Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality
[June 22, 2010]
A new research study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly examines general and robust constructs of news media brand personality that are applicable across multiple news media outlets, including broadcast and cable news networks, national and local newspaper, and news magazines.
Through a series of rigorous exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures with the final set of 48 personality traits, the authors show that that news media brand personality is composed of five dimensions: Trustworthiness, Dynamism, Sincerity, Sophistication, and Toughness.
One of the significant contributions of this study is to provide news media companies a reliable and valid method to assess their brand personality.
As for the Trustworthiness dimension, for example, the Wall Street Journal was perceived to be the most trustworthy news media brand. It appears that the Wall Street Journal is known as a business newspaper, and uses fewer photographs and graphics than most other newspapers. Respondents may associate the subject and predominance of text with personality attributes such as “smart” and “serious” included in the trustworthy factor.
From a practical standpoint, the news media brand personality dimensions proposed by the authors can be helpful for media companies. In particular, news media companies can understand and monitor their news media brand personality structure to see if it matches the brand identity that they are developing in the crowded media marketplace.
They can also take advantage of the proposed news media brand personality constructs for diagnosing and improving their strategies to attract audiences and advertisers. The study therefore will help media companies fine-tune their image to survive the competition by better serving media audiences.
Baek, T. H., Kim, J., & Martin, H. J. (2010). Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 87(1), 119-136.
CONTACT: Tae Hyun Baek, Doctoral Candidate, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, ; or Jooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, .
The push for paywalls mischaracterizes the nature of online newspaper readership
[July 20, 2010]
As U.S. newspaper publishers increasingly talk of building paywalls around their online content to ward off free-riders cannibalizing their print product, new research suggests that such efforts may backfire because most local users of local newspaper sites already are paying customers—by paying for the print edition.
A study published in the latest issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly found that two-thirds of visitors to local newspaper websites are “hybrid” readers—that is, they regularly read the print edition (and most of them pay for it) as well as the online version—in contrast to the remaining one-third of “online-only” readers.
Across a range of measures, hybrid readers were found to be more active on the local newspaper site (i.e., using it to search for a variety of news and classified ads information) and also more satisfied with the site’s offerings. These findings run counter to conventional wisdom that most online readers are avoiding the paid print newspaper because they can get the same information online for free, said the team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, led by Dr. Iris Chyi, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism.
“Thus, an online subscription or micropayment model would entail asking many local users to pay twice—or, if print subscribers are granted free access, it would mean publishers are chasing a minority of online-only users in the local market,” the authors concluded. “Moreover, these online-only local users are less active and are not more satisfied with the local newspaper site, making a pay model all the more challenging. In essence, in their pursuit of monetizing online content, publishers may very well end up alienating local users (hybrid as well as online-only).” Long-distance users, on the other hand, constitute a different market segment, which is examined in a different study as part of the overall research project (to be published in the International Journal on Media Management).
These findings were based on an analysis of data originally gathered by a newspaper research firm that conducted online reader surveys on 28 local newspaper websites around the United States from October 2007 to June 2008. Responses from 18,484 survey respondents were analyzed in the study.
Chyi and her co-authors—Mengchieh Jacie Yang, Seth Lewis, and Nan Zheng (see http://www.newmediaresearch.org/merg/)—have conducted a number of studies using the media economics perspective to challenge misperceptions regarding the economic nature of online news. Chyi’s research can be found at http://www.newmediaresearch.org.
CONTACT: Dr. H. Iris Chyi, assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin; ; http://www.newmediaresearch.org/
Should News Organizations Be in the “Reunion” Business?
[March 16, 2011]
From TVNEWSER on March 16 – The disaster in Japan has meant that thousands of people are unaccounted for, particularly in parts of the country that were hit hard by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
With so many people unable to reach loved ones, many TV news organizations rushed to try and connect them. We linked to a few already, when Ann Curry connected an American teacher visiting Japan to her family in San Francisco, and CBS’ own Lucy Craft reuniting with her son.
In both cases, TV cameras were present as the families got the news. It was emotional, gripping television, but it was also quite manipulative, according to AOL News contributor Lauren Frayer. Read More
News Paywalls – Should They Cost Less in Poorer Countries?
[March 16, 2011]
From Columbia Journalism Review on March 16 – Consumers have made peace with the fact that some things cost more in certain places. A cup of black coffee at a Cairo McDonald’s costs less than the same stimulant at a McDonald’s in Manhattan. A night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus costs $445, while in Maui it’ll set you back nearly $1,000.
I wonder, then, whether online news organizations must charge the same amount for their product in every nook of the earth, and whether globally scattered news audiences would tolerate variable pricing. It seems unreasonable that someone in Burundi be asked to pay the same price for a product as a consumer in Singapore. Shouldn’t the cost of online news also vary in these countries? Read More
Nontraditional Online News Media Seek Employees with Adaptive Expertise
[January 28, 2010]
Nontraditional online news sources are more likely to hire people with broad bodies of knowledge (“adaptive expertise”) while traditional news organizations more commonly seek out those with solid technical skills, according to a recent study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.
