critical of plastic surgery in both countries. However the comparison of media representations with statistical realities reveals that the negative judgment is not based on accurate representations of the realities of the profession.
Conservative News Nonprofits: Claiming legitimacy without transparency • Michael Buozis, Temple University; Magda Konieczna, Temple University • This study is the first examining and categorizing conservative news nonprofits. Using discourse analysis to explore their missions and other public statements, we note that many of these organizations draw on the legitimacy of mainstream journalism outlets while critiquing them, at once associating with and dissociating from them. This enables them to justify their engagement in the kind of activism normally found outside of journalism, even as they obscure their ideological orientations and funding sources.
Understanding the Nonprofit News Landscape in the United States • Monica Chadha, Arizona State University; Jesse Lecy, Arizona State University • This paper attempts to create a landscape of digital nonprofit news sites by examining their categorization as provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) through the use of National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE). The study also used a content analysis to examine the sites’ mission statements and find out which ones emphasized public journalism, investigative journalism, or both, thus providing nuance to scholarship that until now, has highlighted both as nonprofit news offerings.
Framing of the 2016 Presidential Election of Donald Trump from the World Press • Yu-li Chang, Bethel University • The ascent of Trump as the president of the United States after the 2016 election offered an excellent opportunity to look into how the world press opined on this surprising outcome. This study examined the editorials and columns from the English-language world press on the moral judgment frame, that is, the lessons learned from Trump’s election and the future prospects of the Trump presidency. Mixed methods were chosen as the tool for data analysis – a quantitative content analysis followed by a qualitative narrative analysis to dig deeper into nuances in the thematic frames generated from the content analysis. The findings showed that the world opinion framed Trump’s election more unfavorably than favorably. This study discovered a central narrative relating to the world’s concerns over Trump’s ability to lead the world to solve its pressing challenges and to do so on moral and cultural grounds. World opinion framed Trump’s unpredictable personality and policy ignorance as the largest sources of uncertainty, horror, cataclysm facing the world. Trump was viewed not only being incapable of leading the world to solve its problems; he was portrayed as being capable of bringing catastrophe to the already uncertain and dangerous situation. World opinion also predicted a degradation of the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty and democracy because of the resurgent racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and misogyny manifested in Trump and his followers.
Do Students Know the Code? How Coding is (and isn’t) Taught in Accredited Journalism Programs • Jim Foust; Katherine Bradshaw • A census of ACEJMC-accredited journalism programs reveals that less than a quarter require students to learn code. Despite industry desires for journalists with coding skills nearly 40 percent of the units offer no coding classes. Among programs that require code, most rely on a course or courses taught by full-time faculty in the accredited unit. About one third of units that do not require code currently have plans to add it in the future.
Who perpetuates “fake new” in China? Rumor diffusion on mainstream news websites, Weibo, and WeChat • Lei Guo, Boston University; Yiyan Zhang, Boston University • This study examined the diffusion of online rumors on mainstream news websites, Weibo, and WeChat—the three major media platforms for online news consumption in China. The results show that Weibo was most likely to advance rumors, while WeChat performed the best in refuting rumors. Additionally, mainstream news websites set the agenda of Weibo and WeChat in both advancing and refuting rumors. Within social media, governmental accounts took the leading agenda-setting role in refuting rumors.
Examining the Narratives of Syria: A Longitudinal Frame Analysis of the Syrian Conflict • Emily Burns, Texas State University; Michel Haigh, Texas State University • This study examined news coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis from 2011-2018. Specifically, it investigated how various mainstream news publications framed the Syrian refugee story, the overall tone of coverage, and shifts in coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis over time. Refugees were depicted positively. Tone of coverage became more positive over time, and the most common frames employed were the foreign government response frame and the conflict frame.
Political Polarization and Digital Discourse: Cross-National Analysis of Negativity in Facebook News Comments • Edda Humprecht; Lea Hellmueller • Negativity in news comments arguably leads to a polarization of public debates. We examine how commercialization, but also market-orientation and political leaning of media organizations explain negativity. The study content-analyzed comments on Facebook of six news organizations (N = 1800) in the US and Germany. We find that negative sentiments are particulary prevalent in the polarized information environment of the US. Moreover, hyper-partisan outlets in both countries provoke significantly higher levels of negativity.
