A Critique of Internet Polls as Symbolic Representation and Pseudo-Events

The Internet continues to grow as an information and entertainment medium. Internet growth has implications for the news industry. Twenty-four hour news networks such as CNN and MSNBC regularly encourage viewers of their television programs to visit their Web sites. While visiting news Web sites, visitors are invited to participate in opinion polls. Unfortunately, these online opinion polls are not scientific and have little real news value. In spite of these limitations, news Web sites' Internet polls are often treated as serious topics in broadcast news discussions. This article examines media organizations' Internet online polls and critiques them as instances of symbolic representation and pseudo-events that have arisen largely out of the integration of print, broadcast, and Internet media.     

News Aggregation and Content Differences in Online Cancer News

Gatekeepers usually control news information. However, recent technological advancements might require rethinking previous gatekeeping hierarchies. Aggregation algorithms currently filter and present news information to millions of American Internet users daily. A content analysis demonstrates significant differences between health news content retrieved from Web sites that aggregate their articles from many sources (e.g., Google News), and those that focus on providing news from a limited number of sources (e.g., CNN.com). Explanations for these content differences are discussed, as are implications concerning health information seeking and Internet news consumption.     

A Squatter on the Fourth Estate: Google News

SUMMARY

Buoyed by its brand name, Google News has grown from its beta stage into a popular news site with a significant share of the Internet market for “Current Events and Global News.” The success of Google News raises questions about the nature of news and even the desirability of Google's presenting news. Where does Google News fit into the myriad news resources available on the Internet and in libraries? How does Google News work? Is Google News an effective source for news research? How will Google News stand up to its competition, in particular a new wave of community news sites?     

Second Generation Net News: Interactivity and Information Accessibility in the Online Environment

This study assesses the ways in which local television news operations and major metropolitan newspapers in the top 40 U.S. media markets are making information accessible and structuring interactive experiences online as the industry transitions into a third generation of Internet news. As Net news approaches its first decade of existence, online news sites are assumed to be evolving from a noninteractive, passive model of information delivery into an environment of increased immediacy, content richness, and user control. To investigate this question, a content analysis was performed in 2 waves, once during fall 1998 and again during fall 2000. For comparative purposes, differences across years are examined. In addition, the efforts of local television news sites are contrasted with the online activities of dominant newspaper sites, which have assumed a commanding lead in building a local online audience. The analysis argues for valuing Net news sites less from a profit-loss standpoint and more for the nonmonetary contributions they make in relation to the broader news mission, namely, enhanced coverage, brand loyalty, and news credibility.     

台湾地区新闻从业人员网络素养与网络新闻识读能力之研究

认为1999年因网络原生新闻概念而创立的网络报纸在台湾出现后,网络新闻开始让传统新闻媒体的产制作业产生冲击,新兴媒体时代的新闻产制过程,让新闻工作者无法用原本的媒体素养来因应网络。使用问卷调查法,了解新闻从业人员的网络素养以及具备网络素养的衡量准则。研究结果发现,新闻工作者已大量使用网络,但网络素养却十分匮乏,难以因应媒体科技在新兴媒体时代的变化。     

Internet and Television Are Not Substitutes for Seeking Political Information

Internet news consumption is growing and television news viewership is decreasing; however, online news is not a substitute for television news. This study found motives for seeking political information from television and the Internet to be information-seeking, entertainment, civic duty, and social utility. In seeking political information, audiences use Internet and television in conjunction as supplements or complements, rather than as substitutes. Multiple regression analysis showed that information-seeking and social utility predicted television use, and information-seeking and civic duty predicted Internet use.     

U.S. Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity: Progress Issues and Strategies

The 1998 Public Library Outlet Internet Connectivity study (Bertot & McClure, 1998) sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) collected public library outlet Internet connectivity data by outlet metropolitan status, poverty, and region strata. Based on a national survey, the results show that there are disparities in public library outlet Internet connectivity, public access provision, and speed of public access Internet services. Such disparities have implications for future connectivity policy development such as the e-rate, state library-based connectivity programs, and library-initiated connectivity initiatives that this article identifies and explores. Community Access Points (CAPS), in addition to public libraries, may be necessary to reach national goals related to universal service and equality of access to the Internet.     

Does Online News Reading and Sharing Shape Perceptions of the Internet as a Place for Public Deliberations?

