In recent years, conspiracy theories on social media have emerged as a significant issue capable of undermining social perceptions of European integration. Narratives such as the Eurabia doctrine, which would imply an ethnic replacement of the indigenous European population with migrants (Bergmann, 2018), have been a significant resonance. Thanks to computational analysis, we have collected data from Twitter over three years (2020, 2021, and 2022) during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this period, we collected over 50,000 tweets strictly related to the Eurabia doctrine topic in different European languages. Analysing the collected data, we identified the most relevant voices spreading conspiracy theories online, the emerging narratives related to the Eurabia doctrine, and the primary sources used by the most active or mentioned subjects in spreading disinformation.
{"title":"The Eurabia Conspiracy Theory: Twitter’s Political Influencers, Narratives, and Information Sources","authors":"S. Monaci, Domenico Morreale, Simone Persico","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i4.7247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i4.7247","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, conspiracy theories on social media have emerged as a significant issue capable of undermining social perceptions of European integration. Narratives such as the Eurabia doctrine, which would imply an ethnic replacement of the indigenous European population with migrants (Bergmann, 2018), have been a significant resonance. Thanks to computational analysis, we have collected data from Twitter over three years (2020, 2021, and 2022) during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this period, we collected over 50,000 tweets strictly related to the Eurabia doctrine topic in different European languages. Analysing the collected data, we identified the most relevant voices spreading conspiracy theories online, the emerging narratives related to the Eurabia doctrine, and the primary sources used by the most active or mentioned subjects in spreading disinformation.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67700853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The field of local news is often associated with news deserts, commonly defined as geo-based communities without newspapers or other legacy media as providers of locally oriented news and civic information. This phenomenon is expanding in global society due to the diminishing presence of newspapers at moments of accelerated digitization. This study examines the multiplex nature of news deserts in rural and suburban areas in China. Data were collected through a multi-methods approach combining two focus groups and 44 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Patterns of engagement among interviewees reveal that smartphone-based social media applications and digital platforms function as viable sources of news, and incidental exposure to news has become the norm of digital news use. Government-orchestrated convergent media services and WeChat channels are preferred choices by most research participants for local news. We argue that a media ecology perspective may be a productive approach to understanding community news and local newspapers.
{"title":"Local News Deserts in China: The Role of Social Media and Personal Communication Networks","authors":"Zixue Tai, B. He, Jianping Liu","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i3.6812","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6812","url":null,"abstract":"The field of local news is often associated with news deserts, commonly defined as geo-based communities without newspapers or other legacy media as providers of locally oriented news and civic information. This phenomenon is expanding in global society due to the diminishing presence of newspapers at moments of accelerated digitization. This study examines the multiplex nature of news deserts in rural and suburban areas in China. Data were collected through a multi-methods approach combining two focus groups and 44 semi-structured in-depth interviews. Patterns of engagement among interviewees reveal that smartphone-based social media applications and digital platforms function as viable sources of news, and incidental exposure to news has become the norm of digital news use. Government-orchestrated convergent media services and WeChat channels are preferred choices by most research participants for local news. We argue that a media ecology perspective may be a productive approach to understanding community news and local newspapers.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45692342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Using the newspaper circulation data collected through the Alliance for Audited Media (n = 1,925 across five years), this study provides the first empirical spatial analysis of newspaper circulation in the US, employing the theoretical framework of communication geography and the analytical tool of spatial econometrics. From 2018 to 2022, a steady decline (at an average of 24.1% per year) in newspaper circulation was observed in most of the counties in the dataset, after controlling for spatial and temporal random effects. A positive and significant spatial autocorrelation was found across the US. The local indicators of spatial association results identified four types of spatial clusters that offer a more nuanced understanding of the local spatial distribution of newspaper circulation: news deserts, news oases, news islands, and the fringe of news deserts. The study also used Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling to pinpoint the regions that are more sensitive to the spatial structure regarding the decline of newspaper circulation.
