News Media Content Research Articles

New Media in image-making. How have emerging communications transformed the political process?

The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretical framework for the contemporary process of political communication. It emphasizes the changing roles of the senders/receivers within the process and it postulates unprecedented opportunities offered by the emergence of the New Media. As for the empirical research, we discuss the results of the study that has been conducted to further the understanding of how the younger generation, aged 20-25 (herein referred to as Digital Natives), process and comprehend the news media content, with special attention to political messages. It was initially hypothesized that the main source of information about politics and the surrounding world is the Internet and the social media in particular. The paper discusses the results of the study showing that the alternative news websites and social media, understood as the opposite to what is known as the mainstream media, have been gaining ground. Concurrently, the study discovered the students’ declining interest in traditional institutional mainstream-controlled media (i.e. press, radio or television).

We Are Not Parasites: Intergroup Differentiation in the User-Generated Content of Nigerian News Media

We Are Not Parasites: Intergroup Differentiation in the User-Generated Content of Nigerian News Media

We Are Not Parasites: Intergroup Differentiation in the User-Generated Content of Nigerian News Media

We Are Not Parasites: Intergroup Differentiation in the User-Generated Content of Nigerian News Media

When Reputation Trumps Policy: Party Productivity Brand and the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act

Abstract In late 2017, congressional Republicans enacted a major tax bill despite voter opposition, resistance from organized interests, and considerable uncertainty about its policy consequences. Why did they do so? We argue that Republicans’ concern with their party’s reputation–in particular, its productivity brand–trumped negative evaluations of the legislation by citizens, interest groups, and policy experts. To support this claim, we analyze measures of legislative output, news media content, public opinion, and lawmaker sentiment. Our findings underscore the importance of party reputation in explaining legislative behavior and suggest that there may be explanatory value in distinguishing between different types of party valence brands.

Justification and knowledge

Abstract Everyday political talk, a significant type of political participation, is an important democratic activity. In this regard, the primary objective of this paper is to investigate the level of justification and knowledge in Indonesians’ informal political talk on Facebook. While previous studies addressed different aspects of informal political discussions such as their impact on political knowledge, influence on public opinion expression and relationship with news media use, they do not provide guidelines for analysing the modality of them. This study proposes an analytical framework for examining the users’ level of justification and knowledge. A qualitative content analysis reveals that only a small number of comments had a high level of justification and knowledge. In addition, some indications of the influence of Indonesian mainstream news media content were found on people’s arguments in discussions.

Inadequate and Incomplete: Chinese Newspapers’ Coverage of the First Licensed Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine in China

Glaxo Smith Kline’s Cervarix was the first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine licensed for use in China and officially launched there on 31 July 2017. Since news media content can influence people’s vaccine-related knowledge, understanding, and intentions, a content analysis was used to examine Chinese newspapers’ coverage of the HPV vaccine. A total of 253 articles published from 2000 to 2016 met the inclusion criteria and were coded. The results show that HPV and the HPV vaccine received very little newspaper coverage in China both before and after vaccine licensure. Most of the coverage came from China Party press newspapers, with the stories predominantly using thematic rather than episodic framing. Application of the Health Belief Model to the content analysis revealed that benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action were found in most news stories. Overall, given the relative lack of Chinese newspaper coverage, public health officials and health-care providers in China should assume most people, including those for whom HPV vaccination is recommended, have little or no knowledge about HPV, HPV vaccine, and the reasons for the vaccination recommendation. If news media are to be a source of HPV information for the Chinese public, significant efforts will be needed to increase attention.

Bringing Propaganda Back into News Media Studies

With the ascendance of liberal democracy, propaganda activities have vastly increased. The main aim of propaganda has been to protect state-corporate power from the threat of public understanding and participation. Because of its societal importance for public opinion formation, the news media constitutes an obvious channel for the dissemination of propaganda. However, contemporary communication, media and journalism studies have mostly neglected to critically assess the news media’s role in producing and distributing propaganda. In fact, despite of the news media’s integration into the state-corporate nexus, the term propaganda is rarely used in academic treatises on the news media. Furthermore, only a small number of scholars have engaged in elaborating a systematic understanding of the manifold propaganda techniques that are currently applied in liberal democracies. To fill these research gaps, this article maps out various concepts of propaganda and relates them to the process and content of the news media. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies, the article demonstrates how different forms of propaganda can manifest in news media content. Based on an integration with, as well as a development of, existing literature, the essay aims to build a tool box that can be applied and refined in future studies in order to detect propaganda in news media texts.

Discursive opportunity structures in post-handover Hong Kong localism: the China factor and beyond

The discourses of localism have been redefining the political spectrum, cultural practices, and identity politics of Hong Kong. A growing body of literature considers how China’s domination has fueled the rise of localism in Hong Kong. Drawing on the content and textual analyses of news media and other empirical evidence, this article scrutinizes the opportunity structure in post-handover Hong Kong to show that it facilitates the formation of localist discourses. It situates the localism of Hong Kong as the response to the social changes and China’s encroachment on the city in the post-handover years. Specifically, it focuses on the emergence of progressive localism prior to the recent deterioration of the China–Hong Kong relationship, the radicalization of social movements, and the continuing effects of critical post-handover events in Hong Kong. The study re-conceptualizes the localism of Hong Kong from the central–peripheral tension arising from China’s hegemony to the dynamic discursive formation of an evolving post-colonial city.

