Showing papers in "Digital journalism in 2016"
TL;DR: A case study of the New York Times coverage of nuclear technology from 1945 to the present shows that LDA is a useful tool for analysing trends and patterns in news content in large digital news archives relatively quickly.
Abstract: The huge collections of news content which have become available through digital technologies both enable and warrant scientific inquiry, challenging journalism scholars to analyse unprecedented amounts of texts. We propose Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling as a tool to face this challenge. LDA is a cutting edge technique for content analysis, designed to automatically organize large archives of documents based on latent topics, measured as patterns of word (co-)occurrence. We explain how this technique works, how different choices by the researcher affect the results and how the results can be meaningfully interpreted. To demonstrate its usefulness for journalism research, we conducted a case study of the New York Times coverage of nuclear technology from 1945 to the present, partially replicating a study by Gamson and Modigliani. This shows that LDA is a useful tool for analysing trends and patterns in news content in large digital news archives relatively quickly.
342 citations
TL;DR: Although the market for NLG in journalism is still at an early stage of market expansion, with only a few providers and journalistic products available, NLG is able to perform tasks of professional journalism at a technical level, and sets the basis to analyze upcoming challenges for journalism research at the intersection of technology and big data.
Abstract: With software automatically producing texts in natural language from structured data, the evolution of natural language generation (NLG) is changing traditional news production. The paper first addresses the question whether NLG is able to perform the functions of professional journalism on a technical level. A technological potential analysis therefore uncovers the technological limitations and possibilities of NLG, accompanied by an institutional classification following Weischenberg, Malik, and Scholl. Overall, NLG is explained within the framework of algorithmic selection and along its technological functionality. The second part of the paper focuses on the economic potential of NLG in journalism as well as indicating its institutionalization on an organizational level. Thirteen semi-structured interviews with representatives of the most relevant service providers detail the current market situation. Following Heuss, the development of the NLG market is classified into phases. In summary, although the...
191 citations
TL;DR: A typology of news bots is proposed in the form of a design and editorial decision space that can guide designers in defining the intent, utility, and functionality of future bots.
Abstract: So-called “robot” journalism represents a shift towards the automation of journalistic tasks related to news reporting, writing, curation, and even data analysis. In this paper, we consider the extension of robot journalism to the domain of social platforms and study the use of “news bots”—automated accounts that participate in news and information dissemination on social networks. Such bots present an intriguing development opportunity for news organizations and journalists. In particular, we analyze a sample of existing news bot accounts on Twitter to understand how news bots are currently being used and to examine how using automation and algorithms may change the modern media environment. Based on our analysis, we propose a typology of news bots in the form of a design and editorial decision space that can guide designers in defining the intent, utility, and functionality of future bots. The proposed design space highlights the limits of news bots (e.g., automated commentary and opinion, algorithmic t...
154 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines 10 startups by focusing on the manifestos these new organizations offer when they introduce themselves to the public, which are an example of metajournalistic discourse, or interpretive discourse about journalism, that publicly define how journalism is changing or is not.
Abstract: For-profit digital news startups backed by large investors, venture capital, and technology entrepreneurs have taken on an increasingly significant role in the journalism industry. This article examines 10 startups by focusing on the manifestos these new organizations offer when they introduce themselves to the public. These manifestos are an example of metajournalistic discourse, or interpretive discourse about journalism, that publicly define how journalism is changing—or is not. In identifying and touting the superiority of their technological innovations, the manifestos simultaneously affirm and critique existing journalistic practices while rethinking longstanding boundaries between journalism and technology.
139 citations
TL;DR: A systematic inventory of recent applications of computational methods in journalism studies is presented, distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning.
Abstract: When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of substantial differences compared to traditional journalistic content. The sheer amount of data and the unique features of digital content call for the application of valuable new techniques. Various other scholarly fields are already applying computational methods to study digital journalism data. Often, their research interests are closely related to those of journalism scholars. Despite the advantages that computational methods have over traditional content analysis methods, they are not commonplace in digital journalism studies. To increase awareness of what computational methods have to offer, we take stock of the toolkit and show the ways in which computational methods can aid journalism studies. Distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning, we present a systematic inventory of recent applications both inside as well as outside journalism...
127 citations
TL;DR: The aim was to find out to what extent the use of SEO affects the traffic of a media website whilst, on the other hand, to discover to what degree media professionals in Greece utilize the possibilities given through search engines in order to increase traffic.
