Open Access journal ISSN (Print) 0349-5949 - ISSN (Online) 2001-5119 This journal is no longer being updated because: the publisher no longer provides RSS feeds
Abstract: News media share gatekeeping power with social media platforms and audiences in the digital news environment. This means news media is no longer the sole gatekeeper when gatekeeping is viewed post-publication, that is after news content has been published and entered circulation. In this study, we approach interacting and commenting on social media as post-publication gatekeeping practices. This means gatekeeping materialises as and in social interaction, as conversational gatekeeping. We engaged in a quantitative and qualitative analysis of Instagram posts and comments on Finnish newspapers’ Instagram accounts during a period of one year (April 2019–March 2020) to explore how conversational gatekeeping emerges in the increasingly visual and multimodal social media environment. We contribute to the emerging stream of post-publication gatekeeping research by showing how multimodal Instagram content initiated four different styles of performing conversational gatekeeping: affirmative, critical, corrective, and invitational styles. Our typology helps to understand the social interactional relationship between news media and their audiences in general, as well as the micro-level practices of post-publication gatekeeping in particular. PubDate: Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article highlights and discusses the main findings from three different media production studies (2016, 2019, and 2022) investigating the changing production culture of the schedulers in public service media. The inclusion of a broadcaster video-on-demand (BVoD) service in the broadcaster's portfolio affected the production culture. First, the article argues that profound changes happened to the organisational framing of the BVoD service's status and its impact on the production practices. Second, the article shows the BVoD service's impact on the content priorities among the schedulers at TV 2 in Denmark and third, how the public service branding of TV 2 became more explicit in the production culture. However, across these three points of impact and the shifts in the strategic focus at TV 2, the business model at TV 2 and its interplay with the public service obligations runs as an undercurrent. PubDate: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: As on-demand media claim an increasing amount of the time we spend on digital media, traditional broadcasters have adopted video on-demand (VoD) services as a means of presenting their programmes. This article analyses two Danish VoD services offered by legacy broadcasters – that is, BVoD services. It argues that the traditional features of broadcast television, to communicate liveness and immediacy, are reappropriated in the publishing practices of the BVoD services. With an analytical focus on the use of temporal paratexts, the article finds that whereas both services emphasise liveness and immediacy in their publishing practices, they apply different means of expressing the temporal qualities. These differences can be attributed to organisational differences. Finally, the article concludes that competitiveness, distinctiveness, and the public service identity of the broadcasters are explanatory factors for the reappropriation of time-structured publishing in the two Danish BVoD services DRTV and TV 2 Play. PubDate: Sat, 19 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The overall aim of this study is to explore the authoritarian dimension in the far-right discourse of online forums. The study argues for a focus on the articulations of authoritarianism to understand the dynamics of far-right discourse. Four central features of authoritarianism are identified and explored: 1) the authoritarian values underlying articulated opinions on diverse issues; 2) the emotional dimension of authoritarianism; 3) the coexistence of civil and uncivil articulations of authoritarianism; and 4) the role of mainstream news as reference for and trigger of authoritarian responses. The qualitative study is based on data from two Swedish forums, Flashback and Familjeliv [Family life], and consists of 79 threads related to three issues on the agenda: disorder in school, gang crime, and transgender. The results show expressions of authoritarian–liberal value conflicts, and, most significantly, the vigour of an authoritarian culture on the forums, with implications for the normalisation of far-right discourse. PubDate: Thu, 10 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: In recent years, politicians and political parties have increasingly adopted various social media as political communication platforms. While the research on the topic has provided valuable knowledge about politicians’ use of these platforms and the immediate effects, the literature has mainly studied the usage in isolation from their broader communication with citizens. This article provides an overview of the emerging literature that examines politicians’ social media usage in a broader context. Through a scoping review of 49 studies published between 2008 and November 2022, the study identifies three main themes and seven subthemes in the literature and calls for more research to build more robust knowledge across different study contexts. In particular, the review emphasises a need for more longitudinal and qualitative perspectives to assess how politicians navigate between competing media logics in a hybrid media environment, how the new reality impacts them, and whether it alters their communication with citizens over time. PubDate: Fri, 23 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Audience metrics in journalism can be seen as a disruptive innovation: a technological invention that boosts journalism but at the same time disturbs it. The use of metrics has therefore drawn journalists into a sensitive sense-making process: They do emotional work to be able to manage the metrics-related requirements of their work. To further assess why metrics in Finland remains a sensitive issue, in this article we ask: 1) What is the Finnish news professionals’ emotional work about metrics directed at' 2) What is the relationship between this emotional work and the cycle of disruption and innovation' The empirical material consists of nine qualitative interviews with Finnish news managers and a set of open-ended survey responses from the editorial staff of the largest Finnish daily, Helsingin Sanomat. In addition, eight background interviews with third-party analytics providers were used as supportive material. We conclude that the emotional work is centred on relief, excitement, and stress, and it is directed at seeing the audience as an algorithmic conception, increasing the organisations’ capabilities through learning, and maintaining autonomy, respectively. Emotional work thus alleviates and stimulates, as well as balances journalism's relationship with the disruptive innovation of metrics. PubDate: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: The trial of amateur submarine