scholarly journals Journalistic genre (Culture Coverage)

Author(s):  
Maarit Jaakkola

This variable describes the basic journalistic genres typically used in specialized cultural coverage. The fundamental distinction goes between fact-based objective-seeking genres, such as news and news feature, and opinionated articles based on subjective accounts, such as columns, essays, comments and reviews. In journalism, it is important to separate opinions from facts, and this is why subjective views are differentiated from ways of representation that are based on the strategic ritual of objectivity (Tuchman, 1972), i.e., presenting facts by referring to sources or simply describing them instead of exposing the journalists’ own opinions and feelings. Reviews present a specialist genre of their own, connected to the institution of criticism (Hohendahl, 1982). Reviewing – the evaluation of new cultural products on the market – underlies the assumption that only selected experts are allowed to write reviews (Chong, 2020). Newspapers are also constantly developing their means of presentation, which results in an increased number of different newspaper-specific and hybrid formats, both in print and online (see, e.g., Santos Silva, 2019). Being not only medium-specific, genres may also vary from one journalistic culture to another, which makes a nuanced cross-cultural comparison difficult and motivates a limited use of values. Field of application/theoretical foundation Journalistic genres constitute the epistemological ground on which cultural journalists and reviewers cover culture. Scholars have been interested in the shifts in cultural coverage that have occurred between descriptive, interpretative, and evaluative content (Widholm et al., 2019). Descriptive content is often regarded in professional terms as non-ambitious in culture, while the meaning-making subjective elements are preferred and conceived of as an indication of quality (proactive professional engagement rather than marketing of cultural events). In cultural coverage, it is yet often difficult to separate facts from evaluative accounts, as the description of products, phenomena, persons, and events often require that they are put into an evaluative frame. The selection of a genre is related to the production structures, as many reviews are written by freelancers outside the newsroom. The number and share of reviews are typically regarded as an indication of journalistic acknowledgement for expert knowledge, and also the volume of outsourced production, as a great majority of reviews are written by freelancer-based experts. A decreasing number of reviews is thus typically interpreted as a crisis of criticism (Elkins, 2003; Jaakkola, 2015). References/combination with other methods of data collection Journalistic genres are often studied in conjunction to the artistic genres (see variable “Forms of culture”). Some studies are only interested in tracing the number and volume of reviews. Sample operationalization The two basic journalistic genres are news and reviews. News coverage can be further broken down to news feature (phenomenon-led coverage also called reportage) and person-led feature (typically referred to as person portraits). Further, there are two typical opinionated genres, essays and columns, and many kinship genres such as analysis, (news) comment and preview, that can be separately identified or merged into one variable showing personal voicing of the author. Example study Jaakkola (2015) Information about Jaakkola, 2015 Author: Maarit Jaakkola Research question/research interest: Representation of the share of journalistic genres applied in covering culture on culture pages of daily newspapers across time, to expose the production structure Object of analysis: Articles/text items on culture pages of five major daily newspapers in Finland 1978–2008 (Aamulehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat, Turun Sanomat) Timeframe of analysis: 1978–2008, consecutive sample of weeks 7 and 42 in five year intervals (1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008)   Info about variable Variable name/definition: Journalistic genre Unit of analysis: Article/text item Values: Journalistic genre Description 1. News Informative, fact-based article intended to deliver an objective account on an event 2. Review Opinionated, subjective article related to a new cultural product with an intention to evaluate it, written by a reviewer or critic 3. Person portrait/feature An informative article, typically interview-based, in which a person constitutes the topic 4. Reportage/feature An informative article intended to give account of the context of a news event or examine a phenomenon 5. Essay A longer opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist or reviewer to cover a phenomenon, process, state of the art or arts, etc. 6. Other commentary A short opinionated, subjective article written by a journalist (non-reviewer): a column, causerie, comment, preview or analysis, sometimes related to a news article 7. Other A text item not suited for any other category; e.g., a list, visualization, hybrid format, or similar   Scale: nominal Intercoder reliability: Cohen's kappa > 0.76 (two coders)   References Chong, P.K. (2020). Inside the critics‘ circle: Book reviewing in uncertain times. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Elkins, J. (2003). What happened to art criticism? Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Bristol University Presses. Hohendahl, P.U. (1982). Institution of criticism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Jaakkola, M. (2015). Witnesses of a cultural crisis: Representations of mediatic metaprocesses as professional metacriticism of arts journalism. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 18(5), 537–554. doi:10.1177/1367877913519308 Santos Silva, D. (2019). Digitally empowered: New patterns of sourcing and expertise in cultural journalism and criticism. Journalism Practice, 13(5), 592–601. doi: 10.1080/17512786.2018.1507682 Tuchman, G. (1972). Objectivity as strategic ritual: An examination of newsmen's notions of objectivity. American Journal of Sociology, 77(4), 660–679. doi:10.1086/225193 Widholm, A., Riegert, K., & Roosvall, A. (2019). Abundance or crisis? Transformations in the media ecology of Swedish cultural journalism over four decades. Journalism. Advance online publication August, 6. Journalism. doi:10.1177/1464884919866077

