Hybrid Media System Research Articles

Not All Protests are Created Equal to be News: Does Mobile Digital Connectivity Level the Playing Field in the Hybrid Media System?

This study investigates how digital connectivity may influence news coverage of protests globally. Scholars argue that the arrival of the digital age did not overthrow legacy media but built a hybrid media system where old and new media logics work together. Although some recent studies highlighted that mobile internet access enabled protestors to gain media attention internationally, evidence also suggests that regimes were increasingly capable of controlling media environments to shape news coverage of conflicts. It remains unclear if connectivity allows citizens to bypass limitations in free speech to increase protest visibility on a global scale. Leveraging the latest global coverage of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project data and data from other well-established projects, this study consolidated a dataset of 162 countries between 2018 and 2021 on connectivity, protests, and media attention. Multilevel negative binomial regressions results showed that new and old media logics both explained media attention on protests. Higher mobile ownership and broader network coverage in a country predicted more media attention, but not social media penetration. Larger and richer countries, and protests that were more violent and fatal also received more coverage. Nevertheless, the effects of connectivity were constrained by the level of freedom of expression in a country. Country-level interactions showed lower freedom of expression and significantly attenuated the effect of connectivity on media attention. This study demonstrated the dynamics in the hybrid media system. While connectivity enabled more protest information to flow, states could have found methods to curb it from getting viral, thus living with it at a manageable level.

The Construction of a Hybrid Media Storm: A Belgian Case Study

ABSTRACT In today's hybrid media system, amplified news events rage not only in “older” media such as legacy media but also on “newer” digital platforms such as online alternative news media outlets and social media. However, the role of both legacy news media and digital platforms in constructing events has been little explored. This study examines a hybrid media storm surrounding a Belgian political scandal in 2021. Based on a quantitative content analysis of 1,436 print and online articles from six Flemish newspapers and the public broadcaster’s website, 204 articles from three right-leaning alternative media, and 801 tweets between 1 February and 31 October 2021, the study reveals that digital platforms allow actors with little or no voice in legacy news media to influence the narrative of events on those platforms by actively promoting specific frames. Right-leaning alternative media's coverage, although less pluralistic than legacy media, still offers a broader frame repertoire than Twitter where the framing is one-sided. The case study shows that right-leaning alternative media and Twitter do not necessarily broaden the range of views, but are often a crucial factor in the amplification of specific frames at the expense of others.

Hashtivism as media discourse: analysing pioneer environmental action in Public Service Media through transmedia formula

Various studies have analysed the news media’s participation in debates generated in the public digital sphere represented by social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Some of these debates have gained strength and become authentic movements linked to certain social struggles, such as feminism. Similarly, the so-called ‘environmental hashtivism’ or ‘eco-hashtivism’ is acquiring increasing importance in the context of this digital sphere. In view of this, the focus of this article is the distinctive area of public radio and television channels in Europe to examine the transmedia action #EKIN_klima, developed by the Basque public audiovisual corporation Euskal Irrati Telebista (EITB). The study of this pioneering initiative allows us to understand just how the eco-activism actions of the public news media can help to reposition it within the hybrid media system and contribute to the modernisation of its social function, along the lines of other actions, such as those carried out by the BBC against disinformation. In this way, it has been noted that the environmental issue is not only something to be included in the news media agenda, but also an opportunity for the public news media to legitimise its social and innovative character through transmedia branding actions.

Exploring a post-truth referendum: Australia's Voice to Parliament and the management of attention on social media

This article examines the circulation of unverified and misleading information during the 2023 Australian Voice to Parliament referendum, focusing on X (formerly Twitter). Adapting Harsin's concept of Regimes of Post-Truth and a participatory perspective of propaganda, we analyse over 224,000 posts, exploring the interplay of Voice-related discussions on X and campaign messaging. We find that the Yes campaign employed a traditional messaging approach, emphasising public support and presenting historical facts and statistics. In contrast, the No campaign's disciplined messaging style mobilised pan-partisan attention, fostering a collaborative ‘truth market’ on X about the constitutional amendment that eclipsed the Yes campaign's more conventional approach. A proliferation of conspiratorial assertions fostered collaborative work from No campaigners as well as participatory efforts from Yes campaigners to debunk and criticise them. We conclude that the No campaign cultivated a series of public relations-induced realities about the referendum, effectively managing attention within a hybrid media system.

