Newspaper and Online News 2018 Abstracts
Open Competition
Examining who political journalists @mention on Twitter • Brooke Auxier, University of Maryland, College Park; Kalyani Chadha, University of Maryland, College Park • Many journalists have adopted social media platforms as a means for gathering breaking news and promoting their work. Though tools like Twitter allow journalists to interact directly with their audiences and average users, some critics suggest that journalists often write for each other and interact largely with others in the industry. An analysis of 5,000 tweets found that political journalists mostly @mention other journalists, news organizations and politicians.
The Journalism and Mass Communication Capstone Course: Bringing It All Together? • Brian J. Bowe, Western Washington University; Robin Blom, Ball State University; Lucinda Davenport • Although most higher education programs include a capstone course to culminate the student experience, program directors disagree on what the experience should look like. Updating previous research, this study examined the main goals, teaching methods, and subject areas covered in journalism and mass communication capstone courses. It also compared capstone course content and format to what professionals say is important to know. Based on a survey of department chairs and directors, the results show that capstone courses have become increasingly focused on individual coaching, the production of individual student projects, and the examination of issues related to careers and media in society.
Data journalism and black-boxed data sets • Wilson Lowrey, University of Alabama; Ryan Broussard, University of Alabama; Lindsey Sherrill, University of Alabama • Interviews with data journalists reveal there are differences in practices for data-driven journalism across different types of news outlets and levels of expertise in data journalists. Findings include an unlikeliness to question data categories from government agencies and a difference in how journalists at national and digital-only organizations generally systems in place to check data compared to journalists at smaller publications. Authors argue for a need to increase critical thinking in how data is used.
Knowledge begets knowledge: Impacts of civic and political knowledge on knowledge gain from online news • D. Jasun Carr, Idaho State University; Mitchell Bard • “This paper uses a Twitter-based experiment to examine relationships between the content choices Post-Millennials make in a social media context, and how their civic and political knowledge influence factual recall. Results indicate that, while Post-Millennials were more likely than expected to select news over entertainment – leading to increased knowledge gain – their existing civic and political knowledge influences retention of information with increased base knowledge leading to higher factual recall.
Routine Adjustments: How Journalists Framed the Charleston Shootings • Bill Cassidy, Northern Illinois University; Betty La France; Sam Babin • National newspaper coverage of the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. was analyzed via a two-dimensional measurement scheme for examining media frames. Results suggest that journalists incorporated attributes unique to this tragedy into their coverage when compared to studies of similar events. A wider variety of frames on time and space dimensions were consistently utilized, and there was increased attention to the societal/past frame combination.
To share or not to share? Credibility, emotion and false news on Twitter • Haoran Chu; Janet Yang; Jun Zhuang • An experimental survey based on a nationally-representative sample showed that source credibility features such as verification badge increased people’s perceived credibility of false news on Twitter, while high social approval reduced such belief. Credibility perception further mediated the effects of tweet features onto sharing intention. Additionally, anger as a high-arousal emotion led to stronger intention to share false tweets, while the low-arousal emotions like fear and sadness did not.
What to Think About: The Applicability of Agenda-Settings in a Social Media Context • Holly Cowart • “This study examined how agenda-setting works in a social media setting. Three areas were tested for their effect on issue salience. More than 360 participants viewed variations of a mock Facebook feed and answered questions about issue importance. Results showed that increased repetition of a news story did influence participants’ perception that the news story topic was important. Total time spent on Facebook, gender, and ethnicity had a significant influence on perceived story importance.
Don’t Quote Me: Effects of Named, Quoted and Partisan News Sources • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kathleen Culver, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Douglas McLeod; Christopher Kremmer, University of News South Wales, Australia • “Many news organizations have developed policies on use of named and unnamed sources in stories, including when the latter should be directly quoted or paraphrased. In an experiment, we test how audience members respond to these policy dictates by measuring news credibility in a political story that manipulates whether the source is named, whether that source is directly quoted, and the political relationship between the person accused and the accuser. We find that while each of these manipulations has little or no effect, the combine to trigger a discernible change in credibility in the eyes of the audience.
