Pub Date : 2024-05-29DOI: 10.1177/14648849241257383
Michael Hameleers, Emma van der Goot
The popular assumption that mis- and disinformation are distinguishable from true information based on easy-to-identify content features is challenged in an online context where multiple claims of truthfulness compete for legitimacy. When conventional and alternative narratives both rely on seemingly objective and fact-based truth claims, it is difficult for citizens to separate false from true information. In this setting, we rely on an inductive qualitative analysis of social media and alternative media platforms to explore how mis- and disinformation refer to expertise and objectivity. Our main findings suggest that expertise and objectivity in mis- and disinformation can be legitimized by (1) quoting or involving message-congruent alternative experts; (2) selectively decontextualizing or quoting established experts; (3) contrasting ‘honest’ alternative experts/critical citizens to ‘dishonest’ established experts; (4) emphasizing people-centric expertise, common sense, and critical thinking as foundations of truth-telling; and (5) referring to visual information and lived experiences as direct reflections of reality. The typology aims to inform empirical research on the detection of mis- and disinformation and can be applied in the design of interventions to raise awareness about how false information signals legitimacy.
{"title":"Look at what the real facts and experts say! The use of expert references and objectivity claims in disinformation: A qualitative exploration and typology","authors":"Michael Hameleers, Emma van der Goot","doi":"10.1177/14648849241257383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241257383","url":null,"abstract":"The popular assumption that mis- and disinformation are distinguishable from true information based on easy-to-identify content features is challenged in an online context where multiple claims of truthfulness compete for legitimacy. When conventional and alternative narratives both rely on seemingly objective and fact-based truth claims, it is difficult for citizens to separate false from true information. In this setting, we rely on an inductive qualitative analysis of social media and alternative media platforms to explore how mis- and disinformation refer to expertise and objectivity. Our main findings suggest that expertise and objectivity in mis- and disinformation can be legitimized by (1) quoting or involving message-congruent alternative experts; (2) selectively decontextualizing or quoting established experts; (3) contrasting ‘honest’ alternative experts/critical citizens to ‘dishonest’ established experts; (4) emphasizing people-centric expertise, common sense, and critical thinking as foundations of truth-telling; and (5) referring to visual information and lived experiences as direct reflections of reality. The typology aims to inform empirical research on the detection of mis- and disinformation and can be applied in the design of interventions to raise awareness about how false information signals legitimacy.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141192552","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-29DOI: 10.1177/14648849241254276
Carolyne Lunga, Pauline Renaud
The COVID-19 pandemic has proved fertile ground for disinformation, confronting journalists with several challenges. Not only have they faced an unprecedented flood of fabricated stories, but they also had to report about a crisis while experiencing it themselves. This study analyses how journalists made sense of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing the perceptions of journalists in South Africa and France, countries which are in the Global South and Global North, respectively, offers a new lens to the study of journalistic discourse and its functions in relation to the context it emerges from. Based on in-depth interviews with journalists in South Africa and France, this study argues that while journalistic discourses present many similarities when making sense of pandemic-related disinformation, they follow different patterns when discussing and affirming their professional authority in the face of this phenomenon.
{"title":"Disinformation discourse as boundary work in journalism. A comparison between South Africa and France","authors":"Carolyne Lunga, Pauline Renaud","doi":"10.1177/14648849241254276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241254276","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has proved fertile ground for disinformation, confronting journalists with several challenges. Not only have they faced an unprecedented flood of fabricated stories, but they also had to report about a crisis while experiencing it themselves. This study analyses how journalists made sense of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing the perceptions of journalists in South Africa and France, countries which are in the Global South and Global North, respectively, offers a new lens to the study of journalistic discourse and its functions in relation to the context it emerges from. Based on in-depth interviews with journalists in South Africa and France, this study argues that while journalistic discourses present many similarities when making sense of pandemic-related disinformation, they follow different patterns when discussing and affirming their professional authority in the face of this phenomenon.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141192599","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-29DOI: 10.1177/14648849241255701
Heidi Røsok-Dahl, Ragnhild Kristine Olsen
The relationship between news media and social media platforms is complex, involving dependencies and conflicts. Being present on these platforms offers benefits, such as increased visibility and engagement, particularly with younger audiences. However, platforms also function as gatekeepers through guidelines and algorithmic filtering, impacting the spreading of news media content. Snapchat, popular among young audiences, has been adopted by many traditional news outlets as a more playful distribution channel. Limited research exists on how newsrooms navigate Snapchat’s guidelines and the consequences of violating these, including practices like “flagging,” and the interplay between editorial decisions and algorithms. This study relies on an ethnographic fieldwork at the Norwegian Public Service Broadcaster’s (NRK) editorial group “NRK UNG” (NRK Youth) publishing news to young audiences on Snapchat. The study expands on gatekeeping theory, incorporating recent advancements, and illustrates how the journalists navigate Snapchat’s algorithmic gatekeeping. The study thus highlights the interplay between human news judgment and algorithmic news dissemination on Snapchat at various stages of the news production process.