Does Newspaper Presence in Household Affect Subscribers’ and Non-Subscribers’ Perceptions of Their Buying Behavior? A Mixed-Method Study • Anastasia Kononova; Esther Thorson, Michigan State University; Jef Richards; Kristen Lynch, Michigan State University • With the ascendancy of digital advertising, there have been only a handful of studies of the newspaper free-standing inserts (FSIs), also known as preprint, as an advertising medium. Given the threatened health of America’s newspapers, the value of FSIs as the primary source of revenue is critical. This paper looks at the impact on newspaper presence in subscribers’ and non-subscribers’ households on their self-reported buying behavior. Individuals from two segments: 1) subscribers to a local daily newspaper (N = 60) and 2) non-subscribers (N = 58) participated in a field study, where the newspaper was delivered to their households for 14 days and was put on hold for another 14 days. Each day, participants reported if they used the newspaper and if they bought anything. Subscribers were found to be older, wealthier, more educated, more likely retired, longer-term community residents, and greater comparison shoppers than non-subscribers. They reported more instances of buying behavior than non-subscribers. Paradoxically, participants who received the newspaper during the study reported fewer instances of buying behavior. Newspaper delivery was associated with increased instances of shopping for health and beauty products. Focus groups were conducted to explain the findings, and the implications were discussed using consumer socialization approach.
Newspaper coverage of Colorado’s 2016 End of Life Options Act • Kimberly Lauffer, Ball State University, Department of Journalism; Sean Baker, Department of Journalism, Central Michigan University; Natalee Seely, Ball State University • Since 2014, several states have introduced and passed legislation permitting aid in dying. In Colorado, Proposition 106, the End of Life Options Act, passed Nov. 8, 2016, with 65 percent of Coloradans approving the law. How newspapers cover contentious issues is important because these representations influence public opinion. This study found a relationship between item type and overall stance, as well as a difference in the content produced by journalists and laypersons or columnists.
Approach or Avoid? Emotional Sentiments and Reactions in News of Sexual Assault • Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida; Mo Chen, University of Florida • We conducted a sentiment analysis on the news headlines and the social media descriptions of 2340 news articles on sexual assault accusations and #MeToo from October 2017 to February 2018. Based on the emotions-as-frames perspective and theories of political ideologies. We examined whether news organizations with more conservative users used more words that signaled anger, anxiety, and sex. Furthermore, we examined to what extent do the news sentiments of anger, anxiety, and sexual-framed messages predict social media engagement behaviors (like, share, comments) among mostly conservative or liberal users. The results showed that news organizations with more conservative users used more emotional sentiments in their headlines and descriptions. Moreover, anxiety sentiments were associated with less engagement while sexual sentiments were associated with more engagement among most-conservative users.
Drowning out the message: How online comments on news stories about Nike’s ad campaign contributed to polarization and gatekeeping • Jinhee Lee; Zulfia Zaher; Ed Simpson; Elina Erzikova • This study examined audience commentary on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC’s YouTube and Facebook platforms associated with news stories on Nike’s selection of controversial former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as spokesman for its 2018 campaign. The study, using the theory of gatekeeping as a starting point, sought evidence for a drowning effect, in which the audience strayed from the primary message of the journalism presented to it. A significant drowning effect was found, across platforms and outlets.
Understanding the Typology of Native Advertising on News Websites • You LI, Eastern Michigan U; Ye Wang • This study explored how 57 U.S. news websites integrated native advertising through placement locations and yet differentiated it from editorial content through disclosure languages and designs. The websites placed native ads in more than two locations on average. While 79% of websites met FTC’s disclosure guideline, only a quarter used maximum disclosure tactics. The publishers with more cultural capital (i.e., the number of Pulitzer awards) differentiated native advertising from editorial content to a greater extent.
News Media Credibility Ratings and Perceptions of Fake News Exposure among Internet Users in Five Countries • Justin Martin, Northwestern University in Qatar; Fouad Hassan, Northwestern University • This study examined media credibility ratings and perceptions of fake news exposure online among internet users in five Arab countries: Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE (N=4,616). Perceptions of fake news exposure were not consistently associated with either ratings of news media credibility or news consumption; rather, respondents who said governments and the public should stop the spread of fake news online were reported coming across fake news online more often.
The Story Behind the Story: How Transparency About the Journalistic Process Boosts Perceptions of News Outlet Credibility • Gina Masullo Chen, University of Texas at Austin; Alex Curry, The University of Texas at Austin; Kelsey Whipple, The University of Texas at Austin • This two-study package (Study 1: N = 753; Study 2: N = 599) sought to understand whether adding a transparency box that explains how journalists did a news story could improve perceptions of the credibility of a news outlet. Our findings from Study 2 demonstrated this box was effective in boosting perceptions of news outlet credibility when used with real news sites among the audience members for those sites.
