Does China's outward focused journalism engage a constructive approach? A qualitative content analysis of Xinhua News Agency's English news

This study examines the rationalisation of the news frames of currency-related international economic interaction by analysing news articles from the ‘China Focus’ column in China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency. Thematic analysis of the main themes in the news articles shows dominant positive coverage of China’s economic development. Using qualitative content analysis, it also investigates the breeding of the ‘emergence’ of constructive journalism practices in China. It finds that Xinhua prioritises the frames of referring to solutions to the conflict and problem and mentioning the social and economic stability, sustainability, and prosperous development. The frames of moral judgement, conflict and its formation, and human interest are less applied in news articles. It bears elements of constructive journalism, but still needs efforts to make a clear division from positive journalism and Party journalism.     

LEGITIMIZING WIKIPEDIA

Within only a few years, the collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia has become one of the most popular websites in the world. At the same time, Wikipedia has become the subject of much controversy because of inaccuracies and hoaxes found in some of its entries. Journalists, therefore, have remained skeptical about the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia's information, despite the fact that research has consistently shown an overall high level of accuracy compared to traditional encyclopedia. This study analyzed the framing of Wikipedia and its use as a news source by five US national newspapers over an eight-year period. A content analysis of 1486 Wikipedia references in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Christian Science Monitor found that Wikipedia is framed predominantly neutral and positive, and that it is increasingly used as a news source. By framing Wikipedia as credible and accurate, the newspapers help legitimize the use of the online encyclopedia. By allowing Wikipedia to influence their news agendas as a source, the newspapers confirm the growing reliability of Wikipedia.     

THE LAST DAYS OF CIVIC JOURNALISM

Almost 15 years after it started, civic journalism is waning. Some say that its practices have been integrated into the routines of news making without the label attached. Others say that it is simply dying. This study seeks to define the legacy of civic journalism by investigating the news practices in Savannah Morning News, a newspaper in Georgia, USA. Ethnographic observation and interviews found that the ideas of civic journalism were instituted in the newspaper through its presentation and the routines of discovering community news. However, it was less obvious in the discovery and gathering of news about larger events and issues. The role of the news organization in convening the public for problem solving has continued, but the role of championing particular solutions was not observed.     

COVERING “FINANCIAL TERRORISM”

The 2010 Greek financial crisis marks an important chapter in an era where the underlying maneuvers of private financial entities figure centrally in the wherewithal of Western nation states. Utilizing framing research, this study examines representation of the Greek crisis by US news media from December 2009 to July 2010. In contrast to the incident's coverage in the European and business press initially attributing the crisis to speculation and the manipulation of Greek debt, major US news media presented the event through specific event-driven frames that obscured knowledge of deeper causes. By drawing attention to dramatic events in Athens and the American stock markets, US outlets presented the financial crisis in narrow terms that blamed the event on alleged character flaws and ineptitudes of a nation and its people. This reportage legitimized proposals of economic austerity as reparation. In the midst of excessive business and financial-related information, the ability of US journalism to explain how and for whom transnational economic processes proceed remains provisional. Journalism prompting public discourse on such dynamics is crucial at present as the formulas hastening the Greek crisis now threaten industrialized countries throughout the West.     

新闻文化的数学观

新闻文化与数学文化具有一种天然的一致性。本文在数学思维的视野下,概要分析了新闻文化中的诸多数学观念,特别是从模型意义,审美结构与内容,尤其是简洁美、对称美、奇异美,以及求极值、重证明等方面,提出了一些值得新闻文化借鉴的重要内容和方法。     

Whose News? Whose Values?

As user-generated content (UGC) and citizen-driven forms of journalism have risen to prominence alongside professional media production, they have presented a challenge to traditional journalistic values and processes. This study examines that challenge from the perspective of the creators and consumers of citizen-driven news content, exploring their perceptions of citizen journalism and the professional tenets of good journalism. Through a nationally representative survey of US adults, this study finds that citizen journalism consumers hold more positive attitudes toward citizen journalism, but do not show a significant identification with professional journalistic values, while general news consumption is positively related with affirmation of professional journalistic values. Compared with consumption, content creation plays a relatively insignificant role in predicting attitudes toward citizen journalism and the professional tenets of good journalism. Implications for understanding the changing perspectives of news creators and consumers are discussed.     

LOSING THEIR “MOJO”?

Mobile journalism, whereby a single reporter must write, shoot, and edit their own news stories, is a rapidly growing trend among local television news organizations in the United States and around the world. Using qualitative case study methodology, specifically in-depth interviews and observation, this study compares “mobile journalists” with journalists working within a traditional television news crew, in which a reporter concentrates on the writing and interviewing aspects of newsgathering and a videographer concentrates on the audio/video production. The research looked at four aspects of “professionalization” found in the sociology of professions literature; expert knowledge, professional autonomy, routinization, and encroachment from outside organizations. Findings suggest that the mobile journalists in this study have less specialized expert knowledge. Also, though the mobile journalists felt that working outside a crew gave them greater autonomy, their increased use of work routines suggests they have given up some control to organizational needs. Additionally, there is evidence that these mobile journalists have allowed some encroachment by other professionals, specifically public relations professionals, in order to accomplish their work tasks within specified deadlines with limited time and resources.     

