“MAYBE YOU NEED TO HAVE AN EARTHQUAKE”

This study explores whether the US media, particularly television, radio, and newspapers, met the expectations of international journalism educators concerning the coverage of world news. Four focus groups with 34 journalism educators from 29 countries were conducted in the United States. A critical discourse analysis shows that most journalism educators' expectations were not met because they found world news coverage to be deviant from the reality in their respective countries or regions. Discussion focuses on how the discourse could help us to understand how to coalesce international journalistic practices and information gathering in a new global hi-tech era, not only for the US media, but for other media systems around the world.     

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.     

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。     

Assessing Global Inequality of Bribery for News Coverage: A Cross-National Study

Bribery for news coverage has a negative impact on the credibility of media; it also restricts the free flow of information and violates the public's right to know. Further, research showed that there exists considerable inequality among countries in terms of the extent to which bribery for news coverage exists in media system. This study provides the first quantitative cross-national assessment of a set of predictors of the likelihood that bribery for news coverage exists in a country's media system and tested competing arguments derived from the literature. Data of this study are drawn from 66 nation states. The analysis shows that 5 groups of political, economic, cultural, educational, and technological variables have direct or indirect impacts on a country's media bribery level. The interactions between these variables are also analyzed. The study concludes by discussing how analyses of the nature of the international media bribery problem contribute to finding multiple approaches to solutions to this problem.     

客观性与压力型新闻报道——以“武大解聘病榻前教授”事件为例

基于用户生成内容的压力型新闻报道是对客观性的新冲击。在互联网技术的推动下,受眼球经济的刺激,由于对自身相对优势的认识不足,传统媒体与用户自由生成内容的关系越来越紧密。网络媒体的传播逻辑不断挟持、绑架着传统媒体的传播逻辑,损害了新闻客观性原则,最终影响到受众发现真相的行为。本文认为,基于用户生成内容压力下形成的新闻报道之所以偏离了客观性,并非网络技术的问题,而在于传统媒体在新闻采写过程中的执行力问题,因此,加强高质量的新闻采编队伍、增加基于自身媒介可能性前提下的‘新尺度’是重塑客观性的核心。     

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.     

Closing Gaps in International Knowledge and Participation: News Attention,Online Expression,and the 2010 Haiti Earthquake

The effects of international news have been relatively underexamined despite evidence that socioeconomic-based gaps in knowledge and participation tend to be the widest for foreign news. This study investigated international news use, online expression, foreign affairs knowledge, and monetary donations in the context of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Regression analysis of national survey data found that high levels of attention to news about the disaster narrowed the knowledge gap for foreign news questions. Also, attention to news about the earthquake was the strongest predictor of monetary donation to the relief effort after controls and was more than twice as likely as income to predict donation. Three measures of online expression (exchanging information about the Haiti earthquake via social media website, e-mail, and text message) also produced positive independent associations with donation, and produced a complementary effect with news attention when interaction terms were considered.     

Online Threat,But Television is Still Dominant

As news media change, so media news consumption changes with them. This paper, part of a larger international research project involving 11 countries in four continents (Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia), is focused on news consumption. As the range of media outlets has increased dramatically in recent years, this paper asks which news sources are people regularly watching, listening to or reading to understand what is happening in the world. Moreover, the paper tries to detect whether television news remains at the top of the news hierarchy, seeking to identify differences in news consumption in different countries with different media cultures and, consequently, different media behaviour, as well as to reveal differences in news media uses between older and younger generations.     

News You Can Use or News That Moves?

This study investigates how journalists covering international humanitarian crises make decisions regarding what types of information to include in stories. Specifically, the inclusion/exclusion of solutions-oriented information is addressed, since crises represent a key time during which the potential for international engagement is discussed in the mainstream media. Interviews with journalists covering hunger crises in Africa reveal an internal tension between maintaining a neutral, unbiased position and writing in a way that supports engagement and action. Ironically, perhaps, journalists find that including solutions-oriented information amounts to unethical and biased coverage, despite the fact that inclusion of solutions to social problems is an accepted and institutionalized aspect of the US news media’s mandate to the public. Reasons for this seeming contradiction are discussed, and I argue that solutions-oriented information not only can be included without demonstrating bias, but that it ought to be included to support ethical coverage that properly informs citizens about potential paths for political engagement.     

Understanding User-Librarian Interaction Types in Academic Library Microblogging: A Comparison Study in Twitter and Weibo

This research examined the ways in which academic librarians and users interact when using social media tools such as Twitter and Weibo as well as end-users' and librarians' perceptions of the types of interaction through social media. The study conducted an analysis of 1600 microblog posts sampled from twenty university library Weibo (Chinese Twitter) sites and twenty library Twitter sites in English-speaking countries. The results were compared using Chi-Square analysis. Results indicated that at present academic librarians in English-speaking countries use post information relevant to the library (news and events) and respond to information/research inquiries. And academic librarians in China are likely to use Weibo to communicate with users and to disseminate library news. Given the lack of previous research on how social media such as micro-blogging in general facilitates communication between librarians and library users in academic libraries between in English-speaking countries and China, this study provides valuable information concerning librarians' and end-users' interactions of information/knowledge sharing activities, which will enable libraries to be better positioned to promote user engagement through SNS usage.     

