Audience Perspective Research Articles

News Value Dynamics – Communication Through Audience Experience Research

News is a viable and essential form of traditional journalism. News television programming incorporates the seriousness of democratic issues into the public conversation. Regarding themes, current events, international policies, or cultural phenomena, news value is key in structuring newscasts. Scholars and practitioners point to the news value dynamic as a conditional measure of the direct experience of the living world. From the audience perspective, the study methodology of this article presents a scientific aspect of how communication specialists perceive and rethink the news critically, more often as professionals who precisely notice twisting reality, rather than journalists, who specify why challenges of news value never abate. In this special study, conducted in May and June 2024, a group of trainee communication specialists in the role of respondents participated in research of the news value of four news items covering vital hot news in Bulgarian society. Respondents must guess the inherent relationships between factors of the news value and try to understand the logic behind the dynamics of news value. For this paper, the dynamics of news value is identified as a postmodernism problem not only concerns the semantic differentiation, stemming from media professional standards but also expands into what journalistic and communication theory call “scientific applied” and traces the contour of a complex practice of research facets and needs for new agile findings. The paper offered to your attention looks at how the news value dynamic sustains audience interest through the professional lens of communicators.

Multi-Agent Approach to Political Discourse Translation: From Large Language Models to MAGIC-PTF System

This research addresses the automated translation of Chinese political discourse into Russian utilizing Large Language Model (LLM) optimization technologies and a multi-agent approach. The study focuses on developing the MAGIC-PTF system, which implements multi-stage text processing through the interaction of four specialized agents. The system's key component is the Style Agent, which ensures stylistic uniformity and terminological accuracy based on a specifically trained LLM. The Translator Agent performs the primary translation work and is responsible for the final text formatting. The Editor Agent conducts multi-level verification and correction of translations, considering linguistic, semantic, and cultural aspects. The Reader Agent analyzes the text from the target audience's perspective, evaluating its reception by native Russian speakers. The methodology integrates LLM optimization technologies and a multi-agent approach, with experimental testing conducted on the fourth volume of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" and its official Russian translation. The study includes a comprehensive analysis of system effectiveness using the COMET metric and comparative testing with existing machine translation platforms. The research's scientific novelty lies in developing a methodology for applying LLMs to specialized translation tasks and creating an effective coordination mechanism for intelligent agents in the translation process. Experimental research demonstrated MAGIC-PTF's superiority over traditional machine translation systems in key parameters: terminological accuracy, stylistic consistency, and preservation of culture-specific elements in political discourse. The developed system opens new possibilities for automated translation of political discourse and can be adapted for translating other specialized text types, confirming its significance for modern translation technology development. Of particular value is the system's scalability and adaptability to various language pairs and discourse types, creating prospects for further development in automated specialized text translation. The research findings also contribute to advancing the theory and practice of LLM application in professional translation.

An experimental study on receiving Audio Descriptions in Iran

Despite the growing body of research on audience satisfaction, Audio Description (AD) in Iran is still in its early stages of scientific development. Given the non-professional nature of AD production for Persian films in Iran, this research aimed to determine whether the current AD services meet users' needs and satisfaction. This study is based on a questionnaire survey of 30 blind and partially sighted individuals. The results indicate that AD services in Iran are limited to movies, revealing a significant gap between supply and demand. AD in Iran faces several challenges, including low quality, a lack of specialists, and insufficient theoretical research. From the audience's perspective, common issues include inappropriate timing, unsuitable vocabulary, subjective judgments, premature disclosure of story elements, neglect of actors' characteristics, and a disregard for standard guidelines in favour of self-made norms in descriptions. However, the existing Persian AD does help the audience understand the film's storyline. Our experimental research shows that participants prefer objective AD with detailed descriptions.

“journalists are just employees”: Examining Journalistic Autonomy from an Audience Perspective

ABSTRACT Autonomy is a fundamental requirement for the professional practice of journalism. However, while its role in ensuring well-informed audiences is widely acknowledged, the way in which audiences make sense of journalists’ autonomy remains unexplored. Similarly, the understanding of how audience perceptions of journalists’ autonomy, their attributed professionalism and authority, and the resulting impact on journalism practice remains incomplete. To address these gaps, this study conducts a qualitative analysis involving semi-structured interviews with 64 news users in Chile. Results show that journalists’ autonomy, from audiences’ view, is limited by labor forces and organizational influences. Journalists’ working conditions are perceived to be connected to high levels of editorial control, yielding a deficiency of autonomy that relegates journalists to a subservient role, compromising their professionalism, undermining their authority, and eroding the quality of the information they provide. Also, findings show that autonomy assumes a prominent role as a distinct form of authority when journalists diverge from conventional news norms, establishing a closer connection with their audience. Furthermore, independent journalists frequently garner recognition for their autonomy and credibility, attributed to their detachment from specific media outlets. The article delves into the implications of these findings for journalism studies and practice.