Author(s):  
Rafidah Sahar ◽  
◽  
Nur Nabilah Abdullah ◽  

Research on doctoral supervision in the field of Intercultural Communication has traditionally been applied to cross-cultural comparison, particularly across national systems and cultural boundaries. However, recent years have witnessed that such comparison is being challenged and re-analysed in light of potential risk of over generalisation and stereotyping in its observation. In this research, we consider the relevance of small cultures (Holliday 1994, 1999) as an alternative approach to conceptualise doctoral supervisory practice as a dynamic on-going group process through which its members make sense of and operate purposefully within particular contexts and shared behaviours. Narrative-based qualitative research was designed to generate and analyse the data. The participants were a purposive sample of six recently graduated PhD students at a Malaysian public university. One-on-one narrative interviews were conducted with the students to gather their supervisory narratives. Analyses of the students’ transcripts were completed using a holistic-content approach (Lieblich et al. 2008). Findings reveal a distinct set of behaviours and understandings that constitute the cultures of supervisory practice in the Malaysian university context. Through the notion of small cultures, this research proposes that cultures of PhD supervision can be best understood through an analysis of shared norms, behaviours and values between students and supervisors during supervisory practice. This research hopes that the move from a focus on large culture (i.e. Malaysianness per se) to a focus on the meaning-making process between students and supervisors from different backgrounds can assist education practitioners such as PhD supervisors to avoid stereotyping and overgeneralising.


Author(s):  
Maarit Jaakkola

This variable describes the employment basis that the writers of the articles represent. It distinguishes between staff writers, representing in-house newsroom production, and freelancer-based writers, representing outsourced production. It also examines the shares of non-signed and news agency material, as well as material produced by the audience, whenever it is placed on culture pages. These are the major production instances for cultural coverage. Tracing their development across time delivers information on the strategic and economic shifts, reflected in the use of non-specialized writers (journalists from other departments and outsourced production). Field of application/theoretical foundation As debates on the state of cultural journalism and the anatomy of cultural coverage are often centered around the volume of reviews, this variable delivers more detailed information about the production structures of the articles. Commissioning freelancers is specifically characteristic of cultural coverage; in cultural journalism, external authors are used more than in any other form of journalism. Through the variable, it can be examined to which extent the freelancer networks are being used for cultural coverage. Another prevalent question for cultural coverage is the extent of news agency material, or “churnalism” (Kristensen, 2018), which strengthens the ties of cultural coverage to cultural industry and, as an indication of less critical distance, is regarded as non-preferable. References/combination with other methods of data collection In coding the variable, the author name indicated in the byline is recorded. The variable typically needs background research for determining individual authors’ employment contracts, which may also vary from time to time. For distinguishing between specialized staff journalists, general staff journalists, and freelancer journalists, the researcher may utilize newsroom superiors as informants, as well as the authors themselves. When cross-tabulated with other variables, the variable provides useful information on how freelancer production has developed in time with regard to cultural forms, genres, and gender. Sample operationalization The author byline is operationalized as follows: Event type Description Specialized staff journalist Cultural journalist: salary-based staff journalist in the culture department General staff journalist Other journalist: salary-based staff journalist in a department other than culture Freelancer journalist Outsourced production: writer separately commissioned for the text Newsroom signature Byline referring to the newspaper in question, leaving the writer anonymous News agency Name of the news agency (AFP, AP, Reuters, etc.) Member of audience A reader, non-journalist Not recognizable Producer of the text unknown, not signed   Example study Jaakkola (2015)   Information abour Jaakkola, 2015 Author: Maarit Jaakkola Research question/research interest: Representation of the author bylines according to the work contract of the journalists on culture pages of daily newspapers across time, to expose the production structure Object of analysis: Articles/text items on culture pages of five major daily newspapers in Finland 1978–2008 (Aamulehti, Helsingin Sanomat, Kaleva, Savon Sanomat, Turun Sanomat) Timeframe of analysis: 1978–2008, consecutive sample of weeks 7 and 42 in five year intervals (1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008)    Info about variable Variable name/definition: Author Unit of analysis: Article Values: 1 = specialized staff journalist, 2= general staff journalist, 3 = freelancer journalist, 4 = newsroom signature, 5 = news agency, 6 = member of the audience, 7 = not recognizable Scale: nominal Intercoder reliability: Cohen's kappa > 0.76 (two coders)   References Jaakkola, M. (2015). Outsourcing views, developing news: Changes of art criticism in Finnish dailies, 1978–2008. Journalism Studies, 16(3), 383–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2014.892727 Kristensen, N.N. (2018). Churnalism, cultural (inter)mediation and sourcing in cultural journalism. Journalism Studies, 19(14), 2168–2186.


