Effectiveness of a News Media Literacy Advertisement in Partisan Versus Nonpartisan Online Media Contexts

Moving media literacy messages out of the classroom and onto the Internet, where much news consumption happens, offers an opportunity to extend media literacy education to a wider public. However, in doing so it becomes important to consider how the context in which such messages are seen conditions their impact on media literacy attitudes and knowledge. The results of an experimental test suggest that a media literacy public service announcement was more effective in reinforcing media literacy beliefs when paired with a partisan, rather than a neutral, political program. The effects of presenting media literacy messages outside of the classroom are discussed.     

When Social Media Become Hostile Media: An Experimental Examination of News Sharing,Partisanship, and Follower Count

This study examines whether the characteristics of those who share news articles on social media influence the hostile media effect. In an experiment, participants read a news article shared by 1 of 4 Twitter users, 2 (Republican vs. Democrat) × 2 (21 vs. 503,000 followers). Consistent with the hostile media effect, both Republicans and Democrats believed that a news article shared by a Twitter user from an opposing political party was more biased than one shared by a Twitter user from the same political party. As the Twitter account had more followers, however, this effect was more prominent among Republicans and less prominent among Democrats.     

The Role of Political Identity and Media Selection on Perceptions of Hostile Media Bias During the 2012 Presidential Campaign

Viewing a hostile media bias against one’s group (e.g., political party) is a perceptual effect of media use. When it comes to the portrayal of political parties in the United States, prior research suggests that both Democrats and Republicans see mainstream media coverage as favoring the other side, regardless of the orientation of the political news coverage. Although prior research has not identified all factors that make this perceptual bias more likely, or at explaining how or why this perceptual effect occurs, we do know that it is related to one’s group identity. In this study, we examined salient predictors of hostile media bias during the 2012 presidential campaign. Individual (i.e., political cynicism) and group identity related (i.e., group status, intergroup bias, political ideology) differences of media users predicted such perceptions. But, the medium selected for political information about the campaign also mattered. The use of two media in particular—TV and social networking sites—appear to have blunted hostile media bias perceptions, whereas the use of two other media—radio and video sharing sites—appear to have accentuated perceptions that the media were biased against one’s party     

Processing of Sexual Media Messages Improves Due to Media Literacy Effects on Perceived Message Desirability

This study tested the double-edged desirability hypothesis to investigate whether a lack of reduction in desirability perceptions signified failure of a media literacy intervention to reduce the appeal of sexual portrayals or whether it instead represented an improved awareness of message-design techniques and, therefore, a successful intervention. Data from two media literacy curriculum evaluations, both pretest–posttest quasi-experiments with control groups (N₁ = 922, M = 14.13, SD = 1.07; N₂ = 1,098, M = 14.26, SD = 1.06) showed that the media literacy treatment in both studies eliminated the effect of desirability on participants’ attitudes, reduced the effect of message desirability on participants’ expectancies, and reduced the effect of message desirability on participants’ efficacy in one of the evaluations. The results supported the double-edged desirability hypothesis, which holds that media literacy education can diminish the influence of desirable but unrealistic sexual media messages on adolescents’ decision making concerning sex, regardless of whether it decreases their affinity for the messages. This approach appears to represent a more effective alternative to demonizing media messages teens find desirable.     

Knowledge Versus Beliefs: How Knowledge and Beliefs Mediate The Influence of Likeminded Media use on Political Polarization and Participation

Using cross-sectional data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey, this study tests 2 models that explicate the relationship between politically likeminded media use and political polarization and participation. The knowledge model suggests that the effects of exposure to likeminded media on individuals’ attitudinal polarization and political participation are mediated by knowledge of candidate issue stances. The belief model proposes that likeminded media use indirectly influences political polarization and participation via political beliefs. The results provide evidence that individuals’ beliefs mediate the influence of likeminded media consumption on attitudinal polarization and participation, but there was no support for the knowledge model. These findings indicate that individuals who consume politically likeminded news tend to develop polarized attitudes and are motivated to participate in political activities by forming biased beliefs associated with candidates rather than by gaining factual issue knowledge.     

Media Logic and Political Logic Online and Offline

One aspect of the mediatization of politics is the idea that political actors adapt to the communication logic of news media to gain, for example, news media attention. Currently, this process may be influenced by the diffusion of the internet as a political communication channel, especially because online communication provides a new opportunity for political actors to communicate directly with citizens. Thus far, the adaptation to media logic by political parties has mainly been examined in the context of election campaigns. In order to transfer these findings to regular political communication, this study compares the use of media logic in the mass media and in direct political communication channels online and offline about the United Nations Climate Change Conferences 2011 and 2012. A quantitative content analysis of the conference protocols (input) and the presentation of the conference results in the seven most frequently used German offline news outlets (print and TV) and their online counterparts, as well as political offline and online communication channels like parliamentary speeches and websites of the six parties represented in the German parliament (output), was conducted. Results show that in the context of regular political communication, political actors seem to follow media logic to a lesser extent than in the context of election campaigns. Thus far, the influence of online communication on the mediatization of politics seems to be rather marginal. The causes and consequences of these findings are discussed.     