Does a more diverse newspaper staff reflect its community? Analyzing The Dallas Morning News’ content • Tracy Everbach, UNT; Jake Batsell, Southern Methodist University; Sara Champlin, The University of North Texas; Gwendelyn Nisbett, University of North Texas • This analysis of print and digital content in The Dallas Morning News examines whether a regional newspaper’s coverage reflects the diversity of its community on multiple platforms. Using a constructed week from Fall 2017, this study employs mixed methods to research bylines, visual credits, text sources, and visual subjects in the Morning News’ print editions and website. Results show that the content does not match the diversity of the surrounding community, which is 40% Latinx.
Understanding the Conflict Between Journalism Professionalism and Emotional Trauma • Kenna Griffin, Oklahoma City University • This study measures how journalists’ professionalism may play a role in their willingness to admit suffering emotional trauma or seeking help for it, and how professionalism may affect journalists’ views of work-related trauma, in general. The 829 respondents reported a strong sense of professionalism, but agreed that it is difficult to remain objective when covering traumatic events. The respondents also disagreed that journalists have a special resiliency that allows them to do their jobs without suffering emotional trauma. Despite this, the journalists still identified emotional trauma as a problem for others in the industry, but thought it was unlikely to happen to them.
Fake news is not controlled in a controlled environment: An analysis of China’s online news • Lei Guo, Boston University • The widespread dissemination of fake news has become a serious concern in many western democracies. This study adds to the literature by demonstrating that fake news is not controlled even in a controlled media environment like China. Based on a comprehensive intermedia agenda-setting analysis, the research suggests that official news websites in China also contributed to the perpetuation of fake news by advancing fake news themselves and by inducing other media outlets to do so.
The Local-Mobile Paradox: Missed Innovation Opportunities and The Future of Local News • Meg Heckman, Northeastern University; John Wihbey, Northeastern University • “We employ a mixed methods approach to examine the state of mobile web publishing among U.S. local newspapers. Analysis of the mobile version of news websites (N=100) across the 50 states yields an uneven picture, with innovation lagging in key areas. A survey with local owner-operators (N=77) in a large U.S. state suggests that devoting attention to mobile audiences may be associated with revenue opportunities, and the ability to innovate is not necessarily associated with firm size. We explore implications for the viability of local news.
All the News That Tweets: Newspapers’ Use of Twitter Posts as News Sources from 2009 to 2016 • Kyle Heim, Shippensburg University • This study analyzed a sample of New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today stories from 2009 to 2016 in which Twitter posts were cited as news sources (N = 440). Although the use of tweets as sources has increased, the tweets generally were not featured prominently within the stories. Tweets were used most often in international stories, and journalists relied mostly on the tweets of official sources such as politicians rather than ordinary citizens.
Strangers to the Game? Interlopers, intralopers, and shifting news production • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Valerie Belair-Gagnon, University of Minnesota • The contours of journalistic practice have evolved substantially since the emergence of the world wide web to include those who were once strangers to the profession. Bloggers, hobbyists, amateur journalists, programmers, mobile app designers, web analytic professionals, non-governmental organizations, start-ups, and many others have become part of the organizational field of journalism, collectively influencing news production. These strangers, whether welcomed by journalists or shunned as interlopers, represent what the sociologist Georg Simmel (1950) described as potential wanderers, or those individuals who might influence journalism briefly before moving on, as well as those who might have a more lasting footing. This conceptual essay argues that by beginning to delineate differences among these strangers—those who have not belonged to traditional journalism practice but have imported their qualities and work into it—a more holistic understanding of the impact of outsiders on news production, and journalism broadly, can be advanced. Following Eldridge’s (2018) call to consider the organizational field of journalism as a fluid one, we offer typologies of these strangers as explicit and implicit interlopers as well as intralopers, offering possible definitions and examples for each. In working to understand these strangers as innovators, disruptors, and challengers of news production, we begin to unpack how they are contributing to increasingly un-institutionalized meaning of news while also suggesting a research agenda that begins to give definition to the various strangers who may be influencing news production more specifically, and the organizational field of journalism more broadly.
Fake News Cues: Examining content, source, and typology cues in identifying mis- and disinformation • Avery Holton, University of Utah; Amber Hinsley, Saint Louis University • Using a survey of U.S. adults, this research examines the content, source, and other credibility cues people rely on when assessing fake news. This study also considers people’s perceptions about various emerging fake news typologies. Participants who had lower confidence in their ability to identify fake news were less reliant on multiple credibility sources as well as cues like headlines and visuals to help them determine mis- and disinformation. These signal a need for increased, continuous digital literacy education.