Reporting Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis in a Hybrid Media Environment: How Citizen Journalists and Traditional Media Collaborate and Compete

ABSTRACT This study examined how Cameroonian legacy media and citizen journalists have collaborated or competed to report on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon since October 2016. Using Chadwick’s hybrid media system theory, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 Cameroonian legacy media reporters, editors and citizen journalists. The results show that when reporting on political crises, new relationships are established between legacy media and citizen journalists that grow into formalised collaborations. Mainstream media reporters and citizen journalists either collaborate or compete to report on the crisis. Some citizen journalists both cooperate with traditional media and run their own reporting platforms, while professional journalists working for established media outlets create platforms of their own to freely report issues that would otherwise be censored on traditional media outlets. The findings reveal professional journalists acknowledge the important role of citizen journalists but are cautious about fully collaborating with them at every stage of the news production chain.

Counterpublics and Structural Change in Media and Politics: A Theoretical Framework on Transformations Within a Long-Term Historical Perspective

The paper contributes to current debates on counterpublics and the applicability of the concept to various ideological contexts with a long-term historical perspective on structural changes in media and politics. It analyses problems of theory formation, offers an alternative approach and places current upheavals in the context of previous changes. Based on a literature review of current research in view of the increasing importance of right-wing actors’ online communication, a shift in theory is identified. On the one hand, theories of hegemony are expanded to describe alleged exclusions and, on the other hand, by emphasising the discursive construction of counterpublics, actors’ claims and perceptions are adopted as analytical criteria. As an alternative to approaches that focus on discursive construction of actual or alleged exclusions, this conceptual article presents a definition of counterpublics as opposed to structures of (hybrid) media systems and offers a framework to examine ideas and practices of counterpublics derived from classical approaches of counterpublics and adaptations based on findings of communication and media research. A sketch of transformations in communication history in the US and Europe from press under feudal rule to diversifications in hybrid media systems in liberal democracies is used to illustrate the framework.

Trump, Twitter, and Truth Social: how Trump used both mainstream and alt-tech social media to drive news media attention

ABSTRACT Former President Donald Trump is well-known for dominating the attention-driven hybrid media system through his controversial tweets, which spurred social media user engagement and news media attention. The removal of Trump from Twitter/X raises questions about his continued ability to drive news attention through his alt-tech platform, Truth Social. Our analysis shows that the retweets and “retruths” Trump gained predicted related news attention across the political spectrum. However, our results also point to shifts in news attention, including diminished direct embedding of his “truths,” a lower proportion of stories on his Truth Social activity among all stories about him, and greater partisan media attention to his Truth Social activity in 2022, as compared to 2016. These findings advance our understanding of Trump’s social media based communicative power, changing journalistic practices, and the place of alt-tech in the media system.

Political communication as television news: Party-produced news of the Sweden Democrats during the 2022 election campaign

Abstract Political communication has taken new and complex forms within the contemporary hybrid media system. In this article, we examine how political campaigning that draws on television news forms utilises the increasingly blurred boundaries between news journalism and politics online. We assess the digital television news channel Riks, which during the 2022 national election was operated by the Sweden Democrats party and distributed via YouTube. Deploying a mixed-methods approach, we analysed all videos published by Riks four weeks prior to the election. Results show that Riks blends descriptive, interpretative, and outrage genres, and strategically frames the most important political issues of the election campaign in favour of the party’s policies. Hence, the study contributes to political communication scholarship by emphasising how news has become an integral part of strategic party communication, challenging established scholarly conceptualisations of alternative media and hyperpartisan news.