With the rapid development of interactive communication technology, the Internet is a major source of news and also plays an important role in connecting individual members of society. However, Internet users may have different perspectives on whether the Internet positively functions as a medium for public deliberation. Based on the assumption that being exposed to information on public affairs is a crucial step for one's civic engagement, this study explores how individuals’ motives related to news consumption, elaborative online news reading, and online news sharing influence their perceptions of online deliberation using structural equation modeling method (N = 998). The study finds significant relationships between news consumption motives and elaborative news reading and sharing behaviors, but only elaborative reading behavior had a significant effect on one's perceptions of online deliberation. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Culture and comparative media research: Narratives about Internet privacy policy in Chinese,U.S., and UK newspapers

This article compares American, British, and Chinese news coverage of Internet privacy policies. Specifically, we examine media discourse about the “real-name” policies established by Facebook and Weibo. We find that U.S. and UK news coverage of Internet privacy policy is broadly similar, when compared with the more authoritarian–corporatist media system in China. British and U.S. newspapers were much more independent from state control, and were able to maintain a more critical stance than the Chinese newspapers. But there were additional factors that shaped the patterns in news discourse in complicated ways, which are related to (a) the difference between domestic and international news genres, (b) specific narratives about national identity, and (c) more general discourses about civil society, democracy, and the public good. We suggest that the range of comparative media research can be extended by paying attention to how these cultural factors interact with media system dynamics.     

Political Discussion,Political News,and Internet Use: Factors of Media Trust in South Korea

This study examines political and communicative factors predicting trust in mainstream newspapers and television by analyzing a set of survey data collected in South Korea. The results show that supporters of the opposition party are less likely to trust the mainstream news media than supporters of the ruling party. Daily Internet use negatively predicted trust in media only for nonpartisans. However, for supporters of the opposition party, daily Internet use moderated the interaction effect between political discussion and exposure to political news on trust in media.     

西方三大通讯社如何应对互联网带来的挑战与机遇

因特网的迅猛发展 ,给通讯社带来巨大挑战 ,使其“新闻信息总汇”的地位受到威胁。同时 ,因特网又给通讯社带来极大的机遇 ,大量网站的出现 ,为通讯社孕育了一个巨大的新闻信息市场。西方三大通讯社在发展其网络服务时 ,采取了基本相同的策略 ,第一 ,采用通讯社的传统模式向网站提出新闻信息 ,第二 ,走资源整合的道路 ,与外部公司特别是IT公司合作 ,向全球提供无限上网服务和技术。     

Meta-analysis of the relationship between Internet use and political participation: examining main and moderating effects

Although a growing number of studies are examining the relationship between Internet use and political participation, varying study characteristics make the overall effect size difficult to estimate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated the mean effect size and tested whether the effect size was influenced by study characteristics. Data for this meta-analysis were derived from 56 papers reporting 63 independent studies. Results revealed that Internet use had a weak relationship with political participation (r_c?=?.22). Moderator analyses demonstrated that type of Internet use, Internet use measure, Internet use for news, type of political participation, sample origin, and survey year significantly moderated the relationship between Internet use and political participation. For instance, Internet use including news (r_c?=?.27) had a significantly stronger relationship with political participation than did Internet use excluding news (r_c?=?.19). European samples (r_c?=?.27) had the largest mean correlation followed by North American samples (r_c?=?.23) and Asian samples (r_c?=?.18) in decreasing order of strength of relationship. The theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.     

Censor dot gov: the Internet and press freedom 2000

The rapidly growing volume of news and information on the Internet poses immediate problems for governments intent on influencing or controlling the ideas accessible in cyberspace. Old methods of censoring news and information are being remodeled to cope with the new communication technologies. This article examines some of the new methods of controlling information flows. These legislative and juridical actions in democratic as well as less-than-democratic states belie early assumptions that the content of Internet flows would be uncontrollable by governments. To place press freedom in context worldwide, the paper includes the latest (January 2000) Freedom House assessments in 186 countries. The study found that press controls are becoming subtler and less detectable in Europe, Latin America and where “Asian values” are projected to control internal and external news and information flows. For 400 years, governments learned to censor each new medium — newspapers, radio and television — as it appeared. The paper acknowledges that the Internet provides the greatest challenge to censors, but they are striving to master electronic forms of communication. The independence of the Internet, the study concludes, becomes the newest test of a government's will to encourage and sustain a free press.     

Complexity,Uncertainty and Change in News Organizations

ABSTRACT

Media managers and journalists have responded to digitalization over time by implementing online journalism and by converging and de-converging print and online newsrooms. Drawing on complexity and uncertainty theories, this article develops a cycle model, which furthers the understanding of why and how news organizations change. Qualitative and quantitative findings in two European legacy media companies indicate that managers are constantly striving to minimize their own complexity and uncertainty, which, in turn, drives change in news organizations through different stages that are characterized by economization and integration or investment and specialization. More specifically, under lower external and internal complexity and uncertainty, managers are pushing news organizations toward more economization and integration. However, they invest and specialize if either their external or their internal complexity and uncertainty increase. Moreover, the findings reveal the mechanism through which the internal complexity and uncertainty arise, and they show differences depending on the ownership structure of a news organization.     