{"title":"The Geography of Newspaper Circulations: A Spatial Taxonomy of “News(Paper) Deserts” in the United States","authors":"R. Wang","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i3.6856","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6856","url":null,"abstract":"Using the newspaper circulation data collected through the Alliance for Audited Media (n = 1,925 across five years), this study provides the first empirical spatial analysis of newspaper circulation in the US, employing the theoretical framework of communication geography and the analytical tool of spatial econometrics. From 2018 to 2022, a steady decline (at an average of 24.1% per year) in newspaper circulation was observed in most of the counties in the dataset, after controlling for spatial and temporal random effects. A positive and significant spatial autocorrelation was found across the US. The local indicators of spatial association results identified four types of spatial clusters that offer a more nuanced understanding of the local spatial distribution of newspaper circulation: news deserts, news oases, news islands, and the fringe of news deserts. The study also used Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling to pinpoint the regions that are more sensitive to the spatial structure regarding the decline of newspaper circulation.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47385437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This experimental study analyzes the effect of media literacy on the ability of Spanish seniors over 50 years of age to identify fake news. The experiment measures the improvement achieved by older adults in the detection of political disinformation thanks to a digital competence course offered through WhatsApp. The study comprises a total sample of 1,029 individuals, subdivided into a control group (n = 531) and an experimental group (n = 498), from which a qualified experimental subsample (n = 87) was extracted. Results reveal that participants’ political beliefs, ranging from left to right positions, influence their ability to detect misinformation. A progressive political position is associated with higher accuracy in identifying right-biased news headlines and lower accuracy for left-biased headlines. A conservative position is associated with higher accuracy when the news headline has a progressive bias, but lower accuracy when the headline is right-wing. Users are more critical when the headline has a bias against theirs, while they are more likely to believe news that confirms their own beliefs. The study adds evidence on the relevance of cognitive biases in disinformation and supports the convenience of designing specific media literacy actions aimed at older adults.
{"title":"Overcoming the Age Barrier: Improving Older Adults’ Detection of Political Disinformation With Media Literacy","authors":"C. Sádaba, Ramón Salaverría, X. Bringué","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i4.7090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i4.7090","url":null,"abstract":"This experimental study analyzes the effect of media literacy on the ability of Spanish seniors over 50 years of age to identify fake news. The experiment measures the improvement achieved by older adults in the detection of political disinformation thanks to a digital competence course offered through WhatsApp. The study comprises a total sample of 1,029 individuals, subdivided into a control group (n = 531) and an experimental group (n = 498), from which a qualified experimental subsample (n = 87) was extracted. Results reveal that participants’ political beliefs, ranging from left to right positions, influence their ability to detect misinformation. A progressive political position is associated with higher accuracy in identifying right-biased news headlines and lower accuracy for left-biased headlines. A conservative position is associated with higher accuracy when the news headline has a progressive bias, but lower accuracy when the headline is right-wing. Users are more critical when the headline has a bias against theirs, while they are more likely to believe news that confirms their own beliefs. The study adds evidence on the relevance of cognitive biases in disinformation and supports the convenience of designing specific media literacy actions aimed at older adults.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42308628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On the surface, it may look like there are no news deserts in the Czech Republic, but that does not mean that all audiences are able to get relevant local news. Apart from independent local news outlets, which are diminishing, Czech districts are served by information provided either by a delocalised publishing chain or a municipality press that promotes the local government. I will focus on the emergence of news deserts from the perspective of independent local newspapers, especially on the structural changes that lead to the declining number of media outlets that offer local news in Czechia. Moreover, I take the bottom-up approach to reflect on the local journalists’ point of view. The mixed-method research, which was conducted in 2019 and 2020, consisted of a survey of local newspaper owners and in-depth interviews with local journalists. I identified several structural changes to both the local newspapers and to the general publishing industry that have led to growing organisational and economic problems for the local newspapers, and often to their demise. Local news is still carried by newspapers, which depend on the traditional business model and are slow with their digital transition. Their survival is based on (non)cooperation with either ancillary organisations (printing office, distribution firm, and sales outlet) or other local newspapers. Newspapers are cornered by the demands of external actors; their economic stability depends on the self-sufficiency of their production.