Abstract: Rapidly evolving digital technologies across the last two decades have undeniably caused great changes in the field of journalism. The development of online journalism has affected the processes of journalistic work, creating at the same time new techniques and practices. On the internet, search engines still drive a great amount of traffic to news websites. For that reason, factors such as visibility and high ranking on search engines’ results pages remain crucially important for media organizations. Nowadays, journalists or Web editors should be able to write and create appropriate content for the Web. This paper discusses in detail the impact of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on digital journalism. Through a quantitative analysis, a survey concerning Greek media websites is presented. The aim was twofold: on the one hand, to find out to what extent the use of SEO affects the traffic of a media website whilst, on the other hand, to discover to what degree media professionals in Greece utilize the poss...
68 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the challenges of doing research in a shifting domain, where technology has made the concept of journalism itself problematic, and identify the newly coupled assemblages put together in producing digital journalism, beyond its traditional institutional containers.
Abstract: In this essay, I consider the challenges of doing research in a shifting domain, where technology has made the concept of journalism itself problematic. For many years, I have used (in my own work with Shoemaker on media sociology) a levels-of-analysis hierarchy of influences perspective to sort out the factors impinging on the symbolic reality produced by journalism, but a “spatial turn” has made concepts of fields, spheres, and networks much more relevant. Understanding these spaces requires thinking in less media-centric terms as we identify the newly coupled assemblages put together in producing digital journalism, beyond its traditional institutional containers. These include algorithmically restructured atomic units of news in content and different configurations of global journalism. A new wave of ethnographies has begun to tackle these challenges, using the kind of thick description that characterized the field in the pre-digital era.
65 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine crowdsourcing as a knowledge-search method and an open journalistic practice in digital journalism and find that the high volume of submissions in some cases made the journalists compromise the journalistic norm of data verification, which resulted in publishing unverified information.
Abstract: This article examines crowdsourcing as a knowledge-search method and an open journalistic practice in digital journalism. The study draws on data from four cases in which professional journalists used crowdsourcing in their investigations. Crowdsourcing resulted in an efficient knowledge discovery and a continuous flow of tips to journalists and thus benefited journalistic investigations. The horizontal and vertical transparency in crowdsourced journalism supported the knowledge-search process. However, the high volume of submissions in some cases made the journalists compromise the journalistic norm of data verification, which resulted in publishing unverified information. Crowdsourcing as an open journalistic practice thus ruptures journalistic norms and creates pressure for new ones to emerge, such as blended responsibility, in which the responsibility for data accuracy is shared by the journalists and the readers. The article extends the examination of open journalistic practices and contributes to th...
54 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identified and analyzed the most influential online-native news sites in Latin America, exploring their influence and "alternativeness" in terms of ownership, funding, content, degree of activism, and organizational goals.
Abstract: This study maps the emerging digital media landscape of online-native news sites in Latin America, interrogating to what extent these sites challenge mainstream, traditional journalism. Researchers identified and analyzed the region’s online-native sites, exploring their influence and “alternativeness”—in terms of ownership, funding, content, degree of activism, and organizational goals—and their “digital-ness,” in terms of the sites’ inclusion of multimedia, interactive, and participatory digital features. In general, results show that the most influential online-native sites are attempting to renovate traditional, outdated modes of journalism, serving as alternatives to mainstream media and aiming to change society, even if the sites do not necessarily self-identify as “alternative” per se. Their emphasis on using innovative, digital techniques is important for re-conceptualizing not just the role of journalism in a digital era, but also journalism’s relationship to alternative media and activism.
53 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that automated methods have different strengths that provide different opportunities, enriching—but not replacing—the range of manual content analysis methods.
Abstract: With digital journalism and social media producing huge amounts of digital content every day, journalism scholars are faced with new challenges to describe and analyze the wealth of information. Borrowing sophisticated tools and resources from computer science and computational linguistics, journalism scholars have started to gain insights into the constant information flow and made big data a regular feature of the scientific debate. Both deductive (manual and semi-automated) and inductive (fully automated) text analysis methods are part of this new toolset. In order to make the automated research process more tangible and provide an insight into the options available, we provide a roadmap of common (semi-)automated options for text analysis. We describe the assumptions and workflows of rule-based approaches, dictionaries, supervised machine learning, document clustering, and topic models. We show that automated methods have different strengths that provide different opportunities, enriching—but not repl...
