Legacy Media Research Articles

Combining Old and New : Patterns of Media Use across Legacy and Online Media in Germany

With the emergence of the Internet over the last decades, people have access to a wide variety of media content as never before, leading to multiple new media consumption practices. As people integrate new means of communication into their everyday lives, this necessarily leads to questions concerning the relationship between legacy media and digital media. By analyzing representative survey data of adult Internet users in Germany collected in the collaborative research project “The Peoples’ Internet” (PIN), the present study examined media repertoires from a holistic perspective. Via factor and cluster analysis, we identified five distinct media repertoires that significantly differentiated in terms of age, gender and education. For the majority of the German population, legacy media still play a dominant role in everyday life. However, a group of young users mainly relies on a wide range of online media that has the potential to displace legacy media. But rather than expecting a pure displacement of legacy media or just an addition of online media to existing repertoires, our findings suggest to look closely into the specific combinations of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media that can be observed in different parts of the population.

Grasping at Straws or Hitting a Home Run: Can Sports-Only Become Legacy Media’s “Golden Ticket” to Digital Subscribers?

Grasping at Straws or Hitting a Home Run: Can Sports-Only Become Legacy Media’s “Golden Ticket” to Digital Subscribers?

Innovation in Legacy Media Institutions: the Case of the Al Jazeera Media Network

This research explores how legacy media institutions can facilitate an environment where innovation is possible. Using media innovation and the dynamic capabilities theoretical framework, the research looks at the specific case of the Al Jazeera media network, a pre-eminent broadcaster in the Middle East. The paper uses the case-study approach combined with personal interviews with media professionals and experts to understand the way innovation unfolds for a legacy media institution. While media transformation and innovation research is predominantly located in the western world, this research provides an empirical perspective from the global south. It finds in resource management and corporate adaptability the mechanisms of innovation adopted by Al Jazeera, and these mechanisms are not specific to the global south.

Mapping digital communication systems: infrastructures, markets, and policies as regulatory forces

This article presents a framework for mapping digital communication systems and thereby analyzing how and why structural conditions differ across national contexts. Following the ‘turn to infrastructure’ in Internet studies, we conceptualize communication systems as made of infrastructural, market, and policy structures that enable and constrain mediated communication in a given society. As opposed to media system analyses that typically focus on legacy media institutions, we take individual Internet users as our theoretical point of departure and ask how their communicative capabilities are regulated. In order to exemplify the application of the framework, we describe the methodological steps in a mapping of the components of the Danish communication system. In conclusion, we discuss the overall findings that the method uncovers and its implications for future comparative research.

Facebook News Use During the 2017 Norwegian Elections—Assessing the Influence of Hyperpartisan News

ABSTRACT The paper at hand presents a comparative study on news use in relation to media content as posted to Facebook by a series of established and hyperpartisan media outlets during the 2017 Norwegian national election campaign. Specifically, we are interested in determining what types of news emanating from what types of news outlets that result in comparably higher levels of news use—defined as levels of likes, shares and comments—on Facebook. Results indicated that with a few exceptions, established, legacy media dominate the most engaging news stories during the election campaign, while results for hyperpartisan media outlets suggests rather limited influence. Nevertheless, the hyperpartisan media outlets succeeded in making themselves visible on the platform under scrutiny, driving attention to issues such as immigration during the election campaign.

Negotiating Roles and Routines in Collaborative Investigative Journalism

Over the past two decades, the practice of investigative journalism has been reconstructed via the rise of journalistic networks around the world that have layered collaboration atop what had long been an individual pursuit. Among the recent successes of collaborative investigative journalism was the cross-border effort to expose the tax haven leaks that included the Panama Papers (2016). Due to such notable accomplishments, research on cross-border collaboration is increasing, but the ways in which this pooling of resources, time, and networks has impacted practice on a daily basis remain under-investigated. This article looks at how organizations and actors in emerging and legacy newsrooms are negotiating their routines and roles while developing new practices in investigative journalism. It uses three organizations as cases: Bristol Cable, a journalistic co-op operating at the community/local level; the Bureau Local, a local/national data-coordinating news desk; and <em>The Guardian</em>, a legacy media company that has long operated at the national/global level. This article finds that, in the transitions of traditional organizations and journalists and the emergence of new innovative organizations and non-journalistic actors, actors involved in collaborative investigative journalism deploy a language of justification regarding rules between the new and the old. It also finds that concepts such as coordination are part of this negotiation, and that knowledge and knowledge generation are taking place within a traditional understanding of journalism, as the “new” is normalized over time.