Increasing Alcohol Taxes: Analysis of Case Studies From Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts.

The effectiveness of alcohol taxes in reducing excessive alcohol consumption and related problems is well established in research, yet increases in U.S. state alcohol taxes are uncommon. This study examined how alcohol tax increases occurred recently in three U.S. states, what public health's role was, and what can be learned from those experiences. Review of available documentation and news media content analysis provided context and, along with snowball sampling, helped identify proponents, opponents, and neutral parties in each state. Thirty-five semi-structured key informant interviews (lasting approximately 1 hour) were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed for common themes. State routes to alcohol tax increases varied, as did the role of public health research. Use of polling data, leveraging existing political champions, coalition building, drawing on past experience with legislative initiatives, deciding revenue allocation strategically, and generating media coverage were universal elements of these initiatives. Tax changes occurred when key policy makers sought new revenue sources or when proponents were able to build coalitions broader than the substance abuse field. Translation of scientific evidence on the effectiveness of increasing alcohol taxes into public health interventions may occur if legislative leaders seek new revenue sources or if broad-based coalitions can generate support and sustained media coverage. Policy makers are generally unaware of the health impact of alcohol taxes, although public health research may play a valuable role in framing and informing discussions of state alcohol tax increases as a strategy for reducing excessive alcohol use and alcohol-related harms.

News Media and the Öresund Region

AbstractThis article presents a first attempt to investigate the news content and news routines of Danish and Swedish news media covering the Öresund region. From a theoretical perspective, the Öresund region can be considered a possible best-case example of what is categorised as horizontal Europeanisation, in other words, of the potential for increased communication linkages in news media content among European Union (EU) member states. We investigate this topic by analysing news content published by selected media outlets from 2002 to 2012 and by interviewing Danish and Swedish journalists who cover the region. We find that most news content does not mention the Öresund region, and that one reason for this lack might be that neither Danish nor Swedish reporters consider the region to be newsworthy.

Are newspapers’ news stories becoming more alike? Media content diversity in Belgium, 1983–2013

In recent years, communication scholars have expressed concerns about the diversity of news media content. While we live in an era of ‘news abundance’ – the number of outlets and channels has increased enormously – the available news is argued to have become more of the same, but has it? As empirical evidence is lacking, this article verifies whether newspapers in Flanders (Belgium), over time, have indeed become less diverse in terms of the news stories they cover. Based on data from a longitudinal content analysis of nine Flemish newspapers at four points in time (1983, 1993, 2003, and 2013), it shows that (1) newspapers, in general, have not become more alike in terms of news stories; (2) newspapers with a similar profile (elite/popular) are less diverse than newspapers with dissimilar profiles; and (3) newspapers owned by the same media group (concentration of media ownership) are more alike than independently owned newspapers.

With a Little Help From The People? The Role of Public Opinion in Advocacy Success

Recent years have witnessed an increased interest in research on advocacy success, but limited attention has been paid to the role of public opinion. We examine how support from the public affects advocacy success, relying on a new original data set containing information on public opinion, advocacy positions, and policy outcomes on 50 policy issues in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Claims by advocates are measured through a news media content analysis of a sample of policy issues drawn from national and international public opinion surveys. Our multilevel regression analysis provides evidence that public support affects advocacy success. However, public opinion does not affect preference attainment for some of the lobbying advocates whose influence is feared the most, and the magnitude of its impact is conditional upon the number of advocates who lobby on the policy issue in question.

The Online Media Environment of the North Caucasus: Issues of Preservation and Accessibility in a Zone of Political and Ideological Conflict

Abstract:As one of the world's most ethnolinguistically-diverse and conflict-prone regions, the North Caucasus presents particular challenges for librarians seeking to preserve its rich and varied online news media content. This content is generated in multiple languages in multiple political and ideological contexts, both within the North Caucasus region and abroad. While online news media content in general is ephemeral, poorly-preserved, and difficult to access via any single search interface or search strategy, content relating to the North Caucasus is at additional risk due to ongoing insurgency/counterinsurgency activity, as well as historical, political and linguistic factors. Various options for preserving and searching North Caucasus web content are explored.

Finding influential sources and breaking news in news media using graph analysis techniques

The popularity of social media has increased the interest for knowledge extraction from social networks and social media sites. The discovery of influential content or users and hidden social connections can be profitable for social media users and companies through personalisation and promotion respectively. Despite the abundance of works on social media and networks, there are no similar works in traditional (i.e., press, radio, TV) or online media (i.e., news sites). This work proposes a solution that solves the lack of influence or connection information by analysing news media content. Consequently, it detects the underlying influence among news media companies and provides knowledge about breaking news. Among the contributions of this work are: a new methodology for identifying and quantifying the implicit influence between news media, based on content similarity and a new method for the early detection of breaking news, with high interest to the mass media.

