Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

Senior producer, programme manager, controller, organizer or director, the producer's boss comes in a wide range of guises and titles. His or her essential job is not so much to make programmes as to make programme makers. Whether responsible for a programme strand, a station or a network, this senior editorial figure is there to listen to the output and provide feedback on it to the producers. A handwritten note left on the producer's desk – a habit of former BBC Managing Director of Radio, David Hatch – is particularly effective. This head of programmes will also lead the programme meetings, where there is a systematic discussion of the output – there is more detail on this procedure in the next chapter. The purpose of this is continual improvement through professional encouragement and evaluation, critique, discussion of ideas, programme development, and so on. Without this, the output stagnates.

The executive producer

Caught between a loss of market share and a bad economy, today’s TV news is in flux and under threat. In From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News, media studies professor Geoffrey Baym recounts the history of televised journalism and suggests that our best hope for its future is embodied in two Comedy Central entertainment programs: The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Despite the subtitle, Baym portrays the last half century of TV journalism as less evolution than devolution, a process through which institutions that once served to ‘‘ensure political accountability’’ have become little more than purveyors of ‘‘emotional theater’’ and ‘‘subjective engagement’’ (p. 58). He blames this state of affairs squarely on capitalism and corporate greed—forces that generate ever increasing institutional hunger for ratings and advertising revenue. In the work of comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, Baym sees a return to the audience service implicitly provided by journalistic traditions of the past. Like Walter Cronkite and William Paley before them, Stewart and Colbert shine the harsh light of scrutiny on both politicians and their partners in crime—conventional journalists who have abandoned serious political coverage. According to Baym, today’s journalists must embrace practices used to such effect by Stewart and Colbert, in order to ‘‘reinvent the Fourth Estate and reinvigorate the conversation of democracy’’ (p. 176). The bulk of From Cronkite to Colbert traces changes in broadcast news across three distinct ‘‘eras’’ that delineate separate approaches to televised journalism: (1) a high modern ‘‘network age,’’ epitomized by the exemplary network coverage of Watergate; (2) a post-modern ‘‘multichannel era,’’ featuring the superficial reporting seen during the Clinton sex scandal and impeachment; and (3) today’s neo-modern ‘‘post-network age,’’ in which the best political journalism comes from comedians.

From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News

Theories and Effects of Political Humor

This paper explores persuasive issues such as Social Comparison, Colourism, and Mental Health and their relationship with Instagram use, focusing on young adults living in India. Participants ( N = 726) were recruited to fill up a questionnaire, and the self-reported data was used to test our hypothesis. The study followed a correlational, non-experimental approach to investigate the mediation models as proposed. Structural Equational Modelling eluded a positive and significant relationship between age and the social issues with control variables as the frequency and time spent on Instagram. Moreover, it was found that social comparison can lead to colourism and mental health issues. Gender was, however, found to have insignificant relation with three parameters. Qualitative analysis was supported to find important implications for all Instagram stakeholders. Discussions were drawn indicating the need to raise awareness regarding these issues to enjoy social media while safeguarding the user's well-being. The paper provides critical key findings delving into the realms of these parameters, and such implications are further discussed to understand its reflection in online spaces. 

The impact of Instagram on young Adult's social comparison, colourism and mental health: Indian perspective

Health-related misinformation, especially in times of a global health crisis, can have severe negative consequences on public health. In the current studies, we investigated the persuasive impact of COVID-19-related misinformation, and whether the valence of the misinformation and recipients' degree of overconfidence affect this impact. In two pre-registered experimental studies, participants (N = 403; N = 437) were exposed to either a positive or a negative news article describing a fictional hospital's high COVID-19 recovery/mortality rates. Half of the participants subsequently received a correction. Attitudes towards the hospital were measured before and after exposure. Results of both studies showed that, as expected, corrections reduced the persuasive impact of misinformation. But whereas some persuasive impact remained for corrected negative misinformation (a continued influence effect), it reversed for corrected positive information, causing people to have more negative attitudes towards the hospital than before exposure to any information (a backfire effect). These results corroborate prior suggestions that continued influence effects are asymmetric: negative misinformation is harder to neutralise than positive misinformation. Participants' overconfidence degrees did not have a moderating role in misinformation effects. Even though corrections decrease the persuasive impact of health-related misinformation, continued influence remains for negative misinformation.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijop.12805

Continued influence of misinformation in times of COVID-19.

On a daily basis, individuals between 12 and 25 years of age engage with their mobile devices for many hours. Social Media Use (SMU) has important implications for the social life of younger indivi...

/pdf/plurality-in-the-measurement-of-social-media-use-and-mental-14b81xrlts.pdf

Plurality in the Measurement of Social Media Use and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study Among Adolescents and Young Adults:

Journalists and experts contribute to the creation of frames (frame-building) of innovations. However, little is known about the specific contribution of these different societal actors to the fram...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963662520952542

How journalists and experts metaphorically frame emerging information technologies: The case of cyberinfrastructure for big data:

An important challenge for communication scientists is to characterize and understand hybrid genres. Satirical news is such a hybrid genre and comprises a blend of the genres of comedy, news, and political opinion. This theoretical article aims to contribute to this discussion by further specifying the concept of discursive mode. Discursive modes designate certain communicative orientations toward a particular genre element. We make our argument concrete by introducing a typology of metaphorical humor in satirical news. Our humoristic metaphors in satirical news (HMSN) typology, demonstrates that satirists can realize and switch between 4 different discursive modes through metaphors. These discursive modes comprise different combinations of core rhetorical functions in satirical news (humor, education, and evaluation). We describe each type of metaphor in our typology and present a research agenda identifying key issues that require future research and empirical verification.

/pdf/how-satirists-alternate-between-discursive-modes-an-2rnbf6h3p6.pdf

How Satirists Alternate Between Discursive Modes: An Introduction of the Humoristic Metaphors in Satirical News (HMSN) Typology

Humorous video genres (e.g. comedy/skits, pranks, or humorous vlogs and gaming videos) are among the most popular on online platforms like YouTube. The most common way for brands to advertise in th...

Ellen Droog

Papers

Continued influence of misinformation in times of COVID-19.

Plurality in the Measurement of Social Media Use and Mental Health: An Exploratory Study Among Adolescents and Young Adults:

How journalists and experts metaphorically frame emerging information technologies: The case of cyberinfrastructure for big data:

How Satirists Alternate Between Discursive Modes: An Introduction of the Humoristic Metaphors in Satirical News (HMSN) Typology

Overlay ads in humorous online videos: it’s a matter of timing