scholarly journals When Algorithms Recommend What’s New(s): New Dynamics of Decision-Making and Autonomy in Newsgathering

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 198-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Cools ◽  
Baldwin Van Gorp ◽  
Michaël Opgenhaffen

Newsroom innovation labs have been created over the last ten years to develop algorithmic news recommenders (ANR) that suggest and summarise what news is. Although these ANRs are still in an early stage and have not yet been implemented in the entire newsroom, they have the potential to change how newsworkers fulfil their daily decisions (gatekeeping) and autonomy in setting the agenda (agenda-setting). First, this study focuses on the new dynamics of the ANR and how it potentially influences the newsworkers’ role of gatekeeping within the newsgathering process. Second, this study investigates how the dynamics of an ANR could influence the autonomy of the newsworkers’ role as media agenda setters. In order to advance our understanding of the changing dynamics of gatekeeping and agenda-setting in the newsroom, this study conducts expert interviews with 16 members of newsroom innovation labs of<em> The Washington Post</em>,<em> The Wall Street Journal</em>, <em>Der Spiegel</em>, the BBC, and the Bayerische Rundfunk (BR) radio station. The results show that when newsworkers interact with ANRs, they rely on suggestions and summaries to evaluate what is newsworthy, especially when there is a “news peak” (elections, a worldwide pandemic, etc.). With regard to the agenda-setting role, the newsworker still has full autonomy, but the ANR creates a “positive acceleration effect” on how certain topics are put on the agenda.

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (105) ◽  
pp. 78-86
Author(s):  
EKATERINA A. NIKONOVA

The article deals with the analysis of the balance of opinion in the newspaper, which is originally realized through editorial and op-ed genres. We analyzed 20 articles from “The Wall Street Journal” and “The New York Times” in the genres of editorial and op-ed about events in Afghanistan in August 2021, which were interpreted differently in mass media due to the role of the White House. The findings prove that in the context of new digital reality the op-ed has lost its original function of conveying alternative positions to the ones stated in the editorial; at the same time newspapers tend to advocate the positions shared by the political parties they have historically developed close relations with: “The Wall Street Journal” - with the Republican Party, “The New York Times” - the Democratic Party.


Author(s):  
Maxwell McCombs ◽  
Sebastián Valenzuela

This chapter discusses contemporary directions of agenda-setting research. It reviews the basic concept of agenda setting, the transfer of salience from the media agenda to the public agenda as a key step in the formation of public opinion, the concept of need for orientation as a determinant of issue salience, the ways people learn the media agenda, attribute agenda setting, and the consequences of agenda setting that result from priming and attribute priming. Across the theoretical areas found in the agenda-setting tradition, future studies can contribute to the role of news in media effects by showing how agenda setting evolves in the new and expanding media landscape as well as continuing to refine agenda setting’s core concepts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Feldman ◽  
P. Sol Hart ◽  
Tijana Milosevic

This study examines non-editorial news coverage in leading US newspapers as a source of ideological differences on climate change. A quantitative content analysis compared how the threat of climate change and efficacy for actions to address it were represented in climate change coverage across The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and USA Today between 2006 and 2011. Results show that The Wall Street Journal was least likely to discuss the impacts of and threat posed by climate change and most likely to include negative efficacy information and use conflict and negative economic framing when discussing actions to address climate change. The inclusion of positive efficacy information was similar across newspapers. Also, across all newspapers, climate impacts and actions to address climate change were more likely to be discussed separately than together in the same article. Implications for public engagement and ideological polarization are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-300
Author(s):  
Ángel Vizoso ◽  
Martín Vaz-Álvarez ◽  
Xosé López-García

Deepfakes, one of the most novel forms of misinformation, have become a real challenge in the communicative environment due to their spread through online news and social media spaces. Although fake news have existed for centuries, its circulation is now more harmful than ever before, thanks to the ease of its production and dissemination. At this juncture, technological development has led to the emergence of deepfakes, doctored videos, audios or photos that use artificial intelligence. Since its inception in 2017, the tools and algorithms that enable the modification of faces and sounds in audiovisual content have evolved to the point where there are mobile apps and web services that allow average users its manipulation. This research tries to show how three renowned media outlets—<em>The Wall Street Journal</em>,<em> The Washington Post</em>,<em> </em>and<em> Reuters</em>—and three of the biggest Internet-based companies—Google, Facebook, and Twitter—are dealing with the spread of this new form of fake news. Results show that identification of deepfakes is a common practice for both types of organizations. However, while the media is focused on training journalists for its detection, online platforms tended to fund research projects whose objective is to develop or improve media forensics tools.


Author(s):  
Gregory P. Perreault ◽  
Mildred F. Perreault

The news coverage of eSports presents an attractive avenue to a new audience for business, sports, and gaming journalists. The audience's interest is understandable given the financial vibrancy of the hobby. This chapter reflects an analysis of news articles (n=406) published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and Business Insider from January 2018 to December 2020. Researchers analyzed these articles for specific marketing and public relations messages and identified how various entertainment businesses were reflected in the news coverage of eSports. This chapter argues that eSports represents a topic typically covered through lifestyle journalism that has instead been dominated by traditional business reporting. Both gaming and sports are predominantly lifestyle specialties—hence, the dominant role of business journalism in reporting the specialty means that the emphasis on the niche has primarily been on awards and financing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
Francesc Fusté-Forné

Food and gastronomy are significant ingredients of everyday leisure and lifestyle practices. Food is part of culture and culture is part of the media. The current research analyzes the mediatization of food in legacy media. Drawing from a quantitative approach, the paper reviews food-based contents in New York City’s newspapers. In particular, AM New York, El Diario, Metro, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are studied over a period of 50 days. As a result, a total of 287 articles are analyzed. This research highlights the features of food and gastronomy contents and describes the differences and similarities between traditional newspapers and free dailies. Furthermore, the referent role of The New York Times in communicating food is confirmed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirstie Hettinga ◽  
Alyssa Appelman ◽  
Christopher Otmar ◽  
Alesandria Posada ◽  
Anne Thompson

A content analysis of corrections (N = 507) from four influential newspapers—the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times—shows that they correct errors similar to each other in terms of location, type, impact and objectivity. Results are interpreted through democratic theory and are used to suggest ways for copy editors to most effectively proofread and fact-check.


Journalism ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Sonnevend

The article makes a case for foregrounding ‘event’ as a key concept within journalism studies before, during, and after the digital age. The article’s first part presents an overview of the existing research on events in philosophy, sociology, historiography, and journalism studies, arguing that the concept of ‘event’ has not received sufficient attention in journalism studies. The article’s second part demonstrates the need to consider ‘event’ as an essential concept of journalism studies through an empirical case study: the news coverage of the disappeared Malaysian Airlines plane MH370 (8 March 2014) in four American news outlets, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. This article argues that journalists employed two strategies in their coverage: (1) they created and/or covered what the article calls ‘substitute events’, defined as minor events in the present that journalists perceived as new happenings and that led to further reporting and (2) turned to the past and the future for events in their reporting, extending the scope of coverage from the relatively eventless present. Overall, the case study shows that journalists are limited in their narration by the power of events, and they are eager to construct and cover events, even when events are not readily available.


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