To conclude this Special Issue ‘Re-Fashioning Stories for Celebrity Counterpublics’ of the Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies (AJMS), I am delighted to share an interview with Samita Nandy, celebrity scholar, filmmaker and director of the Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS). Her research focuses on the cultural dimensions of fame, with a specific interest in celebrity activism, storytelling and the performance of authenticity and intimacy in glamorous narratives. In addition to her academic work, Nandy is also a certified broadcast journalist from Canada and media critic. I had the opportunity to assist her and Kiera Obbard with the organization of the 8th CMCS Conference, which inspired this Special Issue. This interview is thus an opportunity to further expand our reflection on the political possibilities of storytelling and celebrity counterpublics. Our discussion builds on the themes and arguments developed throughout this issue to further explore what popular storytelling means in practice. She reflects on her engagement with celebrity culture and life-writing in her feminist research and artistic endeavours, and how it has empowered her to tell personal and collective stories. The interview format and its themes provide a unique opportunity to contemplate the affordances of a reflective practice paradigm and the artistic applications of disciplinary knowledge, one which bridges academic work with media professions, and which we hope will resonate with AJMS readers.
{"title":"Re-fashioning stories through feminist filmmaking, an interview with Samita Nandy","authors":"Sabrina Moro","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00059_7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00059_7","url":null,"abstract":"To conclude this Special Issue ‘Re-Fashioning Stories for Celebrity Counterpublics’ of the Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies (AJMS), I am delighted to share an interview with Samita Nandy, celebrity scholar, filmmaker and director of the Centre\u0000 for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS). Her research focuses on the cultural dimensions of fame, with a specific interest in celebrity activism, storytelling and the performance of authenticity and intimacy in glamorous narratives. In addition to her academic work, Nandy is also a certified\u0000 broadcast journalist from Canada and media critic. I had the opportunity to assist her and Kiera Obbard with the organization of the 8th CMCS Conference, which inspired this Special Issue. This interview is thus an opportunity to further expand our reflection on the political possibilities\u0000 of storytelling and celebrity counterpublics. Our discussion builds on the themes and arguments developed throughout this issue to further explore what popular storytelling means in practice. She reflects on her engagement with celebrity culture and life-writing in her feminist research and\u0000 artistic endeavours, and how it has empowered her to tell personal and collective stories. The interview format and its themes provide a unique opportunity to contemplate the affordances of a reflective practice paradigm and the artistic applications of disciplinary knowledge, one which bridges\u0000 academic work with media professions, and which we hope will resonate with AJMS readers.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90492622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Despite its universal importance, the Nobel Prize in literature, which is based in Sweden and administered by the Swedish Academy, is a central European literary prize. And the prestige which the Nobel Prize bestows upon its winners is fuelled by a central-European type of fetishization of intellectual achievement, in which Nobel laureates are more known than they are read. Rather than being publicly recognized for their literary achievements, Nobel Prize-winning authors become literary celebrities who represent various kinds of Nobel-related capitals, including political capital, cultural capital and economic capital. In this article, I investigate on two non-European, Nobel Prize-winning authors, Gao Xingjian (the first Chinese-language Nobel author, 2000) and Toni Morrison (the first African American female Nobel author, 1993), and how they represent different conceptions of literary celebrities, and by extension different types of counterpublics. In order to study the relationship between Nobel literary laureates, storytelling and the representation of marginalized groups in the public domain, I examine and compare how Gao Xingjian’s and Toni Morrison’s Nobel lectures give voice to the Sinophone community and the African American community respectively. For Gao’s case, I study his Nobel lecture against the backdrop of the Chinese ‘Nobel complex’. In Morrison’s case, I examine her Nobel lecture as being re-presented in her appearances on Oprah’s Book Club, a reading initiative launched by the popular American television talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.