Responding to Online Disagreement Comments: It’s Not What You Say, But How You Say It • Gina Masullo Chen, University of Texas at Austin; Marc Ziegele, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf; Martin Johannes Riedl, The University of Texas at Austin & Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society; Pablo Jost, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Teresa Naab, University of Augsburg • An experiment (N = 1,231) in Germany found that moderators responding to disagreement comments on a news site’s Facebook page should use high-person-centered (HPC) messages, which acknowledge people’s emotions, rather than low-person-centered (LPC) messages, which dismiss feelings. HPC messages improved attitudes toward the news site and loyalty to the site’s online community, regardless of whether the disagreement comments were civil, uncivil, or impolite. Improved attitudes toward the news site were heightened if journalists were moderating.
Mediating Transnational Movement: Indian News Media and the #MeToo Movement • Suman Mishra • This study explores the media coverage of the #MeToo movement in India. Using thematic analysis of news articles from six prominent Indian newspapers (The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Telegraph, The Pioneer, and The Economic Times), the study reveals the unique way in which this transnational movement was discussed in the Indian context. Patriarchal conditioning, fear of retaliation and reputational harm, and lack of recourse through slow and unresponsive judiciary, were some prominent cultural themes in the coverage. In addition, there was a focus on the entertainment industry and its celebrities. This focus limits “Me Too” movement’s potential and resonance with the larger Indian public who are likely to see it as an elite Hollywood-Bollywood phenomenon. Further discussion is provided.
Guilt by association: How chum box advertising affects news readers’ perceptions • Logan Molyneux; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia • As content referral widgets and other forms of native advertising continue to be lucrative means of subsidizing journalism, critics and industry observers have derided these “chum boxes” as damaging to the user experience and the journalism they’re adjacent to. This study theorizes mechanisms behind this proposition and tests it in two controlled experiments. Results suggest that chum box ads damage message and source credibility in circumstances where readers are motivated and attentive.
Journalism Practice in a Digital Age: Utilization of Social Media in Online News • Mirjana Pantic, Pace University; Ivana Cvetkovic, University of New Mexico • This study employed the gatekeeping perspective to examine what practices 10 prominent U.S.-based news websites embrace when deriving content and sources from social media. A thorough content analysis of 180 online news shows that journalists primarily rely on institutional, official sources when utilizing social media in the news production process. Furthermore, journalists are most likely to employ written information from Twitter in online news and publish such information in entertainment and politics sections.
“Why the h**l is there a White House Correspondents’ Dinner?” Field Theory in Political Journalism • Gregory Perreault; Kellie Stanfield, Missouri School of Journalism; Shelby Luttman • This study aimed to analyze the shifting role conceptions of journalists in the field, primarily in reference to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Researchers conducted 32 phone interviews with political journalists from news outlets ranging from the Los Angeles Times to VICE. This study argues that the present format of the dinner presents a challenge to the journalistic field, one that political journalists have difficulty managing within their journalistic role.
Media Literacy to Rebuild Trust in Journalism: A Typology for a Changing News Audience • Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kelly Nelson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Carlos Davalos, University of Wisconsin-Madison • Trust in all institutions has plummeted across the board, internationally – especially trust in the political institution that is the press. One popular solution to rebuilding trust calls on increased forms of media literacy. Using a series of 15 case studies involving initiatives around the globe to rebuild citizen trust in news media, this research explores the links between media literacy and relationships with information in a digital, populist age through both textual analysis of these projects’ materials as well as in-depth interviews with their founders and directors. It puts forth a more complex definition of media literacy, typologizes kinds of literacy (settling on civic consumption, amateur (co-)production (sharing), professional information production (newsrooms), and algorithms/technology), and reimagines who is responsible to become literate and to teach literacy. We find that the notion of “literacy” has application for not only schools, universities and adult citizens, but also for journalists and platforms themselves.
Border Patrol: The Rise and Role of Fact-Checkers and Their Challenge to Journalists’ Normative Boundaries • Jane B. Singer, City, University of London • Although most research to date has focused on leading U.S. fact-checkers, similar initiatives are springing up all over the world. This study draws on a globally disseminated questionnaire, plus interviews with fact-checkers on four continents, to examine how they describe their fundamental norms, understand their social role, and engage their audiences. A conceptual framework of journalistic boundary-setting helps guide exploration of the ways that fact-checkers see themselves in relation to legacy journalists.
