Silke Fürst, D. Vogler, Mike S. Schäfer, Isabel Sörensen
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are pivotal organizations in knowledge societies. A growing need for societal legitimation has led many HEIs to expand their media efforts—as news media are important sources through which both the broader public and stakeholders inform themselves about HEIs. Despite this importance of the news media–HEI nexus, few studies have analyzed it, and the scholarship has considerable gaps. Most studies focus on few news outlets, specific media types, or coverage of a few research universities. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive picture of coverage of all Swiss HEIs across diverse media. Using data from quantitative content analysis of news articles ( N = 5,732), official statistics, and HEI websites, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis to map coverage. We identified 6 types of HEIs that differ from official distinctions of HEIs, are portrayed differently in news media, and exhibit different structural characteristics. Only 2 types receive a high amount of coverage, showing that few large and strongly resourced universities have great advantages in the competition for visibility.
{"title":"Media Representations of Academia: Mapping and Typologizing News Coverage of All Swiss Higher Education Institutions","authors":"Silke Fürst, D. Vogler, Mike S. Schäfer, Isabel Sörensen","doi":"10.5167/UZH-207345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-207345","url":null,"abstract":"Higher education institutions (HEIs) are pivotal organizations in knowledge societies. A growing need for societal legitimation has led many HEIs to expand their media efforts—as news media are important sources through which both the broader public and stakeholders inform themselves about HEIs. Despite this importance of the news media–HEI nexus, few studies have analyzed it, and the scholarship has considerable gaps. Most studies focus on few news outlets, specific media types, or coverage of a few research universities. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive picture of coverage of all Swiss HEIs across diverse media. Using data from quantitative content analysis of news articles ( N = 5,732), official statistics, and HEI websites, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis to map coverage. We identified 6 types of HEIs that differ from official distinctions of HEIs, are portrayed differently in news media, and exhibit different structural characteristics. Only 2 types receive a high amount of coverage, showing that few large and strongly resourced universities have great advantages in the competition for visibility.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"26 1","pages":"21"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78406028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
N. Baym, Rachel Bergmann, R. Bhargava, Fernando Diaz, Tarleton Gillespie, D. Hesmondhalgh, Elena Maris, Christopher J. Persaud
This article considers how media workers and organizations make use of the abundance of metrics available in the contemporary online environment. The expansion of audience measurement on digital music platforms, dashboard analytics, and third-party providers raises broad societal concerns about the quantification of culture; however, less attention has been paid to how professionals in the music industries approach, understand, and deploy these metrics in their work. Drawing on survey and interview data, we found that music workers do not take metrics on faith or reject them out of hand; rather, they make sense of them, deploy them strategically, and narrate their meanings to give themselves rationales to make investments and predictions and to persuade others to do so.
{"title":"Making Sense of Metrics in the Music Industries","authors":"N. Baym, Rachel Bergmann, R. Bhargava, Fernando Diaz, Tarleton Gillespie, D. Hesmondhalgh, Elena Maris, Christopher J. Persaud","doi":"10.5167/UZH-203937","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-203937","url":null,"abstract":"This article considers how media workers and organizations make use of the abundance of metrics available in the contemporary online environment. The expansion of audience measurement on digital music platforms, dashboard analytics, and third-party providers raises broad societal concerns about the quantification of culture; however, less attention has been paid to how professionals in the music industries approach, understand, and deploy these metrics in their work. Drawing on survey and interview data, we found that music workers do not take metrics on faith or reject them out of hand; rather, they make sense of them, deploy them strategically, and narrate their meanings to give themselves rationales to make investments and predictions and to persuade others to do so.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"5 1","pages":"24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84040329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vivien A. Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism (DI) framework has gained considerable popularity in media and communication studies, particularly among scholars studying media institutions. However, while scholars refer to DI to emphasize the importance of ideas and discourses in institutional processes, to date, a critical assessment of the framework is lacking. In this article, we discuss DI from the perspective of media and communication studies and suggest a modified DI framework in which we (1) rethink discourse from a discourse theoretical perspective and emphasize power as a constituting element of media institutions, (2) differentiate between public (mass media) communication and other nonpublic and semipublic forms of communication, and (3) integrate macro perspectives (market, political system, culture, technology, globalization) into Schmidt’s micro–meso-focused framework. With these differentiations, our proposition is to be understood as a heuristic for a systematic analysis of media institutions as a field of power.