诺贝尔文学奖设在瑞典,由瑞典文学院管理,尽管它具有普遍的重要性,但它是一个中欧文学奖。诺贝尔奖授予获奖者的声望是由中欧式的对智力成就的崇拜所推动的,在这种崇拜中,诺贝尔奖获得者的知名度高于他们的阅读量。获得诺贝尔奖的作家们不是因为文学成就而获得公众认可,而是成为代表政治资本、文化资本、经济资本等与诺贝尔相关的各种资本的文学名人。本文以高行健(2000年第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的华人作家)和托妮·莫里森(1993年第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的非裔美国女性作家)为研究对象,探讨她们如何代表不同的文学名人概念,进而探讨不同类型的反公众。为了研究诺贝尔文学奖得主、叙事和边缘化群体在公共领域的表现之间的关系,我考察并比较了高行健和托妮·莫里森的诺贝尔演讲分别是如何向华语社区和非裔美国人社区发出声音的。对于高的案例,我是在中国“诺贝尔情结”的背景下研究他的诺贝尔演讲的。以莫里森为例,我研究了她在奥普拉读书俱乐部(Oprah 's Book Club)上的演讲,这是美国著名电视脱口秀《奥普拉脱口秀》(the Oprah Winfrey show)发起的一项阅读倡议。
{"title":"Literary celebrities as counterpublics: A comparative study of Gao Xingjian and Toni Morrison","authors":"Michael Ka Chi Cheuk","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00054_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00054_1","url":null,"abstract":"Despite its universal importance, the Nobel Prize in literature, which is based in Sweden and administered by the Swedish Academy, is a central European literary prize. And the prestige which the Nobel Prize bestows upon its winners is fuelled by a central-European type of fetishization\u0000 of intellectual achievement, in which Nobel laureates are more known than they are read. Rather than being publicly recognized for their literary achievements, Nobel Prize-winning authors become literary celebrities who represent various kinds of Nobel-related capitals, including political\u0000 capital, cultural capital and economic capital. In this article, I investigate on two non-European, Nobel Prize-winning authors, Gao Xingjian (the first Chinese-language Nobel author, 2000) and Toni Morrison (the first African American female Nobel author, 1993), and how they represent different\u0000 conceptions of literary celebrities, and by extension different types of counterpublics. In order to study the relationship between Nobel literary laureates, storytelling and the representation of marginalized groups in the public domain, I examine and compare how Gao Xingjian’s and\u0000 Toni Morrison’s Nobel lectures give voice to the Sinophone community and the African American community respectively. For Gao’s case, I study his Nobel lecture against the backdrop of the Chinese ‘Nobel complex’. In Morrison’s case, I examine her Nobel lecture\u0000 as being re-presented in her appearances on Oprah’s Book Club, a reading initiative launched by the popular American television talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80911289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article contributes to the study of comedians as activists by examining the campaigns by some of America’s most influential figures ‐ Seth Rogan, Jim Carrey, Dave Chapelle, Amy Schumer, Roseanne Barr and Kathy Griffin. To varying degrees, these comedians all use their star images and personal stories to influence public debates through their stand-up, television work, and content on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. By studying their activities in the media, their press coverage, and public reactions online, this article also presents an original examination of the way ‘Cancel Culture’ manifests, often hindering their activism. This includes identifying the polarizing influence of the ‘Canceller-in-Chief’ former president Donald J. Trump, and the risks suffered by comedian-activists in terms of their reputation, commercial prospects, and even their legality. Specifically, this article suggests that ‘Cancel Culture’ manifests as a spectrum of varying risk which can be shaped by the comedian’s star image and the degree of social transgression in their comedy.
{"title":"Risk in the digital age: Comedian-activists and Trump’s cancel culture","authors":"A. Symons","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00058_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00058_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article contributes to the study of comedians as activists by examining the campaigns by some of America’s most influential figures ‐ Seth Rogan, Jim Carrey, Dave Chapelle, Amy Schumer, Roseanne Barr and Kathy Griffin. To varying degrees, these comedians all use their\u0000 star images and personal stories to influence public debates through their stand-up, television work, and content on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. By studying their activities in the media, their press coverage, and public reactions online, this article also presents an original examination\u0000 of the way ‘Cancel Culture’ manifests, often hindering their activism. This includes identifying the polarizing influence of the ‘Canceller-in-Chief’ former president Donald J. Trump, and the risks suffered by comedian-activists in terms of their reputation, commercial\u0000 prospects, and even their legality. Specifically, this article suggests that ‘Cancel Culture’ manifests as a spectrum of varying risk which can be shaped by the comedian’s star image and the degree of social transgression in their comedy.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91244847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Can we move fan participation and the co-creation of storylines outside the sphere of the culture industry to better understand their potential functions for constructing individual subjectivity and empowering social change? With an attention to experiences of migration, exile and detainment, and through close readings of documentary The Wolfpack (2015), HBO’s bilingual horror comedy series Los Espookys (2019) and Manuel Puig’s novel, El beso de la mujer araña (1976), I argue that it is necessary to move beyond a speaker‐audience dialectic, as in traditional storytelling, and towards transmediated activity, where static or linear temporal and spatial orders are both reproduced and subverted. By converging performance studies with border studies and phenomenology, this contribution counters assumptions about submissive viewership while unpacking the political utility of entertainment. Ultimately, ‘Doubling the fantasy, adapting the reel’ challenges what it means to be a ‘storyteller’ and what constitutes a useful ‘story’ in the context of political advocacy and activism.