Political News Journalists in Social Media

Social media allow everyone to show off their personalities and to publicly express opinions and engage in discussions on politicised matters, and as political news journalists engage in social media practices, one might ask if all political news journalists will finally end up as self-promoting political pundits. This study examines the way political news journalists use social media and how these practices might challenge journalistic norms related to professional distance and neutrality. The study uses cluster analysis and detects five user types among political news journalists: the sceptics, the networkers, the two-faced, the opiners, and the sparks. The study finds, among other things, a sharp divide between the way political reporters and political commentators use social media. Very few reporters are comfortable sharing political opinions or blurring the boundaries between the personal and the professional, indicating that traditional journalistic norms still stand in political news journalism.     

Second Screening and Political Persuasion on Social Media

This article seeks to explain political persuasion in relation to second screening—people’s use of a second screen (i.e., smartphone/laptop) while watching television to access further information or discuss TV programs. Employing a two-wave-panel survey in the United States, results show this emergent practice makes people more open to changing their political opinions, particularly among those who habitually use social media for news or frequently interact with others in social media contexts.     

Is Automated Journalistic Writing Less Biased? An Experimental Test of Auto-Written and Human-Written News Stories

ABSTRACT

By administering an online experiment, this study examined how source and journalistic domains affect the perceived objectivity, message credibility, medium credibility, bias, and overall journalistic quality of news stories among an adult sample (N?=?370) recruited using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) service. Within the framework of the cognitive authority theory, the study found auto-written news stories were rated as more objective, credible (both message and medium credibility), and less biased. However, significant difference was found between a combined assessment condition (news stories with source and author information) and a message only assessment condition (news stories without source and author information) in the ratings of objectivity and credibility, but not bias. Moreover, significant differences were found in the objectivity and credibility ratings of auto-written and human-written news stories in the journalistic domains of politics, finance and sports news stories. In auto-written news stories, sports news stories were rated more objective and credible, while financial news stories were rated as more biased. In human-written stories, financial news stories were rated as more objective and credible. However, political news stories were rated as more biased among human-written news stories, and in cases where auto-written and human-written stories were combined.     

Learning Politics From Social Media: Interconnection of Social Media Use for Political News and Political Issue and Process Knowledge

Drawing on a national survey of 1,157 South Korean adults, the present study finds that social media use for political news is positively associated with knowledge about political issues, but not with knowledge about political processes. Professional media use for political news is significantly associated with both political issue knowledge and political process knowledge. The impact of social media for news on political issue knowledge increases with the additive role of professional media news use. This study also finds that political talk strengthens the positive association between social media use for news and political issue knowledge.     

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。     

数字媒介与传统媒介在大学生中的公信力比较研究

通过分析北京市大学生抽样调查数据,发现大学生对传统媒介和数字媒介公信力的评价无显著差异,但在具体评价维度上,大学生认为数字媒介信息量更大、反映群众意见更加充分、揭露坏人坏事更加有力;在新闻类型方面,大学生更倾向于相信传统媒介上的经济、文教和科技新闻;对于政治、社会、娱乐新闻等,则更倾向于相信数字媒介上的报道。同时,从受众角度分析媒介公信力的影响因素,发现人口统计学变量对媒介公信力评价没有显著影响,但媒介使用情况对传统媒介公信力评价有显著影响;大学生对不同媒介公信力的评价与其对中国经济社会发展前景的态度显著相关。     

上线新闻客户端,传统媒体如何羽化成蝶

本文聚焦传统媒体上线新闻客户端的大趋势,认为这是媒介融合和市场化环境压力所迫,也是由于阅读习惯改变所致。传统媒体客户端,专业队伍、资源、内容深度、广度和整体质量是其优势,富有市场潜力。但目前,新闻客户端遭遇困境,面临流量、用户黏性、影响力、商业变现等问题。论文提出并分析了当前传统媒体新闻客户端五种模式及其难起效的原因,认为,羽化成蝶还需从理念、内容、形式、运营等方面攻坚克难,做到有意义、有作用、有创意。     

#SocialJournalism: Local News Media on Twitter

A content analysis of 4,507 tweets from 60 local news organizations in the United States was conducted to examine Twitter strategies used by the local news industry. Results indicate that local news organizations in the United States mainly used Twitter as an additional platform for news dissemination. While local TV stations and newspapers differed significantly in their use of tweet structures, content, and strategies, both followed the similar practices of their traditional media portals. In addition, the number of followers and total tweets of a news organization’s Twitter account, use of photos, hashtags, usernames, and tweet content predicted audience engagement with the site. Overall, local news organizations in the United States did not appear to use Twitter to cross-promote and/or supplement their traditional business practices. This research calls for more systematic, multi-dimensional social media management in local newsrooms.     