{"title":"Backed Into a Corner: Structural Changes That Lead to Local News Deserts","authors":"L. Císařová","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i3.6731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6731","url":null,"abstract":"On the surface, it may look like there are no news deserts in the Czech Republic, but that does not mean that all audiences are able to get relevant local news. Apart from independent local news outlets, which are diminishing, Czech districts are served by information provided either by a delocalised publishing chain or a municipality press that promotes the local government. I will focus on the emergence of news deserts from the perspective of independent local newspapers, especially on the structural changes that lead to the declining number of media outlets that offer local news in Czechia. Moreover, I take the bottom-up approach to reflect on the local journalists’ point of view. The mixed-method research, which was conducted in 2019 and 2020, consisted of a survey of local newspaper owners and in-depth interviews with local journalists. I identified several structural changes to both the local newspapers and to the general publishing industry that have led to growing organisational and economic problems for the local newspapers, and often to their demise. Local news is still carried by newspapers, which depend on the traditional business model and are slow with their digital transition. Their survival is based on (non)cooperation with either ancillary organisations (printing office, distribution firm, and sales outlet) or other local newspapers. Newspapers are cornered by the demands of external actors; their economic stability depends on the self-sufficiency of their production.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48522979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines how journalists at two prominent news organizations have aimed to portray trustworthy digital reporting of marginalized communities. The case study draws on the concepts of engagement and trust as a resource to evaluate journalists’ articles and the related audience comments on The New York Times and The Washington Post digital sites. This study analyzed the digital news articles and audience comments in 2012 and the latter half of 2022 during the rapid expansion of mobile audiences and American readers’ declining trust in newspapers. As this study discovered, journalists at the two legacy organizations have portrayed novel forms of reporting relating to fresh notions of enhancing readers’ trust as well as elements of transparency and interactivity in the news. They have represented trustworthy journalism based on an inclusive approach and personalized depictions of marginalized communities’ experiences to appeal to readers increasingly using mobile devices. Although the journalists’ stories attracted some toxic tweets, their articles also encouraged digital subscribers’ loyalty and enthusiasm to help solve the reported problems affecting marginalized communities. This study indicates the possibilities of fostering trustworthy interactions among journalists and engaged subscribers in digital news spaces.
{"title":"Representing Trust in Digital Journalism","authors":"Caryn Coatney","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i4.6982","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i4.6982","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how journalists at two prominent news organizations have aimed to portray trustworthy digital reporting of marginalized communities. The case study draws on the concepts of engagement and trust as a resource to evaluate journalists’ articles and the related audience comments on The New York Times and The Washington Post digital sites. This study analyzed the digital news articles and audience comments in 2012 and the latter half of 2022 during the rapid expansion of mobile audiences and American readers’ declining trust in newspapers. As this study discovered, journalists at the two legacy organizations have portrayed novel forms of reporting relating to fresh notions of enhancing readers’ trust as well as elements of transparency and interactivity in the news. They have represented trustworthy journalism based on an inclusive approach and personalized depictions of marginalized communities’ experiences to appeal to readers increasingly using mobile devices. Although the journalists’ stories attracted some toxic tweets, their articles also encouraged digital subscribers’ loyalty and enthusiasm to help solve the reported problems affecting marginalized communities. This study indicates the possibilities of fostering trustworthy interactions among journalists and engaged subscribers in digital news spaces.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48244468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marcos Mayo-Cubero, Lucía García-Carretero, María-José Establés, L. Pedrero-Esteban
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a turning point in terms of communication and economics within the borders of the EU. Hence, the economic response to the consequences of the pandemic has been different from previous crises. Both factors influence the media’s representation of the European project, and the construction of this image is particularly relevant to generating a favourable public opinion towards the European project. This research aims to determine how the Spanish media represent the Next Generation recovery funds and to determine the main discourses around this issue. We analysed news items disseminated by a sample of six leading Spanish news media through qualitative and quantitative methods by applying content and critical discourse analysis. The selection collects data via Twitter from July 2021 to March 2022. We found that media discourse reflects a pro-European sentiment, departing from previous Eurosceptic views. Next Generation funds have positively influenced Spanish perception of the EU and shifted the narrative towards Europeanisation. The EU’s support for Spanish funds management advances European integration, but concerns about transparency and control remain. The findings show how the Spanish media present a pro-European view, placing the economic response as a window of opportunity for profound political, societal, and economic structural changes in Spain.