Dr. Serena Carpenter, an assistant professor in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, examined over a six-month period 664 online media job postings on JournalismJobs.com to gauge whether online news media employers prefer employees with specific skill sets or with knowledge spanning several topics.
Traditional news media were still most interested in hiring new employees with “nontechnical routine expertise,” such as solid writing skills, working under deadline, editing, teamwork and communication skills, and Associated Press Style. About equally, however, they also were seeking employees with “technical routine expertise,” such as content posting and management, image editing, blogging, video editing, and social media knowledge.
Nontraditional online news media were as interested in nontechnical routine expertise as traditional news media, but less interested in routine technical expertise (perhaps because they assumed new employees already had such skills or that they could be easily taught). Instead, nontraditional online news media were significantly more interested in hiring employees with adaptive expertise, such as knowledge outside journalism/mass communication, creativity, independent and critical thinking, leadership, and problem-solving abilities.
Regardless of their preferences, the job postings for traditional and nontraditional online news sources expressed interest in employees with some expertise in both areas, suggesting that teaching specific and broad knowledge areas should each have a place in the journalism and mass communication curriculum.
The study appears in the Autumn 2009 issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.
CONTACT: Serena Carpenter, Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, .
No Evidence that Accredited Journalism Schools are Better than Unaccredited Ones
[June 22, 2010]
A 30-year review of research comparing and contrasting accredited journalism schools with unaccredited ones shows many more similarities than differences, and no conclusive evidence that accredited ones are significantly or consistently better than un-accredited ones in any important way.
The literature review, by Dr. Marc C. Seamon, assistant professor of communication at Robert Morris University, was printed in the Spring 2010 issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, a refereed quarterly published by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Columbia, S.C. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator is the world’s largest and oldest scholarly journal devoted entirely to education and training in journalism, media, and other mass communication.
In the United States, accreditation of journalism schools is available from only one agency, the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC), headquartered at the William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications, University of Kansas. ACEJMC accredits approximately one-quarter (about 110) of the journalism and communication colleges, schools, departments, and programs that are normally counted as such as in the United States (about 450).
Titled, “The Value of Accreditation: An Overview of Three Decades of Research Comparing Accredited and Unaccredited Journalism and Mass Communication Programs,” Dr. Seamon’s essay’s abstract reads, in part, that no study has “discovered evidence that accredited programs are strongly or clearly superior in major ways to unaccredited programs. In fact, studies generally find many more similarities than differences. A review of literature comparing accredited and unaccredited J&MC programs seems to suggest that ACEJMC accreditation is a credential whose reputation exceeds its actual benefit. Although the idea of a formal process by which programs can be evaluated and ‘certified’ as high quality is well intentioned, operationalization of that idea has proved to be difficult. Some accreditation standards ACEJMC has deemed most important (diver-sity and liberal arts curriculum) have resulted in controversial chapters in accreditation’s history.”
CONTACT: Dr. Seamon may be contacted at . Journalism & Mass Communication Educator’s editor, Dr. Dane S. Claussen of Point Park University, may be contacted at .
Hardt And Negri’s “Empire” Foreshadows Wall Street Protests
[October 17, 2011]
The October 2011 issue of the Journal of Communication Inquiry (JCI) marks the tenth anniversary of Hardt and Negri’s groundbreaking book Empire (2000) with a special theme issue devoted to its impact on critical communication studies.
The issue, guest edited by Jack Z. Bratich of Rutgers University, contains 19 essays from internationally recognized academics in communication, cultural, and media studies.
The focus of this issue resonates with the OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement, as Hardt and Negri’s books (especially Empire) are believed to have predicted and helped shape the current wave of radicalism.
A key essay, “Corruption and Empire: Notes on Wisconsin” by M.R. Greene-May, directly links the concept of “corruption” from Hardt and Negri’s works to street action and thus would be useful in understanding current social activism.
Examining the (eventually failed) class struggle in Wisconsin that began with Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting legislation earlier this year, Greene-May argues how framing the solution to the problem of union busting as an electoral solution (through the ballot box strategy of recall and referendums) threatens the possibility of compositional and autonomous politics in class struggle. By demonstrating how party politics can politically capture and exploit class composition, as in the case of Wisconsin, Greene-May asserts that events of class struggle should “create their own conditions of possibility unfolding in their own time” rather than being defined and controlled by “the terms of the debate” by others. This claim parallels Hardt and Negri’s argument of how a successful radical movement should be like a “swarm:” that despite being decentralized, spontaneous, and free-flowing, a radical movement can self-organize, self-regulate, and self-govern.