Perceptions of the Quality of HIV and AIDS-related Communication Materials among Key Population

Exploring the quality of communication materials from the perspectives of the target audiences is essential for the effectiveness of HIV and AIDS prevention programmes. In this context, a descriptive phenomenological study was carried out in Banke district of Nepal to explore the audiences’ perceptions of the quality of HIV and AIDS-related communication materials. In-depth interviews were carried out with nine participants selected through snowball sampling from sexual minority people and female sex workers. The participants were partially satisfied with the quality of the communication materials from the perspectives of attractiveness, credibility, empowerment, practical application, behaviour change and privacy. They were not satisfied with their quality from the perspectives of readability, sufficiency, comprehensibility and access. This study suggests that communication materials including precise and illustrative messages with familiar pictures, symbols and language should be easily available to the audiences maintaining privacy.

The Importance of the Human Touch in Journalism: Journalistic Values from an Audience Perspective

ABSTRACT Traditionally anchored in principles like objectivity, autonomy, and independence, journalists’ professional values have long defined the core identity of the profession. However, given the transformative influence of digitalization on journalists’ interactions with their audiences and the acknowledged importance of these audience relationships in ensuring media sustainability, it is worth asking what are the professional values that both groups identify as good journalism and to what extent/how do these values align. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 journalists and 64 audience members, this study finds a nuanced interplay between traditional professional values and evolving audience expectations. Journalists emphasize enduring values like objectivity and independence, while audiences prioritize human elements, valuing qualities such as approachability, empathy, and affective communication skills. Identifying two dimensions of values—technical proficiency, representing traditional values, and an affective dimension, emphasizing the human and relational aspects of the profession—the study suggests a shifting landscape for journalism. Moreover, the findings underscore the perceptual gap between journalists and audiences, emphasizing the need for an informed dialogue based on empirical insights into audience preferences. As journalistic norms evolve, the study advocates for a dynamic discourse that can reflect changing times and ensures journalism remains relevant for the future.

Conceptual Study of The Phenomenon of Celebrity Private Life in The Perspective of Media Audiences

Audiences in the media are viewed through two perspectives, namely passive audiences, and active audiences. Through the following conceptual paper, the author reviews the two perspectives of the media audience with the personal life cases of celebrity couples who are consumed by the media and the activeness of the audience in responding to the formation of fandom of the couple. the active one. The media audience is considered a commodity that is carried out by the media for news or TV programs regarding the pair Lesti Kejora and Rizky Billar. The audience in this phenomenon also contributes to the formation of the personal image of celebrities Lesti Kejora and Rizky Billar as audience objects in the mass media, the phenomenon that occurs is a communication strategy that appears to build public opinion. In contrast to these assumptions, there is an idea that the audience has the authority to choose the media regarding the couple and the authority to join a virtual community of Leslar fandom. Active audiences can provide interpretive and respond to the media content they choose. If it is examined more deeply, this can also be a criticism of the media because it raises anti-mainstream phenomena for public consumption, especially when viewed from the perspective of uses and gratification. This study is expected to be able to contribute knowledge about the perspective of media audiences in more depth, especially how the audience's perspective on the phenomenon of celebrity personal life. Further research on the two perspectives of the media audience in other research methodologies using interpretive or scientific can also enrich the study of media audiences.

Exploring the empathic potential of 360-degree documentary

ABSTRACT This paper provides an exploration of the creative and ethical challenges that emerged from producing a 360-degree documentary demo, focusing on two Greek drag artists who live in Athens. It introduces a new approach to understanding empathy at the level of practice and from the perspective of audiences, combining the production of the demo with a reflexive analysis of audience responses to the demo. Emphasis is placed on the potential of 360-degree documentary to develop emotional and cognitive empathy. The demo aimed to capture the drag artists’ performance as a form of resistance, using an innovative technology to portray this under-represented community. A reflexive methodology was deployed for analysing the data, which were collected in the form of 360-degree video and focus groups with participants experiencing the demo. The findings of this study provide insights into the possibility of 360-degree documentary to create change. During the production of the demo, moments of perspective-taking between the researcher and the documentary subjects were rare. The focus groups pointed to aspects which also hindered the empathic potential of the demo, including the diverging expectations of participants and the levels of participants’ familiarity with this technology.