{"title":"The EU as an ATM? Media Perception Analysis of Next Generation Funds in Spain","authors":"Marcos Mayo-Cubero, Lucía García-Carretero, María-José Establés, L. Pedrero-Esteban","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i4.7130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i4.7130","url":null,"abstract":"The Covid-19 pandemic has been a turning point in terms of communication and economics within the borders of the EU. Hence, the economic response to the consequences of the pandemic has been different from previous crises. Both factors influence the media’s representation of the European project, and the construction of this image is particularly relevant to generating a favourable public opinion towards the European project. This research aims to determine how the Spanish media represent the Next Generation recovery funds and to determine the main discourses around this issue. We analysed news items disseminated by a sample of six leading Spanish news media through qualitative and quantitative methods by applying content and critical discourse analysis. The selection collects data via Twitter from July 2021 to March 2022. We found that media discourse reflects a pro-European sentiment, departing from previous Eurosceptic views. Next Generation funds have positively influenced Spanish perception of the EU and shifted the narrative towards Europeanisation. The EU’s support for Spanish funds management advances European integration, but concerns about transparency and control remain. The findings show how the Spanish media present a pro-European view, placing the economic response as a window of opportunity for profound political, societal, and economic structural changes in Spain.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42937781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although public service media is a trusted island in the media landscape of many countries, trust in public service media is not absolute and universal. This study adopts a qualitative approach to explore what trust and distrust entail for the public, a perspective rarely applied in trust research. Also, it explores the extent to which the sources of trust and distrust are the same and whether the concepts of trust and distrust are identical (only inverse), or linked but separate. It focuses on the Czech Republic, where the level of trust in the news is among the lowest in the world, yet public service media is the most trusted news source (Newman et al., 2022). Based on four focus group discussions with the general public (N = 24), this study analyzes the reasons for the audience’s trust and distrust in Czech public service media. There are three main categories: trust in the message (i.e., people trust public service media if, in their view, it provides objective, truthful, reliable, relevant, and fast information without sensationalism and anti-system views); trust in the source (i.e., people trust public service media if they perceive the public service media journalists as professional); and trust in the public service media organizations (i.e., people trust public service media if they perceive the regulatory framework as effective in ensuring independence from politics and oversight boards as a guarantee for quality). As the reasons leading to trust were not identical (only inverse) to the reasons leading to distrust, our findings suggest that trust and distrust in public service media are not two sides of the same coin.
尽管公共服务媒体是许多国家媒体版图中值得信赖的岛屿，但对公共服务媒体的信任并不是绝对和普遍的。本研究采用定性方法来探讨信任和不信任对公众的影响，这一观点在信任研究中很少应用。此外，它还探讨了信任和不信任的来源在多大程度上是相同的，以及信任和不相信的概念是相同的（只是相反的），还是相互联系但分离的。它关注的是捷克共和国，该国对新闻的信任程度是世界上最低的，但公共服务媒体是最受信任的新闻来源（Newman et al.，2022）。基于与公众（N=24）的四个焦点小组讨论，本研究分析了观众对捷克公共服务媒体的信任和不信任的原因。主要有三类：对信息的信任（即，人们信任公共服务媒体，如果在他们看来，它提供了客观、真实、可靠、相关和快速的信息，而没有耸人听闻和反系统的观点）；对来源的信任（即，如果人们认为公共服务媒体记者是专业的，他们就会信任公共服务媒体）；以及对公共服务媒体组织的信任（即，如果人们认为监管框架在确保独立于政治和监督委员会作为质量保证方面是有效的，那么他们就会信任公共服务媒体）。由于导致信任的原因与导致不信任的原因并不相同（只是相反），我们的研究结果表明，对公共服务媒体的信任和不信任不是一枚硬币的两面。
{"title":"Trust and Distrust in Public Service Media: A Case Study from the Czech Republic","authors":"Marína Urbániková, Klára Smejkal","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i4.7053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i4.7053","url":null,"abstract":"Although public service media is a trusted island in the media landscape of many countries, trust in public service media is not absolute and universal. This study adopts a qualitative approach to explore what trust and distrust entail for the public, a perspective rarely applied in trust research. Also, it explores the extent to which the sources of trust and distrust are the same and whether the concepts of trust and distrust are identical (only inverse), or linked but separate. It focuses on the Czech Republic, where the level of trust in the news is among the lowest in the world, yet public service media is the most trusted news source (Newman et al., 2022). Based on four focus group discussions with the general public (N = 24), this study analyzes the reasons for the audience’s trust and distrust in Czech public service media. There are three main categories: trust in the message (i.e., people trust public service media if, in their view, it provides objective, truthful, reliable, relevant, and fast information without sensationalism and anti-system views); trust in the source (i.e., people trust public service media if they perceive the public service media journalists as professional); and trust in the public service media organizations (i.e., people trust public service media if they perceive the regulatory framework as effective in ensuring independence from politics and oversight boards as a guarantee for quality). As the reasons leading to trust were not identical (only inverse) to the reasons leading to distrust, our findings suggest that trust and distrust in public service media are not two sides of the same coin.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45049688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the past 20 years, Silicon Valley’s platforms and opaque algorithms have increasingly influenced civic discourse, helping Facebook, Twitter, and others extract and consolidate the revenues generated. That trend has reduced the profitability of local news organizations, but not the importance of locally created news reporting in residents’ day-to-day lives. The disruption of the economics and distribution of news has reduced, scattered, and diversified local news sources (digital-first newspapers, digital-only newsrooms, and television and radio broadcasters publishing online), making it difficult to inventory and understand the information health of communities, individually and in aggregate. Analysis of this national trend is often based on the geolocation of known news outlets as a proxy for community coverage. This measure does not accurately estimate the quality, scale, or diversity of topics provided to the community. This project is developing a scalable, semi-automated approach to describe digital news content along journalism-quality-focused standards. We propose identifying representative corpora and applying machine learning and natural language processing to estimate the extent to which news articles engage in multiple journalistic dimensions, including geographic relevancy, critical information needs, and equity of coverage.