We encourage those who are interested in seeing how Hardt and Negri’s works connect to current events to check out our entire October 2011 special theme issue. The Greene-May essay abstract can be accessed at: http://jci.sagepub.com/content/early/recent. (Full text download is available to Sage Journals Online subscribers.)
Contacts: M. R. Greene-May (essay), North Carolina State University, , Jack Z. Bratich (guest editor), Rutgers University, , Hye-Jin Lee (managing editor, JCI), University of Iowa, .
Study: Values, Ethics of Sports Reporters Vary by Beat
[May 19, 2010]
Sports reporters on the high school beat, often the youngest and most inexperienced in the newsroom, are also the most likely to believe they can operate by more relaxed ethical codes than their counterparts, according to a new survey.
The telephone survey, conducted by researchers in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State, asked 263 reporters who cover sports at the high school, college or professional level about their attitudes toward ethical codes and professional norms for reporters.
More than one-third of the reporters surveyed covered prep sports, and almost as many said they covered professional teams. Far fewer – 14 percent – said they covered college sports. Eighteen percent reported on several beats.
Researchers analyzed responses by beat and found that reporters covering high school sports were more likely than those on professional beats to advocate a more “relaxed” code of ethics for sports reporters than for other parts of the newsroom. Preps (high school) reporters also more often reported friendships with sources and endorsed home-team boosterism in stories than did those who covered pro teams.
At the same time, preps reporters were more likely to agree with the idea that sports journalism should work in a public-service, “watchdog” role.
Marie Hardin, associate director of research in the Curley Center, said the findings may reflect both the idealism and inexperience of reporters at the preps level. Reporters covering high school sports had less journalism experience than those on other beats, and 65 percent of reporters on this beat were under 40.
“These reporters – often the least experienced in a sports department – are also the closest to their communities and face different types of ethical issues than do other sportswriters,” Hardin said. “Their jobs are often just as much about public education as they are about sports.”
Results of the survey, “Sports Reporters’ Attitudes About Ethics Vary Based on Beat,” by Hardin and Bu Zhong, who both teach in Penn State’s College of Communications, is published in the Spring 2010 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.
Other questions on the survey—administered by students in COMM 412 Sports, Media and Society, one of the core class offerings of the Curley Center—asked reporters about job satisfaction. Reporters covering prep sports less often said they had considered quitting their jobs. They also more often said they saw their career futures as bright.
“This could be a reflection of their age,” Hardin said. “They’re younger and more likely in a career-building stage.”
Their optimism may also reflect the perception that their beats are more secure than those at the professional or even college level, added Hardin, where travel costs and competition from a variety of sources – including sports leagues – is cutting into sports-department budgets.
“Meanwhile, the high school beat is a staple in sports sections, and that’s not going to change anytime soon,” Hardin said. “These journalists may understand the key role they play for their papers and in their communities.”
Citizen Journalism Sites Complement Newspapers
[May 26, 2010]
A recent study in the Newspaper Research Journal found that citizen journalism sites differ significantly from Web site supported by newspapers. As a result, most citizen journalism sites serve as complements rather than substitutes for commercial news Web sites.
The content analysis of the sites by researchers at Michigan State University, the University of Missouri, and the University of North Carolina studied the content at 86 citizen blog sites, 53 citizen news sites, and 63 daily newspaper sites. Citizen news sites were those that produced news articles similar to those found on newspaper sites, and citizen blogs were opinion sites.
Newspaper sites in the study were more likely to have contact information, a wide range of electronic distribution technology and more interactive elements than were citizen journalism sites. Daily newspaper sites allowed more uploading opportunities than did citizen blog sites, but not more than citizen news sites.
Of the 137 citizen journalism sites, 24% had not posted any material within a month of the downloading for the study.
The study, which was financed with grants from the Knight and Pew foundations, examined the design and features of the sites rather than the nature of the content.
Meeting coverage changes with newsroom cutbacks
[July 15, 2010]
Reporters are using Internet tools, such as blogs and social media sites, to aid in coverage of public meeting as staff cuts in newsrooms across the nation mean fewer meetings are covered, a recent study published in Newspaper Research Journal reports.
In-depth interviews of 19 reporters from newspapers across the Southeast facing newsroom cutbacks found that reporters often use social media and blogging tools to report extra information, often procedural and content-related, while the final article in print focused on meeting outcomes. The researchers also found reporters use the Internet to avoid attending public meetings by doing things such as e-reading meeting minutes.
Researchers John C. Besley and M. Chris Roberts also found that journalists differed in their opinion of the importance of covering local public meetings. Some reporters said they did not like covering public meetings and while others said they view the newspaper as the record of public meetings for citizens.
Besley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina and Roberts is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Alabama.
The study was published in the summer 2010 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.
Contacts: Sandra H. Utt Cell: (901) 628-2553 e-mail: or Elinor Kelley Grusin e-mail: .
