scholarly journals Populist online communication: Interactions among politicians, journalists, and citizens (Dissertation summary)

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Blassnig
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Online News ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Multimethod Approach ◽  
Reader Comments ◽  
Western Democracies

The recent rise of populist politicians in Western democracies is often associated with their allegedly successful use of digital media. However, for a long time, there has been little research specifically on populist online communication. To address this substantial research gap, the thesis pursues two major research aims: First, it investigates drivers of populist communication in politicians’ online self-presentation and online news media representation. Second, the thesis examines the effects of populist online communication on citizens’ behavior in the form of user reactions to politicians’ social media posts and reader comments on online news articles. Based on five internationally comparative studies and the overarching synopsis, the cumulative thesis demonstrates that populist online communication is driven by the reciprocal interactions among politicians, journalists, and citizens and is influenced by various factors on the macro, meso, and micro level. Furthermore, it shows that populist online communication resonates with citizens and is multiplied by them – specifically by citizens with prior strong populist attitudes. By analyzing the interactions of three key actor groups – politicians, journalists, and citizens – and by following a multimethod approach the dissertation connects research on both the supply and demand side of populism.

Transnational News Flows

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daya Kishan Thussu
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Online News ◽  
Global Market ◽  
The West ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
American Media ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Undersea Cables

The international flow of news has traditionally been dominated by that from North to South, with the West being at the core. Within the West itself, news flow is dominated by Anglo-American media, a situation which has its roots in the way that journalism developed historically. The historical context of global news begins with the introduction of the telegraph and undersea cables in the nineteenth century, which created a global market for news. Major players emerged—including news agencies—and shaped the transnational news flows. What emerges is that, in all ages, key innovations in transnational news flows have been closely linked to commerce, geopolitics, and war, from the telegraph to online news outlets. The increasing availability and use of news media, from major non-Western countries, are now affecting transnational news flows. Global journalism has been transformed in the digital age by internet-based communication and the rise of digital media opportunities—allowing for multi-directional news flows for growing global news audiences.

scholarly journals RULES OF ENGAGEMENT: WHAT TERMS AND CONDITIONS MODERATING READER COMMENTS TO AUSTRALIAN ONLINE NEWS SITES SAY ABOUT TRUST IN THE AUDIENCE

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Jane Son
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Online News ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Democratic Participation ◽  
Audience Participation ◽  
News Websites ◽  
Reader Comments ◽  
Online News Sites

Reader comments to online news websites have become a critical component of civic engagement and debate since the introduction of digital media. While many online news organisations encourage reader comments to maintain a loyal audience, audience participation is often constrained by the terms and conditions used to govern reader comments. By imposing strict moderation policies, news organisations demonstrate a lack of trust towards the audience. Yet, many organisations continue to demand high levels of public trust in their brands and the institution of journalism. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines the terms and conditions used to moderate reader comments to four Australian online news sites, and assesses the level of trust afforded to audiences through comment moderation policies. Public statements from each of these organisations about public trust in their organisation or the institution of news are also assessed, to contrast the level of trust these organisations expect with that which is afforded to the audience through moderation policies. This research finds that the moderation policies analysed represent significant impediments to audience expression, and demonstrate a discrepancy between the level of trust afforded to participants and that which the organisations demand from their readers. Despite early hopes that online reader comments may facilitate greater opportunities for democratic participation for citizens, the potential for substantial democratic debate on the online news sites examined in this research remains unrealised.  

Jurisdictional protectionism in online news: Am erican journalists and their perceptions of hyperlinks

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsan-Kuo Chang ◽  
Brian G. Southwell ◽  
Hyung-Min Lee ◽  
Yejin Hong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online News ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sociology Of Professions ◽  
Tv News ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Financial Consideration

Because of their widespread use on the internet, hyperlinks have become a useful tool in information sharing and knowledge distribution in online communication, particularly in the realm of journalism. Their importance has received little scholarly attention, however. Against the backdrop of the sociology of professions, the purpose of this study is to determine how journalists approach hyperlinks and what they perceive to be their functions in online news. A national survey of newspaper editors and TV news directors in the United States shows that American journalists exhibit a sense of jurisdictional protectionism in online news. They appear to privilege US hyperlinks over foreign ones, especially internal links to their own websites. They are also predominantly against linking to foreign news media that cover the same events or issues. Financial consideration seems to be the main reason behind the journalistic preference.

Fighting biased news diets: Using news media literacy interventions to stimulate online cross-cutting media exposure patterns

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482094645
Author(s):  
Toni G.L.A. van der Meer ◽  
Michael Hameleers
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online News ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Literacy Interventions ◽  
Issue Publics ◽  
Exposure Patterns ◽  
Immigration Attitudes ◽  
Media Environments

Online news consumers have the tendency to select political news that confirms their prior attitudes, which may further fuel polarized divides in society. Despite scholarly attention to drivers of selective exposure, we know too little about how healthier cross-cutting news exposure patterns can be stimulated in digital media environments. Study 1 ( N = 553) exposed people to news media literacy (NML) interventions using injunctive and descriptive normative language. The findings reveal the conditional effect of such online interventions: Participants with pro-immigration attitudes engaged in more cross-cutting exposure while the intervention was only to a certain extent effective for Democrats, ineffective for Republicans, and even boomeranged for partisans with anti-immigration attitudes. In response to these findings, Study 2 ( N = 579) aimed to design interventions that work across issue publics and party affiliation. We show that NML messages tailored on immigration beliefs can be effective across the board. These findings inform the design of more successful NML interventions.