builder Peter Madsen for the murder of the Swedish journalist Kim Wall was one of the most publicised trials in recent Danish history. Through in-depth interviews with ten prominent Danish reporters who covered the trial, this study examines how court reporters negotiate and struggle with ethical dilemmas related to objectivity as both an institutional ideal and an ethical rule under the Media Liability Act. I demonstrate how reporters negotiate and strategise to maintain objectivity in relation to facts, relevance, the telling of both sides, and the avoidance of prejudging. I further highlight the dispute between fact-based reporters and a minor group endorsing interpretive and narrative reporting and advocating for a more pragmatic approach to objectivity. A core finding is how technological advancements and massive public interest have paved the way for new ethical practices, referred to here as “strategic ritual 2.0”. PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Older adults have been found to conceive digital technologies as both helpful and problematic in their everyday lives. Based on a qualitative analysis of diaries and interviews with 40 older Finnish adults, this study identifies efforts they engage in to balance this ambivalence. I approach such balancing practices through the theoretical lens of domestication: the process of integrating technologies into everyday life. By combining the concept of media repertoire with the domestication approach, the findings illustrate how ageing individuals take advantage of their media repertoires in the process of making digitalised societies liveable. In order to include ageing individuals in societies that increasingly demand engagement with emerging technologies, then, means that services should be designed in ways that allow them to be integrated into older adults’ media repertoires that have been being formed for decades. PubDate: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Drawing on survey and interview data from a pilot study undertaken online in Denmark (March–July 2020), this article provides exploratory insights about how young audiences in Denmark (aged 16–34, with a background in higher education) engage with British television and film as viewing shifts from broadcast television to online on-demand services. First, drawing on survey data, we concentrate on consumption habits and genre preferences regarding British content and compare it to Danish, Nordic, and American content. Second, drawing on interviews, we address the significance of cultural and particularly linguistic proximity in determining the consumption and reception of British content. Revealing that young Danes in the pilot study feel greater linguistic proximity to English than to other Scandinavian languages, the research suggests the need for more nuanced theorisations of cultural and linguistic proximity, along with the revision of cultural distance and geo-linguistic regions theory. PubDate: Thu, 23 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article examines the professional values of self-employed photographers and other communication professionals who have worked for both journalism and humanitarian nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). These professionals face the current changes in the media work environment and expand their reach to different fields to find new work opportunities. The study focuses on the photographers’ motivations and professional values in addition to NGO–journalism relations. The findings show that pushing factors in the journalistic field, along with pulling factors in NGO work, motivate photographers to choose advocacy work. When photographers change from photojournalism to NGO photography, they must adhere to new professional values and ethics that mix with their existing values and which may occasionally contradict with photojournalistic working methods or the marketing and fundraising images at the NGOs, causing ethical dilemmas. Finally, photographers with a photojournalism background help NGOs gain news media publicity, yet they are rarely able to change the news agenda. PubDate: Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article explores Swedish Police Authority strategies on creating a sense of safety through social media. Previous research has generally focused on proximity policing, practices of informing citizens, proactive police work, crime reduction, surveillance, and preservation of trust and less on the digital creation of a sense of safety. The study consists of semistructured interviews with 20 police officers, media strategists, and communicators from the Swedish Police Authority in a region associated with high crime rates. The results of this national case study indicate that a social media–driven creation of a sense of safety depends on how the intertwined strategies of transmediality, presence, and transparency are communicatively handled. This article adds to the literature by demonstrating how the Swedish Police in Police Region South (PRS) use and understand social media to create a sense of safety. PubDate: Thu, 16 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article analyses how people use social media to make sense of climate change, exploring climate issues as part of everyday communication in media-saturated societies. Building on prominent themes in the environmental communication literature on social media, such as mobilisation and polarisation, we respond to calls for more qualitative and interpretative analysis. Our study therefore asks how people use social media in everyday life to make sense of climate issues, and it expands on previous findings in the field through a qualitative typology of everyday social media use. The empirical data stems from in-depth interviews with Norwegians who are engaged in climate issues, with informants ranging from activists to declared sceptics, although we find widespread ambivalence across group positions. Our findings contribute to disentangling contradictory findings in the field through a discussion of how climate change is part of everyday communication. PubDate: Tue, 14 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Common depictions of authentic self-presentation on social media are often interpreted through the lens of ambivalence, performance, or some kind of bind. Through the example of millennial women who call themselves girlbosses, this article explores how authenticity is articulated through three levels: productivity, ordinariness, and belonging. The study is part of a larger netnographic project in which 23 YouTube channels and related social media platforms have been observed for two years. Content analyses of observational and interview data suggest the authentic self is often represented and expressed through specific cultural repertoires (e.g., coffee) that articulate girlbosses as productive and ordinary entrepreneurs seeking belonging and meaning. Further, while digital media allows new kinds of entrepreneurship, at the same time, self-employed digital workers, influencers, and entrepreneurs are left alone to advance their careers in