Event bidding and new media activism

ABSTRACT In this article we draw upon three case studies of American cities bidding to host the Summer Olympic Games to explore the role media, particularly new media, plays in the formation of anti-bid protest movements. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews with leaders of several activist campaigns and a content analysis of related websites and social media accounts, the paper demonstrates the increasing role new media plays in enabling resistant movements to form and articulate messages oppositional to boosterist coverage of mega sport event bids. However, it also highlights the limits of such new media activism in terms of both reach and capacity to effect change in isolation. Rather, the paper demonstrates that new media activitsm is at its most potent when it links and interacts with other actors, including legacy media outlets. The paper therefore concludes by highlighting the need for connectivity to both legacy media and physical acts of resistance and protest in order to generate meaningful impact and generate change.

#IntersectionalActivism: Tales of origin and intersectional negotiations

Using a feminist intersectional paradigm, this article explores the invisibilization of intersectional black women and women of colour who initiate movements of hashtag activism. Focusing on #MeToo, #blacklivesmatter, #SayHerName and #OscarsSoWhite, the article explores the process of mediatization that refocuses the social movements on whiteness and/or males. The article finds this to be a continuity between digital and legacy media.

Local Journalism when the Journalists Leave Town

Abstract Editorial offices are being shut down in small municipalities, raising the question of whether hyperlocal media can fill the gap left by legacy media. However, very little is known about the shape of this gap and thus to what extent it can be filled by hyperlocal media. To inform this line of research, this study asks: what happens to the news coverage of a municipality when there is no permanent presence of journalists? A quantitative content analysis (N = 606), measuring news topics, framing, style, original reporting and sourcing practices, was performed regarding the news coverage of 12 Swedish municipalities – six with editorial offices of a legacy media organisation and six without. The results indicate that municipalities receive less original coverage, community news receives less attention and institutional actors are quoted more often when there is no permanent presence of journalists. Implications for communities and hyperlocal media are discussed.

All Seats Taken? Hyperlocal Online Media in Strong Print Newspaper Surroundings

Abstract This article present data from a new mapping of Norwegian online hyperlocals, defined as local online news sites that are indigenous to the web. From an understanding of local news markets as organised social fields with great barriers to entry, we discuss the hyperlocals’ locations and business models against the system of existing print-based local newspapers and analyse four cases of successful start-ups. We have identified 67 Norwegian hyperlocals. While most new start-ups tend to avoid direct competition with legacy print media, hyperlocals operate in all kinds of municipalities. While most of them follow a low-cost strategy based upon a large degree of “self-exploitation” by the editors, a total of 19 hyperlocals create sufficient income to run professional news operations. These operations are typically being started while legacy media has been going through economic crises. Even then, there are substantial barriers to market entry. Highly dedicated and earth-bound entrepreneurs seem to be a prerequisite for success.

Local Media Ecologies

Abstract Legacy media and social media are intertwined in a complicated relationship in local media ecologies. The recent national Swedish SOM survey on media use shows that people use Facebook more than local newspapers (both paper and online) to stay up to date with local events. In contrast, though, users still regard legacy media like subscription newspapers and the regional public service as more important sources than social media. Local newspapers are experiencing a decline in their number of users, but new hyperlocals are showing more stable numbers. Nevertheless, newspapers produce most of the original news reporting, and the public service and hyperlocals have more complementary positions in local media ecologies. They are all meeting the audience in the expanding public sphere of Facebook.

