The impact of journalism routines, practices and values on women experts’ media work

The rapid transformation of the media industry, marked by conglomeration and spatialization, raises concerns about the commodification of media workers. This study investigates the practice of media spatialization within PT: Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) and its impact on the commodification of reporters and camera persons. Drawing on Vincent Mosco’s theory of political economy and Foucault’s power relations framework, the study employs a critical case study method. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants and observations, complemented by secondary data. The findings reveal three typologies of spatialization—open, closed, and hidden—and their implications for media workers, including labor, psychological, economic, and capability exploitation. While efficient for the corporation, the integration system has led to excessive workloads, disproportionate wages, and diminished autonomy for media workers. Theoretically, this study enriches the discourse on media political economy by affirming the relevance of spatialization in understanding contemporary media practices and worker commodification. Practically, the findings advocate for strengthening trade unions and regulatory enforcement to safeguard media workers’ rights and promote a more equitable media ecosystem. The study underscores the need for corporate strategies prioritizing employee well-being to mitigate the adverse effects of conglomeration-driven spatialization.

Children display fright and worry responses to violent news. Including involved children, non-involved children or experts as sources in children’s news is assumed to reduce these negative effects. However, exemplification theory gives reason to question whether particularly the use of involved children indeed has a reassuring effect. To test this, an experiment was conducted among 237 children (8–13 y/o). They were randomly exposed to a news video containing (1) involved children as source, (2) non-involved children, or (3) adult experts. Fright and worry responses were measured both before and after exposure. Results showed that the inclusion of involved children as a source significantly increased worry responses, but did not affect fright responses. Non-involved child sources significantly reduced fright and worry responses. Expert sources reduced children’s fright responses, but did not change feelings of worry. These insights can inform news producers on how to alleviate the effects of covering violent events in news. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Violent content in news induces negative responses in children. Producers of children’s news try to alleviate these effects by using involved children, non-involved children, or adult experts as sources in violent news stories. b. Novel Contributions: This study provides first empirical insights into the effects of involved children, non-involved children, and adult experts as sources in violent news stories on children’s fear and worry responses. It shows how to alleviate children’s negative emotional responses to news. c. Practical Implications: News producers are encouraged to use non-involved children or adult experts when presenting violent news to children. They should be careful with the inclusion of involved children as sources in news stories.

The introduction and popularity of politically biased news sources represents a significant historical shift in the media environment, with important unexplored consequences. Evidence points to partisan segmentation in the contemporary news market, but while assumptions abound, the mechanism driving consumers to sort along party lines is unclear. I develop a framework for news choice based on perceptions of objectivity and credibility and report a test of its central mechanism using a nationally representative survey experiment. I find support for a congenial media effect, where news content from an unfamiliar source is seen as more credible and less biased when it is consistent with existing beliefs, while balanced news content may be dismissed as less credible and biased. Previous studies have examined how perceptions of bias in identical news content can change when it is attributed to different sources. In today’s media world however, access to more news sources generally and the ease with which content from those sources can be shared makes it increasingly likely people will be exposed to news content from either unknown or potentially fake news sources. This study contributes to the literature by identifying the unique effect of message content on perceptions of news bias and source credibility, while holding source constant. Paradoxically, my findings indicate that political selective exposure may arise out of individuals’ genuine desire for unbiased news.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists were heavily reliant on contributions from scientific experts. Despite the often productive collaboration between scientists and journalists, journalistic practices are largely at odds with scientific routines, making scientists not always willing to act as experts in the news media. Against the background of mediatization theory, we argue that their willingness to play by the media rules depends to a large extent on their assessment and understanding of how the news media work. Through in-depth interviews with 24 Austrian scientific experts, we investigated what they perceive as news media logic and how this shapes their responses to media requests. Interviewees exhibited a reflective understanding of news media logic. Findings suggest that experts’ perceptions of how different media work not only affect their decision whether to reject or accept media requests. In addition, they also shape their individual preparation for media engagements.