Of Sea Lice and Superfood: A Comparison of Regional and National News Media Coverage of Aquaculture

As wild fisheries decline, aquaculture, or the cultivation of species in fresh and salt water, will provide the majority of seafood consumed worldwide. Given that aquaculture is an increasingly critical food “technology” – with implications for public opinion formation – we apply theory of social function systems and sustainability to a U.S. news media content analysis. We examine coverage of aquaculture (N = 493 articles) over a ten-year period (2005-2015), comparing four regional and four national newspapers for discussion of risks, benefits, science, economics, political/legal issues, and environmental sustainability. Results suggest the dominance of risk in regional and national news; however, we also find more recent attention to benefit and sustainability. Differences within and between regional and national newspaper coverage further suggest that the conversation about aquaculture varies within the U.S., is multi-dimensional, and involves frequent co-occurrence

Hardship in the headlines: global poverty and neocolonialism in western news media

Poverty is one of the most significant issues facing the world today. Although Western news media often report on the manifestations of poverty—famine, overcrowding, epidemics, or natural disasters—they rarely reflect the political, economic, and ideological structures that have directly caused and continue to exacerbate it on a global scale. This article argues that Western news media communicate global poverty, as a pressing issue, but ultimately fail to point out underlying causes or suggest any changes to the status quo. This fosters an understanding of poverty as a series of events, rather than the lived daily experience of many. This article, therefore, investigates the structures of neocolonial capitalism and neoliberal ideologies that gained momentum in the 20th century and continue to frame the content of news media today. Discussing the concepts of ‘compassion fatigue’ and Anthony Downs’ ‘issue-attention cycle’, this article is a normative analysis of news media, exploring new ways to educate citizens on the global political economy. Drawing on the work of Lauren Berlant and Robert McChesney, this article ultimately discusses new ways of communicating poverty, which will require an acknowledgement of neocolonialism and a rethinking of crisis as lived daily experience.

Theorizing Roles for Online News Media in Representation of Risks: The Case of Malaysia

This paper theorizes a model for the representation of risks in online news media. Its practicability is demonstrated using Malaysian alternative online newspapers. Anxiety and uncertainty about a risk event are naturally rooted in discourse and count as discursive event because they appear on the discourse planes of politics and the media intensively and extensively. These discourses are pervasive on the Internet, which is used by over 20 million Malaysians. Furthermore, alternative newspapers flourish in online forms in Malaysia largely due to government press law inhibitions on mainstream print and broadcast media. The popularity of alternative online newspapers in Malaysia is also demonstrated by their ranking within the first three most visited web entities in the April 2015 Media Metrix rankings of Malaysian web entities. The model is used to provide presumptions on how risks can be spread or weakened. It also provides conjectures on how multiple semiotic resources in the composition, content and design of online news media like colour, gesture, image, layout, writing, etc can be used to amplify or attenuate risks from meanings that are conveyed using tools shaped by cultural and social factors to mediate interests of members of social groups… Thus, the model proposes a digital social amplification of risk communication model on the role of the news media in the representation of risks, and in negotiating socio-cognitive processes, behaviours and responses to risk events.

Setting the agenda for a healthy retail environment: content analysis of US newspaper coverage of tobacco control policies affecting the point of sale, 2007–2014

BackgroundTobacco control policies affecting the point of sale (POS) are an emerging intervention, yet POS-related news media content has not been studied.PurposeWe describe news coverage of POS tobacco control efforts...

Elements of News Literacy

Focus groups with teenagers (ages 15–18) were conducted to understand how they define news; what motivates them to consume news; what news sources they use; and how much knowledge about the news media industry, content, and effects they bring to the task of consuming and thinking critically about the news. Findings suggested exposure to news came largely incidentally via social media and/or parents; participants expressed the sense that news would find them. These teens saw news as depressing, conflict-ridden, and something that, although important, was of less value to them than to adults. Considered in light of a media literacy model adapted for news, these focus group participants exhibited a basic sense of news literacy but lacked the kind of knowledge about news industries, content, and effects that could better direct their own exposure, understanding, and subsequent civic engagement.

The Dash for Gas

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is the process of extracting reserves of natural gas and oil from shale formations deep underground. This process, initially met with public support in the United Kingdom, has since become a highly contentious issue primarily debated between government, industry, and anti-fracking advocacy groups. Through the employment of three levels of agenda-building as a theoretical lens of examination (object, attribute, and network connections), this study investigated the political discourse between these stakeholder groups and national news media in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2014. In total, 1354 unique messages were coded, with 840 information subsidies and 514 news media content analyzed. To determine the short-, mid-, and long-term effects of agenda-building, a time-lag analysis was conducted. The results suggest solid support for all three levels of agenda-building. Our findings indicate that anti-fracking advocacy groups were more successful at influencing news media content across all three time periods, in addition to supporting the growing influence of digital information subsidies as an effective tool for agenda-building strategies. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.