我们能否将粉丝参与和故事情节的共同创作移出文化产业的领域,以更好地理解它们在构建个人主体性和推动社会变革方面的潜在功能?通过对移民、流放和拘留经历的关注,以及对纪录片《狼群》(2015)、HBO双语恐怖喜剧《Los Espookys》(2019)和曼纽尔·普伊格(Manuel Puig)小说《El beso de la mujer araña》(1976)的仔细阅读,我认为有必要超越传统叙事中的说话者与观众的辩证关系,走向跨媒介活动,在这种活动中,静态或线性的时间和空间秩序既被复制又被颠覆。通过将表演研究与边界研究和现象学结合起来,这一贡献反驳了关于顺从的观众的假设,同时揭示了娱乐的政治效用。最终,“加倍奇幻,改编卷轴”挑战了“讲故事的人”的含义,以及在政治倡导和行动主义的背景下,什么构成了有用的“故事”。
{"title":"Doubling the fantasy, adapting the reel: Entertaining transmediation as a collaborative narrative strategy","authors":"C. Campanioni","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00057_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00057_1","url":null,"abstract":"Can we move fan participation and the co-creation of storylines outside the sphere of the culture industry to better understand their potential functions for constructing individual subjectivity and empowering social change? With an attention to experiences of migration, exile and detainment,\u0000 and through close readings of documentary The Wolfpack (2015), HBO’s bilingual horror comedy series Los Espookys (2019) and Manuel Puig’s novel, El beso de la mujer araña (1976), I argue that it is necessary to move beyond a speaker‐audience dialectic,\u0000 as in traditional storytelling, and towards transmediated activity, where static or linear temporal and spatial orders are both reproduced and subverted. By converging performance studies with border studies and phenomenology, this contribution counters assumptions about submissive viewership\u0000 while unpacking the political utility of entertainment. Ultimately, ‘Doubling the fantasy, adapting the reel’ challenges what it means to be a ‘storyteller’ and what constitutes a useful ‘story’ in the context of political advocacy and activism.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73670820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sabrina Moro, S. Nandy, Kiera Obbard, Andrew Zolides
Using celebrity narratives as a starting point, this Special Issue explores the social significance of storytelling for social change. It builds on the 8th Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies conference, which brought together scholars and media practitioners to explore how narratives inspired by the lives of celebrities, public intellectuals, critics and activists offer useful rhetorical tools to better understand dominant ideologies. This editorial further problematizes what it means to be a popular ‘storyteller’ using the critical lens of celebrity activism and life-writing. Throughout the issue, contributors analyse the politics of representation at play within a wide range of glamourous narratives, including documentaries, memoirs, TED talks, stand-up performances and award acceptance speeches in Hollywood and beyond. The studies show how we can strategically use aesthetic communication to shape identity politics in public personas and bring urgent social change in an image-driven celebrity culture.