How can Journalists Promote News Credibility? Effects of Evidences on Trust and Credibility

ABSTRACT

With reference to the current debate about a loss of trust in news media, journalism experts in practice and research often demand that journalists should concentrate on enhancing the quality of their reporting and hence focus on facts and evidences. Building on research on trust and credibility, we investigate how the use of different forms of evidences affects the credibility and quality evaluation of news stories, as well as the reading experience from the audience’s perspective. We conducted an online experiment to detect the influence of the presence of scientific sources, statistical information, and their visualization in an online article. Our findings indicate that these evidences increase the perceived credibility. At the same time, we found that adding scientific sources, statistical data and, visualizations to an article does not lessen its reading enjoyment but improves its perceived vividness in the view of news users. Further results and implications are discussed.     

What is Slow Journalism?

In an era of fast and instantaneous journalism and concerns about the deleterious effects of speed, it can be easy to lose sight of the other kinds of journalism being practiced, other temporalities for its production. There has been little scholarly work on slow journalism, so the first aim of this article is, if not to define, then at least to describe some key characteristics of what slow journalism might be. It will look at how the term has been used on blogs, websites, public forums, and in the minimal scholarly literature available. It will also explore some examples by producers who identify with the term to see what slow journalism looks like in practice. The proliferation of independent journalism using Slow as a way of thinking about production suggests that we are witnessing a new alternative emerging in the mediascape.     

COLLABORATION,CONSENSUS, AND CONFLICT

Wikinews began in November 2004 as a collaborative online journalism project and sister project of Wikipedia, the well-known collaborative online encyclopedia. This article explores how Wikinews members have defined “news” and the ramifications of that definition for how they have been able to produce news collaboratively. One of the defining characteristics of Wikinews is a dedication to the neutral point of view (NPOV) policy, which was adopted from Wikipedia. NPOV serves as a structuring device for defining news, but also conducts a great deal of organizational work and is in turn structured by the discourses and debates of NPOV in stories. Further, a commitment to an organizational culture of consensus and collaboration, although not without handicaps in a news production environment, is a laudable achievement among Wikinews participants and could be a precursor to the way that citizen journalists will become more involved in news production in a sustainable way.     

2024年中国的新闻学研究

本文从2024年近30种中文学术期刊（包括港台地区）中遴选出在研究问题、观点视角和论证方式等方面较为创新的新闻学论文。2024年中国新闻学研究保持较为稳定的议题聚焦与视角创新。首先,新闻理论、新闻生产、媒体融合、新闻从业者以及新闻用户等方面的研究,支撑起过去一年新闻学知识生产的基本盘。其次,随着数智传播技术对新闻实践的不断重塑,关于新闻业务与多元叙事的理论探讨重回新闻研究的前沿视野。此外,研究者们在中国新闻创新实践的追踪与比较、经典新闻学概念的反思与钩沉、新闻史与社会政治史的交叉研究以及新闻与社会性别等议题的探索上亦有亮点。     

浅议近年我国假新闻的发展趋势及新闻职业精神缺失

比较近几年的假新可以发现一个令人担忧的现象：假新闻之风越演越烈,不但数量增、媒介增多,而且故意失实也增多。究其原因在于把新闻当作一般信息传播,完全忽视了新闻的本源观,这是新闻职业精神缺失的表现。     

论建设性新闻舆论监督

本文着重探讨了建设性新闻舆论监督的内涵,并说明我国新闻舆论监督为什么是一种建设性的监督,同时对如何有效地开展建设性的新闻舆论监督提出一些建议.     

2023年中国的新闻学研究

本文从2023年近30种中文学术期刊(包括港台地区)遴选出在研究问题、观点视角和论证方式等方面较为创新的新闻学论文,从新闻理论与自主知识体系、新闻文本的多维叙事、数字媒介语境下的新闻常规重构、新闻用户的偶遇与回避、场域实践与认知框架中的新闻从业者、新闻创新与事实核查、加速主义逻辑下的新闻时间性、新闻生产中的人-技融合、新闻制度与政策研究、新闻史研究十大话题,勾勒出过去一年中国新闻学的知识版图.研究发现,2023年中国新闻学研究的主要特点呈现在以下三个方面:一是中国的新闻学研究正在逐渐形成相对稳定且动态更新的议题群,尤其是新闻从业者研究与新闻接受研究保持着开放的理论对话与知识累积态势.二是在数字技术之于新闻业已然祛魅的当下,研究者们开始更加自觉地以比较视野来观照本土新闻理论构建的新可能,新闻常规、新闻时间性、事实核查成为过去一年更具理论导向的经验研究议题.三是经典研究议题与路径不断被重访,数字叙事语境下,相对静态的新闻文本研究重新焕发活力,新闻史研究回到报刊舆论与报界职业化等话题中持续深耕.