Sentiment Contagion in the 2016 U.S Presidential Election Media Tweet Networks • Claire Youngnyo Joa, Louisiana State University Shreveport; Gi Woong Yun, University of Nevada, Reno • Sentiment contagion across the media tweet, including traditional and non-traditional news media, network of 2016 U.S. presidential election was identified and analyzed using a series of time-series analysis. Online non-partisan media reported the highest use of positive sentiment words, while political commentators reported the highest level of negative sentiment word use. Online partisan media Twitter accounts, including @drudgereport, were identified as intermedia agenda setters that led negative sentiment contagion in multiple media categories. No evident individual agenda setter was found in positive sentiment contagion.
“Not one of us”: Social Identity and American Metajournalistic Discourse Surrounding Glenn Greenwald • Courtney Johnson, Pew Research Center • Journalists increasingly face challenges to their professional autonomy. The internet allows anyone with a computer or mobile device to post content online, making it easy for individuals with little or no journalistic training and no formal news outlet affiliation to engage in reporting. Whether this content creation constitutes “journalism,” however, is often contested by those traditional journalists affiliated with mainstream media outlets (Carlson, 2012; Singer, 2007). Mainstream journalists now feel challenged by online actors who consider themselves journalists, or at least consider the work they do to be journalistic in nature. Given the recent challenges posed to journalism by the internet, and guided by past research on social identity theory and boundary work, this paper examines the relationship between evolving journalistic professional identity and mainstream journalists’ treatment of Glenn Greenwald. Using a textual analysis of metajournalistic discourse, this study illustrates how definitions of journalism are changing in the digital age, and how journalists working for traditional news organizations draw boundaries around their profession and attempt to differentiate themselves from new forms of journalism enabled by the internet. Results indicate that journalists moved to protect their professional boundaries in ways predicted by social identity theory: Journalists enhanced their profession identity by subsuming the innovative aspects of Greenwald’s work under the rubric of traditional journalism, and used the other (less professionally desirable) aspects of Greenwald’s behavior to place him outside the boundaries of real journalism.
Mediating Empathy: The role of news consumption in mitigating attitudes about race and immigration • Kelly Kaufhold, Texas State University • Controversies over racism and xenophobia during and after the campaign of President Donald Trump contributed to big increases in media consumption – and racist incidents. This study examines whether and how much news media consumption mitigates perceptions of 12 measures of attitudes about race and immigration, using a national instrument of 64,600 cases. News media use – especially newspaper use – does soften attitudes about race and immigration, although it isn’t as predictive as party identification.
Protests, Media Coverage, and a Hierarchy of Social Struggle • Danielle Kilgo, Indiana University; Summer Harlow, University of Houston • News coverage is fundamental to a protest’s viability, but research suggests media negatively portray protests and protesters that challenge the status quo (a pattern known as the protest paradigm). This study questions that assumption, interrogating how topic, time, and region shape coverage. Results suggest Black Lives Matter and policing protest coverage follows more of a delegitimizing pattern than stories about women’s or immigrants’ rights protests. A model for a hierarchy of social struggle is proposed.
The meaning of numbers: Effect of social cues perceived as bandwagon heuristic in online news • Jiyoun Kim • “This quantitative study focuses on how peoples’ reactions to an online article are affected by social cues associated with the news article. This study found that online content with a high number of likes, shares, and comments show significant effects on the following: perceived bandwagon, willingness to consume news, perceived news worthiness, and people’s likelihood of news sharing. The findings indicate, however, that social cues have its effect when conditions are low-risk and low-involvement.
Reliance on Government Sources at American Newspapers in the Digital Era • Beth Knobel, Fordham University • This paper examines sources used in over 5,000 enterprise articles on the front pages of nine American newspapers before and after the advent of digital journalism to assess whether newspapers are becoming more reliant on government sources in the Internet era. This research suggests that journalists’ reliance on officials has increased in the digital era, but only slightly, as the ease of finding sources online has been eroded by budget cuts at American newspapers.