{"title":"Editorial: Refashioning stories for celebrity counterpublics","authors":"Sabrina Moro, S. Nandy, Kiera Obbard, Andrew Zolides","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00053_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00053_2","url":null,"abstract":"Using celebrity narratives as a starting point, this Special Issue explores the social significance of storytelling for social change. It builds on the 8th Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies conference, which brought together scholars and media practitioners to explore how\u0000 narratives inspired by the lives of celebrities, public intellectuals, critics and activists offer useful rhetorical tools to better understand dominant ideologies. This editorial further problematizes what it means to be a popular ‘storyteller’ using the critical lens of celebrity\u0000 activism and life-writing. Throughout the issue, contributors analyse the politics of representation at play within a wide range of glamourous narratives, including documentaries, memoirs, TED talks, stand-up performances and award acceptance speeches in Hollywood and beyond. The studies show\u0000 how we can strategically use aesthetic communication to shape identity politics in public personas and bring urgent social change in an image-driven celebrity culture.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83793990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the phenomenon of fake news through a survey of university students in the United Kingdom. The survey, composed through a selection of factual and non-factual content/news and complemented through a validation tool, sought to assess the attitudes of these respondents to items of factual misinformation before and after these were verified with the tool. The findings from the survey present online misinformation as a very complex and unfolding phenomenon in terms of user behaviour, particularly when presented with an authentication tool. The majority of respondents failed in identifying factual from fake news posts. While respondents indicated mistrust in using third-party validation tools, the majority indicated a critical need for a verification tool that would support their quest and increase their trust in what they read online.
{"title":"Attitudes to fake news verification: Youth orientations to ‘right click’ authenticate","authors":"Y. Ibrahim, F. Safieddine, Pardis Pourghomi","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00051_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00051_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the phenomenon of fake news through a survey of university students in the United Kingdom. The survey, composed through a selection of factual and non-factual content/news and complemented through a validation tool, sought to assess the attitudes of these respondents to items of factual misinformation before and after these were verified with the tool. The findings from the survey present online misinformation as a very complex and unfolding phenomenon in terms of user behaviour, particularly when presented with an authentication tool. The majority of respondents failed in identifying factual from fake news posts. While respondents indicated mistrust in using third-party validation tools, the majority indicated a critical need for a verification tool that would support their quest and increase their trust in what they read online.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85408965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This interdisciplinary research aims to examine the effects of photos used in Arabic news websites on both comprehension and recall among readers. The dual-coding theory was used as a theoretical framework. The research used an experimental design of two groups to test the effects of photos on comprehension and recall of the news content included in two news websites created specifically for the experiment. Two groups of 80 university students have participated voluntarily in the experiment. The results indicated that the use of photos in the news website has increased significantly the levels of both comprehension and recall among respondents.
{"title":"The effects of using photos in Arabic news websites on the audience’s comprehension and recall: A pilot research","authors":"Khaled Gaweesh, Manar Daher","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00050_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00050_1","url":null,"abstract":"This interdisciplinary research aims to examine the effects of photos used in Arabic news websites on both comprehension and recall among readers. The dual-coding theory was used as a theoretical framework. The research used an experimental design of two groups to test the effects of photos on comprehension and recall of the news content included in two news websites created specifically for the experiment. Two groups of 80 university students have participated voluntarily in the experiment. The results indicated that the use of photos in the news website has increased significantly the levels of both comprehension and recall among respondents.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88812355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the role of the fixer in international news production, particularly war reportage, and reorients an ongoing debate about the role of local media-workers in foreign bureaus. While the institutional conditions of fixing have received some scholarly attention, the epistemic dimension of fixers’ labour yet requires critical examination. Utilizing eighteen months of participant observation and qualitative interviews with fixers and foreign journalists in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, I demonstrate that the local, ‘situated’ knowledge of fixers is both structural to, and ultimately suppressed by, the global, ‘professional’ knowledge of international news. This tension is evident in the routines of war reportage – gathering information, navigating checkpoints – and in journalism’s generic conventions, as where the byline – mark of professional authorship – establishes a hierarchy regarding what counts as authoritative meanings for war. In resituating analysis of fixing from the institutional to the epistemic, this article aims to recover the displacements inherent to normative representations of foreign conflict.