{"title":"Discursive Media Institutionalism: Assessing Vivien A. Schmidt’s Framework and Its Value for Media and Communication Studies","authors":"S. Ganter, M. Löblich","doi":"10.17169/REFUBIUM-31309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17169/REFUBIUM-31309","url":null,"abstract":"Vivien A. Schmidt’s discursive institutionalism (DI) framework has gained considerable popularity in media and communication studies, particularly among scholars studying media institutions. However, while scholars refer to DI to emphasize the importance of ideas and discourses in institutional processes, to date, a critical assessment of the framework is lacking. In this article, we discuss DI from the perspective of media and communication studies and suggest a modified DI framework in which we (1) rethink discourse from a discourse theoretical perspective and emphasize power as a constituting element of media institutions, (2) differentiate between public (mass media) communication and other nonpublic and semipublic forms of communication, and (3) integrate macro perspectives (market, political system, culture, technology, globalization) into Schmidt’s micro–meso-focused framework. With these differentiations, our proposition is to be understood as a heuristic for a systematic analysis of media institutions as a field of power.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"34 1","pages":"2281-2300"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80705665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As COVID-19 swept across the globe, disrupting people’s lives through lockdowns and health concerns, information about how to stay safe and how to identify symptoms spread across media of all forms. Using survey data we collected in April 2020 on a national sample of Americans, we tested the knowledge gap hypothesis by examining how people’s education levels relate to their knowledge about COVID-19 as well as their susceptibility to fake news, and whether information sources moderate this relationship. Our findings suggest that a knowledge gap exists, with those with higher education levels displaying higher levels of knowledge. In contrast, education level did not play a role in believing false information. Moreover, higher news consumption through radio, print newspapers and magazines, and especially social media was associated with lower levels of knowledge and more fake news beliefs. However, news media consumption did not moderate the relationship between education and either knowledge or fake news beliefs, meaning that the media did not explain the education-based knowledge gap during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
{"title":"(Mis)informed During COVID-19: How Education Level and Information Sources Contribute to Knowledge Gaps","authors":"T. Gerosa, M. Gui, E. Hargittai, M. Nguyen","doi":"10.5167/UZH-204498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-204498","url":null,"abstract":"As COVID-19 swept across the globe, disrupting people’s lives through lockdowns and health concerns, information about how to stay safe and how to identify symptoms spread across media of all forms. Using survey data we collected in April 2020 on a national sample of Americans, we tested the knowledge gap hypothesis by examining how people’s education levels relate to their knowledge about COVID-19 as well as their susceptibility to fake news, and whether information sources moderate this relationship. Our findings suggest that a knowledge gap exists, with those with higher education levels displaying higher levels of knowledge. In contrast, education level did not play a role in believing false information. Moreover, higher news consumption through radio, print newspapers and magazines, and especially social media was associated with lower levels of knowledge and more fake news beliefs. However, news media consumption did not moderate the relationship between education and either knowledge or fake news beliefs, meaning that the media did not explain the education-based knowledge gap during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"14 1","pages":"2196-2217"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83713769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
TikTok, a short-video app featuring video content between 15 and 60 seconds long, has in the last few years become immensely popular around the world. Because of its Chinese ownership and popularity among underage users, however, the platform has attracted criticism and been subject to close scrutiny. Despite these hurdles, TikTok has emerged as a hub for creativity and is being used by educators and governments to reach out to the younger demographic. This Special Section is among the first collections of articles in the growing field of studies on TikTok and its legacy apps. It provides a glimpse of the nascent framings, approaches, methodologies, and applications of TikTok studies in the field of social media scholarship.