Creator Governance in Social Media Entertainment

This article addresses the platformization of cultural production by offering a creator-centric account of industrial and governance issues in social media entertainment (SME). SME is our term for the emerging industry of native online cultural producers together with the platforms, intermediaries, and fan communities operating interdependently, and disruptively, alongside legacy media industries and across global media cultures. The central concern of the article is that these creators are not recognized as stakeholders in current debates both academic and policy on platform governance. The relationship between the platform behemoths and individual creators may seem grossly disproportionate, but insights from network economics suggest a more supple account of power. The interests of creators are examined in the “top-down” context of the exercise of platform governance and efforts, by platforms and the state, to improve it. Those interests are also canvassed from the “bottom up”—how creators and creator advocacy are organizing and acting collectively to improve prospects for creators in this emerging industry.

The meanings of racism: Public discourses about racism in Finnish news media and online discussion forums

Understandings of racism are produced and circulated in contemporary networked media forms, contributing new opportunities to both extend and challenge racializing discourses, images and frameworks. This study investigated how the concept of racism is used in Finnish public debate by employing a computational text analysis technique to derive topics related to racism from a large corpus of news media content and online discussion forum comments. Our findings show that discourses about racism are different in legacy media and online platform regarding both their prominence and framings. While social media produce various discourses of ‘reverse racism’, news media connects racism to historical and international contexts. We conclude that what racism is understood to be is not only an intensely political process but also one shaped by the type of media platform, specificities of Finnish language and national ideological battles.

Towards an Institutional News Logic of Digital Native News Media? A Case Study of BuzzFeed’s Reporting During the 2015 and 2017 UK General Election Campaigns

Informed by new institutional perspectives to debates about theorising media logic, this study asks whether a popular digital native media platform has, over time, conformed to a singular news logic associated with the norms and routines of legacy media. Drawing on a content analysis of 399 BuzzFeed news items and 1878 sources during the 2015 and 2017 UK general election campaigns, we established that coverage had shifted, reflecting an editorial agenda that is consistent with how legacy media have long reported politics. In the 2017 election campaign there was more substantive policy reported, new specialist reporters employed, a greater reliance on institutional sources, particularly from established legacy media, and a sharper focus on the two main political parties. Overall, we argue that, as digital native media have evolved, become more popular and interconnected with legacy media, the norms and routines of their news reporting are not necessarily that distinguishable from a singular, institutional news media logic.

Beyond Breitbart: Comparing Right‐Wing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies

Right‐wing online news media have emerged in many countries as an important force in the media landscape, positioning themselves as an alternative to a perceived political and media mainstream. This article studies these sites as a cornerstone of right‐wing digital news infrastructures in six Western democracies (Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Drawing on content analyses of websites and social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter as well as on audience metrics, the article analyses content supply and audience demand structures, as well as organizational and thematic characteristics of seventy alternative right‐wing online news sites. We find that a country’s media and political context, in particular the representation of right‐wing positions in the political and legacy media sphere, can explain variation in the supply of—and demand for—right‐wing news across countries, but is mitigated by transnational audiences. At the same time, we can account for cross‐national heterogeneity of news sites, ranging from sites with a “normalized” appearance to more radical sites that clearly set themselves apart from legacy news outlets in terms of their thematic categories, their funding strategy, and their organizational transparency, leading to various types of digital right‐wing “alternatives” to mainstream news.

Exploring the Use of Humour, Vulgarity and Allegory in Social Media Discourses: The Case of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp

This article unpacks notions of humour, vulgarity, and allegory in social media discourses during the trial of Oscar Pistorius by analysing the dynamic interactions between South Africa’s judicial system and multiple discourses on Facebook and Twitter. It explores whether social media, in this instance, provided a platform for citizen-led conversations on the South African judiciary’s legal processes. It proposes that where the “legacy media” were constrained in facilitating case-related public discussions, social media created an alternative sphere for citizens to engage with the South African justice system throughout the trial. The article examines the popular views that were posted on Facebook and Twitter during the trial. Using a Foucauldian approach and Achille Mbembe’s interpretation of the postcolony, the article argues that the trial of Oscar Pistorius can be used as a lens to examine the humorous, vulgar and allegoric views of South Africans towards the judicial system in the post-apartheid era. This is more so in a context where intersectional contestations of class, race, and gender exist within popular socio-political discourses of “rich white men’s justice” versus “poor black men’s justice.”