Faith and fantasy: The interplay of Islam and pop culture in “99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa”

This study explores the evolving landscape of Indonesian cinema and its profound societal ramifications, focusing on the film 99 Cahaya di Langit Eropa (99 Lights in the European Sky). Using critical discourse analysis and drawing insights from Baudrillard's theoretical framework on simulation, this research systematically unpacks the ideological underpinnings embedded in the film. At the heart of this investigation is the symbiotic relationship between Islam and popular culture as manifested through the film's discursive constructions. The study combines Jäger and Maier's method of critical discourse analysis with Baudrillard's conceptualization of simulacra and simulacrum. It examines how the film's audio-visual elements shape perceptions of Islam within the broader social consciousness. The study brings to light the complex interplay of power dynamics and reveals how societal structures and practices contribute to the formation and perpetuation of these representations. Significantly, the research underscores the transformative potential of popular culture, presented in the film as an imaginative force, to shape the values and perspectives of contemporary young Muslim audiences, providing a new understanding of the role of popular culture in shaping religious identity.

Who Are the Science Audiences? A Typology Study on Digital Scientific Audiences: Persona, Performance, and Public

This study uses a quantitative research approach to investigate public engagement regarding online science communication from the perspectives of digital scientific story audiences ( n = 240). It explores their frequency of engagement, preferred aspects of scientific news and communication channels, and their community regarding scientific literacy, together with their willingness to engage online. It attempts to provide theoretical explanations of the similarities and differences among science audiences’ behaviors and explore the role of the community in influencing public engagement with online science. The data suggest the emergence of four audience types; this diversity of audience types gives a more comprehensive understanding of the public’s social needs and preferences with science.

Key Selection Factors Influencing Animation Films from the Perspective of the Audience

The animation industry is an important part of China’s cultural and creative industries. In fact, it is the leading cultural and creative industry in China. However, there is insufficient research on the audience’s views in China’s animation industry, which has become an important research gap. Thus, an integrated approach of FAHP and GRA is proposed in this study, to analyse and evaluate the key selection factors for the Chinese animation industry from the perspective of a Chinese audience. In this research, in both FAHP and GRA models, factors such as visual appealing character, interesting performance of character animation, and easy-to-understand storyline are prioritised conditions for the selection of Chinese animation from the perspective of Chinese audiences. The main contribution of this research is to underscore the value of the hybrid MCDM model to aid Chinese animation companies in aligning their productions with audience expectations and making informed decisions. Finally, this study offers a systematic and objective model for Chinese animation selection, providing practical insights that can be applied in the industry and can serve as a valuable reference for future research in similar domains.

Meditating in Live Stream: An Autoethnographic and Interview Study to Investigate Motivations, Interactions and Challenges

Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical well-being benefits. With the increased popularity of live stream technologies and the impact of COVID-19, many people have turned to live stream tools to participate in online meditation sessions. To better understand the practices, challenges, and opportunities in live-stream meditation, we conducted a three-month autoethnographic study, during which two researchers participated in live-stream meditation sessions as the audience. Then we conducted a follow-up semi-structured interview study with 10 experienced live meditation teachers who use different live-stream tools. We found that live meditation, although having a weaker social presence than in-person meditation, facilitates attendees in establishing a practice routine and connecting with other meditators. Teachers use live streams to deliver the meditation practice to the world which also enhances their practice and brand building. We identified the challenges of using live-stream tools for meditation from the perspectives of both audiences and teachers, and provided design recommendations to better utilize live meditation as a resource for mental wellbeing.

Fighting Fakes on WhatsApp—Audience Perspectives on Fact Bots as Countermeasures

The messengerization of society and the rise of meso-communication spaces have created new opportunity structures for spreading misinformation. Countermeasures in this context must meet other privacy standards than, for instance, journalist fact-checking or community management on more public social media spaces. In this article, we are specifically interested in audience perspectives on fact-check delivering bots to counter misinformation thriving in meso spaces on instant messengers. Despite initial journalistic projects, there is scarce knowledge of audience perspectives on such fact bots in private and meso-spaces. The current study sought to fill this gap and describe the themes and beliefs characterizing instant messenger users’ considerations of fact bots. To this end, we conducted explorative qualitative interviews (N = 18) with a heterogeneous group of German instant messenger users. We identified four central themes in interviewees’ considerations of employing fact bots: questionable advantages in terms of ease, perceived usefulness for educating others, perceived injunctive norms between safety and privacy, and distrust towards information curators. We describe these themes using the technology acceptance model as an organizing framework. Overall, our study provides meaningful starting points for further research and practitioners fighting misinformation in the messengerized society with its increased digital meso spaces.