Diffusion of Video Advertising on Community Newspaper Websites? • Burton Speakman, Kennesaw State University; Michael Clay Carey, Samford University • This study reviews diffusion of innovation at community media websites regarding the use of video and video advertising. Results suggest that video reached a point where a sizable number of community media outlets publish them online. Yet, video advertising lags behind in use. Furthermore, it appears that elements such as circulation and size of a media corporation have little influence in the development and use of video and video advertising on community media websites.
When do people share fake news online? The effect of social network size and homophily • Ruoyu Sun, University of Miami; Cong Li, University of Miami; Barbara Millet; Khudejah Ali; John Petit • “This study examined the impact of social network size and homophily on people’s intention to share news, especially fake news, on Facebook. Based on an experiment, it was found that perceived homophily with Facebook contacts was positively associated with news sharing intention. A significant three-way interaction effect between network size, homophily, and news type on news sharing intention was also discovered, and this effect was mediated by motivation to socialize with online contacts.
Enacted Journalism Takes the Stage: How Audiences Respond to Reporting-Based Theater • Ori Tenenboim, The University of Texas at Austin; Natalie (Talia) Jomini Stroud, The University of Texas at Austin • From offering comment sections to hosting town hall meetings, news organizations have experimented with different ways of engaging audiences. This paper focuses on reporting-based live-theater performances followed by conversation. Drawing on surveys of audiences attending performances of three different plays (n=279) and in-depth interviews with 13 people involved in the plays, this paper shows that what we term “enacted journalism” can increase knowledge, boost efficacy, and influence what people think about the media’s role.
A New Kind of Journalistic Paradigm Repair: How U.S. News Outlets Rejected the Label “Enemy of the People” • Leslie-Jean Thornton, Arizona State University; Susan Keith, Rutgers University; Sue Robinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison • “In August 2018, more than 600 news organizations answered the Boston Globe’s call for a united editorial stand against more than two years of unprecedented attacks by the U.S. President. Qualitative analysis revealed movement beyond paradigm repair into paradigm justification through oppositional identity markers, affinity reminders, and validity claims. This represents a more substantial defense of the foundational idea that a press is necessary for a vibrant democracy.
Here’s what to know about clickbait: Effects of image, headline and editing on audience attitudes • Fred Vultee, Wayne State University; Scott Burgess; Darryl Frazier, Wayne State University; Kelsey Husnick, Wayne State University • “This quantitative study examines responses to three features of news practice: headline style, selection of illustrations and level of processing applied to the text. The strongest influence on perceptions of quality or credibility come from editing, and the presence of editing also influences whether traditional or clickbait headlines are associated with better memory for story details. News use, Internet use, news source and field of study also influence outcomes.
Whistleblowing, leaking, or both? A text-mining analysis of definitional discrepancies in major metro newspapers • Stephenson Waters • Using a framing-centered text-mining analysis, the purpose of this study was to examine the content of 2,100 news stories from major metro daily newspapers to uncover if and how the connotations surrounding whistleblowing and leaking acts may vary depending on a journalist’s word choice. Considering the risks whistleblowers take when disclosing information to the news media, the question of how they are defined by journalists is consequential. Crucial to the success of a whistleblower’s intention of actionable change or remedy of misdeeds is the public dissemination of their claims and evidence, so media coverage matters. Initial results found journalists overall tend to frame whistleblowers and leakers in objective language in the majority of their coverage of these subjects. More subjective terminology was infrequent, considering the vast number of stories in the overall data set; however, the occurrences of subjective language is still instructive, as it showed preliminary results that leakers and leaking are framed negatively and with more skepticism than whistleblowers and whistleblowing. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
Report for America, report about communities: local news capacity and community trust • Andrea Wenzel, Temple University; Sam Ford, Tow Center for Digital Journalism; Efrat Nechushtai, Columbia University • This study looks at Report for America’s efforts to strengthen the capacity of local news and increase trust from the perspective of a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, and a rural county in Eastern Kentucky. Using a communication infrastructure theory framework, it follows 28 residents through project-start and end focus groups. This is complemented by 15 interviews with journalists and RFA staff, and content analysis of local stories from the Chicago Sun-Times and Lexington Herald-Leader.