Social media posts as source for political news coverage inside and outside election campaigns: Examining effects on deliberative news media quality

Journalists increasingly cite and/or embed social media posts in news articles. While social media posts have been found to be of little deliberative quality, we do not know whether this also affects the deliberative quality of the news. Against the background of a hybrid media system and deliberative news media standards, we answer this research question with a content analysis of news articles including or not including posts from X (formerly Twitter) in the twelve widest-reaching German news websites prior and after the German general election 2021. We were particularly interested in the differences inside and outside election campaigns as the interdependence of the mass media and the political sphere is particularly pronounced during campaign periods. Results show that posts are more often cited and/or embedded in news articles inside than outside election campaigns. Articles including posts feature a greater number of actors but are not more diverse as mainly actors from the political center are referenced. Moreover, articles with posts are associated with a higher position responsiveness but on the other hand a decreased civility of the represented political discourse. This pattern only emerged inside but not outside campaign periods. These findings add to our understanding of contemporary hybrid media systems and the nature of political journalism during contentious political periods.

Defending Democracy Against Populist Neo-Fascist Attacks: The Role and Problems of Public Sphere Theory

In the wake of the recent attacks on democracy by a re-invigorated populist neo-fascism there is a pressing need to articulate a middle ground position in debates between the public sphere paradigm and its critiques. This requires an engagement with tensions between consensus and conflict, rationality and emotion, and the system and the lifeworld. Furthermore, there is also a need to scrutinize the role of hybrid media system in promoting populist neo-fascist discourses and actors, but also assert its normative task to combat it. Whereas conflict and power cannot be eradicated from the political, conflict is also a destructive force which requires a set of agreed upon ethico-political principles in order for a radical democracy to function. It is also argued that emotions need to be part of the democratic fight-back, but it is also suggested that a critical realist disposition combining epistemic relativism with judgmental rationality will be crucial to counter the relativism on steroids practiced by neo-fascist actors. Finally, the hybrid media system needs to be reconnected with the lifeworld, citizen interests and democratic values through a new regulatory framework, and the tradition of public journalism could provide inspiration for a democratic fightback from within the media system.

Hate speech and social media: Combating a dangerous relationship

The article proposes a reflection on the configuration of the contemporary digital agorà as a powerful ‘hate factory’, focusing on the dangers deriving from pervasive and planetary practices of divisive news construction and sharing trough the social media. In the first part, it will be argued that the increase of lexical choices based on hate or verbal violence must be connected to the characteristics of the contemporary hybrid media system, and considered as a concrete threat for democracies, which challenges institutions to find innovative ways to face it at a legislative as well as at a cultural level. In the second part of the article, some EU recent normative actions against hate speech will be presented in order to underline links with the 2022 “Code on hate speech”, promoted by Italian Authority for Communications (AGCOM) in Italy: this document established the binding criteria for the programming of Italian audio-visual media service providers, in order to prevent and combat hate speech by avoiding any dissemination, justification, minimization of violence, hatred or discrimination both in information and entertainment. From all these institutional initiatives clearly emerges the need to reinforce the legal framework for tackling hate speech and discrimination, starting from the normative lack of strict rules in many European countries.

Promoting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: analysis of media messaging in India

This study aims to shed light on the limitations in the Indian government’s communication about COVID-19 vaccines through the mass media and how it may have impacted the vaccination rate in the country. The study argues that while vaccine scarcity is an important challenge, vaccine hesitancy and refusal are also major barriers to achieving adequate immunization coverage in India. Using Chadwick’s hybrid media system framework, the study combines data from traditional and social media to evaluate the Indian government’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, specifically the Public Service Announcements (PSAs) promoting COVID-19 vaccinations. The study finds that the government’s PSAs supporting COVID-19 vaccinations are limited, especially when compared to private vaccine PSAs, despite India’s success with PSA campaigns for other vaccinations such as polio, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS prevention. By comparing social media health campaigns of analogous health agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom, the study identifies significant flaws in India’s message structuring and establishing credibility and trust in COVID-19 vaccines. The study’s findings suggest that the Indian government’s failure to use media effectively to promote COVID-19 vaccines may have influenced the vaccination rate in the country, potentially allowing for future outbreaks.