52 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how news intrapreneurship interfaces with three qualities of managerial change: newsroom leadership, organizational culture and innovation speed, and identify three layers of tension (executive, practitioner and internal) existing within the newsroom's organizational structure that limits the spread of ideas developed within intrap-reneurial units.
Abstract: Charged to innovate, digital news organizations are creating intrapreneurial units by embedding startups within the newsroom. While these in-house innovation labs are intended to infuse experimentation and creativity across the newsroom, several barriers exist toward their success. This exploratory research, which features 20 in-depth interviews with news innovation leaders in the United States and Canada, examines how news intrapreneurship interfaces with three qualities of managerial change: newsroom leadership, organizational culture and innovation speed. Because of the bureaucratic nature of newsroom authority, ideas created in the intrapreneurial unit are ultimately isolated from the lifeblood of the broader news organization. The findings identify three layers of tension (executive, practitioner and internal) existing within the newsroom’s organizational structure that limits the spread of ideas developed within intrapreneurial units.
TL;DR: It is argued that established content analysis is insufficient for digital media but that common standards, protocols and procedures are yet to be developed for these new approaches to digital journalism research.
Abstract: In this article, we argue that digital media pose such challenges for analysing media content adequately that the established approach does not work as intended, reflecting underlying assumptions inherited from analogue media formats. We review two relatively new forms of the content analysis method—big data and liquid content analysis—and juxtapose these with established content analysis. In addition, we detail how these two methods tackle content analysis pillars such as mode of analysis, sampling, sampling size, variable design, unit of analysis, measuring point(s), access/capture/storing, conclusions/generalizability and the key agent doing the actual work. We summarize the article by arguing that established content analysis is insufficient for digital media but that common standards, protocols and procedures are yet to be developed for these new approaches to digital journalism research.
TL;DR: This article used a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis of Dutch and Flemish news websites and found several patterns regarding the use of Twitter vox pops. And when referring to Twitter, the articles used (abstract) quantifiers and hyperbolic terms (commotion, explosions) to imply an objective basis for these inferences about the "vox Twitterati".
Abstract: News media regularly include the voice of the “man or woman in the street” alongside that of the actors involved in a news story. Journalists use these vox pops to give an impression of public opinion. With the coming of social media, access to people’s opinions has never been so easy. Little research exists about how social media (Twitter in particular) are used by journalists to describe public opinion. This is the question this research aims to answer by using a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative content analysis of Dutch and Flemish news websites. We found several patterns regarding the use of Twitter vox pops. First, we found Twitter to be regularly used as a representation of public opinion. Second, many items generalised these opinions to larger groups with strong—mostly negative—emotions. Third, when referring to Twitter, the articles used (abstract) quantifiers and hyperbolic terms (commotion, explosions) to imply an objective basis for these inferences about the “vox Twitterati”.
TL;DR: In this article, the conceptual underpinning of news audiences is revisited by revisiting the notion of audience activity in the light of evolving news use practices, which results in an integrated conceptualisation of the term "audience activity" which in turn makes out a case for adopting "news users" as a more versatile concept to denote people engagin...
Abstract: In recent years, people’s news consumption has become increasingly fragmented over different devices, news sources and, especially with the advent of mobile technologies, different situational contexts. This renders a growing part of our (news) media consumption very volatile, even transparent. Journalism scholars are compelled to expand the existing methodological toolset at their disposal if they hope to grasp news audiences’ changing practices. This article investigates the lines along which such a toolset should be conceived. As the digitisation of media and journalism challenges our understanding of news audiences, the article opens by paying considerable attention to the conceptual underpinning of news audiences by revisiting the notion of audience activity in the light of evolving news use practices. This reflection results in an integrated conceptualisation of the term “audience activity”, which in turn makes out a case for adopting “news users” as a more versatile concept to denote people engagin...
TL;DR: A content analysis of 155 news websites to examine the presence and use of social media buttons, lists of hyperlinks, polls, comment sections, and mobile sites provides little evidence for interactive convergence.
Abstract: Although interactive features, such as comment sections, used to be rare on news websites, they are now the norm. Based on theoretical concepts of interactivity and convergence, we analyze whether diverse sites are similar in the provision and use of interactive features online. We conduct a content analysis of 155 news websites to examine the presence and use of social media buttons, lists of hyperlinks, polls, comment sections, and mobile sites. Television news and newspaper websites are compared, as are local and more broadly targeted news sites. The findings provide little evidence for interactive convergence. Rather, results reveal many differences in the adoption and use of interactive features based on medium and target. Reasons for differences across these sites are discussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify different "sharing profiles" among online news users, based on their motivations to share, but also considering internet skills and news-sharing behaviour, and draw on a survey amongst Dutch-speaking Belgian online media users (N = 1237).