{"title":"Snapping the news: Dynamic gatekeeping in a public service media newsroom reaching young people with news on Snapchat","authors":"Heidi Røsok-Dahl, Ragnhild Kristine Olsen","doi":"10.1177/14648849241255701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241255701","url":null,"abstract":"The relationship between news media and social media platforms is complex, involving dependencies and conflicts. Being present on these platforms offers benefits, such as increased visibility and engagement, particularly with younger audiences. However, platforms also function as gatekeepers through guidelines and algorithmic filtering, impacting the spreading of news media content. Snapchat, popular among young audiences, has been adopted by many traditional news outlets as a more playful distribution channel. Limited research exists on how newsrooms navigate Snapchat’s guidelines and the consequences of violating these, including practices like “flagging,” and the interplay between editorial decisions and algorithms. This study relies on an ethnographic fieldwork at the Norwegian Public Service Broadcaster’s (NRK) editorial group “NRK UNG” (NRK Youth) publishing news to young audiences on Snapchat. The study expands on gatekeeping theory, incorporating recent advancements, and illustrates how the journalists navigate Snapchat’s algorithmic gatekeeping. The study thus highlights the interplay between human news judgment and algorithmic news dissemination on Snapchat at various stages of the news production process.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141192550","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-13DOI: 10.1177/14648849241253143
Edson C Tandoc, Seth Seet
Guided by public goods and uses and gratifications theories, this study examines the link among motivations for news consumption, perceived importance of news, and willingness to pay for news. Through a national online survey in Singapore ( n = 818), this study found that both entertainment and socialisation motivations are positively related to willingness to pay for news, while surveillance motivation was not. The analysis also found that perceiving news to be personally important is positively related to willingness to pay for news; in contrast, perceiving news to be important to society was unrelated to willingness to pay for it. While surveillance motivation was not directly related to willingness to pay for news, it exerts an indirect effect through perceived personal importance of news. These findings challenge conventional assumptions about the drivers of news subscriptions and offer pivotal insights for news organisations seeking sustainable revenue models in an era of media transformation.
{"title":"News you can refuse: If news is important, why aren’t more people willing to pay for it?","authors":"Edson C Tandoc, Seth Seet","doi":"10.1177/14648849241253143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241253143","url":null,"abstract":"Guided by public goods and uses and gratifications theories, this study examines the link among motivations for news consumption, perceived importance of news, and willingness to pay for news. Through a national online survey in Singapore ( n = 818), this study found that both entertainment and socialisation motivations are positively related to willingness to pay for news, while surveillance motivation was not. The analysis also found that perceiving news to be personally important is positively related to willingness to pay for news; in contrast, perceiving news to be important to society was unrelated to willingness to pay for it. While surveillance motivation was not directly related to willingness to pay for news, it exerts an indirect effect through perceived personal importance of news. These findings challenge conventional assumptions about the drivers of news subscriptions and offer pivotal insights for news organisations seeking sustainable revenue models in an era of media transformation.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140931255","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-13DOI: 10.1177/14648849241252017
Hagos Nigussie, Gebru Kahsay Kiflu
This paper examined the framing of the war on Tigray on CNN and Al Jazeera from November 4, 2020, to June 28, 2021. Content analysis was used for the data analysis. The results revealed that, while CNN relied on eyewitnesses, including humanitarian workers and local people, Al Jazeera primarily relied on official sources to cover the war. CNN predominantly focussed on crimes against humanity and hunger, whereas Al Jazeera covered crimes against humanity. While CNN focussed on the responsibility and human interest frames, Al Jazeera focussed on the responsibility and morality frames. Both media largely focussed on the responsibility frame, emphasising that perpetrators should be liable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression, and atrocities on civilians in different parts of Tigray, all of which epitomise genocide.