Transfeminist perspectives: Beyond cisnormative understandings of the digital public sphere

In this essay we highlight the value of transfeminist theory for understanding the digital public sphere. Transfeminism allows us to challenge the devaluation of femininity that affects all women and femmes, while specifically challenging the marginalisation of people whose gender expression does not match societal stereotypes of the gender and sex binary, particularly those who experience oppression on multiple axes. Building on existing intersectional approaches to social media, we demonstrate how transfeminism’s capacity to deconstruct binaries, such as online/offline and public/private, and the essential concepts it provides us, such as transmisogyny and networks of care, are crucial for understanding the operation of contemporary transphobia as well as possibilities and opportunities for resistance and solidarity. Using two recent cases in the UK, we firstly consider the circulation of transphobic discourse in the hybrid media system through the onslaught of abuse faced by Trades Union Congress Policy Officer for Industry and Climate, trans woman Mika Minio-Paluello. Secondly, we reflect on the possibility of transfeminist counterpublics of care emerging from protests around Drag Queen Story Hours. This discussion is not meant to be exhaustive but rather a call to action for further transfeminist scholarship in this area.

Charting the Impacts of Media Discourses on the European Integration Project

The over-exposure to information facilitated by the hybrid media system and social networks is a key factor contributing to the increasing polarization of public opinion on major political issues. The European integration project is one of the major political processes affected by information manipulation and disinformation. In this regard, social networks have become powerful tools for nurturing news siloes or “echo chambers,” influencing people’s perceptions of important political issues in a manner that could have a destabilizing effect on democratic processes and institutions. In this context, the role of media discourses and their circulation among networked publics has become particularly relevant, leading audiences to adopt different views supporting or rejecting the European project. This thematic issue features a range of articles considering how the Europeanization process is impacted by discourses circulating in the hybrid media system or threatened by the destructive dynamics of disinformation and polarization.

Blurring Boundaries: A Longitudinal Analysis of Skills Required in Journalism, PR, and Marketing Job Ads

In today’s hybrid media system, communication professions are connected to media convergence, and this leads to a blurring of boundaries between journalism, public relations (PR), and marketing. Our study demonstrates the blurring boundaries of the communication professions through a longitudinal automated semantic analysis of 336,629 job postings in the fields of journalism, PR, and marketing published between 2015 and 2020 in Austria and Germany. Similarities in skills demanded in job postings in journalism, PR, and marketing in Austria and Germany are greater than differences, but the three job fields are still distinguishable from each other.

News Life Cycle and the Hybrid Media System

Following a brief examination of recent theories, this proposal describes the transmedia ideals, logic and values for journalism and explores how transmedia storytelling addresses the need to ensure the continued relevance of journalism. We test the ideals, logic and values and refine the evolving features and strategies employed by Spanish legacy media through case study analysis. Thus, this research analyses and describes the use of languages, genres and formats; strategies, resources and platforms for the creation, collaboration and distribution (News Lifecycle, Serrano-Tellería, Jin and Arroyo, 2019) of journalistic products about Covid-19, and determines whether a transmedia logic is being followed. Likewise, this study proposes a set of good practices that can be applied to other stories- products and media in everyday and planned routines. For this, the field work focuses on the analysis of two aspects: the interface design and the creation and dissemination of content. The pandemic represented a unique frame of analysis due to the intrinsic work conditions, routines and dynamics as well as its limitations and increased demands for information. Thus, we concluded that transmedia core values, ideals and logic offer a suitable framework to embrace in everyday media work and specifically, in journalism, to adapt, innovate and overcome its crisis and challenges, opportunities and potentials. Transmedia means an ideal, a logic, a group of values to bear in mind when constructing a story. To adapt storytelling to media production, bearing in mind all possible genres, languages, formats, semiotics and strategies is a fundamental step because audiences are used to consuming media on different devices and want the best of all of them to have a full experience.