It is criminal: The state of magistrates’ court reporting in England and Wales

There is a widespread perception that there has been a collapse in court reporting in England and Wales as local legacy media struggles to survive in times of falling revenues and shifting audiences. However, there is little empirical evidence with which to examine the issue. This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by carrying out the first week-long systematic coding of the activity of one England and Wales magistrates’ court coupled with a concurrent survey of local media coverage of the courts. While 240 cases were observed during the week-long study, only three stories appeared in the local press and only one case was attended by a journalist. Moreover, the research team identified a significant number of ‘newsworthy’ cases among the sample – all of which were missing from media coverage. Although small in scale, this research does indicate that, in an average week, the vast majority of cases heard at this level of the criminal justice system is largely invisible to the public, with virtually no independent oversight from journalism. This is at odds with the key principle of open justice. The article ends with some suggestions for regenerating the area by shifting from court reporting to a Justice Reporting model, with the ultimate aim of effectively filling the void in external scrutiny of day-to-day criminal justice.

A copycat crime meme: Ghost riding the whip

A 2006 US copycat crime wave came into being, surged with thousands of crimes committed, and dissipated without substantial news media attention. The development of this early copycat crime meme is traceable to the nature of the crime, “ghost riding the whip,” and the social media and popular music communication channels associated with it. Ghost riding the whip involved traffic violations where drivers exit their cars and dance atop or alongside the moving driverless vehicles. Social media allowed the widespread diffusion of detailed instructions that spread this crime from a single minority community to the middle class within a 3-month period. The study of this copycat crime meme examined four types of data: Google Trends, rap songs, ProQuest news media data, and YouTube videos. The examination of the crime wave suggests how Gabriel Tarde’s 19th-century ideas operate in the contemporary social media era. However, unlike pre-social media-based crime waves that were launched via interpersonal and legacy media communication pathways, for ghost riding, rap songs, YouTube postings, and Google searches spurred its growth. Legacy media were found to be most important during the crime wave’s decline, but not during its diffusion. For this copycat crime meme, social media’s influence flowed in a unique upward and outward pattern and the results raise the research questions as to how social media have changed the dynamics of crime waves and how important legacy media will be in future crime waves.

A future of journalism beyond the objectivity–dialogue divide? Hybridity in the news of entrepreneurial journalists

As pioneers of new ideas and practices, many entrepreneurial journalists spearhead the change of journalism towards hybridity. By applying appraisal theory, this article examines a hybrid of objectivity and dialogue in daily news articles by five entrepreneurial journalism outlets – Axios, MustRead, National Observer, The Skimm and the Voice of San Diego. For comparative purposes, a dataset from three legacy media outlets was also analysed. The results show that the entrepreneurial journalism outlets employ journalistic dialogue in otherwise stylistically objective news texts notably more often than do legacy media outlets. Dialogic registers provide subtle, non-partisan assessments of events and issues and make the news more informal. Such a hybrid form of journalism serves the functions of sense-making, establishing an interpersonal connection between ‘private’ audiences and ‘public’ news, and connecting journalism with fields outside of its core. By doing so, the hybrid journalism of entrepreneurial journalists offers a distinctive vision of the futures of news journalism.

The appropriation of traditional media content in online contexts: A South Korean textbook case

ABSTRACTThis study explores the appropriation of traditional media content in an online protest context and highlights the significance of legacy media to activists’ communication practices online. Appropriation refers to the direct transfer of content originally produced in traditional media into social media posts. Focusing on the massive 2015 South Korean protests in opposition to the government’s decision to issue a single state-history textbook, a content analysis of activists’ posts on three social media platforms finds that activists utilize traditional media content to a greater degree than personalized action frames. Interviews suggest that activists are motivated to appropriate legacy media’s content by their need for legitimacy and expediency. Platform type was closely associated with the frequency and type of activists’ appropriation.