Consensus building on trust in government

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-185
Author(s):  
Vanessa De Macedo Higgins Joyce ◽  
Zahra Khani
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Online News ◽  
Consensus Building ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Tv News ◽  
Societal Level

Abstract This study contrasts the effects of news media to those of neighborhood in building consensus regarding trust in government. Consensus building is a consequence of agenda setting at a societal level. It conducts a secondary data analysis from an online survey with a panel of 983 older Texans from November/December 2015. We found significant correlation between trust and following the news, accessing TV news, using digital media, online news and newspapers. We found that news media in general and online news increased consensus both within education and location; radio and television increased consensus for education and digital media for income. Our spatial auto-correlation test found a minimal tendency of similar values of trust to be clustered. We cannot infer that neighborhood contributes in the formation of trust. We found evidence, in a case study of older Texans, that the news media may bring us closer together than next-door neighbors

scholarly journals Populist Attitudes and Selective Exposure to Online News: A Cross-Country Analysis Combining Web Tracking and Surveys

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 426-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Stier ◽  
Nora Kirkizh ◽  
Caterina Froio ◽  
Ralph Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Online News ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
Demographic Attributes

Research has shown that citizens with populist attitudes evaluate the news media more negatively, and there is also suggestive evidence that they rely less on established news sources like the legacy press. However, due to data limitations, there is still no solid evidence whether populist citizens have skewed news diets in the contemporary high-choice digital media environment. In this paper, we rely on the selective exposure framework and investigate the relationship between populist attitudes and the consumption of various types of online news. To test our theoretical assumptions, we link 150 million Web site visits by 7,729 Internet users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States to their responses in an online survey. This design allows us to measure media exposure more precisely than previous studies while linking these data to demographic attributes and political attitudes of participants. The results show that populist attitudes leave pronounced marks in people’s news diets, but the evidence is heterogeneous and highly contingent on the supply side of a country’s media system. Most importantly, citizens with populist attitudes visit less Web sites from the legacy press, while consuming more hyperpartisan news. Despite these tendencies, the Web tracking data show that populist citizens still primarily get their news from established sources. We discuss the implications of these results for the current state of public spheres in democracies.

scholarly journals Killing them softly? Two complementary studies on visibility and framing of new parties in the news

Journalism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 146488492091931
Author(s):  
Joost van Spanje ◽  
Rachid Azrout
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Online News ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The Media ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
Western Democracies

Democratic systems need some degree of openness to new ideas and to new competitors. New parties depend on news media to survive. Which new parties receive news media coverage, and what kind of coverage do these parties receive? This article brings in the media into the literature of new parties. Based on two original datasets compiled for this study, the news media coverage of dozens of parties in a variety of offline and online news media sources since 1947 is analyzed to address the two research questions. In terms of visibility, new parties receive more attention when already represented in parliament and when mobilizing on the main axis of political contestation. In terms of framing, new parties are hardly ever trivialized, stigmatized, or criminalized. Compared to established parties, new parties are more trivialized, just as little criminalized, and even less stigmatized. Our findings put complaints about the media by new party leaders into perspective, and let political and media practitioners reflect on their practices, inform debates about interactions between news media and new voices. They may also open new lines of research about political transformations that we witness in Western democracies today.

scholarly journals ‘Our words are stronger’: Re-enforcing boundaries through ritual work in a terrorist news event

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Sumiala ◽  
Tiina Räisä
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online News ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Media Ethnography ◽  
Media Events ◽  
News Events ◽  
News Event ◽  
Online News Sites

This article investigates the ritual work in terrorist news events, using the Berlin truck attack as a case in point. The article connects with the larger cluster of anthropologically inspired communication research on media events as public rituals in news media and applies digital media ethnography as its method. Fieldwork is conducted in 15 online news sites. The article identifies three key phases through which the ritual work was carried out: the rupture in the news event (ritualised as the strike), the liminal phase (ritualised as the manhunt) and the reconstitution of order following the attack (ritualised as the mourning). The article concludes with an interpretation of the broader social implications of the ritual work and related naturalisation of ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ and suggests that this type of ritual work contributes to a collective mythologisation of terrorism in news media and society at large.

Online News Consumption in Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Galiya Ibrayeva ◽  
Saltanat Anarbaeva ◽  
Violetta Filchenko ◽  
Lola Olimova
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Online News ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
News Consumption ◽  
Depth Interviews

This investigation is the first attempt in Central Asia to measure online news consumption. It focuses on identifying trends of online news consumption and sources of news content in the region. The publication contains the results of online survey with participation of 4,130 online news consumers, in-depth interviews with 20 experts in new media who know regional and local peculiarities of news outlets, and analysis of news accounts in social media. The research will be useful to journalism faculties, news media, researchers, and international organisations, as well as to all who are interested in development of digital media in the region. The publication is available in English, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian, Tajik and Uzbek languages.

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