The Role of Engagement in Learning From Active and Incidental News Exposure on Social Media

The growing reliance on social media as news platforms may lead to more passive news consumption but also offers greater potential for engaging in news. This study investigates the role of engagement with news content on Facebook and Twitter between news exposure and current events knowledge. An online survey (N = 400) tests the relationships between social media news seeking, incidental exposure to news on social media, engagement in shared news content, cognitive elaboration, and current events knowledge. The results show that both active seeking of and incidental exposure to news on both sites are linked to engagement, which is linked to greater cognitive elaboration about the content. Furthermore, engagement mediates the relationship between both types of news exposure and cognitive elaboration. However, engagement and elaboration are not related to knowledge. These results indicate that the key role of social media in news content is not knowledge gain but the ability to engage users who may be passively receiving news on these sites. This study extends the cognitive mediation model of learning from the news in the context of current social media, with updated news consumption norms such as engagement with news on these sites, and incidental news exposure.     

面向新闻领域的中文文本分类研究综述

在对文本分类及中文新闻分类概述的基础上,归纳出网络新闻文本特征及当前新闻文本分类特点,并总结新闻文本分类在新闻网站分类导航、话题识别与跟踪、个性化推荐三方面的应用。其后,总结中文新闻分类存在的问题,诸如缺乏通用语料和评价方法、分类体系粗略、分类维度单一等,并提出相应措施。最后,针对当前信息环境,提出新闻分类不仅将朝着多层次、多维度、跨语言方向发展,还将与多媒体信息、大数据、社会化媒体相结合。     

Global Mistrust in News: The Impact of Social Media on Trust

ABSTRACT

Digital platforms such as search engines and social media have become major gateways to news. Algorithms are used to deliver news that is consistent with consumers’ preferences and individuals share news through their online social networks. This networked environment has resulted in growing uncertainty about online information which has had an impact on news industries globally. While it is well established that perceptions of trust in news found on social media or via search engines are lower than traditional news media, there has been less discussion about the impact of social media use on perceptions of trust in the news media more broadly. This study fills that gap by examining the influence of social media as news sources and pathways to news on perceptions of the level of news trust at a country level. A secondary data analysis of a 26-country survey in 2016 and 2019 was conducted. The analysis revealed an increase in social media use for accessing news resulted in a decline in trust in news media generally across the globe. Higher levels of general mistrust in news were related to an increased use of sharing of news. This paper argues the use of social media for news is closely linked to the increase in news mistrust, which is likely to continue to rise as the number of people using social media to access news continues to grow.     

从新闻常规视角看新闻偏见的产生——麦奎尔关于媒介文化生产研究的启示

本文从新闻常规对进入媒体的新闻事实、消息来源以及具体新闻事实的呈现方式等的影响的角度对媒体新闻偏见的产生予以了分析,指出了两者之间的关联和矫正新闻偏见的可能路径.     

Priming and Fake News: The Effects of Elite Discourse on Evaluations of News Media

Fake news has become a prominent topic of public discussion, particularly among elites. Recent research has explored the prevalence of fake news during the 2016 election cycle and possible effects on electoral outcomes. This scholarship has not yet considered how elite discourse surrounding fake news may influence individual perceptions of real news. Through an experiment, this study explores the effects of elite discourse about fake news on the public’s evaluation of news media. Results show that exposure to elite discourse about fake news leads to lower levels of trust in media and less accurate identification of real news. Therefore, frequent discussion of fake news may affect whether individuals trust news media and the standards with which they evaluate it. This discourse may also prompt the dissemination of false information, particularly when fake news is discussed by elites without context and caution.     

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。     

THE THIRST TO BE FIRST

This article explores the growth and character of breaking news on two 24-hour news channels in the United Kingdom, Sky News and BBC News 24. Our purpose is to examine, in detail, the nature and role of breaking news and, more generally, its impact on the quality of television news journalism. We draw upon a series of content analyses of news programming conducted in 2004, 2005/6 and 2007, and compare the elements of a breaking news item with more conventional forms of news. Our findings indicate that “breaking news” has become an increasingly important part of the 24-hour news culture. This growth means that the typical breaking news item is becoming increasingly predictable and routine. Moreover, by most measures, breaking news items are less well informed and feature less independent reporting than conventional news items. As a consequence, we argue, the decision to cover more breaking news stories impoverishes the quality of journalism.     

处理好突发事件新闻报道中的两个环节

各类新闻时时都在发生,突发性灾难性事件成为新闻报道中的一个重要内容,做好重大突发事件的新闻报道,既是新闻媒体应履行的社会责任,也是新闻业务工作的重要组成部分.如何把握新闻的时效性与准确性,以及在视觉新闻报道中如何体现人文关怀,是新闻报道中诸多要素之一,也是容易被忽略的客观存在,文章就如何处理好新闻报道中的这两个环节,从不同的方面加以解析.     

Measuring the effect of political alignment,platforms, and fake news consumption on voter concern for election processes

Fake news, propagated on social media platforms, is regularly used as a tool to influence political beliefs. In this paper, we investigate the impact of fake news on perceptions of election processes by drawing on the theory of motivated reasoning. We use survey data on partisan alignment, news consumption habits, and voting methods collected before and after the 2020 United States general election. Our pre-election results indicated that political alignment and the type of news a voter consumes influences their trust perceptions of election processes. These findings were replicated in the post-election results. We also found that Facebook users were more likely to consume fake and hyper-partisan news, whereas people who directly navigate to news websites consume primarily mainstream news sources. Implications for research and policy are discussed along with opportunities for future research on the impacts of fake news.     

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.     

What Makes “Good” News Newsworthy?