Look Around and Learn: Effects of 360-Degree Video in Online News • Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georgia; Ivanka Pjesivac, The University of Georgia; Jihoon Kim; Matt Binford, University of Georgia; Keith Herndon, University of Georgia • In a between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, adult readers of a large metropolitan daily newspaper (N=48) viewed and evaluated one of two versions of the same online news feature: one with an embedded 360-degree video alongside text and images, and the other using exclusively text and static images. Findings show that the presence of 360-degree video increased attitudes toward the article, article credibility, and visual attention to article content, but did not significantly affect recall of the story
Keepers of the comments: How comment moderators handle audience contributions • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Hayley Blackburn, Colorado State University; Stephen McConnell, Colorado State University • “As news commenting has evolved as a participatory tool and journalists have developed traditional practices for moderation, there are increasing questions about how to promote quality spaces for news discourse. Using gatekeeping theory, this study analyzes in-depth interviews with 13 news comment moderators to understand how these individuals establish moderation routines and define their professional role. This provides new insight into the journalist-audience relationship and the development of new media practices for online news production.
Commenters as a threat to journalism? How comment moderators perceive the role of the audience • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Stephen McConnell, Colorado State University; Hayley Blackburn, Colorado State University • “Journalists and commenters have struggled to negotiate the appropriate use of news forums. But research about perceptions of commenters has typically focused on journalists and not the comment moderators who specifically manage content. This study uses in-depth interviews with 13 U.S. news comment moderators to understand through a field theory analysis how moderators perceive commenters as possible threats to the profession and, potentially, help to develop quality commenting into a form of journalistic cultural capital.
Student Papers
Democracy’s gatekeepers? How editorial boards constructed moral equivalence between 2016 presidential candidates • Kirsten Adams, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Through a mixed-method analysis of 75 major U.S. newspapers’ 2016 editorial endorsements, this study asks how editorial boards evaluated the two most controversial and unpopular major-party presidential candidates in U.S. history and the threats they posed to democratic norms and institutions. I find that while attempting to fill the seemingly vacated role of “democracy’s gatekeepers,” news organizations simultaneously undermined these efforts by actively constructing moral equivalence between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Darker cloud or silver lining? News framing of the opioid crisis and organ donation • Alexis Bajalia, University of Florida; Amanda Bradshaw • America’s opioid crisis is doing more than taking lives. It is contributing to a substantial increase in organ donation, which some conclude is saving lives. A qualitative framing analysis of 59 U.S. news articles explored how journalists frame the relationship between the opioid crisis and organ donation. Four major themes emerged: silver lining and hope out of tragedy; shortcut to saving lives, times, and organs; medical acceptance, innovation, and evolution; and rewriting the narrative and changing the stigma. Because news articles tended to frame the relationship between the opioid crisis and organ donation as having a positive effect on society, this study provided practical and theoretical implications about how such framing may impact consumers’ knowledge, attitudes, and/or beliefs about the opioid crisis and/or organ donation.
Similarities and Differences in Western Media Portrayals of the Greek Economic Crisis • Tryfon Boukouvidis, Louisiana State University • This study examines newspaper coverage of the Greek economic crisis in the summer of 2015 through a qualitative content analysis on the attribution of responsibility to the actors involved. Prior literature indicates that American newspapers present economic crises from an elite perspective, possibly distorting public opinion to reflect elite views. Newspapers have become more rigorous in interpreting the underlying mechanisms of a crisis instead of superficially covering episodic events, but most analysis comes from editorials.
Biased Optimism: Online Fake News and Their Influence on Third-Person Perception and Corrective Action • Hyungjin Gill; Moonhoon Choi • This study examines the potential presence of 3PE in fake news and investigates at what third-person perception (“3PP”) may do to people’s willingness to engage in different forms of corrective action. Additionally, based on the root-idea embedded in 3PE (i.e., anticipation of media influence on self vs. others), the study delves into whether such perceptual distinction exists in presumed corrective action intention as well. And finally, the research aims to identify various kinds of corrective actions that may exist in different forms of reactions in response to online mis/disinformation to further previous communication research findings on undesirable media and attitudes toward censorship. Results shows presence of third-person effect (presuming greater effect of potentially harmful media content on others than self) in fake news exposure. Respondents also saw others as having more willingness to engage in corrective behaviors to counter fake news than themselves, serving as potential explanation for the spread of mis/disinformation during elections. Implications of corrective action items and the association between third-person perception and corrective action intention are discussed.