New media coverage of prisons has been little researched, especially in Canada. Prisons are the most closed institutions in the Justice system and receive less media attention than earlier stages of the criminal process. Some analysts suggest this closure stems from tight official control over media knowledge of prisons. Such control seems to fit with critical penal historians' descriptions of a "veiling" of the once highly public spectacle of punishment. Such control also fits with a "dominant ideology model" of the media in which journalists are very subordinate to official sources in deciding news content. We tested these arguments by examining how news of prisons is produced. We conducted 18 open focused interviews with correctional officials, with various alternative news sources and with media workers, along with a literature review and an analysis of prison news stories. Our data indicate that penal authorities cannot simply exert strict control over prison news, leading to a "veiling of punishment". Instead, officials are only intermittently successful in managing news coverage of prisons. Journalists can access a variety of alternative, critical news sources. Correctional officials are often engaged in damage control regarding "bad news" from other sources. One newspaper, the Kingston Whig-Standard, has maintained a high standard of critical coverage of prisons despite a sometimes difficult relationship with penal authorities. Our data indicate that the news media are more open, diverse, and pluralistic in their coverage of criminal justice than portrayed by some dominant ideology theorists.

This study analyzes the news coverage of President Joko Widodo’s official visit to IKN (Ibu Kota Nusantara), accompanied by influencers on July 28, 2024. This topic gained significant attention in numerous mass media. The researcher conducted a quantitative content analysis of 87 news articles from 10 national online news portals. News portals, news slant, and news sources are the variables to determine the most dominant news frame by referring to the five generic news frames by Semetko and Valkenburg, as an analysis framework. Findings reveal significant differences between news portals and news slant, as well as between news portals and news sources. Each confirmed by the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact Test (p <.001), indicating that each online news portal follows a distinct pattern in presenting news slant and selecting news sources to be quoted in its reporting. MANOVA results show that there are several media effects on five generic news frames. Especially on the conflict frame, recorded a significant effect from the three independent variables: news portal (p = .006), news sources (p = .001), and news slant (p = .001). Meanwhile, the responsibility frame was more affected by the news portal variable. The human-interest frame (p = .001) and the morality frame (p = .021) were more frequently observed in news articles that cited news sources from intellectuals and NGOs. However, the economic consequences frame was not significantly affected by the three variables in our analysis. This indicates that the economic aspects were not the main focus in the news. This finding confirms that the media tends to emphasize conflict in reporting on this issue.

The way media represent the Other is the result of combination of various factors that directly or indirectly affect media workers during the production of media content about the Other. An essential and decisive factor is the personal conviction of media worker (attitudes and prejudices). Given this fact and that the media reporting on the medically different persons (MDP) is stereotypical (frame of the victim, hero or burden), it was necessary to conduct a research with reporters and editors in relation to the current level of stigma towards MDP. The research was conducted in Republic of Srpska (B&H) among reporters and editors from four leading TV stations in RS (ELTA TV, ATV, BN TV and RTRS). Using a method of in -depth interview, 19 reporters and editors responded to questions concerning: (1) their views on MDP, (2) familiarity with the specifics of various health conditions, (3) their interactions with MDP, (4) self-evaluation of reporting on MDP, (5) self-regulation and (6) applying the existing codes of ethics when reporting on MDP. The results indicate that media workers possess only basic knowledge about health differences and they primarily represent MDP on the basis of existing social stereotypes and media frames. Reporters and editors, even self-critical, tried to be socially correct, but had an ambivalent attitude and felt that self-regulation should not be used when reporting on MDP. In conclusion, it is clear that media workers use a combination of personal views on the ethics of reporting on MDP and rules of journalistic discourse, and not ethical principles and codes of reporting on the Other.

Media Reporting, Mobility and Trauma

Journalism is in a period of transition. Disrupted by social and mobile technologies,practitioners need new ways to create stories and engage audiences if they hope toremain relevant and viable. Yet journalists’ relationship with technology is fraught. Weigheddown by legacy production processes and entrenched ideas about what journalism is,newsrooms have failed to fully exploit the potential of new platforms. But as technologybecomes more interwoven in our lives, and interactions move out of the computer and intothe everyday world, those practices will need to change. The question is how.This thesis is concerned with the practice of journalism, the practice of design, and whatone can learn from the other. In order to argue its central proposition — that designmethods are central to the future of journalism practice — the thesis documents andevaluates a design-led approach to addressing a journalistic issue. It does this via theNewsCube: a digital artefact that uses space and shape to tell news stories. TheNewsCube is a unique storytelling format.Through a transparent process of concept development, design, prototyping andevaluation, the project detailed in the following pages reveals new possibilities forjournalism practice: that stories could be tactile, fun and designed for distributed control.Physicality and playfulness are not values readily associated with journalism, but the workhere suggests that such qualities could inform new forms of engagement.The contribution of this thesis is, in the first instance, to journalism: that it is through designthat journalism can innovate. That the practice-led, future-focused methods of designresearch can be used to generate new ideas for journalism that exploit technology andembody core journalistic values. But there is a contribution to design also. The designprocess revealed a distinctly journalistic way of thinking, which, when combined withdesign methods, led to a new concept of news interaction.The application of design research methods to a journalistic dilemma is arguably original injournalism research and this thesis proposes Journalism Design as an emerging area ofresearch and practice that not only addresses the technological possibilities for journalism,but the journalistic possibilities for technology.