Abstract: Successful online publishers like BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post have mastered the art of making news go viral. In order for this to happen, it needs to be shared by a large number of online media users. Understanding what makes a piece of content worth sharing with others then becomes a key element in understanding current news flows. User-oriented studies about what incites people to share news are limited. Content characteristics, personal dispositions towards news and new media, and self-presentation have proved to be relevant indicators, but people might differ considerably in the way they share news. We hypothesize that different “sharing profiles” are discernible amongst online news users, based on their motivations to share, but also considering internet skills and news-sharing behaviour. In order to identify these profiles, we draw on a survey amongst Dutch-speaking Belgian online media users (N = 1237). The results illustrate how motivations to share are important predictors of online sharing ...
TL;DR: This article investigated how journalists at leading national US newspapers and wire services grapple with the impact of technological changes, especially the introduction and growing use of social media in newsrooms, and found that while they acknowledged that Twitter facilitated aspects of their work, they almost universally perceived the growing use as contributing to a variety of tensions and potential conflicts within the newsroom.
Abstract: This study seeks to investigate how journalists at leading national US newspapers and wire services grapple with the impact of technological changes, especially the introduction and growing use of social media in newsrooms. Using a qualitative methodological approach involving in-depth, semi-structured interviews with journalists employed at leading national and regional news organizations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Morning News, Bloomberg News, Reuters and the Associated Press, we explore how journalists view the impact of the growing use of social media, specifically Twitter, on their work environment. We find that while they acknowledged that Twitter facilitated aspects of their work, they almost universally perceived the growing use of this technology as contributing to a variety of tensions and potential conflicts within the newsroom.
TL;DR: It is found that news organizations’ accounts, across all major organizations, largely use Twitter as a professionalized, one-way communication medium to promote their own reporting, and the proportion of news media-related tweets varies vastly across different subtopics.
Abstract: Previous literature has considered the relevance of Twitter to journalism, for example as a tool for reporters to collect information and for organizations to disseminate news to the public. We consider the reciprocal perspective, carrying out a survey of news media-related content within Twitter. Using a random sample of 1.8 billion tweets over four months in 2014, we look at the distribution of activity across news media and the relative dominance of certain news organizations in terms of relative share of content, the Twitter behavior of news media, the hashtags used in news content versus Twitter as a whole, and the proportion of Twitter activity that is news media-related. We find a small but consistent proportion of Twitter is news media-related (0.8 percent by volume); that news media-related tweets focus on a different set of hashtags than Twitter as a whole, with some hashtags such as those of countries of conflict (Arab Spring countries, Ukraine) reaching over 15 percent of tweets being news med...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined if and how the perceived usefulness of social media for various professional purposes changes over time, and if different categories of journalists change their usage in different ways.
Abstract: The hype over social media and the rapid expansion of social networking and micro-blogging in recent years can easily lead us to believe that all journalists are online, chatting and tweeting, all the time. Previous research, however, indicates that the spread of social media differs between groups of journalists and that social media usage is related to the journalist’s age, gender, type of work and workplace. This paper advances our understanding of how journalists appropriate social media in their professional lives by examining the changes in social media use across time. We examine if and how the perceived usefulness of social media for various professional purposes changes over time, and if different categories of journalists change their usage in different ways. The theoretical perspective draws from theories on the appropriation and adoption of technologies. The empirical material consists of Web survey data collected in 2012 and 2014, targeting representative samples of Swedish journalists. Our f...
TL;DR: The authors conducted interviews with data journalists in America's top newspapers to understand how they perceive their social responsibility role in fostering democratic conversation with the audience, and found that data journalists are shifting their professional boundaries when promoting conversation around data products, particularly in the social space.
Abstract: Journalists in democratic societies perceive their role as guardian of the public’s trust. This ethic of social responsibility has been infused into all tasks related to news production—particularly the act of convening debate surrounding salient issues. The entry of data journalists into the newsroom has upended this shared occupational schema. In processing big data for a lay audience, data journalists place greatest emphasis upon their role as translators of abstract and technical knowledge. While these newsworkers still perceive their work as operating in the public good, data journalists are shifting their professional boundaries when promoting conversation around data products—particularly in the social space. This work, based on in-depth interviews with data journalists in America’s top newspapers, illuminates how data journalists perceive their social responsibility role in fostering democratic conversation with the audience.