Framing Immigration: Criminal Frames of Latinx Immigrants and Social Distancing • Elizabeth Hurst, University of Oklahoma; Juliana L. Barbati • This experiment sought to examine how manipulation of high-order social identities can impact the perception of different news frames at four different levels (i.e., the communicator, the receiver, the text, and the culture. The results indicate that political party identification had the most significant impact on social distance towards Latinx immigrants and national identity salience. Implications for single-exposure framing experiments, the level of culture within framing research, and social identity research are discussed at length.
Interpretation, participation and negotiation in China’s online news: A study of The Paper • RAN JU • This article selects The Paper (Pengpai), a Chinese online news media which incorporates the functionality of the party press into market-oriented journalism, to examine how online news embraces an interpretive journalism paradigm to collaborate with the party-state, to encourage the community involved in, and to find a place in the Chinese digital market. In addition to in-depth interviews with reporters and editors in The Paper, this study analyzes 2239 news articles posted on The Paper website and the comments underneath these articles over the period from 2015 to 2016. It is argued that the connection and disconnection between the journalistic role conception and performance are shaped by the negotiation between multiple groups and institutions that are constituted by interpretive communities. Journalistic interpretation in the online platform, on the one side, enlarges the boundaries of journalists’ collective authority, and on the other side, equips engaged readers with discursive resources in public debates.
Tweets, Statements, and Quotes: News Source Selection, Gatekeeping, and Bias coverage of Indian #Metoo movement • Shreenita Ghosh, University of Wisconsin Madison; Kruthika Kamath, University of Wisconsin–Madison • This study explores the source categorization, source prominence, gender representation, journalist gender, and the coverage of #metoo movements in India. A content analysis of nine major English-language daily newspapers coverage of the movement shows that the digital age has only made a marginal dent in norms of inclusion and credibility of ordinary and minority citizens as sources. Further, medium selection and journalistic gatekeeping are considerably different in the two phases of the Indian #metoo movement.
Battle of the Frames: Perspective Collision and Hyper-Mediation at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. • Chelsea Bonser; DI LAN; Stephen McConnell, Colorado State University • A collision of perspectives at the Lincoln Memorial revealed how one moment in today’s digital news environment can rapidly produce news frames that define and redefine “reality” along ideological lines. Through a content analysis of media outlets that vary on the political spectrum, the authors found significant associations regarding how each outlet distinctly portrayed and framed the main actors of the event, as well as how new frames rapidly formed as new information became known.
Addressing News Media Image in an Age of Skepticism • Soo Young Shin, MSU • This study explored news media image as perceived by the public by employing a concept used in marketing literature—image. Journalism stakeholders and scholars suggest the public’s perceptions of news media is not favorable, which consequently decreases readerships and makes the public lean towards alternative news (i.e., fake news). Considering this growing negative sentiment toward news media, it is crucial to understand the public’s perceptions of news media to address the public’s negative perception(s) and hopefully change them. Particularly, the news media industry has not yet possessed broad concepts, not to mention measures, to capture the public’s overall perceptions in terms of news organizations. The perceptions of 44 participants (over the course of nine sessions) living in the Midwestern U.S. were investigated using focus group methods. The results revealed eight dimensions of news media image: news quality, news usefulness, social responsibility, personality, usability, transparency, perspective-taking, and news selection bias. Participants believed that news media organizations are mostly biased in their selection of news stories, as news organizations are under pressure to make profit. Despite holding this view, certain ideals of news media, such as the potential role of the media as community watch-dogs and “protectors” of democracy, are highly valued. Participants particularly valued transparency, rather than objectivity, of news organizations and indicated that news is generally useful in acquiring information directly relevant to their lives.
The Emergence of Social Justice Journalism • Allison Steinke, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities • Social justice journalism is an emerging style of newswork in for-profit and nonprofit newsrooms in the United States. This qualitative study provides in-depth analysis of interviews with journalists who cover social justice topics at mainstream legacy media and nonprofit newsrooms across the U.S. Some reporters have formal social justice beats while others are general assignment reporters, investigative reporters or columnists who occasionally cover social justice topics or beats including criminal justice, government corruption, marginalized populations, immigration, and homelessness. Through the conceptual lens of the sociology of newswork and imagined audiences, this study explores social justice journalists’ beats, identities, and constructions of their audiences. This study argues that journalists who cover social justice often identify as advocates within the public sphere while others oppose advocacy in their work and prefer to pursue traditional journalistic values of fairness, accuracy and objectivity.
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