Re-examining news overload: Effects of content characteristics and news topics on selective scanning and avoidance • Angela Lee; Avery Holton, University of Utah; Victoria Chen • The rapid proliferation of digital news platforms has exacerbated average consumers’ perception of overload and complicates the ways they selectively consume and avoid the news. Through an online panel survey, this study advances research on news overload by (1) proposing a more holistic measure of news overload, (2) examining the moderating effect of content characteristics and news topics on overload, and (3) investigating the ways in which these variables influence selective scanning and news avoidance. The results indicate that the antecedents and effects of news overload is more complex than previously thought and deserve more scholarly and industry attention.
Understanding the Role Performance of Native Advertising on News Websites • You Li, Eastern Michigan U • This study compares the role performance of native advertising between the legacy and the digital-only news websites in the United States. By analyzing the content characteristics, the study finds that native advertising primarily plays a service role. Those on the legacy news websites prioritized the civic role, while those on the digital-only news websites emphasized the infortainment role. The composition of native advertising message has yet to comply with the journalistic standard.
Perceptual Learning in Mass Communication Research: Immediate & Delayed Effects of Perceptual-Learning Methods on AP Style Knowledge • Justin Martin, Northwestern University in Qatar; Shageaa Naqvi, Northwestern University in Qatar; George Anghelcev, Northwestern University in Qatar • Perceptual-learning methods teach skills via numerous, rapid-fire questions that provide immediate visual feedback. This study tested the effects of a perceptual-learning module (PLM) on acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge of Associated Press editing style. A quasi-experiment compared a PLM condition of non-journalism majors to a control condition of journalism majors who learned AP style in a traditional way: by taking an introductory journalism class, being assigned the AP Stylebook as a textbook, and submitting AP-compliant assignments. A perceptual-learning module of 200 rapid, multiple-choice questions with immediate feedback significantly improved participants’ declarative and procedural knowledge of AP style, and was clearly more effective than the classroom method. Perceptual-learning participants, who spent just 1 hour 10 minutes completing the PLM, outperformed the classroom/control condition (a 14-week class) on AP editing ability. Importantly, these effects did not attenuate in a delayed posttest seven weeks after initial posttest. This is the first experiment testing effects of a PLM on linguistic editing ability.
Shithole and the President: News use of Trump’s profanity • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “When President Trump used shithole to describe several countries in discussion of immigration, news organizations faced violating norms against profanity to use his precise language. Evaluation of 2,469 stories containing “shithole” in 70 large newspaper websites over a 15-day period found the meeting and response, public policy and politics, and evaluation of Trump were the most common themes. Analysis showed the influences of news values, journalistic norms and organizational practices on use of profanity.
Healing and recovery as a news value • Michael McCluskey, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga • “News values and journalistic values are used to explain which events or issues are mentioned in the news. One common news theme after traumas is healing and recovery, which is not explicitly mentioned as a value. Analysis evaluates the role of journalism after traumatic events to aid the healing and recovery of the affected parties, including communities. Evidence from previously published work and recent traumatic events is used to illustrate eight common themes.
‘Tell me something good’: Testing the longitudinal effects of constructive news using the Google Assistant • Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth University • In a mixed design quasi-experiment, participants received access to a Google Assistant feature in which they could prompt the assistant to summarize constructive news — stories that highlight societal progress. After two weeks, those who used the feature were more likely, between pretest and postttest, than those who did not to feel positive while consuming traditional news, suggesting constructive news could mitigate the effects of more typical, negative news.
Fact-checking and Facebook users’ engagement: Debunking fake news and verifying Trump’s claims • Paul Mena, University of Florida • “This study explores Facebook users’ engagement with fact-checking regarding categories of this journalistic activity and the authors of the claims being assessed. A content analysis of Facebook posts published by two major fact-checking organizations was conducted. The results show that the debunking of fake news by fact-checkers might produce higher levels of engagement. Additionally, this study found that fact-checking audiences on Facebook were significantly engaged with posts related to the verification of President Trump’s claims.
Fake News: A Concept Explication and Taxonomy of Online News • Maria D. Molina, Penn State University; S. Shyam Sundar • The growth of fake news online has created a need for computational models to automatically detect it. For such models to be successful, it is essential to clearly define fake news and differentiate it from other forms of news. We conducted a concept explication, yielding a taxonomy of online news that identifies specific features for use by machine learning algorithms to reliably classify fake news, real news, commentary, satire, and other related types of content.
