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Journal ArticleDOI

Com(ple)menting the news on the financial crisis: The contribution of news users’ commentary to the diversity of viewpoints in the public debate:

07 Jul 2014-European Journal of Communication (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 29, Iss: 5, pp 529-548
TL;DR: In this paper, the interpretations of the current financial crisis in the online coverage of five German newspapers and the subsequent commentary of news users were analyzed using an innovative strategy to identify the interpretative repertoires constructed by news and user frames, assessing how user commentary deviated from those viewpoints represented in the news.
Abstract: Does news users’ commentary contribute to widening the diversity of viewpoints represented in the news? This article comparatively analyses the interpretations of the current financial crisis in the online coverage of five German newspapers and the subsequent commentary of news users. Using an innovative strategy to identify the interpretative repertoires constructed by news and user frames, it assesses how user commentary deviates from those viewpoints represented in the news. Findings show that user accounts mostly remain within the wider interpretative repertoires offered by the media. However, they utilize media frame fragments rather freely to construct their own views, shifting focus and elaborating upon new aspects. While no consistent alternative repertoires were constructed, users thus valuably complemented the diversity of concerns discussed on news websites.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the coverage of specific, salient conflict events and found that media have been shown to focus on violence, and that most existing scholarship has focused on violence.
Abstract: In its search for media influences in violent conflict, most existing scholarship has investigated the coverage of specific, salient conflict events. Media have been shown to focus on violence, sid...

67 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined diversity in online news with special attention paid to the role of different types of media ownership and media systems (meso level) and discussed the economic implications of ownership and market conditions for diversity.
Abstract: This paper examines diversity in online news with special attention paid to the role of different types of media ownership (meso level) and media systems (macro level). After identifying relevant perspectives and operationalizations of diversity, and discussing the economic implications of ownership and market conditions for diversity, the study tests four hypotheses with a content analysis of 1660 stories from 48 news sites in six countries (United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland). Findings show that online news attains the highest levels of diversity (measured with three different indices) in national environments with strong public service media, and that even in the internet age, public broadcasters add considerably to the diversity of political news. The much discussed category of made-for-Web outlets (including the Huffington Post and Rue89) revealed considerable variety in ownership and escape simple explanations with regard to diversity.

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study how to study media diversity and find that algorithmic filtering and a shift of audiences from legacy media to new intermediaries decrease diversity in the media landscape.
Abstract: How to study media diversity has become a major concern in today’s media landscape. Many expect that algorithmic filtering and a shift of audiences from legacy media to new intermediaries decrease ...

56 citations


Cites background from "Com(ple)menting the news on the fin..."

  • ...” Media, Culture and Society 37 (7): 1042–1059....

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  • ...” Information Communication and Society 21 (7): 940–958....

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  • ...” Information, Communication and Society 21 (7): 959–977....

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  • ...” Expert Systems with Applications 41 (7): 3168–3177....

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  • ...” Information Communication and Society 19 (7): 875–891....

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References
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Book
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: Overall, this book charts the current state of play in the area of online gatewatching, open news, and participatory journalism, and provides the tools to analyse and classify the various forms of online publishing in this field.
Abstract: Recent years have seen the emergence of a new genre of user-driven Websites engaged in a novel form of news reporting which has been described as open publishing or open news, in analogy to the open source movement. Utilising state-of-the-art content management systems, these sites combine news, rumours and background information as well as community discussion and commentary on their chosen topic, and frequently serve as a first point of entry for readers interested in learning more about the field. Examples for this genre include Slashdot (http://Slashdot.org/), Openflows News (http://www.openflows.org/), and the Indymedia network (http://www.indymedia.org/). This book documents an extensive study of open news and related sites around the world, including interviews with staff of key sites in order to analyse their inner workings. It investigates the feasibility and the limitations of user community self-policing methods, and the effectiveness of the gatewatching process. It connects this with more recent developments in related areas, such as Weblogs and the Wiki movement, and develops a taxonomy of collaborative online publishing models. Overall, then, it charts the current state of play in the area of online gatewatching, open news, and participatory journalism, and provides the tools to analyse and classify the various forms of online publishing in this field.

666 citations

01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a definition contextuelle of discours politique, which suggere that l'etude du discours politicalique ne doit pas se limtering aux proprietes structurales du texte ou du discourse, mais doit aussi inclure une prise en consideration systematique du contexte politique.
Abstract: L'A. se propose de definir ce que l'on entend par discours politique et montre comment il peut etre etudie d'une maniere critique. Selon lui, une telle analyse ne doit pas simplement etre une contribution aux etudes discursives, mais aussi aux sciences politiques et aux sciences sociales en general. Ainsi, le discours politique est essentiellement defini contextuellement, c-a-d en termes de pratiques ou d'evenements particuliers dont le but et la fonction ne sont peut-etre pas exclusivement, mais au moins initialement, politiques. D'un point de vue analytique, cette definition contextuelle suggere que l'etude du discours politique ne doit pas se limiter aux proprietes structurales du texte ou du discours, mais doit aussi inclure une prise en consideration systematique du contexte politique, du processus politique et du systeme politique et de leurs relations aux structures discursives