Author(s):  
Nirmala Thirumalaiah ◽  
Arul Aram I.

Climate change conferences had wide media coverage – be it on newspaper, radio, television or the internet. The terms such as ‘climate change', ‘global warming', and ‘El Nino' are gaining popularity among the public. This study examines the news coverage of climate change issues in the major daily newspapers—The Times of India, The Hindu in English, and the Dina Thanthi, Dinamalar, and Dinamani in regional language (Tamil)—for the calendar years 2014 and 2015. This chapter describes how climate change influences nature and human life, and it is the basis for social and economic development. The news coverage of climate change and sustainability issues helps the reader better understand the concepts and perspectives of environment. Climate change communication in regional newspapers and local news stories may increase the public's interest and knowledge level regarding climate change and sustainability issues.


2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic R Hopp ◽  
Jacob T Fisher ◽  
René Weber

Abstract A central goal of news research is to understand the interplay between news coverage and sociopolitical events. Although a great deal of work has elucidated how events drive news coverage, and how in turn news coverage influences societal outcomes, integrative systems-level models of the reciprocal interchanges between these two processes are sparse. Herein, we present a macro-scale investigation of the dynamic transactions between news frames and events using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), focusing on morally charged news frames and sociopolitical events. Using 3,501,141 news records discussing 504,759 unique events, we demonstrate that sequences of frames and events can be characterized in terms of “hidden states” containing distinct moral frame and event relationships, and that these “hidden states” can forecast future news frames and events. This work serves to construct a path toward the integrated study of the news-event cycle across multiple research domains.


Author(s):  
Sei-Hill Kim ◽  
Myung-Hyun Kang ◽  
Jeong-Heon Chang

Climate change is a significant issue in South Korea, and the news media are particularly important because they can play a central role in communicating information about climate change, a complex phenomenon on which the public in general lacks expert knowledge. The amount of climate change coverage increased in South Korean newspapers until 2009 and started to decline thereafter. The increase seems to have been driven primarily by international news and domestic politics. Until 2007, the increase in news coverage—as well as its short-term peaks—coincided with major international events, such as the releases of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. After 2007, the amount was affected not only by international events but also by domestic politics, such as the Lee administration’s “Low Carbon, Green Growth” policy, which became an important part of the national agenda. In terms of the nature of news coverage, newspapers represented the perspectives of climate change believers for the most part, while it was relatively hard to find skeptics’ arguments. News stories relied heavily on such authoritative international figures as the IPCC for information, which often led to conclusions that climate change is real and that human activities are primarily responsible. There are also political reasons for this point of view. President Lee, and his successor, President Park, maintained strong and ambitious environmental policies. As an important part of the president’s agenda, these policies might have affected the nature of news coverage, setting the tone of news articles in favor of strong environmental regulations. Lack of scientific expertise among news writers seems to affect the nature of news coverage as well. The lack of expert knowledge has often resulted in heavy reliance on press releases, newsworthy events, and scandals, instead of providing in-depth analyses of scientific backgrounds in climate change reporting. Another consequence was a heavy reliance on international news. The largest number of climate change articles was found as part of international news, while such articles rarely appeared in the science sections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Zimmermann ◽  
Michaela Fischer