{"title":"Framing the war on Tigray: The case of CNN and Al Jazeera","authors":"Hagos Nigussie, Gebru Kahsay Kiflu","doi":"10.1177/14648849241252017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241252017","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examined the framing of the war on Tigray on CNN and Al Jazeera from November 4, 2020, to June 28, 2021. Content analysis was used for the data analysis. The results revealed that, while CNN relied on eyewitnesses, including humanitarian workers and local people, Al Jazeera primarily relied on official sources to cover the war. CNN predominantly focussed on crimes against humanity and hunger, whereas Al Jazeera covered crimes against humanity. While CNN focussed on the responsibility and human interest frames, Al Jazeera focussed on the responsibility and morality frames. Both media largely focussed on the responsibility frame, emphasising that perpetrators should be liable for war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression, and atrocities on civilians in different parts of Tigray, all of which epitomise genocide.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140931259","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-08DOI: 10.1177/14648849241243189
Neil Thurman, Sally Stares, Michael Koliska
The use of automation in news content creation is expanding from the written to the audio-visual medium with news organizations including Reuters turning to video automation services provided by companies such as Wibbitz. Although researchers have explored audience perceptions of text-based news automation, to date no published study has examined how news consumers perceive automated news videos. We conducted a between-subjects online survey experiment to compare how a socio-demographically representative sample ( n = 4200) of online news consumers in the UK perceived human-made, partly automated, and highly automated short-form online news videos on 14 different story topics. Our findings show that human-made videos received on average more favourable responses on some evaluation variables, although the differences were not large. We also found some significant differences in the relative evaluation of automated and human-made news videos across different individual stories. For practitioners our results suggest partly automated news videos with post-automation human editing can be well received. For researchers our results show the need to use reasonably large sets of experimental stimuli, and suggest that ensuring socio-demographic variation within samples of respondents is worthwhile.
{"title":"Audience evaluations of news videos made with various levels of automation: A population-based survey experiment","authors":"Neil Thurman, Sally Stares, Michael Koliska","doi":"10.1177/14648849241243189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241243189","url":null,"abstract":"The use of automation in news content creation is expanding from the written to the audio-visual medium with news organizations including Reuters turning to video automation services provided by companies such as Wibbitz. Although researchers have explored audience perceptions of text-based news automation, to date no published study has examined how news consumers perceive automated news videos. We conducted a between-subjects online survey experiment to compare how a socio-demographically representative sample ( n = 4200) of online news consumers in the UK perceived human-made, partly automated, and highly automated short-form online news videos on 14 different story topics. Our findings show that human-made videos received on average more favourable responses on some evaluation variables, although the differences were not large. We also found some significant differences in the relative evaluation of automated and human-made news videos across different individual stories. For practitioners our results suggest partly automated news videos with post-automation human editing can be well received. For researchers our results show the need to use reasonably large sets of experimental stimuli, and suggest that ensuring socio-demographic variation within samples of respondents is worthwhile.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140935965","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-07DOI: 10.1177/14648849241253136
TJ Thomson
This study explores a key question around local visual news: what do non-specialist journalists regard as a quality news visual? This study focuses on still images as the most ubiquitous building block in the local visual news landscape, whether as thumbnails that are shared with links on social media platforms, as hero images accompanying articles, as photo galleries, or as still frames extracted from videos. Much of what we know about a quality news visual comes from the perspectives of visually literate specialists: photo editors, photojournalists, and related roles. Yet, despite the ubiquity of photographs within print and digital news, they are increasingly being made not by staff photojournalists but, rather, by freelancers, words-based reporters, or community members. As these dynamics have shifted over the past two decades, scholarship has struggled to keep up with how non-specialist journalists define the attributes and properties of a quality news visual. This study aims to address this gap within the context of local and regional news using an interview-based approach and finds that interviewees most commonly defined quality news photographs through the lens of news values, followed by technical considerations and narrative dimensions, aesthetics, the perceived effect the visual had on the audience, how the visual was made and presented, and who or what was photographed.