632 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Hunt et al. as discussed by the authors analyzed the dynamics of interorganizational frame disputes within the nuclear disarmament movement, including their organizational and ideological contexts, conditions conducive to theiremergence, patterns observed, and their effects.
Abstract: Social movement organizations (SMOs) devote considerable effort to constructing particular versions of reality, developing and espousingalternativevisions, and attempting to affect various audiences' interpretations. Conflicts regarding such interpretive matters, referred to as 'frame disputes," are ubiquitous within movements. Using a multimethod strategy, this study analyzes the dynamics of interorganizationalframe disputes within the nuclear disarmament movement, including their organizational and ideological contexts, conditions conducive to theiremergence, patterns observed, and their effects. Three generic types of disputes are identified and elaborated: diagnostic, prognostic, andframe resonance disputes. Of the 51 disputes observed, all but two involved SMOs from two or more different movement factions. More disputes occurred between the movement's most moderate and radicalfactions than between otherfactions. Intramural conflicts were both detrimental andfacilitative of the disarmament movement and its SMOs. In the most extensive review to date of social movement literature, McAdam, McCarthy and Zald (1988) conclude that we know little about "the dynamics of collective action past the emergence of a movement" (728). Until recently, even less was known about grievance interpretation and communication processes, the essence of movement dynamics. Scholars have begun to address this lacuna by attending to various movement interpretive processes including public discourse (Gamson 1988; Gamson & Modigliani 1989; Steinberg 1989), frame alignment (Benford 1987; Snow & Benford 1988,1992; Snow et al. 1986), grievance interpretation and reality construction (Benford & Hunt 1992; Ferree & Miller 1985; Gusfield 1981; Klandermans 1992; Mauss 1975; Tarrow 1992; Turner & Killian 1987), and collective identity (Friedman & McAdam 1992; Gamson 1991; Hunt 1991; Hunt & Benford 1994; Melucci 1980, 1985, 1988, 1989; Pizzomo 1978; Taylor & Whittier 1992). *This is a revisedversion of apaperpresentedat the annual meetings oftheMidwestSociological Society,April6-9,1989, in St.Louis. Iamgrateful to ScottA.Hunt,MichelleHughesMiller,David A. Snow, and two anonymous reviewersfor their advice and comments on earlier drafts. Please direct correspondence to the author at the Department of Sociology, University of NebraskaLincoln, 703 OldfatherHall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324. i) The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, March 1993, 71(3):677-701 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.137 on Fri, 27 May 2016 05:34:23 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 678 / Social Forces 71:3, March 1993 Although often empirically grounded, the bulk of these developments have been theoretical. Few analyses examine how well these concepts stand up empirically. McAdam, McCarthy and Zald (1988) suggest that "what is needed is more systematic, qualitative fieldwork into the dynamics of collective action at the intermediate meso level . . . the level at which most movement action occurs and of which we know the least" (729). With these considerations in mind, this article analyzes empirically the negotiated and often contentious nature of grievance construction and communication processes within the nuclear disarmament movement by focussing on intramovement frame disputes.

597 citations


"Com(ple)menting the news on the fin..." refers background in this paper

  • ...A plurality of aspects may also be highlighted by just one source (Benford, 1993)....

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William A. Gamson1
01 Jan 1992

580 citations


"Com(ple)menting the news on the fin..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This article analyses the interpretations of the current public debt crisis in the online coverage of five newspapers and the subsequent commentary of news users: Do user comments elaborate on journalistic repertoires in the crisis, adding further information (Gamson, 1992)?...

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  • ...At the same time, the findings also document limits of this independence: Users rarely construct novel interpretative repertoires outside the news discourse (Gamson, 1992)....

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  • ...The article empirically evaluates the democratic potential of social media contents for augmenting public political discourse in the financial crisis, and provides new insights into the interpretative resources mobilized by professional and lay communicators (Gamson, 1992)....

    [...]

  • ...This article analyses the interpretations of the current public debt crisis in the online coverage of five newspapers and the subsequent commentary of news users: Do user comments elaborate on journalistic repertoires in the crisis, adding further information (Gamson, 1992)? Do they complement them with new perspectives, challenging the presented views (Springer and Pfaffinger, 2012)? Or do they mostly echo the limited variety of crisis interpretations present in the news (Iyengar and Simon, 1993; Tewksbury et al....

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01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The former audience has taken on a new role: "The radio could inarguably be the best apparatus of communication in public life, an enormous system of channels".
Abstract: The quote „the people formerly known as the audience“ by Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University illustrates the paradigm shift currently underway in the world of media due to the rise of the social and participatory Web 2.0. According to Bertolt Brechts utopian “Radiotheorie” from the early thirties of the last century, the “former audience” has taken on a new role: „The radio could inarguably be the best apparatus of communication in public life, an enormous system of channels – provided it saw itself as not only a sender but also a receiver. This means making the listener not only listen but also speak; not to isolate him but to place him in relation to others.“ 1

481 citations


"Com(ple)menting the news on the fin..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Social media are open to carry any kind of viewpoint: No further selection process is applied before publication, such that an interested audience can easily gain access to a huge variety of relevant (and other) interpretations (Bowman and Willis, 2003; Bruns, 2005; Rosen, 2006)....

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