{"title":"Research perspectives on TikTok and its legacy apps: introduction","authors":"Jing Zeng, Chrystal Abidin, Mike S. Schäfer","doi":"10.5167/UZH-205427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-205427","url":null,"abstract":"TikTok, a short-video app featuring video content between 15 and 60 seconds long, has in the last few years become immensely popular around the world. Because of its Chinese ownership and popularity among underage users, however, the platform has attracted criticism and been subject to close scrutiny. Despite these hurdles, TikTok has emerged as a hub for creativity and is being used by educators and governments to reach out to the younger demographic. This Special Section is among the first collections of articles in the growing field of studies on TikTok and its legacy apps. It provides a glimpse of the nascent framings, approaches, methodologies, and applications of TikTok studies in the field of social media scholarship.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"27 1","pages":"3161-3172"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81630283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jonathan Gruber, E. Hargittai, Gökçe Karaoglu, Lisa Brombach
Voice assistants have become increasingly popular as part of digital technologies that people use in their everyday lives. Research on Internet use has shown that people’s online experiences are influenced by their level of know-how about the platforms they use. Extending the literature on Internet skills, this article focuses on people’s algorithm skills in the domain of voice assistants. Are people aware of how algorithms influence what information they receive when using voice assistants? Drawing on 83 interviews conducted in 5 countries, we find that only a few participants explicitly mentioned the terms algorithms and artificial intelligence. Still, many seemed to be aware of the existence of automatic decision-making processes in voice assistants. This awareness was not necessarily based on their own experience with voice assistants, however. Rather, it was often a result of experiences with other digital devices and services such as Google Search, Facebook, Amazon, or smartphones, as well as information from social contacts and the media. We discuss the relevance of being aware of algorithms as one dimension of Internet skills.
{"title":"Algorithm Awareness as an Important Internet Skill: The Case of Voice Assistants","authors":"Jonathan Gruber, E. Hargittai, Gökçe Karaoglu, Lisa Brombach","doi":"10.5167/UZH-204503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5167/UZH-204503","url":null,"abstract":"Voice assistants have become increasingly popular as part of digital technologies that people use in their everyday lives. Research on Internet use has shown that people’s online experiences are influenced by their level of know-how about the platforms they use. Extending the literature on Internet skills, this article focuses on people’s algorithm skills in the domain of voice assistants. Are people aware of how algorithms influence what information they receive when using voice assistants? Drawing on 83 interviews conducted in 5 countries, we find that only a few participants explicitly mentioned the terms algorithms and artificial intelligence. Still, many seemed to be aware of the existence of automatic decision-making processes in voice assistants. This awareness was not necessarily based on their own experience with voice assistants, however. Rather, it was often a result of experiences with other digital devices and services such as Google Search, Facebook, Amazon, or smartphones, as well as information from social contacts and the media. We discuss the relevance of being aware of algorithms as one dimension of Internet skills.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"38 1","pages":"19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2021-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79837887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article focuses on architectural models of location-based services. The paper discusses the model of spatial network proximity, within which the classical architecture of services using location information, based on the use of geo-coordinates data provided by users, is replaced by some distributed cyber-physical system. Within the network proximity model, geo-computation is replaced by the direct proximity definitions. And this very proximity measurement is based on determining the availability (visibility) of the signals of the wireless network nodes. This article discusses how to build new service models using location information.
{"title":"On Location-based Services Build on the Close Patial Position of Mobile Devices","authors":"D. Namiot","doi":"10.46300/9107.2020.14.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46300/9107.2020.14.9","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on architectural models of location-based services. The paper discusses the model of spatial network proximity, within which the classical architecture of services using location information, based on the use of geo-coordinates data provided by users, is replaced by some distributed cyber-physical system. Within the network proximity model, geo-computation is replaced by the direct proximity definitions. And this very proximity measurement is based on determining the availability (visibility) of the signals of the wireless network nodes. This article discusses how to build new service models using location information.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"62 1","pages":"47-51"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74996298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since its launch in 2018, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social media applications in the world, being particularly popular among young people. Memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines, and comedic skits, are a defining feature of the platform. This study used quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis to examine science memes, an increasingly popular genre of memes on TikTok, by analyzing 1,368 TikTok videos that feature science-related content. The results of the study uncover the most influential science-content creators, the most prevalent content in science memes, and three vernacular styles of science memes on TikTok. The results expand the existing science-communication scholarship focusing on the context of social media. Understanding the role of memetic science content on short-video platforms, as well as in the youth digital culture in general, also provides valuable insights into how science communicators can better engage with members of the young generation.