Abstract Water-saving agricultural practices can reduce negative environmental impacts in water-scarce regions all over the world. This study deals with an innovation that combines hydroponic crop production and municipal wastewater reuse for irrigation purposes. The research question was what impacts such hydroponic water reuse systems have on product confidence, economic viability, groundwater recharge, biodiversity and landscape quality. It should also be clarified under which conditions and with which measures these systems can be sustainable. To answer these questions, a number of generic hydroponic water reuse systems were modeled and assessed using a Bayesian Belief Network that included both numerical values and expert knowledge. The hydroponic water reuse systems with the most positive overall impacts are small-scale food production systems (tomatoes) equipped with lighting and heating whose products are marked with a quality label or with a label for regional products. The systems are located in a former industrial area. In addition, a wetland system and landscape integration are implemented as landscaping measures. Hydroponic systems can be operated economically viable, their products have a high level of product confidence and their ecological impacts can be positive. No tradeoffs have to be accepted between economic, social and ecological goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
T. V. Andryukhina

This integrated cognitive-discourse study looks at the role of context in the variation of conceptual metaphor in economic discourse, which abounds in metaphors. The study is motivated by a general current interest in situational aspects of metaphorical conceptualisation in different professional discourses. The first research question is to test the relevance of metaphor variation for economic discourse and to investigate conceptual evolution of biological, mechanical and path/journey metaphors in this discourse type. Another research question is to determine particular types of context and contextual factors inducing metaphor variation in economic texts. The theoretical framework of the study is formed by the seminal theories of conceptual metaphor, conceptual evolution, knowledge framing and recent abundant research sharing an integrated cognitive-discourse approach to studying metaphor. The investigation revealed the salience of metaphor variation for economic discourse in a broad social context of its production: scientific, technological, career development, and discrimination at work contexts. The study adds to the understanding of the role contextual factors play in metaphorical meaning making and processing discourse. It can also have implications for further metaphor investigation in different professional discourses. Awareness of metaphor variation mechanisms in meaning making can also be instrumental in English for Specific Purposes pedagogy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 233339362110207
Author(s):  
Denise Saint Arnault ◽  
Laura Sinko

Narrative data analysis aims to understand the stories’ content, structure, or function. However narrative data can also be used to examine how context influences self-concepts, relationship dynamics, and meaning-making. This methodological paper explores the potential of narrative analysis to discover and compare the processes by which culture shapes selfhood and meaning making. We describe the development of the Comparative Ethnographic Narrative Analysis Method as an analytic procedure to systematically compare narrators’ experiences, meaning making, decisions, and actions across cultures. This analytic strategy seeks to discover shared themes, examine culturally distinct themes, and illuminate meta-level cultural beliefs and values that link shared themes. We emphasize the need for a shared research question, comparable samples, shared non-biased instruments, and high-fidelity training if one uses this qualitative method for cross-cultural research. Finally, specific issues, trouble-shooting practices, and implications are discussed.


2019 ◽  
pp. 30-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gita Berg ◽  
Helena Elmståhl ◽  
Ylva Mattsson Sydner ◽  
Eva Lundqvist

In Swedish home and consumer studies (HCS), cooking forms a part of the core content, and students often experience the results in a sensuous way – by eating the food. Sensuous, or aesthetic, experiences may affect students’ meaning-making and thus what is learned within the subject. There is a lack of research concerning the aesthetic aspects of cooking in a learning context; therefore, this study aims to explore HCS students’ meaning-making by focusing on aesthetic judgments during formalized cooking practices. The research question is, in what ways do students use aesthetic judgments in meaning-making processes during cooking? The data comes from video-documented classroom observations where the students cook together. Using a pragmatic approach and practical epistemology analysis (PEA), three ways in which the students use aesthetic judgments are illustrated: as arguments in negotiations, as reference points when reactualizing experiences, and as nonverbal actions evaluating sensory qualities. Empirical examples exemplify how aesthetic judgments play a role in establishing power relations, entail social/normative values, and influence the “tacit knowing” of cooking. The study found that aesthetic experiences are integral and important in students’ meaning-making during cooking practices. Moreover, by adding a new classroom context to the methodology used, its applicability for investigating aesthetic experiences and meaning-making is confirmed and widened.


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