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.     

Citizen-Centered Journalism and Contested Boundaries

This article explores the existence of a “citizen-centered journalism” that sees citizens as crucial participants in the construction of news and as co-creators of their own worlds. Through qualitative case studies of three news organizations, the article examines the motivation for using a citizen-centered approach, the news routines that are required to do so, the categories of content produced, and the perceived impact of this approach. The results suggest these news organizations are working in partnership with communities and striving to give a voice to historically marginalized communities. The journalists, however, see citizen participation as complementary to professional journalistic routines that favor verifiable information, rather than assigning inherent value to it for its own sake.     

Negotiating fragmented women's news: state,market and feminism in contemporary Chinese media

This study aims to explain the reasons for the transformation of women's news in contemporary China. It concludes that in comparison with women news's in the Maoist period, present-day women's news is represented in a fragmented way. This article analyses the differences among the individual, professional, and institutional aspects in news production, while emphasizing the complicated interaction among feminism, state, and market to illuminate the reasons behind women's news transformation. Due to the immanent masculinity of both state and market, feminism in China has to face a state–market complex, that is, double pressure. Comparing with state and market, the influence from feminism to journalism is quite weak and there is a long way to go before feminism realizes its own agenda for media transformation.     

Accountability,democracy, and globalization: a study of broadcast journalism in India

This paper shows that globalization of the Indian broadcast landscape, despite market pressures, has allowed Indian journalists to seek accountability from the government, and has given audiences a broadcast voice. While increasing pro-market focus of news content diminishes emphasis on public service and democratic debates, in many instances, broadcast journalists give voice to the voiceless and seek accountability from the police and political actors. By analyzing news content and journalism practices of several English and Hindi 24-hour news channels, this paper addresses the question as to what extent television journalism's watchdog function continues to strengthen the democratic system and increase democratic participation in India.     

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.     

Mapping Changes in Local News

Local news media in the United Kingdom are undergoing a multitude of changes which have implications for our understanding of their value in local democracies. Despite the potential significance of these changes for those actors responsible for the provision of local news, very little research has investigated journalists’ and political communicators’ perceptions of the impact of these threats and opportunities. This article addresses this gap by presenting research which investigated the views of key stakeholders in the production of local news in a large city in the United Kingdom. The thematic analysis of 14 interviews evaluates how normative roles attributed to journalism, such as representing the public, acting as a watchdog, providing information, and running campaigns, are being fulfilled by different news providers in the current news ecology.     

Aggregation,Clickbait and Their Effect on Perceptions of Journalistic Credibility and Quality

ABSTRACT

Many journalists and industry observers lament that aggregating news underneath sensational headlines will erode credibility and turn off readers. While some scholarly work has studied journalists’ perspectives of this practice, little has been done to understand what audiences think of aggregation and clickbait. This study uses published original and aggregated news articles as stimuli in two online experiments to test readers’ perceptions of news aggregation and clickbait. Aggregation itself has little effect on perceptions of credibility and quality; instead, writing proficiency is more closely linked to these perceptions. Results also suggest clickbait headlines may lower perceptions of credibility and quality.     

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.     

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。     

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.     

CORRECTING THE RECORD

Contemporary journalists are, on a daily basis, adopting new work practices to remain relevant in the changing media environment. This study examines these changing practices to determine if, and how, they have been accompanied by changes in journalists’ abilities to enact traditional ethical standards in the newsroom. It posits that by examining the performance of ethics by news actors, as opposed to ethical standards themselves, the importance and impact of changing news practices can be realized and addressed. To illustrate these changes, I explore the use of news corrections as a means for maintaining journalistic accountability. The findings suggest that key attributes of the contemporary news environment, including the rapid speed with which online information is transmitted, and the increasing participation of news consumers in the media environment, can help journalists in their quests for accountability. However, other changes associated with the online news environment, such as the ease with which online information can be erased from history, and the continuous evolution of newsroom technologies, highlight the need for journalists’ ongoing pursuit of new techniques to ensure that the standard of accountability is maintained.     