TL;DR: The authors apply the lens of subculture theory to move beyond questions related to who produces hyperlocal news, how to pay for it and its democratic potential, to focus on its social and cultural values and meanings.
Abstract: Local news is nothing new, but there is an unmistakable hype around its reinvention in the digital age through the hyperlocal phenomena. This article applies the lens of subculture theory to move beyond questions related to who produces hyperlocal news, how to pay for it and its democratic potential, to focus on its social and cultural values and meanings. In doing so, it engages with the normative and political economy approaches that dominate this niche of journalism studies. We argue that a cultural approach can generate much-needed critical perspectives on the significance of what we term “excessively local news” and the future of mainstream journalism in this globalized world. In the process, it challenges media scholars and practitioners who cleave to traditional hierarchies of value about what hyperlocal news is and should be, even at the risk of being unfashionable in the digital age.
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TL;DR: In 2009 and 2013, labor organizations of freelance journalists in Canada formed coalitions and initiated digital communications campaigns to boycott rights-grabbing freelancer contracts of the publishing conglomerate TC Media.
Abstract: In 2009 and 2013, labor organizations of freelance journalists in Canada formed coalitions and initiated digital communications campaigns to boycott rights-grabbing freelancer contracts of the publishing conglomerate TC Media. These disputes reveal the ongoing industrial struggles over journalists’ copyrights, demonstrating tensions between the continuing control and devaluation of freelance labor to increase corporate profits as well as freelancers’ use of digital communications to resist the law of copyright. Through an examination of these tensions, the broader political-economic context and labor process of freelance work, and freelance journalists’ collective organizing, this paper develops a conception of the precarious “e-lancer,” a feminized and electronically connected class of journalists. The TC Media campaigns are situated within a broader history of freelancer struggles in North America and Western Europe. Since 1993, freelancers have adopted three refusal tactics: class-action lawsuits, cont...
TL;DR: This article presents a method specifically designed for the study of constantly evolving news flows online, using time, duration and positioning of published materials as central variables to systematically scrutinize the online news process.
Abstract: Over the latest decade, news production practices have undergone dramatic changes as a consequence of journalism’s migration from offline to online platforms. While the linear news models of the past were characterized by delivery of static texts within strict deadlines, contemporary non-linear production practices are characterized by flexibility and constant delivery of “liquid” news. This article presents a method specifically designed for the study of constantly evolving news flows online. Methodologically, the approach entails new opportunities to systematically scrutinize the online news process, using time, duration and positioning of published materials as central variables. Based on an illustrative analysis of the online news flow of the Swedish Public Service Radio, the article gives examples of how such analyses can provide new knowledge about the processes of digital news production.
TL;DR: The results suggest that computer software can be used successfully to identify trending news stories, allow journalists to search within a social media corpus, and help verify social media contributors and content, however, such software also raises questions about accountability as social media is algorithmically filtered for use by journalists and others.
Abstract: The use of social media as a source of news is entering a new phase as computer algorithms are developed and deployed to detect, rank, and verify news. The efficacy and ethics of such technology is the subject of this article, which examines the SocialSensor application, a tool developed by a multidisciplinary European Union research project. The results suggest that computer software can be used successfully to identify trending news stories, allow journalists to search within a social media corpus, and help verify social media contributors and content. However, such software also raises questions about accountability as social media is algorithmically filtered for use by journalists and others. Our analysis of the inputs SocialSensor relies on shows biases towards those who are vocal and have an audience, many of whom are men in the media. We also reveal some of the technology’s temporal and topic preferences. The conclusion discusses whether such biases are necessary for systems like SocialSensor to be effective. The article also suggests that academic research has failed to recognise fully the changes to journalists’ sourcing practices brought about by social media, particularly Twitter, and provides some countervailing evidence and an explanation for this failure.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that both in its rhetoric and in its actual practice, the articles in De Correspondent deviate from the principles of quality journalism under the objectivity regime.
Abstract: This article explores De Correspondent as a specific example of slow journalism that aims to establish an alternative for quality journalism governed by the objectivity regime. It offers an analysis of the way the platform redefines journalism’s quality standards against the background of the tension between traditional modernistic claims to truth and competing postmodern ideas on the social construction of knowledge. Moreover, the article examines how these ideals are translated into journalistic texts. The article argues that both in its rhetoric and in its actual practice, the articles in De Correspondent deviate from the principles of quality journalism under the objectivity regime. They are structured around the mediating subjectivity of the journalists and are thus openly subjective. Yet, they also draw on empirical research and scientific knowledge. Moreover, they are transparent about the reporting process, which through their reflection becomes an integral part of the story itself. Thus, being tr...