Hybrid News (in the) Making: A Content and Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis of Political Live Blogs on the 2020 US Presidential Debates

ABSTRACT Political journalism continues to be the main source of political information in deliberative democracies. However, the advent of hybrid media systems during the last decade(s) has altered how journalists cover politics and how audiences consume relevant content. In this context, live blogging has emerged as a web-based alternative to traditional TV broadcasting. To explore whether and in which forms the trend toward hybrid media systems is empirically traceable in current journalism practice, the present study focuses on political live blogging from four popular media outlets covering the two 2020 US presidential TV debates. It applies a discourse-oriented, mixed-methods, corpus-based approach and specifically considers sourcing practices as well as the normalization of professional role conceptions and practices of objectivity. Results suggest that political live blogging establishes multi-layered and multi-authored discourse that places strong emphasis on accountability and disclosure transparency by updating and linking information, while maintaining the journalistic gatekeeping/gatewatching function. It further emerges that political live blogs are characterized by an informal tone but also by a continuation of traditional news media practices as regards objectivity, as instantiated by the salience of debate topics and political terms and by a clear delineation of information from opinion and contextualization.

“Ideology and simultaneously more than mere ideology”: On Habermas’ reflections and hypotheses on a further structural transformation of the political public sphere

“Ideology and simultaneously more than mere ideology”: On Habermas’ reflections and hypotheses on a further structural transformation of the political public sphere

Referendum Campaigns in the Digital Age: Towards (More) Comparative Analyses in Hybrid Media Systems

Referendum campaigns, which happen in many countries on the national or sub-national level, are highly important and special periods of political communication. Unlike elections, however, referendum campaigns are understudied phenomena. This thematic issue addresses patterns of referendum campaigns, which increasingly take place in digital and hybrid media environments, where political actors conduct campaigns through various channels, news media react to and shape debates on social media, and citizens receive a large share of political information from traditional and digital media. In this editorial, we provide a short overview of how research on referendum campaigns has evolved and how it has started to shift its attention away from news coverage and toward the role of campaign actors and the citizens who use (or engage with) search engines and social media platforms. The articles in this thematic issue reflect this shift but also show that news media remain important actors in referendum campaigns. Finally, we outline further research steps, which should include even more holistic analyses of the hybridity of referendum campaigns and hopefully more comparisons across cases.

Referendum Campaigns in Hybrid Media Systems: Insights From the New Zealand Cannabis Legalisation Referendum

During New Zealand’s 2020 cannabis legalisation referendum, advocacy groups on both sides widely debated the issue, utilising “older” and “newer” media channels to strategically influence voters, including through appearances in traditional media and paid advertising campaigns on Facebook. Comparatively little is known about the campaign strategies used by each camp and how they leveraged the hybrid media environment to advocate for their positions. We analyse the cannabis legalisation referendum campaigns using primary data from our digital ethnographic study on Facebook, a systematic quantitative content analysis of legacy media websites, and a review of published reports from other authors. We show how positive sentiment towards cannabis law reform in the traditional media was amplified via referendum campaigners’ activity on Facebook. While campaign expenses on both sides were similar, money was spent in different ways and via different mediums. The pro-legalisation campaign focused more on new digital media channels, while the anti-legalisation campaign diversified across a range of mediums, with greater attention paid to traditional political advertising strategies, such as leaflets and billboards. The New Zealand case study illustrates how greater engagement with the “newer” media logics may not necessarily secure a favourable outcome during a national referendum campaign. We discuss how the broader media and political environment may have influenced campaigners’ choices to engage (or not) with the different media channels.