scholarly journals Rethinking balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 781-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen ◽  
Mike Berry ◽  
Iñaki Garcia-Blanco ◽  
Lucy Bennett ◽  
Jonathan Cable
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
News Programming

This article reconsiders the concepts of balance and impartiality in journalism, in the context of a quantitative content analysis of sourcing patterns in BBC news programming on radio, television and online in 2007 and 2012. Impartiality is the cornerstone of principles of public service broadcasting at the BBC and other broadcasters modelled on it. However, the article suggests that in the case of the BBC, it is principally put into practice through juxtaposing the positions of the two main political parties – Conservative and Labour. On this basis, the article develops the idea of the ‘paradigm of impartiality-as-balance.’ This paradigm prevails despite the news organisation’s commitment to representing a broader range of opinion. The paradigm of impartiality-as-balance means that only a narrow range of views and voices are heard on the most contentious and important issues. Further, it results in reporting that focuses on party-political conflict, to the detriment of a journalism which provides much-needed context.

Is public service broadcasting a threat to commercial media?

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 808-827 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helle Sjøvaag ◽  
Truls André Pedersen ◽  
Thomas Owren
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Online News ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Commercial Media ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
News Service

This article asks to what extent public service broadcasting’s online news service resembles that of commercial media. The context of this inquiry is claims of ‘out-crowding’ facing public service broadcasters across Europe. In Norway, commercial players in this debate accuse the public service broadcaster, NRK, of being too similar to competitors in the private sector for commercial operators to attain sustainable revenues in the online realm. To ascertain the extent to what these claims are warranted, this article compares NRK’s online content with that of nine commercial competitors in national and local markets, using a hybrid methodological approach combining quantitative content analysis with Latent Dirichlet allocation, analysing in excess of 115,000 documents. Findings show that commercial operators resemble each other more than they do NRK, indicating closer competition in the commercial segment than between the public service broadcaster and market players.

No Interaction on Instagram

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-51
Author(s):  
Uta Russmann ◽  
Jakob Svensson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
Interaction Processes ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Social Media Platforms

This chapter addresses a neglected issue within the field of social media and political communication. It focuses on interaction processes on Instagram asking how political parties used Instagram—a platform that is centered around images—when engaging in interaction with their followers on the platform. The focus is on political parties' use of Instagram in the 2014 Swedish national election campaign. This gives an impression of the first attempts of political parties' use of this communication platform. The quantitative content analysis focuses on Instagram images including their captions and comments (posts) that Swedish parties published four weeks prior to Election Day. The results suggest that not much changes on Instagram compared to other social media platforms: Swedish political parties hardly used Instagram to interact with their followers, and the very few interactions taking place did not contribute to the exchange of relevant and substantive information about politics. Interaction and deliberation are also not enhanced by the images.

scholarly journals The construction of the Arab-Islamic issue in foreign news: Spanish newspaper coverage of the Egyptian revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (s1) ◽  
pp. 765-787
Author(s):  
Alfonso Corral ◽  
Leen d’Haenens
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Foreign News ◽  
International Event

AbstractThe aim of this article is to analyze how the Spanish newspapers covered an international event such as the Egyptian spring from 2011 to 2013. From the perspective of the representation of Arab-Islamic issues, this study carries out a quantitative content analysis on the four reference newspapers in Spain (ABC, El Mundo, El País, and La Vanguardia) to find out whether there was an Islamophobic or Islamophilic treatment during the Egyptian revolution. The results of the 3,045 articles analyzed show that Spanish newspapers were remarkably interested in Egyptian events and that cultural discourses were not relevant in the coverage. However, it is necessary to specify these outcomes by newspaper, because each paper proposed its own take on the matter based on information provided by press agencies.

scholarly journals Commenting, Sharing and Tweeting News

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne M. Almgren ◽  
Tobias Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
User Interaction ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
Multiple Features ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Local Newspapers ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
Salient Features ◽  
Participatory Practices

Abstract Social plugins for sharing news through Facebook and Twitter have become increasingly salient features on news sites. Together with the user comment feature, social plugins are the most common way for users to contribute. The wide use of multiple features has opened new areas to comprehensively study users’ participatory practices. However, how do these opportunities to participate vary between the participatory spaces that news sites affiliated with local, national broadsheet and tabloid news constitute? How are these opportunities appropriated by users in terms of participatory practices such as commenting and sharing news through Facebook and Twitter? In addition, what differences are there between news sites in these respects? To answer these questions, a quantitative content analysis has been conducted on 3,444 articles from nine Swedish online newspapers. Local newspapers are more likely to allow users to comment on articles than are national newspapers. Tweeting news is appropriated only on news sites affiliated with evening tabloids and national morning newspapers. Sharing news through Facebook is 20 times more common than tweeting news or commenting. The majority of news items do not attract any user interaction.

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