TL;DR: The past 15 years have seen a steady decline in the news industry, while ironically there has been a great increase in journalism research as mentioned in this paper, visible in, for instance, the emergence of specific journ...
Abstract: The past 15 years have seen a steady decline in the news industry, while ironically there has been a great increase in journalism research (visible in, for instance, the emergence of specific journ...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a unit for studying news time (the temporal assemblage), and traces it across four intertwined sites in the contemporary, networked press: labor routines, platform rhythms, computational algorithms, and legal regulations.
Abstract: What kind of news time does a public need? The production, circulation, and interpretation of news have always followed timelines and rhythms, but these have largely been seen as artifacts of press sociology, not central aspects of journalism’s public mission linked to the design and deployment of journalism infrastructure. Since different types of news time make possible different kinds of publics, any critique of the press’s material cultures of time-keeping is a critique of the press’s power to convene particular people and issues, at particular times. Motivated by the temporal needs of one type of public (a pragmatic public that ensures a public right to hear), this paper proposes a unit for studying news time (the temporal assemblage), and traces it across four intertwined sites in the contemporary, networked press: labor routines, platform rhythms, computational algorithms, and legal regulations. Beyond this article’s investigation of this public in relation to these dynamics, my aim is to contribut...
TL;DR: This article builds on Silverstone’s ideas to outline a working definition of slow journalism as process, and it is argued that multimedia journalism provides a platform for communication that approximates “proper time”—journalism that is fast enough to engage, surprise and retain the authors' attention, yet slow enough to respect a story's nuance and complexity.
Abstract: Digital communication is fast and easy; but as a cultural process communication is difficult, especially when it engages with strangers and strangeness. Roger Silverstone describes the space necessary for respectful communication as a “proper distance” vis-a-vis mediated Others—neither too far away, nor too close to see the Other, and to recognise in her our own inherent Otherness. What Silverstone describes in terms of distance can also be considered in relation to time. This article builds on Silverstone’s ideas to outline a working definition of slow journalism as process, and it is argued that multimedia journalism provides a platform for communication that approximates “proper time”—journalism that is fast enough to engage, surprise and retain our attention, yet slow enough to respect a story’s nuance and complexity. It is argued that the poetics of photography provides a subversive logic of efficiency, capable of both revelation and evocation, and of helping us hear the Other; and that audio can exp...
TL;DR: This article examined how social media and user-generated content (UGC), specifically video, have been integrated by BBC World News into their coverage of conflicts, with Syria as the main case study.
Abstract: Social media and “citizen journalism” have arguably changed the face of traditional newsgathering. This paper examines how social media and user-generated content (UGC), specifically video, have been integrated by BBC World News into their coverage of conflicts, with Syria as the main case study. Drawing on interviews with BBC News staff, a newsroom ethnography and a content analysis of BBC World News TV reports, this research asks: What are the challenges for journalists wishing to use UGC? What are the skillsets needed? And is the role of the journalist itself changing, with news becoming more “social” as it is being gathered and disseminated on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter? This paper argues that journalists have been forced to react to issues pertaining to UGC newsgathering, verification and dissemination. The study contributes to literature examining how UGC is used by news outlets. It also considers the extent to which the role of the journalist itself is being redefined as new products ar...
TL;DR: The authors examines the commercial viability of slow journalism in light of its recent efforts to reinvent the business model in the news industry today that relies heavily or exclusively on display advertising for revenue, which is both philosophically and financially anathema to the intimate journalist-reader interface.
Abstract: This study examines the commercial viability of Slow Journalism in light of its recent efforts to reinvent the business model in the news industry today that relies heavily or exclusively on display advertising for revenue. Some Slow Journalism companies, such as De Correspondent and Delayed Gratification, have defiantly positioned themselves in opposition to advertising’s prominent role in mitigating free online news production and consumption, which they argue is both philosophically and financially anathema to the intimate journalist–reader interface. Still others, such as Narratively, have also eliminated display advertisements, but openly embrace brand sponsorship through events, creative agency, and native advertising. Touting visually pleasing high-end production values for immersive reading environments free of distracting display advertisements, many publishers promote a relation in which supply meets demand without undisclosed, conflicting third-party or corporate interest. This research explore...