Perceived News Media Importance: Developing and Validating a Measure for Personal Valuations of Normative Journalistic Functions

This study features the development and validation of a multidimensional scale for Perceived News Media Importance (PNMI), a concept pertaining to how much individuals personally value normative functions of political/public affairs journalism. Comprised of six different dimensions that represent the weight of what citizens deem to be desirable about news work, the PNMI concept exhibits the capacity to strengthen scholarly explanations about the public’s perceptions of the news media and related democratic outcomes. More specifically this research, which employs three data sets, is designed to (1) explicate the PNMI concept, (2) develop and validate a PNMI scale, (3) and explore PNMI’s predictive value relative to news media use and support for freedom of the press. Evidence of validity is confirmed with media trust, political media use, political interest, and ideology. Furthermore, PNMI is shown to be predictive of (a) mainstream and social media-based news use, as conditioned by perceptions of the press satisfactory performing normative functions, and (b) support for press freedoms. While the hypothesized PNMI model (as a higher order latent construct with six lower order dimensions) exhibits a sound model fit, a combined data set (total N=912) reveals that PNMI could also be treated as a multi-factor, lower-order latent construct.     

Mediating Roles of News Curation and News Elaboration in the Relationship between Social Media Use for News and Political Knowledge

Social media have opened up new possibilities for news engagement, and one of the important possibilities is news curation, which is defined as the reconstructing, reformulating, repurposing, reframing and sharing of news through social media. Focusing on this news curation concept, this study extends the Cognitive Mediation Model and the Communication Mediation Model (O-S-R-O-R) to the social media context. Drawing on a national survey of 1,135 South Korean adults, the present study finds that news elaboration and news curation are positively related to political knowledge and mediate the association between social media use for news and political knowledge.     

Explaining Media Choice: The Role of Issue-Specific Engagement in Predicting Interest-Based and Partisan Selectivity

This study analyzes the predictors of 2 types of media selectivity: interest-based (i.e., choice of entertainment over politics) and partisan (i.e., choice of pro-attitudinal over counter-attitudinal or balanced news). Relying on a large survey-based experiment, we find that issue-specific engagement variables, including perceived issue understanding, issue importance, and issue attitude strength, predict interest-based and partisan selectivity above and beyond the influence of general political knowledge, news interest, and strength of political leanings. These results show that the drivers of selectivity are more complex than general political attributes; rather, they are contextual and reflect people’s engagement with particular issues.     

Media discourse and perception of game regulatory issues

This study examines how the issue of game regulation has been discussed and influenced public perception by exploring ideologically differing media outlets’ distinct uses of frames by analyzing news contents (N = 1,217) and public opinion survey of the national sample of Korean gamers (N = 1,362), who play games currently. The analyses include the influence of media on attitudes toward game regulation, perception of games, and frame adoption, based on the results of news content analysis. The study found that (a) mainstream media was ambivalent about game issues and tended to define gaming and gamers in sensationalistic ways; (b) while the dynamics of media effects on public attitudes toward game regulation are complex, exposure to game-related news content significantly impacted public attitudes; mass media that highlight the negative aspects of games have strong impacts on public perception toward games, which may ultimately affect attitudes toward game regulation.     

Adopting an Integrated Behavioral Model Approach to the Study of News Media Exposure: A Focus on Experiential and Instrumental Attitudes Toward Politics

Stepping beyond traditional mass communication and political communication frameworks, this study utilizes the integrated behavioral model to predict traditional broadcast and print news media exposure. Specific focus is given to experiential (Is politics interesting?) and instrumental (Is politics important?) attitudes. A secondary analysis is performed on 2010–2014 World Values Survey data (N = 6,961) consisting of representative samples collected from the United States, Germany, Australia, and Sweden. Interest is a statistically significant predictor of both types of news media exposure, but importance and Interest × Importance are statistically significant for broadcast only. The positive predictive value of political interest for broadcast is isolated to only those individuals who perceive politics to be of low personal importance. Discussion focuses on task difficulty when comparing broadcast and print news media exposure and the theoretical implications of the study’s findings. In addition, a research agenda based on the integrated behavioral model is proposed for the study of news media engagement.     

“When I Ask a Question,They Look at me Strangely”

This study uses qualitative interviews with 66 women journalists from print, broadcast, and online media in India, to understand how women political reporters assigned to the political beat negotiate gender issues and organizational and news routines while being effective journalists entrusted to cover matters of policy and enhance political awareness among audiences. Using Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy-of-influences model that introduces five levels of influence on news content, this study explores how institutional, news gathering, societal procedures, and professional practices influence the functions of women journalists on the political beat and percolate into the content they produce. The results show that in India’s growing media market, organizational and news routines, as well as the contentious issue of gender, control access to beats, especially the political beat, and percolate into news content produced by women political reporters.