Exploring a Branding Alignment Typology: Influences on individual, organizational, and institutional forms of journalistic branding • Logan Molyneux, Temple University; Seth Lewis, University of Oregon; Avery Holton, University of Utah • Contributing to the growing literature on how journalists engage in branding—promoting themselves, their organizations, and fellow journalists—this study proposes, tests, and confirms a branding alignment hypothesis. This typology, examined through a first-of-its-kind survey of journalists and branding (N = 642), sheds new light on how certain branding approaches match up with individual, organizational, and institutional forms of motivation and influence. Moreover, this approach shows how branding is manifest over and above social media dynamics alone.
Readers’ Perceptions of Newsworthiness and Bias as Factors in Commenting on Digital News Content • Greg Munno, Syracuse University • “This study tests a structural model of commenting behavior using survey data (N = 335). The model builds on suggestions of a connection between hostile-media effects and commenting. This study adds newsworthiness to the structural equation. The model tested had indicators of good fit, although hostile-media effects did not play a prominent role in the structural model.
Peace Journalism: A War/Peace Framing Visual Analysis of the Charlottesville Protests • Dara Phillips, Regent University; Stephen Perry, Regent University • Peace journalism has typically applied to international events, but this study examined the Charlottesville protest to determine if war/peace imagery is applicable to domestic conflict. The protest was selected for its imagery and sudden public awareness. Using Neumann and Fahmy’s visual coding, researchers conducted Chi-square analyses to examine what ways war/peace imagery was used in state and national newspapers. Further quantitative analysis showed no difference in peace journalism usage between state and national newspapers.
No Quick Fix: How Journalists Assess the Impact and Define the Boundaries of Solutions Journalism • Elia Powers, Towson University; Alex Curry, University of Texas-Austin • The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) defines its mission as supporting and connecting journalists interested in “rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.” One problem facing journalists and researchers is the lack of a shared framework for discussing solutions journalism’s impact. This mixed-methods study addresses how SJN and its journalist members assess and discuss impact. Findings shed light on how proponents and practitioners of solutions journalism view its objectives, measure its effects, and define its boundaries.
Solidarity in the Newsroom? Media Concentration and Union Organizing: Case Study from the Sunshine State • Jennifer Proffitt, Florida State University • This paper examines the struggles, actions, and challenges of the journalist organizers at two Florida legacy newspapers—the Lakeland Ledger and the Sarasota Herald Tribune—who unionized in 2016 with The NewsGuild-Communication Workers of America. In-depth interviews with journalists from both papers suggest that unionizing can help to counter the effects of media concentration, corporate practices, and the resulting changes in organizational structure and their impact on the working conditions of reporters.
Tweeting local sports: Best practices of a successful sports reporter • Matthew Reavy, University of Scranton; Kimberly Pavlick, University of Scranton • This paper uses a mixed methodology approach to analyze the Twitter habits of a local sports reporter from the perspective of Uses and Gratifications theory. An in-depth interview with the subject, together with a content analysis of more than 14,000 tweets over a two-year period, are used to compare the reporter’s Twitter habits with ideals defined by journalists in previous research. Suggestions are made for “best practices” in local sports journalism.
Conceptualizing fake news from the perspective of its producers • Craig Robertson, Michigan State University; Rachel Mourao, Michigan State University • “Interest in fake news peaked after 2016, but studies have focused on the way scholars, journalists, audiences, and Trump define it. Guided by Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical model and journalists as interpretive communities (Zelizer, 1993, 2017) this paper explores the ways fake news producers present themselves on their “About us” and social media bios. We found that fake news is an alternative interpretive community guided by openly partisan discourses championing subjective truths and rejecting objectivity.
Measuring quality dialogue: Unproductive, uncivil discourse dominates news commenting forums • Arthur Santana, San Diego State University • Online commenting forums of news sites have been much maligned for the rampant incivility they often engender, and anecdotal accounts are that many news sites are abandoning them. Via content analysis of 4,800 comments from online commenting forums from around the country, this research quantitatively examines not just the civility but the overall quality of the comments. It also quantifies how many news sites host the forums. Key variables are anonymous commenters and non-anonymous commenters.
Geolocated News: How Place, Space and Context Matters for Mobile News Users • Amy Schmitz Weiss, San Diego State • This study examines mobile news consumers and non-mobile news consumers perceptions of geolocated news and their news consumption behavior. Based on a national online survey of U.S. adults (n=979) that was conducted in fall 2017, findings show that mobile news consumers are seeking out geolocated news. The context by which they seek out location-based information is dependent on where they live, work or play as well as where their family and friends live.