Not All Countries Are Created Equal: Foreign Countries Prevalence in U.S. News and Entertainment Media

Why do some countries appear more popular than others in mass media? Although researchers have long sought to explain foreign countries’ prevalence in the media, to date they have exclusively focused on news, leaving other types of media content unexplored. In addition, focusing on media effects and media content, the literature on entertainment and politics has largely ignored the study of agenda-building processes. Thus, this study fills these gaps by exploring factors affecting the volume of references to foreign countries in both U.S. news and entertainment media. Analyzing more than 400 U.S. television shows, four news channels, and two newspapers spanning from 2000 to 2011, we reexamine past findings on salience of foreign countries in the news and apply these findings to a new field of research, entertainment media. We further suggest that the same factors shaping foreign countries’ prevalence in the news media are applicable to both news and entertainment and that in the context of foreign countries’ prevalence, the criteria for “newsworthiness” and “fictionworthiness” is similar.     

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.     

新闻算法推荐的信息可见性、用户主动性与信息茧房效应:算法与用户互动的视角

算法已成为当今数字媒体技术的决定性因素,新闻推荐平台借助算法技术连接人与信息,为人们提供个性化的新闻服务。本研究基于算法和用户互动的视角,采用问卷调查方法,以新闻算法推荐平台的使用者为研究对象,探讨算法推荐的信息可见性、用户主动性和信息茧房效应。结果显示,新闻算法推荐整体上以用户为中心,在新闻可见性上,用户对趣味新奇性价值的认知感最强,新闻个性化程度凸显;用户对新闻推荐的使用上,以被动浏览行为最为普遍,自主性总体不高;用户对推荐算法技术有一定了解,表现出一定的算法素养;算法推荐对用户并未造成单纯的信息茧房效应,它同样可扩大受众接触资讯的范围,将用户带入更广阔的世界。最后,本文讨论了用户和算法之间的关系,发现两者不是彼此孤立的存在,而是始终处于相互响应、相互发展的状态。     

论新闻的“有机真实”

有机真实,不是简单的新闻真实类型,而是在新兴媒介环境中观察分析新闻生产、新闻真实的一种新观念、新视野,它意味着真实观念的变革,更意味着在新的媒介环境中,新闻真实实现的主体方式、媒介方式、符号方式、文本方式及其背后思维方式正在发生变革。有机真实的实质,是说新闻真实是在不同报道主体相互作用、相互影响过程中呈现的真实,有机真实是在不同媒介方式、符号方式、文本方式有机互动中呈现的真实。就当下来说,尽管有机真实的实现有赖于一个社会、一个国家信息的公开程度,有赖于职业新闻生产的透明度和公开度,也有赖于社会公众及其他各种社会组织、群体参与新闻生产传播的热情与水平,但最要紧的是,专业新闻媒体要充分发挥自身的专业能力,职业新闻工作者应该承担自身的应尽职责,在新兴媒介环境中重建自身的权威性、公信力。     

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.     

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.     

对新闻频道的思考

新闻频道在国际上已有成功的运作,但在我国还是刚刚起步,需要学习借鉴国际先进的经验。本文对较有影响的美国新闻频道CNN进行了简单的总结,概略地介绍了国际新闻频道的情况,并对我国的地方性新闻频道——福建新闻频道进行了分析,对新闻频道的建设提供了自己的想法。     

News Producers' Pressures on Advertisers: Production of Paid News in Slovenian Television Programs

While media and journalism studies focus on advertising pressures on news producers, media pressures on advertisers are overlooked. The present study is the first to analyze media pressures on advertisers and the ways in which all participants interpret the phenomenon. This study used ethnographic methods to study 10 Slovenian television stations and 10 corporate marketing departments, as well as in-depth interviews with key actors. The research showed that television advertising practitioners and journalists exert pressure on advertisers to pay for news that either promotes products/services or suppresses information that reflects badly on advertisers.     

Media Convergence: A Case Study of a Cable News Station

Media convergence is happening around the world. This study looks at the current operation of a cable news station that produces 2 media products in 1 newsroom. It also explores the theoretical foundations of value creation in online news by examining how online news is selected, packaged, processed, and distributed. Observational results showed that media convergence still has a long way to go. More important, this study found several divides between the Web people and the news people, between the managers and the reporters, and between the news department and the advertising department. This article suggests that convergence would go more smoothly if stations would integrate Web producers into the newsroom; if reporters were given incentive to do extra work or if their daily work load were adjusted to give them time to file for the Web; and if the sales people better understood the value of the online product.     

Understanding News Story Chains using Information Retrieval and Network Clustering Techniques

Content analysis of news stories is a cornerstone of the communication studies field. However, much research is conducted at the level of individual news articles, despite the fact that news events are frequently presented as “stories” by news outlets: chains of connected articles offering follow up reporting as new facts emerge or covering the same event from different angles. These stories are theoretically highly important; they also create measurement issues for general quantitative studies of news output. Yet, thus far, the field has lacked an efficient method for detecting groups of articles which form stories in a way that enables their analysis. In this work, we present a novel, automated method for identifying news stories from within a corpus of articles, which makes use of techniques drawn from the fields of information retrieval and network analysis. We demonstrate the application of the method to a corpus of almost 40,000 news articles, and show that it can effectively identify valid story chains within the corpus. We use the results to make observations about the prevalence and dynamics of stories within the UK news media, showing that more than 50% of news production takes place within the form of story chains.