{"title":"The News Crawler: A Big Data Approach to Local Information Ecosystems","authors":"Asma Khanom, Damon Kiesow, Matt Zdun, C. Shyu","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i3.6789","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6789","url":null,"abstract":"In the past 20 years, Silicon Valley’s platforms and opaque algorithms have increasingly influenced civic discourse, helping Facebook, Twitter, and others extract and consolidate the revenues generated. That trend has reduced the profitability of local news organizations, but not the importance of locally created news reporting in residents’ day-to-day lives. The disruption of the economics and distribution of news has reduced, scattered, and diversified local news sources (digital-first newspapers, digital-only newsrooms, and television and radio broadcasters publishing online), making it difficult to inventory and understand the information health of communities, individually and in aggregate. Analysis of this national trend is often based on the geolocation of known news outlets as a proxy for community coverage. This measure does not accurately estimate the quality, scale, or diversity of topics provided to the community. This project is developing a scalable, semi-automated approach to describe digital news content along journalism-quality-focused standards. We propose identifying representative corpora and applying machine learning and natural language processing to estimate the extent to which news articles engage in multiple journalistic dimensions, including geographic relevancy, critical information needs, and equity of coverage.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44554060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dani Madrid-Morales, Joan Ramon Rodríguez-Amat, Peggy Lindner
To date, the study of news deserts, geographic spaces lacking local news and information, has largely focused on countries in the Global North, particularly the United States, and has predominantly been interested in the causes and consequences of the disappearance of local media outlets (e.g., newspapers and TV stations) to the social fabric of a community. In this article, we extend the concept of “news deserts” by drawing on literature on the geography of news in Africa, where information voids have long been documented but have not been studied within the conceptual framework of news deserts. Using computational tools, we analyse a sample of 519,004 news articles published in English or French by news websites in 39 African countries. We offer evidence of the existence of online news deserts at two levels: at a continental level (i.e., some countries/regions are hardly ever covered by online media of other African countries) and at a domestic level (i.e., online news media of a given country seldom cover large areas of the said country). This article contributes to the study of news deserts by (a) examining a continent that has not been featured in previous research, (b) testing a methodological approach that employs computational tools to study news geographies online, and (c) exploring the flexibility of the term and its applicability to different media ecosystems.
{"title":"A Computational Mapping of Online News Deserts on African News Websites","authors":"Dani Madrid-Morales, Joan Ramon Rodríguez-Amat, Peggy Lindner","doi":"10.17645/mac.v11i3.6857","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i3.6857","url":null,"abstract":"To date, the study of news deserts, geographic spaces lacking local news and information, has largely focused on countries in the Global North, particularly the United States, and has predominantly been interested in the causes and consequences of the disappearance of local media outlets (e.g., newspapers and TV stations) to the social fabric of a community. In this article, we extend the concept of “news deserts” by drawing on literature on the geography of news in Africa, where information voids have long been documented but have not been studied within the conceptual framework of news deserts. Using computational tools, we analyse a sample of 519,004 news articles published in English or French by news websites in 39 African countries. We offer evidence of the existence of online news deserts at two levels: at a continental level (i.e., some countries/regions are hardly ever covered by online media of other African countries) and at a domestic level (i.e., online news media of a given country seldom cover large areas of the said country). This article contributes to the study of news deserts by (a) examining a continent that has not been featured in previous research, (b) testing a methodological approach that employs computational tools to study news geographies online, and (c) exploring the flexibility of the term and its applicability to different media ecosystems.","PeriodicalId":18348,"journal":{"name":"Media and Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2023-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48809560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：