A Study on Chinese Consumer Preference for the Tea Packaging Design: Focusing on the Comparative Analysis of China, Korea, and Japan Tea Packaging Designs

Tea packaging reflects the cultural characteristics of different countries from all the following aspects: design concept, color, pattern elements, layout, and choice of materials. This study aims to propose means of improving Chinese tea packaging through the understanding of the formation processes of the tea culture concepts of Korea, China, and Japan. The study is based on comparative research and analysis of tea packaging in the three countries influenced by tea culture. The audience perspective was adopted to select three well-known tea brands in Korea, China, and Japan for comparative analysis. We combined qualitative and quantitative methods to compare tea culture elements, color elements, patterns, fonts, and image layouts of the visual language symbols. A total of 556 reliable questionnaires were obtained from the 600 questionnaires administered to varied age groups in China, and SPSS statistical data were used for the analysis, which revealed the following results. First, the colors and picture layouts of Korean tea packaging are more popular than those of China and Japan. Second, the pattern designs of Chinese tea packaging are more popular than those of Korea and Japan. Third, the font designs of the Japanese tea packaging are more popular than those of China and Korea. Fourth, the intention to buy tea is more predominant in Korea than in China and Japan. Korean, Chinese, and Japanese tea cultures and tea packaging designs are related to each other, and the visual language symbols of tea packaging design absorb the relevant tea culture heritage. It is also hoped that the visual language symbols of the tea packaging designs of the three countries can learn from each other through the present study and new and innovative ideas can emerge in tea packaging designs in tandem with the domestic tea culture inheritance. The comparison and discussion of the differences, problems, supplementary schemes, and improvement directions of Chinese tea packaging design enabled us to posit modern and systematic fundamental information about Chinese tea packaging.

On-Air, Off-Balance: Detecting and Examining Media Biases in Filipino Sportscasting

With sports gaining global acclaim and recognition, media outlets have extensively covered a myriad of sporting events with a particular emphasis on international tournaments. In the digital age, media is crucial for disseminating news and shaping audience perspectives especially in sportscasting where local sportscasters tend to show affection and allegiance to their home nation by providing more airtime and positive commentaries to athletes representing their country. Such an approach shortchanges the viewers’ right to unbiased and diverse perspectives. Hence, it is imperative for media outlets, particularly during live sports broadcasts, to adeptly navigate and manage biases, given the significant impact of nationalistic positioning on sports media. In this study, the researchers analyzed the language employed by sportscasters in the local media coverage of the games of the Philippines Men’s Basketball Team, also known as Gilas Pilipinas, during the FIBA World Cup 2023. Following a mixed-method approach, the study sought to understand how sportscasters detect and manage media biases through corpus analysis. The investigation involved identifying prevalent forms of media biases within the study corpus, focusing on lexico-semantic, discourse, and pragmatic constructions that serve as indicators of these biases. The study findings indicated that all the analyzed sports broadcasts contained evident manifestations of media biases. Moreover, it was revealed that Filipino sportscasters exhibited a range of media biases favoring Gilas Pilipinas, and that the media biases in their utterances were affected by the phenomenon of nationalistic positioning that raises concerns about fairness and impartiality. Consequently, the frequency of these biased expressions in sportscasters' utterances was found to be contingent upon the specific context, varying with the situation. Furthermore, these biases can be identified through specific linguistic cues and features. This paper underscores the importance of fostering a more equitable sportscasting environment while simultaneously fortifying language and media education initiatives.