A Theory of Political Campaign Media Connectedness

The study of political mass communication information outlet effects has been dominated by two types of studies, those which focus on a single outlet and those which look at the comparative influence of multiple outlets. The current study seeks to advance a third study type by offering a theory of political campaign media connectedness. Three axioms are offered in this work. In addition, a series of hypotheses involving five political communication campaign information outlets (conservative political talk radio, FOX cable TV news, daily newspapers, national network TV news, debate viewing) are posited. This work emphasizes the need to understand how various information outlets function in coordination with one another to produce a potentially diverse set of direct and indirect political campaign media effects. Future lines of theoretical inquiry and empirical research are outlined.     

Journalism as institution and work in Europe,circa 1860

This article presents a comparative historical analysis of the relationship between journalism as institution (i.e., a particular set of organizations in society) and journalism as work (i.e., an activity practiced by individuals) in four European countries: Britain, Sweden, Germany, and Estonia. The analysis compares the institutional context of journalistic work in these four countries around 1860, focusing in particular on the organization of journalistic labor at the national newspaper of record. The historical comparison reveals how exceptional the British case is. The study finds that British journalism circa 1860 exhibited a high division of labor, high labor specialization, and was increasingly focused on news gathering and production. Swedish and German journalism exhibited an emerging division of labor and labor specialization, and was focused on political debate (rather than news gathering and production). Estonian journalism exhibited hardly any division of labor or labor specialization, and was focused on raising national awareness.     

Publishing in Kosova/Kosovo

Abstract

Albanian-language publishing in Kosova during the 1990-1999 period was very much affected first by Serbian censorship and persecution, then by the war. The situation has improved since the fighting stopped in the summer of 1999, with most of the seven main publishers having reopened. The author reviews major newspapers, news magazines and other periodicals from Kosova, then lists books by important authors brought out by various publishers. The Internet has proven an important means of communicating news and culture, especially during the recent disruptions; several sites are listed. A section follows showing some significant library collections of Kosovar Albanian material. The author suggests acquiring such publications directly from their publishers and gives contact information. Finally, there is an English-language bibliography of recommended reading about Kosova in general.     

The Partisan Affect of News Seekers vs. Gatekeepers: Linguistic Differences in Online vs. Front-Page News in Campaign 2012

This article examines if patterns in online news seeking privilege stories featuring more linguistic markers of partisan affect than those positioned by traditional gatekeepers on the print front page. Online “most-read” and print front-page stories covering 8 weeks of the 2012 presidential campaign were submitted to computer-assisted text analysis (n = 302). Guided by research on online and partisan affect, this study hypothesizes that (a) “most-read” stories will feature more supportive language than stories placed on the front page by traditional gatekeepers when the news outlet has a reputation for supporting the incumbent party; and (b) “most-read” stories will feature more antagonistic language than those placed on the front page by traditional gatekeepers when the news outlet has a reputation for supporting the challenger party. The findings show how online audiences opted for stories that featured more linguistic markers of preferred partisan affect than journalists and editors placed on Page One.     

新闻“透明性”原则:规避虚假新闻的可能性探讨--基于《新闻记者》2010—2018虚假新闻研究报告的分析

互联网时代的新闻传播环境发生了巨大变化,虚假新闻及其传播也呈现出新特点。作为互联网技术条件下新闻生产过程的方法论变革,新闻“透明性”原则在实践和理论两个层面不断发展。本文结合《新闻记者》2010—2018虚假新闻研究报告,从“新闻生产前”“新闻生产中”和“新闻生产后”三个层次分析了虚假新闻产生的原因,论述了透明性原则在新闻生产各阶段对规避虚假新闻的生产与传播起到的作用,探讨了透明性原则作为一种新的理念引入新闻工作实践对规避虚假新闻的可行性。     

How Ordinary MPs Can Make it Into the News: A Factorial Survey Experiment with Political Journalists to Explain the Newsworthiness of MPs

Parliamentarians have to compete against each other to make it into the news, and some of them succeed more than others. Based upon news value theory, I consider MPs’ characteristics as news factors to explain their newsworthiness. I take an innovative approach by conducting a factorial survey experiment with political journalists. This allows me to study first which MPs are considered newsworthy and second whether journalists judge MPs’ newsworthiness regardless of their own personal background. In total, 73 Belgian journalists each judged 8 fictional press releases in which we carefully manipulated 4 characteristics of the MP sending it: party affiliation, issue specialization, media reactivity, and political action. Results show that parliamentarians from larger parties, those who react on mediatized issues, and those who communicate about their bill proposals are more newsworthy. Journalists’ judgments do not differ according to their gender, age, education, or political leaning.