This article is concerned with the management of creative journalistic work in a media organisation. It reports and analyses a case study conducted in one of Europe's largest media corporations: the focus of the study was a development team of journalists set up and charged with creating and producing a new multi-platform media service and its content. The article discusses the ways in which the creativity of media professionals is supported and managed under the constantly changing conditions of media work and journalistic practices. The study contributes to research on creativity in the media industry, particularly the management of creativity in journalism and media work. The findings identify the key motivations and constraints in relation to creative journalistic work in the media industries under digital transformation. Specifically, media professionals are motivated by the opportunity for developing new skills and competencies as well as chances to create new journalistic products and practices. The article suggests that the skills of change management, communication management and project management are crucial for creative media work.

Chapter 8 – Media reporting of migrants and migration

This chapter introduces key overarching themes around the complexities of news framing on familicide. It discusses the complex ways news framings reflect not just journalistic practices, but processes of interpellation—the ways journalistic practices are positioned within a wider discursive environment that shapes the framing possibilities available to journalists, editors, and various other social actors on which they rely (Little in Journalism 22:1450–1466, 2021). It examines the significant role played by news sources in framing and shows how issues around the use of news sources are particularly fraught in reporting on familicide, with some of the most disquieting news frames constructed through a reliance on news sources with significant experiential or expert authority. This chapter also points to the increasingly influential role being played by ‘talk-back’ news pieces—editorial content that directly challenges dominant news framings from within the news media, and often through a feminist lens. This contributes to a dynamic news space, working to constitute news on familicide as a process of contested meaning-making.

"Citizen journalists have reconstructed the traditional means of journalism practice by being their own eyewitness reporters, producers, and news information distributors; they self-advocate for citizens' voices, analyze news, debate, and construct news stories from citizens' perspectives. The internet has created an open system that encourages free press and enables the mobilization of the rights and practice of public free speech. Deliberative democratic goals are significant in participatory journalism, and these challenges mainstream news journalism in their traditional roles as conveyors of journalism standards, professional practices, and ethics mediation. As new media's momentum picks up, the journalistic space between public and professional journalists will need to be shared, and the practices of journalism will have to shift their models for this new form of democratic platform. Through new media and new journalism practices that encourage citizen involvement, journalism is evolving in setting a different standard of what is newsworthy. It is shifting editorial and political agendas to make use of wider content from the public, which could possibly infer the approval of using new journalism models to encourage citizen participation in news making. This research examines how the democratic practice of citizen participation in news content submissions affect news standards, by which the quality of news journalism is evaluated. This paper assesses how news organizations obtain content from citizens, how they make decisions to print and broadcast the content, and asks whether journalism has progressed into a model that involves citizens and professionals in an effective news production process. This study focuses on the implication of acquiring contributions of citizen journalism from the distinctive perspectives of news practices, participatory journalism, and the deliberation of democracy of citizens' press. This paper focuses on how the integration of user-generated content (UGC), in news stories as a vehicle that provides voices for citizens in a democratic movement. The usage of UGC in news institutions has changed traditional journalistic practices in terms of their news value, standard and quality. Essentially, editors of the news media determine which images captured by citizen journalists will be used, and they also decide the messages that they want to send to the public through framing and editing techniques. Previous research on editorial practice has identified various standards about newsworthiness that serve as selection criteria. However, there is a limited amount of research available on how UGC has changed the traditional journalism model. Through qualitative interviews with seven image editors, five news companies, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV, Macleans, Rabble and The Toronto Star, this study sheds light on the editor's perceptions about citizen journalist videos and images in news content online. Three Canadian case examples are examined for their visual content analysis: the immigration ex-judge sex bribe case, the Vancouver police tasering of a Polish man, and Victoria police manhandling two young men at a nightclub. Through analysis of the interviews and case studies, this study finds that editors feel that UGC has not altered their traditional news standards. However, upon closer examination of news report cases, it does appear that UGC, which often consists of low quality videos with information entertainment content, has in fact affected the practices of quality journalism. The news media have adopted UGC content styles, which tend toward being more sensational, graphic, raw; these styles can make "hard news", which conveys investigative in-depth information, appear similar to "soft news", such as sensational infotainment. Notwithstanding that professional news organizations use public content in their news stories, they have not provided a platform of partnership to allow citizens to have a democratic voice through their media"--From Abstract.