To combat the constant supply of negative news, some online news outlets focus solely on “good” news. But what is the value of “good” news? A content analysis was conducted to determine which traditional news values (timeliness, conflict, impact, etc.) appear in stories on Web sites dedicated to positive news. The researcher compared “good” news sites to the New York Times. Results indicated that the majority of “good” news stories were entertaining and emotional, whereas the majority of New York Times stories involved authority figures and conflict. Good news stories were less committed to journalism’s core functions, such as holding power accountable and providing the public with information necessary for creating an informed electorate.     

THE JOURNALISTIC GUT FEELING

What goes on in editorial conferences and how do news journalists decide what is newsworthy? The journalistic “gut feeling” is an important part of the professional self-understanding of journalists and editors expressing how news judgements seem self-evident and self-explaining to the practitioners. This article presents an analysis of everyday news work drawing on the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu and using ethnographic material from observations of editorial practices in a Danish television newsroom as a case study. The analytical concepts “journalistic doxa”, “news habitus” and “editorial capital” are put to empirical work on close-up observations of journalistic practices in editorial conferences and two types of news values are identified as part of the journalistic “gut feeling”: the explicit orthodox/heterodox news values which are part of the sphere of journalistic judgement, and the implicit, silent doxic news values which are part of the sphere of journalistic doxa. An important task for future studies of journalistic practice is to investigate the seemingly self-evident orthodox news values as well as making visible the doxic news values imbedded in journalistic practice.     

Political Participation and Ideological News Online: “Differential Gains” and “Differential Losses” in a Presidential Election Cycle

Observations of the contemporary news media environment often revolve around the topics of ideological polarization and blurred boundaries between mass and interpersonal communication. This study explores these topics through a focus on the association between ideologically oriented online news use, commenting on online news, and political participation. We hypothesize that both ideological online news use generally and proattitudinal online news use are positively related to political participation and that online news commenting creates “differential gains” by augmenting these relationships. Yet we also hypothesize that counterattitudinal online news use is negatively related to political participation and that online news commenting creates “differential losses” by exacerbating this relationship. Analyses of two independently collected and nationally representative surveys found that frequent ideological online news use, proattitudinal online news use, and commenting are all positively related to political participation. We found no evidence for differential gains as a result of online commenting but only for differential losses—counterattitudinal online news use interacts with commenting to create a negative relationship with political participation.     

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。     

论新闻价值关系的构成

新闻价值是新闻客体对主体的作用和影响 ,这种作用和影响以新闻价值关系的存在为前提。本文从静动两个方面对新闻价值关系的构成进行了系统的考察 ,为全面理解新闻价值的内涵提供了一条新的思路。     

Attention cycles and the H1N1 pandemic: a cross-national study of US and Korean newspaper coverage

This study analyzes US and South Korean news coverage of the H1N1 pandemic to examine cross-cultural variations in attention cycle patterns, cited sources, and news frames. A content analysis was conducted on 630 articles from US and Korean newspapers during the period of April to October 2009. It found that attention cycle patterns, news frames, and sources varied across the two countries according to professional norms, cultural values, social ideologies, and occurrences of relevant events. While US news coverage showed two phases of waxing and waning attention, Korean news coverage showed five phases. The frames used in US news stories placed more emphasis on attribution of responsibility, action, and reassurance. Other framing variations were found as news attention in each country rose and fell. Regarding sources used, Korean news stories relied more on governmental sources, while US news stories used a greater diversity of sources. This study advances research on variations in the attention cycle for transnational issues by specifying how journalists’ framing of social problems can differ according to the following: cultural factors, the shape of the news attention cycle, and the occurrence of events related to the issue at hand.     

新闻事业的发展与媒介形态的演变

新闻事业是从事新闻传播活动的行业,而媒介是进行新闻传播的手段,新闻事业的发展基于媒介形态的演变,两者之间表现出相辅相成的互动关系。     

The Influence of Television News Depictions of the Images of War on Viewers

Results of an experiment about the influence of network television news coverage of combat in Iraq on viewers indicated that, compared with a control condition which featured news stories about combat operations in Iraq described by news anchors, news reports also featuring footage of combat operations increased viewer involvement levels about the war and reduced viewer support for continued military presence in Iraq. Television news footage of combat operations also reduced viewers' pride in U.S. military presence but did not affect other emotions. However, regardless of how news stories were packaged, women experienced greater emotional response to network news stories about combat operations than men. The results also shed light on the potential of inoculation to deflect such influence.     

News Organizations 2.0

This study aims at understanding international news differences by studying the headlines of over 360,000 news stories posted on the Twitter pages of 12 Arabic and English news organizations. The most referenced countries as well as figures and political actors are examined in these headlines, and the results show that a number of news values elements provide insight into the nature of the news selection. While Arabic channels are mostly focused on the events taking place in the Middle East (proximity), some English-language channels show clear preference for the countries from which they are located, especially CNN and Sky News, as well as Arabic and English state-owned media outlets like France 24 and RT (agenda and ideology). The findings suggest that news content largely follows a number of news values criteria that can explain the news selection process.     

News With an Attitude: Assessing the Mechanisms Underlying the Effects of Opinionated News

Opinionated news targets communities of likeminded viewers, relies on dramaturgical storytelling techniques, and shares characteristics with political satire. Accordingly, opinionated news should be understood as a specific form of political entertainment. We have investigated the mechanisms underlying the effects of opinionated news on political attitudes using an experimental design that employed manipulated television news items. Findings confirm that opinionated news positively affects policy attitudes via its presumed influence on others and subsequent perceptions of the opinion climate. However, opinionated news also negatively affects attitudes via hostile media perceptions and evoked anger, especially for people with incongruent political preferences. Due to these opposing processes, we found no total effect of opinionated news on policy attitudes. Conditions are discussed under which either the positive or the negative indirect effect is likely to dominate.