Measuring and Evaluating Reciprocal Journalism as a Concept

Building on research proposing reciprocal journalism as a concept underlying participatory practices and norms in journalism, this study examines how reciprocity might meaningfully be measured in a journalistic context. Using a survey of US journalists, this study adapts measures of reciprocal attitudes and behaviors to journalistic practices. It also develops measures of direct, indirect, and sustained reciprocity as applied to journalism, and explores the relationship between each of these reciprocal forms and one type of participatory behavior: interacting with audiences online. The results indicate that some measurements of positive reciprocity can be meaningfully translated to a journalistic environment and may help to predict forms of audience interaction. For future research, the findings point to the potential for forms of reciprocity to be explored as antecedents for other journalistic norms and practices.     

And Deliver Us to Segmentation

Non-profit news publishers, a small but growing piece of the news media environment, often explicitly attempt to build strong ties with their audiences. Many assume this approach differs from that of legacy newsrooms, which have historically kept the audience at arm’s length. In this article, I argue that this distinction has blurred. In-depth interviews with reporters and editors at a daily newspaper (The Chicago Tribune) and a local news non-profit (City Bureau) reveal that: (1) both organizations are pursuing a more collaborative relationship with their audiences; and (2) this pursuit is ill-suited for the traditional mass audience approach to news production. I conclude that journalists aspiring to work more closely with the audience find greater success when that audience is narrow to begin with.     

Journalists’ Use of Knowledge in an Online World

There has been little empirical study of the extent to which journalists are drawing on and applying academic research and systematic knowledge, or of their sourcing routines and habits in this regard. This paper examines data from an original online survey conducted in fall 2015 with working journalists (N?=?1,118). Over all, about half reported drawing on research studies frequently in their stories, and journalists expressed strong support for the idea that research can improve story quality. A multivariate analysis finds that knowledge usage is more likely to take place among journalists with some forms of academic and statistical training, with a national audience and with more coverage specialization in science-related topics. Political and television journalists are less likely to use expert knowledge.     

Best Practices for Journalistic Balance: Gatekeeping,Imbalance and the Fake News Era

ABSTRACT

The concepts of balance and fairness are considered pillars for ethical journalism. However, balance is not clearly defined within the working profession, and more importantly, the construction of a balanced news story is often subjective to its creator and institution, leading to calls of imbalance by both the public and political figures. This study examines the construct of balance and if there is a connection between imbalance and fake news from the perspective of news journalists within the United States. Interviews with television journalists across the U.S. show the definition of balance is widely varied, with a need to expand beyond the traditional two-sides-of-the-story model; a recognition that the expanse of the Internet has created a force of un-vetted gatekeepers allowing for imbalanced reporting, and that the threat of fake news could seriously harm balanced journalism.     

A Typology of News Sourcing: Routine and Non-Routine Channels of Production

ABSTRACT

This article presents a novel typology for analysing the routinisation of news and daily newsroom practices. Drawing inspiration from the work of Sigal, Tuchman and others, the framework—comprising eight categories—provides a reconceptualisation of routine and non-routine channels of news production to facilitate an exploration of source material, focusing on initial story triggers. One contribution which is particularly useful relates to the subcategorisation of the traditionally singular “routine” channel; although the broad concept of routine source material is familiar, it has generally not been systematically deconstructed in previous analyses. Considering different types of routine news allows for a deeper understanding of how these channels are integrated into contemporary daily news production and the role of internal newsroom and external actor dynamics. This is particularly relevant in an era in which there is a high usage of information subsidies, passive news reporting, cannibalised content, and desk-bound work. As such, the application of this model provides insights into the dominance and subordinate use of various channels in contemporary newsrooms. The discussion also illustrates how such a typology can aid empirical research with reference to the content analysis study from which this framework was developed.     

THE EDITORIAL PRODUCTION PROCESS AND EDITORIAL VALUES AS INFLUENCES ON THE OPINIONS OF THE BRITISH PRESS TOWARDS EUROPE

British newspapers have been criticised for their coverage of the European Union and accused of contributing to the strength of anti-European opinion in the United Kingdom. Despite these claims, research by media sociologists and political communications scholars has commonly focused on news reporting, overlooking editorial opinions on European issues. This article addresses this gap by presenting a sociological analysis of editorial journalism in relation to European integration at 10 British national newspapers. The findings show that newspapers vary widely in the resources and roles they have assigned for editorialising on Europe, and provide an original insight into the common routines employed for producing editorial opinion. A model, entitled the editorial production process, is developed to illustrate the key stages of this routine. The specialist practices of editorial journalism are discussed through the identification of a set of editorial values used to select issues for comment.