Journalism and Trauma: The Role of Education and Trauma Resources in Humanizing Newsrooms • Natalee Seely • Many journalists must report on trauma, but undergraduate journalism education and newsroom resources may not offer adequate trauma preparedness and support. A survey (N=254) examined the relationships between trauma education and workplace resources, and journalists’ level of trauma awareness and their willingness to seek support in their newsroom. Education regarding crisis reporting positively predicted trauma awareness, indicating that journalism programs may produce more prepared journalists if they include curriculum about crisis reporting. Participation in workplace resources also significantly predicted willingness to seek emotional support in the newsroom. Results from surveys also showed that crisis reporting education and trauma-related resources are lacking in journalism programs and newsrooms. Nearly half of journalists surveyed reported that their current newsroom offered no trauma-related resources, such as debriefings, counseling or trauma training. Additionally, more than half (53%) reported never having received any type of education related to crisis reporting or covering trauma.
Reporting on Tragedy and Violence: Journalists’ Perspectives • Natalee Seely • Journalists witness and experience traumatic events as part of their jobs. A lack of education and newsroom resources about trauma, along with a newsroom culture that often stigmatizes vulnerability and promotes a “suffering in silence” attitude, can take its toll on reporters. This study offers a qualitative perspective to reports that newsrooms are facing a “mental health epidemic” (Huffington Post, May 26, 2015). In-depth interviews with journalists from around the country identify journalists’ experiences with trauma, their coping mechanisms, and their perspectives on how their education and newsroom environments have (or have not) prepared them for covering violence, tragedy and conflict.
Context Matters: Journalists’ Ideals, Narration, and Practices in the United States and Malaysia • Moniza Waheed; Lea Hellmueller • A content analysis of newspapers from the United States and Malaysia along with a survey among journalists found that the watchdog role conception, narration, and performance was more pronounced in the United States compared to Malaysia while the loyal facilitator model, akin to development journalism was more pronounced in the latter. The role conceptions of these models were linked to the narration of journalists but were not necessarily reflected in the news reports journalists produced.
Biting The Hand: Accountability Journalism in the Trade Press • Rob Wells, Univ of Arkansas • “This article examines accountability journalism in the trade press, the specialty business publications, a topic not covered in prior research. Qualitative research methods involving interviews with top trade journalists reveal their in-depth reporting led to conflicts with advertisers, such as boycotts. Trade journalists describe a complex relationship with their industries, in line with the political economy theory, yet they adhered to journalistic norms such as autonomy, which readers valued.
Overloaded: The Impact of Visual Density on Advertising Recognition within Sponsored News Articles • Ryan Kor; Bartosz Wojdynski, University of Georiga • Drawing from load theory, this study hopes to investigate the possible implications of a native ad’s visual density and characteristics of the disclosure label on advertising recognition. The current study uses a 3 x 2, between subjects lab experiment which utilizes eye-tracking software to measure participants’ attention to disclosure label positions based on visual density.
Journalism’s Relationship to Democracy: Roles, Attitudes, and Practices • David Wolfgang, Colorado State University; Tim Vos, University of Missouri; Kimberly Kelling • “Journalism is often discussed in terms of its relationship to democracy. But one’s conception of democracy can influence how one understands journalistic concepts. This study surveyed 204 US political reporters to determine their views on democracy and how their views relate to professional roles, trust, and sourcing. The findings show journalists support traditional norms but differ in their support in interesting ways based on their conception of democracy.
“All the President’s tweets”: A Large-scale Study of Uses of Social Media Content in Online News • Mohammad Yousuf; Naeemul Hassan, The University of Mississippi; Md Main Uddin Rony, The University of Mississippi • This longitudinal study examines uses of social media content in online news from 2013 to 2017. Computational methods were used to analyze 59,356 articles from 68 mainstream news websites and 85 highly controversial online-only news portals. Results show uses of social media content in news almost doubled in five years. Both mainstream and controversial sites prefer Twitter to Facebook as a source of information. Social statuses of cited sources vary across mainstream and controversial websites.