"Citizen journalists have reconstructed the traditional means of journalism practice by being their own eyewitness reporters, producers, and news information distributors; they self-advocate for citizens' voices, analyze news, debate, and construct news stories from citizens' perspectives. The internet has created an open system that encourages free press and enables the mobilization of the rights and practice of public free speech. Deliberative democratic goals are significant in participatory journalism, and these challenges mainstream news journalism in their traditional roles as conveyors of journalism standards, professional practices, and ethics mediation. As new media's momentum picks up, the journalistic space between public and professional journalists will need to be shared, and the practices of journalism will have to shift their models for this new form of democratic platform. Through new media and new journalism practices that encourage citizen involvement, journalism is evolving in setting a different standard of what is newsworthy. It is shifting editorial and political agendas to make use of wider content from the public, which could possibly infer the approval of using new journalism models to encourage citizen participation in news making. This research examines how the democratic practice of citizen participation in news content submissions affect news standards, by which the quality of news journalism is evaluated. This paper assesses how news organizations obtain content from citizens, how they make decisions to print and broadcast the content, and asks whether journalism has progressed into a model that involves citizens and professionals in an effective news production process. This study focuses on the implication of acquiring contributions of citizen journalism from the distinctive perspectives of news practices, participatory journalism, and the deliberation of democracy of citizens' press. This paper focuses on how the integration of user-generated content (UGC), in news stories as a vehicle that provides voices for citizens in a democratic movement. The usage of UGC in news institutions has changed traditional journalistic practices in terms of their news value, standard and quality. Essentially, editors of the news media determine which images captured by citizen journalists will be used, and they also decide the messages that they want to send to the public through framing and editing techniques. Previous research on editorial practice has identified various standards about newsworthiness that serve as selection criteria. However, there is a limited amount of research available on how UGC has changed the traditional journalism model. Through qualitative interviews with seven image editors, five news companies, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CTV, Macleans, Rabble and The Toronto Star, this study sheds light on the editor's perceptions about citizen journalist videos and images in news content online. Three Canadian case examples are examined for their visual content analysis: the immigration ex-judge sex bribe case, the Vancouver police tasering of a Polish man, and Victoria police manhandling two young men at a nightclub. Through analysis of the interviews and case studies, this study finds that editors feel that UGC has not altered their traditional news standards. However, upon closer examination of news report cases, it does appear that UGC, which often consists of low quality videos with information entertainment content, has in fact affected the practices of quality journalism. The news media have adopted UGC content styles, which tend toward being more sensational, graphic, raw; these styles can make "hard news", which conveys investigative in-depth information, appear similar to "soft news", such as sensational infotainment. Notwithstanding that professional news organizations use public content in their news stories, they have not provided a platform of partnership to allow citizens to have a democratic voice through their media"--From Abstract.

News sources overall distribute their news content utilizing category words in their URLs to keep up the Web directory structure on their sites. These news categories can be of two sorts either generic, for example, “Business, Sports, etc.” or time-specific “ICC Champions Trophy 2017” and “Delhi Earthquake” or both. These news categories can be utilized for different applications, for example, news source recommendations and time specific news category extraction. The current frameworks, for example, Dmoz directory and Yahoo registry are mostly human annotated and do not consider the time dynamism of categories of news sources. Incited by aforementioned issues, in this paper, we propose a system that recommends the news sources with the help of news category network for the given news category. To build news category network, we use a dynamic approach that iteratively modifies the category network on the basis of URL categories. We additionally propose an approach that rank the news sources for the given categories using three parameters such as Traffic Based Website Importance, Social media Analysis and Category Wise Article Freshness. Experiments are done on category URLs captured from GDELT project to evaluate our proposed system.