the midst of rising popular misogyny and lacking job security. I argue that participating in communicative practices of entrepreneurial femininity offers girlbosses a promise of happiness if they stay “authentic”; and yet, in a cruel way, this promise also prevents itself from actualising. PubDate: Sun, 29 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Since access to and use of digital devices and applications often become more challenging with age, it is important to study how media appropriation processes unfold later in life. The present article contributes to existing research by applying the concept of transaction – developed within relational sociology – to study digital media appropriation. Using this concept, I focus on how older adults’ relations with various actors (known others, distant others, and non-human transactors) fuel the appropriation of digital devices and apps. Drawing on interviews with 22 older adults (70–94 years of age), I identify four types of appropriation processes. This shows the diversity of ways in which digital devices and apps enter the lives of older adults and the diversity of agentic roles in media appropriation. The results also reveal how a sense of coercion in media appropriation was present among the older adults, especially in relation to their children. PubDate: Sat, 10 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: Young people are perceived as heavy consumers of social media and less avid consumers of news. That notion, however, deserves nuance: Many factors, such as the national context, media system, trust in news, intentionally or incidentally encountering news from different sources, and interest in politics, influence how young people consume news. This study explores news consumption among Finnish adolescents through a representative survey of 15–19-year-olds. We seek to answer two research questions: What are the news repertoires of Finnish adolescents' And what factors predict different news repertoires' Latent profile analysis reveals three distinct news repertoires: 1) moderate digital traditionalists, the largest group, embracing traditional news in digital form; 2) minimalist social media stumblers, the second-largest group, tending to consume news infrequently through passive social media encounters and lacking credible information; and 3) a quite large number of frequent news omnivores, taking an interest in diverse news forms and actively seeking them. PubDate: Sat, 10 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: News dissemination online is driven by three gatekeeping logics: the gatekeeping logic of the news media (publishing), the gatekeeping logic of social actors (sharing), and the gatekeeping logic of platform algorithms (spreading), each guided by different values and with a different relationship to content. Using a reverse engineering approach, this study applies a 2015 dataset to empirically explore how a Facebook algorithm changed the overall composition of the news users saw, highlighting the ongoing issue of how the different gates and associated gatekeeping logics – especially that of platforms – influence news distribution. In contrast to previous studies, we find the relationship between news properties and the distribution of news online to be non-linear. Results point to Facebook's role in the overall composition of online news, both directly and in interaction with other gatekeepers. As news stories become more widely spread online, algorithmic logics take precedence over user behaviour and preferences. PubDate: Sat, 15 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article considers the extent to which action research can help local stakeholders tackle the permanent technological disruption in the media sector by reshaping journalistic production practices with original design by examining a specific case. The INJECT Norway (Innovative Journalism: Enhanced Creativity Tools) project was part of an EU Innovation Action with partners that included universities, technology companies, business consultancies, and local newspapers. The objective was to design a new tool for creativity support in journalism and stimulate innovation competence through a business ecosystem. The article evaluates the collaboration between academics and local partners in the Norwegian ecosystem regarding the workability of the new designs and the credibility of the approach. The evaluation is written as a chronological narrative of the project's collaboration from optimistic beginnings to eventual failure. The main findings reveal a tension between the academic researchers and the local project partners. Despite these tensions, the article concludes with a hopeful note about the current action research ecosystem: harnessing the power of students to mediate the relationship between academics and local partners. PubDate: Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: While traditional media often fails to engage young audiences with news, YouTubers’ content gains popularity and attracts attention with specific stylistic practices. Based on dimensions of audience engagement and a worthwhileness approach, this article examines how young audiences engage with YouTubers’ formats and genres used in news media products. Findings of five focus group interviews with Estonian teenagers show that while specific dimensions of engagement may increase due to a more relatable format, interest in traditional news content remains limited regardless of repackaging to a YouTube-intrinsic production. This article contributes to audience studies by demonstrating to news organisations that trying to engage younger audiences through mere formatting while forgetting content might not be worthwhile. However, making news more entertaining and adopting the youth's interpretation of what news is could prime young audiences to consume news through social media. PubDate: Wed, 31 Aug 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Abstract: This article presents an action-research study investigating a spatially sensitive innovation process of place-based experiences in a rural area of Sweden. Lately, there have been a growing number of initiatives focused on developing location-aware mobile media – geomedia technologies – to offer place-based digital experiences within tourism. Drawing on contemporary critical studies on geomedia technologies, we stress the importance of reflecting upon the implications of place-based technologies to minimise both the negative impacts on a place and the neglect of local perspectives. We conducted action-research interventions to unpack the complexity of developing place-based mediated experiences. The study makes an illustrative case of how interventions lead to more nuanced development processes of geomedia technologies while simultaneously fostering creativity. We argue that as action research allows researchers to intervene in media innovations, it identifies models for more nuanced place-based development processes, including local spatial and sociocultural perspectives. PubDate: Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT
Open Access journal