{"title":"Reposting “till Albert Einstein is TikTok famous”: The Memetic Construction of Science on TikTok","authors":"Jing Zeng, Mike S. Schäfer, Joachim Allgaier","doi":"10.31219/osf.io/8tdvm","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/8tdvm","url":null,"abstract":"Since its launch in 2018, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social media applications in the world, being particularly popular among young people. Memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines, and comedic skits, are a defining feature of the platform. This study used quantitative content analysis and qualitative thematic analysis to examine science memes, an increasingly popular genre of memes on TikTok, by analyzing 1,368 TikTok videos that feature science-related content. The results of the study uncover the most influential science-content creators, the most prevalent content in science memes, and three vernacular styles of science memes on TikTok. The results expand the existing science-communication scholarship focusing on the context of social media. Understanding the role of memetic science content on short-video platforms, as well as in the youth digital culture in general, also provides valuable insights into how science communicators can better engage with members of the young generation.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79528463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article conducts a close listening of the Australian podcast series Breathless: The Death of David Dungay Jr ., which reports on the death in custody of Aboriginal man David Dungay and his family’s struggle for justice in its wake. Bringing an orientation toward sound and listening into conversation with Christina Sharpe’s concept of “archives of breathlessness,” it argues that Breathless can be heard as part of a larger sonic archive where Black and Indigenous breath is taken, stopped, let go, and held on to, and where the sounds of settler-colonial violence—and resistance to that violence—repeat across time and space. Drawing on notions of repetition, protraction, reckoning and recuperation, I explore the multiple ways “just hearings” in relation to Indigenous struggles for justice in the wake of colonization are stalled, protracted, and refused, while also listening for the sounds of Indigenous resistance, survival and moments of collective breath.
{"title":"Sonic Archives of Breathlessness","authors":"P. D. Souza","doi":"10.26181/602349D38C8EA","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26181/602349D38C8EA","url":null,"abstract":"This article conducts a close listening of the Australian podcast series Breathless: The Death of David Dungay Jr ., which reports on the death in custody of Aboriginal man David Dungay and his family’s struggle for justice in its wake. Bringing an orientation toward sound and listening into conversation with Christina Sharpe’s concept of “archives of breathlessness,” it argues that Breathless can be heard as part of a larger sonic archive where Black and Indigenous breath is taken, stopped, let go, and held on to, and where the sounds of settler-colonial violence—and resistance to that violence—repeat across time and space. Drawing on notions of repetition, protraction, reckoning and recuperation, I explore the multiple ways “just hearings” in relation to Indigenous struggles for justice in the wake of colonization are stalled, protracted, and refused, while also listening for the sounds of Indigenous resistance, survival and moments of collective breath.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"8 1","pages":"19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77668638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Drawing from framing theory, this article operationalizes and tests three ways to measure how verbal and visual modalities interplay in audiovisual messages to produce meaning. The measures include (a) a ratio of verbal to visual frames; (b) an association rules learning (ARL) procedure; and (c) in-depth analysis of the full audiovisual material. As a step toward validating the measures, they were applied to a sample of German television news stories ( n = 98) about refugees and asylum seekers. Though the three measures produced varied results, verbal–visual frame redundancy and congruence were consistently more common than mismatches. Measures differed in the level of effort required to implement them, sample sizes they could handle, and the informative value of results. Future studies are advised to combine the ARL procedure with an in-depth analysis.
{"title":"Testing Three Measures of Verbal–Visual Frame Interplay in German News Coverage of Refugees and Asylum Seekers","authors":"Viorela Dan, M. Grabe, Brent J. Hale","doi":"10.5282/UBM/EPUB.74394","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5282/UBM/EPUB.74394","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing from framing theory, this article operationalizes and tests three ways to measure how verbal and visual modalities interplay in audiovisual messages to produce meaning. The measures include (a) a ratio of verbal to visual frames; (b) an association rules learning (ARL) procedure; and (c) in-depth analysis of the full audiovisual material. As a step toward validating the measures, they were applied to a sample of German television news stories ( n = 98) about refugees and asylum seekers. Though the three measures produced varied results, verbal–visual frame redundancy and congruence were consistently more common than mismatches. Measures differed in the level of effort required to implement them, sample sizes they could handle, and the informative value of results. Future studies are advised to combine the ARL procedure with an in-depth analysis.","PeriodicalId":51388,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Communication","volume":"313 ","pages":"23"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2020-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72494894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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