{"title":"Situated and subjugated: Fixer knowledge in the global newsroom","authors":"Isaac Blacksin","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00049_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00049_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the role of the fixer in international news production, particularly war reportage, and reorients an ongoing debate about the role of local media-workers in foreign bureaus. While the institutional conditions of fixing have received some scholarly attention, the epistemic dimension of fixers’ labour yet requires critical examination. Utilizing eighteen months of participant observation and qualitative interviews with fixers and foreign journalists in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, I demonstrate that the local, ‘situated’ knowledge of fixers is both structural to, and ultimately suppressed by, the global, ‘professional’ knowledge of international news. This tension is evident in the routines of war reportage – gathering information, navigating checkpoints – and in journalism’s generic conventions, as where the byline – mark of professional authorship – establishes a hierarchy regarding what counts as authoritative meanings for war. In resituating analysis of fixing from the institutional to the epistemic, this article aims to recover the displacements inherent to normative representations of foreign conflict.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78698901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
With the integration of social media in journalism practice, media training institutions must focus on preparing future media professionals with the right mix of digital skills for the industry. Although efforts to improve students’ online skills readiness are evident in schools, no reliable tool exists to assess students’ confidence in doing online journalism tasks upon graduation. This study develops and validates an Online Journalism Self-Efficacy Scale (OJSES) that can be used to measure mass communication students’ perceptions of their self-efficacy for online journalism work. Items for the proposed scale were developed from a comprehensive literature review and refined by eight online journalism professionals (five online journalism lecturers and three online news editors). To explore the factor structure of the tool, exploratory factor analysis of data from a sample of finalist undergraduate mass communication students (n = 182) in five Rwandan universities was done. Results suggested that the OJSES is a five-dimensional tool that comprises 27 items. This scale measures online journalism self-efficacy in terms of students’ capabilities to conduct online journalism research, communicate with social media tools, create and share multimedia content online, observe ethical online publishing and use social media to solve organizational problems. The scale demonstrated reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.785 and the five self-efficacy dimensions explaining 51.1 per cent of the total variance. The scale’s psychometric soundness implied its suitability not only to empirically measure the students’ confidence in working in online environments but also guide capacity-building for the required online skills for the media industry.
{"title":"Online-ready? Factor structure and internal consistency of a scale to measure students’ online journalism self-efficacy","authors":"J. Njuguna","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00046_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00046_1","url":null,"abstract":"With the integration of social media in journalism practice, media training institutions must focus on preparing future media professionals with the right mix of digital skills for the industry. Although efforts to improve students’ online skills readiness are evident in schools, no reliable tool exists to assess students’ confidence in doing online journalism tasks upon graduation. This study develops and validates an Online Journalism Self-Efficacy Scale (OJSES) that can be used to measure mass communication students’ perceptions of their self-efficacy for online journalism work. Items for the proposed scale were developed from a comprehensive literature review and refined by eight online journalism professionals (five online journalism lecturers and three online news editors). To explore the factor structure of the tool, exploratory factor analysis of data from a sample of finalist undergraduate mass communication students (n = 182) in five Rwandan universities was done. Results suggested that the OJSES is a five-dimensional tool that comprises 27 items. This scale measures online journalism self-efficacy in terms of students’ capabilities to conduct online journalism research, communicate with social media tools, create and share multimedia content online, observe ethical online publishing and use social media to solve organizational problems. The scale demonstrated reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.785 and the five self-efficacy dimensions explaining 51.1 per cent of the total variance. The scale’s psychometric soundness implied its suitability not only to empirically measure the students’ confidence in working in online environments but also guide capacity-building for the required online skills for the media industry.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83762131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Television news corporations changed their work roles from a tradition of team production to a ‘one-man-band’ method of production. Many veteran reporters are hesitant to accept the new methodology. This study intended to examine how television news reporters adjusted to more work demands and new technologies. A questionnaire was combined with participant observation for analysis. The participants included 289 television journalists, selected from local affiliates throughout the United States. The results indicate that there is preference for younger workers and burnout occurring to all age groups. This study explores the commodification of the profession in terms of labour value.
{"title":"The impact of multimedia journalism on ageism in television news: Commodification and the anxiety of ageing in the newsroom","authors":"Dean Cummings","doi":"10.1386/ajms_00045_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ajms_00045_1","url":null,"abstract":"Television news corporations changed their work roles from a tradition of team production to a ‘one-man-band’ method of production. Many veteran reporters are hesitant to accept the new methodology. This study intended to examine how television news reporters adjusted to more work demands and new technologies. A questionnaire was combined with participant observation for analysis. The participants included 289 television journalists, selected from local affiliates throughout the United States. The results indicate that there is preference for younger workers and burnout occurring to all age groups. This study explores the commodification of the profession in terms of labour value.","PeriodicalId":43197,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83647190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}