The ‘Euphoria’ effect: A popular HBO show, Gen Z, and drug policy beliefs

AbstractObjectiveCan a fictional show affect its audience's perspectives on the issue of drug use and addiction in society? This article aims to answer that question.MethodsWe use a survey with an embedded experiment to assess the relationship between the popular HBO show Euphoria and attitudes of Gen Z on the issue of drugs, including: feelings toward drug users and those caught up in drug addiction; beliefs regarding the causes of drug addiction; and, attitudes toward harm reduction, treatment, and punitive drug policies. Subjects were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk.ResultsWe found that reevoking the show by showing photos of two of the main characters led to drug attitudes consistent with the messages about drugs found in Euphoria. We also found that self‐reported exposure to the show was associated with perspectives on drugs consistent with the content of the show for respondents who scored higher on individual transportability—results that conform closely to theoretical expectations. The fact that these results were found in a study 8 months after the final episode of Euphoria was aired hints at the durability of the show's effects.ConclusionsThe results add to the growing body of research on the political effects of entertainment media and provide additional validation of new and important measures of the propensity of individuals to be transported by narratives and eudaimonic motivation in entertainment media choice.

Advances and Opportunities in Immersive Storytelling Technologies

As societies stand at the forefront of unprecedented modern technological shifts, the convergence of immersive technologies is fundamentally reshaping the ancient art of storytelling. This next edition of the Newhouse Impact Journal explores the transformative impact of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) technologies on contemporary storytelling paradigms. As these immersive technologies reach a critical intersection of technical capability, accessibility, and creative possibility, they present both extraordinary opportunities and complex challenges for content creators, educators, and consumers. Through a collection of essays, this work investigates the multifaceted landscape of immersive storytelling, addressing crucial aspects such as environmental awareness, audience perspective, user identity, and the psychological nature of immersion itself. Researchers offer new perspectives into some of the most prevalent and pervasive dimensions of immersive technologies, challenging traditional assumptions about user engagement and narrative design while spotlighting outstanding gaps between their adopted uses and future possibilities. Considering research and real-world examples, readers will examine their own roles at the technological crossroad of timeless storytelling and immersive technologies in an uncharted chapter of human experience.

Power to the user: The future of immersive storytelling might lie in understanding the audience

Immersive storytelling in journalism has faced disillusionment due to low audience adoption despite initial high expectations. Drawing from media innovation theories, this essay argues that to progress to wide audience adoption, immersive storytelling should align with audience expectations, clearly demonstrate its added value, and create experiences deemed meaningful by the audience. Adopting a connection-strengthening audience focus is proposed to aid in bridging the gap between journalists' intentions and audience perceptions. Two studies are presented to illustrate the added value of taking on such a connection-strengthening audience perspective. Future research should focus on collaborative efforts between academia and industry to design immersive experiences that strengthen the audience relationship.

Unravelling Conspiracy Theory Within Cultural Semiotics Framework as Narrative and Communication Strategies in Indonesian Social Media

This paper aimed at exploring the meaning-making processes of conspiracy theories echoed by social media influencers as strategic narrative and communication systems. The topic was grounded in a cultural semiotic approach to dissect the aspects of signifier and signified as construed in social media. A nexus-case study was applied to make a deep analysis of meaning-making construction produced and re-produced by the influencers, taking up data triangulation derived from social media, theoretical frameworks, and empirical investigations. The study revealed that meaning was constructed through manipulating signifiers like Covid-19, Lato-Latto, and Dajjal worshipping, which were related to other floating signifiers to create polarization from the audience's perspective. Further, the meaning-making process was ontologically and epistemically baseless. Advanced recommendations are reiterated through this paper to provide a wide range of insight to cope with the issue presented.

Problems, causes, and reflections on exhibitions of document collection institutions in China: Triangulation of literature analysis and empirical study

AbstractExhibitions have become a major highlight of information communication and innovative services in Chinese libraries, archives, and local chronicles museums in recent years. However, many of these exhibitions have been hindered in “dialogue” with their audiences, leading to a limited impact. Hence, this study employed a triangulation approach, combining literature analysis and empirical study, to identify the existing problems of libraries, archives, and local chronicles exhibitions. On the one hand, perspectives were refined from previous studies through literature analysis to establish a research foundation for exhibition issues. On the other hand, nine institutions were selected for empirical study through importance‐performance analysis (IPA) in east, central, and west China, integrating audience perspectives into problematic space. Based on the triangulation evidence, the problems mainly focus on three aspects: architectural planning, exhibition business, and public services, whereas the causes of the problems include stereotypes, late start points, and so on. The root causes appear to lie in the failure to transform from the document center to the public center, and the imbalance of curatorial theory research as a constraint bottleneck. These findings are expected to be utilized to enhance the specialization of Chinese documentary exhibitions, which attempt to overcome the difficulties of audience understanding and realize the real value of documents and the communication function of the media, thus promoting an effective dialogue between exhibitions and audiences.