{"title":"Picturing a quality local news visual: Perspectives from non-specialist journalists","authors":"TJ Thomson","doi":"10.1177/14648849241253136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241253136","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores a key question around local visual news: what do non-specialist journalists regard as a quality news visual? This study focuses on still images as the most ubiquitous building block in the local visual news landscape, whether as thumbnails that are shared with links on social media platforms, as hero images accompanying articles, as photo galleries, or as still frames extracted from videos. Much of what we know about a quality news visual comes from the perspectives of visually literate specialists: photo editors, photojournalists, and related roles. Yet, despite the ubiquity of photographs within print and digital news, they are increasingly being made not by staff photojournalists but, rather, by freelancers, words-based reporters, or community members. As these dynamics have shifted over the past two decades, scholarship has struggled to keep up with how non-specialist journalists define the attributes and properties of a quality news visual. This study aims to address this gap within the context of local and regional news using an interview-based approach and finds that interviewees most commonly defined quality news photographs through the lens of news values, followed by technical considerations and narrative dimensions, aesthetics, the perceived effect the visual had on the audience, how the visual was made and presented, and who or what was photographed.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"254 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140935913","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 paper analyzed the letters to the editor of four leading Odia dailies by applying critical discourse analysis to understand how this section contributes as the public sphere and discusses politics around the second wave of COVID-19. The period considered for study was during the peak of the COVID-19 second wave in India – from April to September 2021, which witnessed many deaths and devastation. During the period the maximum number of letters were written around COVID-19. Upon analyzing the letters, it was concluded that the letters covered five major concerns of the pandemic – the political state within the country and the politics around the vaccine, the availability of the vaccines, the condition of senior citizens and children, the struggle to strike a balance between life and livelihood, and the ongoing crisis in the education sector due to the pandemic. As a public forum for debate, the newspaper readers resorted to the letters to the editor section where they effectively communicated their experiences and problems related to the pandemic. The letters shed light on the real issues on the ground. During COVID-19 the general public craved a forum to share their opinion and express their issues and problems. The letters to the editor section proved to be an effective public forum in this regard. Though the study was conducted in Odisha, a coastal state of India, its findings have a greater implication for the vernacular dailies in the Global South.
{"title":"Pandemic politics and public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of COVID-19 in letters to the editor of leading Odia newspapers","authors":"Deba Prasad Nayak, Bidu Bhusan Dash, Sarthak Abhyudaya","doi":"10.1177/14648849241252257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241252257","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyzed the letters to the editor of four leading Odia dailies by applying critical discourse analysis to understand how this section contributes as the public sphere and discusses politics around the second wave of COVID-19. The period considered for study was during the peak of the COVID-19 second wave in India – from April to September 2021, which witnessed many deaths and devastation. During the period the maximum number of letters were written around COVID-19. Upon analyzing the letters, it was concluded that the letters covered five major concerns of the pandemic – the political state within the country and the politics around the vaccine, the availability of the vaccines, the condition of senior citizens and children, the struggle to strike a balance between life and livelihood, and the ongoing crisis in the education sector due to the pandemic. As a public forum for debate, the newspaper readers resorted to the letters to the editor section where they effectively communicated their experiences and problems related to the pandemic. The letters shed light on the real issues on the ground. During COVID-19 the general public craved a forum to share their opinion and express their issues and problems. The letters to the editor section proved to be an effective public forum in this regard. Though the study was conducted in Odisha, a coastal state of India, its findings have a greater implication for the vernacular dailies in the Global South.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140888385","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}
Pub Date : 2024-05-02DOI: 10.1177/14648849241251966
Guillermo Echauri
This article analyzes Wired’s treatment of three emerging technologies: NFTs, the metaverse, and generative AI, as reflected in the content of their website during the period 2021–2023. Through thematic analysis, the research has found that Wired’s treatment of these three technologies participates in the emergence of hype trends while also departs from the techno-deterministic perspective historically attributed to the magazine by scholarship. Therefore, the study establishes that Wired’s treatment of the characteristics and implications of NFTs, the metaverse, and generative AI involves this journalistic outlet in shaping journalistic, digital, and technological trends that reinforce a sense of constant updating in technological innovation. In addition, it has been found that Wired provides a heterogeneous, comprehensive, and moderate treatment by recognizing the potential of these technologies to impact various aspects of human existence while subjecting them to criticism.
{"title":"Tech trends: Wired’s treatment of emerging technologies (2021-2023)","authors":"Guillermo Echauri","doi":"10.1177/14648849241251966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241251966","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes Wired’s treatment of three emerging technologies: NFTs, the metaverse, and generative AI, as reflected in the content of their website during the period 2021–2023. Through thematic analysis, the research has found that Wired’s treatment of these three technologies participates in the emergence of hype trends while also departs from the techno-deterministic perspective historically attributed to the magazine by scholarship. Therefore, the study establishes that Wired’s treatment of the characteristics and implications of NFTs, the metaverse, and generative AI involves this journalistic outlet in shaping journalistic, digital, and technological trends that reinforce a sense of constant updating in technological innovation. In addition, it has been found that Wired provides a heterogeneous, comprehensive, and moderate treatment by recognizing the potential of these technologies to impact various aspects of human existence while subjecting them to criticism.","PeriodicalId":51432,"journal":{"name":"Journalism","volume":"120 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140840954","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}