Hostile Media Perception and Intention to Participate in Public Discussion of Mental Health Issues: An Examination of the Role of Involvement • Xueying Zhang; Kim Baker; Kim Bissell; Sarah Pember; Yiyi Yang • “The current study tested the “corrective action hypothesis” by analyzing intentions to discuss mental health issues publicly after exposing to news coverage of mass shootings using a “dangerous people” frame. An online survey of 288 respondents suggested that affective involvement independently predict as well as mediate self-interest involvement in predicting HMP, which then predicted individuals’ intentions to take part in public discussion about mental health.
Student Papers
Breaking Babel: Understanding the Dark Side of Digital News • David Berman, University of Pennsylvania • Using attention economics as a theoretical framework, this paper pursues a comparative historical analysis of William Randolph Hearst’s yellow newspaper The New York Journal and the digital news website BuzzFeed. In so doing, this paper arrives at a structural understanding of the conditions that lead to the production and distribution of misinformation.
Blame the ABC: news framing and the future of public service broadcasting in Australia • Lauren Bridges, University of Pennsylvania • This paper draws on textual analysis of 157 newspaper articles to contend that commercial news framing of recent media reform in Australia work to normalize deregulation as the only way to “save the media” from digital disruption, while also implicating public service broadcasters, as “competing unfairly” in commercial media markets. By conflating the ABC charter with the need for media reform, commercial newspapers aim to delegitimize digital services provided by public broadcasters thereby limiting their future growth.
Message or Medium? Effect of Virtual Reality on News Stories • Noah Buntain; Shengjie Yao, S.I. Newhouse School Of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Dongqing Xu • This quantitative study tested whether viewer reactions to a video story were different when presented in virtual reality. Based on LC4MP, we predicted that the VR medium would elicit higher levels of presence, emotion, and empathy than standard video. Subjects (N=40) were students, staff, and faculty from a large private university in the United States. Results indicated that VR presentations are not significantly different on these factors than standard video.
Learning news credibility cues in politicized news • Megan Duncan, University of Wisconsin-Madison • “Audiences, who cannot investigate the credibility of most news stories for themselves, rely on non-content heuristic cues to form credibility judgments. For most mediums, these heuristics were stable over time. Emerging formats of journalism, however, require audiences to learn to interpret what new heuristics credibility cues mean about the credibility of the story. In an experiment, participants (N=254) were given instructions about how to interpret the credibility cues in three formats as they read a politicized news story, which were compared to a control condition that did not have any instructions. The results show the effects of partisanship and the format of the instructions on both the ability to learn news heuristics and the perceived credibility of the story.
The Politicizing of ESPN: A Content Analysis of its Perceived Partisanship • Adrianne Grubic, — please select a prefix — • Since the 2016 presidential election, politics has not only taken the forefront in news, but in sports as well. ESPN’s protest coverage became a source of debate as various media outlets accused the network of being partisan with a liberal bias. Through a content analysis, this study found that espn.com readers were more likely to be uncivil towards other commenters and were less concerned with a perceived bias.
Control and resistance: The influences of political, economic, and technological factors on Chinese investigative reporting • Lei Guo • “This study utilizes interviews with 12 current or former investigative journalists in China to find out how important systematic players influence on investigative news. By adopting hierarchy of influences model, this study finds that Chinese investigative news is subject to control by both central and local propaganda departments and financial and public relations institutions; while new technology can facilitate journalists’ strategies to finish their reporting.
A Community that has Lost its Way: Framing the Sherman Park Unrest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin • Rachel Italiano, Marquette University • Officer-involved shootings of African Americans have received extensive media coverage recent years. This analysis examines how the local press of a Midwest city framed Syville Smith’s shooting death by a Milwaukee police officer and the subsequent unrest that occurred. Fifty-nine articles from the Milwaukee Community Journal and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were analyzed. Overall, Sherman Park was framed as a community that has lost its way because of several factors. Implications are discussed.
Fake News and Its Sourcing Patterns • Soo Young Shin, Michigan State University • This study examined the differences in sourcing patterns between fake news and mainstream news. A content analysis of stories from fake news sites and top circulation mainstream news media during the 2016 presidential election was conducted to compare each of their source selections. The results revealed that fake news mostly relied on other media outlets for their sources, which played a role in reinforcing bias and existing beliefs of fake news consumers. Constructing fake news’ identity by verifying opinions with other media was suggested as one reason for the heavy reliance on other media. Non-official sources were also valued by fake news to arouse public interest.
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