Private News Research Articles

Hidden in plain sight- Audience engagement in China’s data journalism

This article delves into the strategies of different Chinese news organizations’ (e.g., state-owned media, we-media, private news organizations) engagement with audiences in data journalism, aiming to attain dual legitimacy (identity legitimacy and institutional legitimacy) within the unique landscape of the digital media era in China. Utilizing the lens of organizational legitimacy, qualitative interviews were conducted with 26 Chinese data news practitioners. The findings reveal that news entities have adopted “restrictive involvement” and “substitutive involvement” strategies to limit audience engagement to superficial interactions within the consumption process of data journalism. Identity legitimacy has traditionally served as the primary incentive for news organizations to engage audiences, while institutional legitimacy has constrained the forms and degrees of audience engagement. The study posits that audience deployment by news organizations is more of a rhetorical maneuver than a practical engagement, symbolically involving audiences in China’s data news production. This research contributes an institutional perspective to the understanding of data journalism and audience engagement dynamics, shedding light on the intricate interactions between news entities, audiences, technology and the state within China’s context.

Business Management Model of Private and Public News Channels in Pakistan: A Case Study of GEO News and PTV News

Purpose: The chief purpose of this study was designed to explore the phenomenal changes of business management models of the private and public news channels in Pakistan. The rationale behind this objective was to explore changing business approaches as adopted by the private news channel like Geo News and the public news channel like PTV News. The advent of the social media has altogether changed the landscape for the traditional media including newspapers and news channels, therefore, it seemed quite appropriate to explore new strategies for enhancing business for news channels in Pakistan. 
 Design/Methodology/Approach: The study employed in-depth interviews qualitative method to collect qualitative data from different patterns of data for major themes. Qualitative Content Analysis was partially employed to minimize large stream of data into small chunk and analyze data accordingly.
 Findings: The study found out that the state-run news channel like PTV News was solely relying for financial support on the federal and provincial governments. Accordingly, the PTV News was providing absolute coverage to public departments and enhancing image of the ministers of the ruling political party and their ministries to enhance their public trust. However, the private news channel like GEO News has to make all-out efforts on advertising agencies, real estate sectors, multi-national companies, national and international corporations to meet its financial besides enhancing business of the Channel. Reciprocally, the private sector providing huge funding to GEO News has some sort of influence on its editorial content and news coverage thus compromising freedom of express to some extent. 
 Implications/Originality/Value: The study has drawn a visible line between financial expenditure and its impact on news coverage and editorial policy. PTV News was providing absolute coverage to public departments due to financial dependency, whereas the GEO News was providing coverage to all political parties and other public and private sector with slight difference. However, the freedom of expression of the GEO News was compromised to some extent because of financial dependency.

Survival in the Fissure: Strategies of Private News Organizations in the Social Media Era in China

ABSTRACT The rise of social media has spawned private news organizations in China that are encountering problems regarding how to gain public and journalistic acceptance and recognition as newcomers and how to survive without a news license. Drawing on organizational legitimacy theory, this paper investigates the strategies employed by private news organizations to construct multiple layers of legitimacy including regulatory, normative and cognitive legitimacy in China's unique context and the social media era. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 practitioners of private news organizations and participant observation in one private news agency, findings showed that private news organizations (1) gain regulatory legitimacy through news production methods including “misplacing registration”, “playing with official hats” and “depoliticization”; (2) establish normative legitimacy by emphasizing their adherence to traditional journalistic values, norms, and routines, and their similarities to state-owned media; (3) obtain cognitive legitimacy through the creation of “hot news” with reliance on professional reputation. This study thereby explores these strategies to reflect the path of “dependent autonomy” of private news organizations and provides an institutional and organizational perspective to understand the constraints and characteristics of social media journalism in China.

The ambassador and the press: printed diplomatic letters and the entanglement of public and private news provision in the late seventeenth-century Dutch Republic

ABSTRACT In 1669, the regents of the States General, the federal assembly of the Dutch Republic, instructed their printer (Statendrukker) henceforth to print all documents that they required in at least five copies. Amongst resolutions, placards and ordinances, this included the regular despatches from the Republic’s diplomatic agents. This remarkable printed correspondence, which has never before been studied in depth, is the focus of our article. The practice of printing diplomatic despatches was unique to the Dutch Republic: by drawing attention to this neglected source, we shed light on the circulation of news amongst the political elite of the Dutch Republic, as well as broader diplomatic and news networks in Europe. By directly comparing the content of the news provided in the diplomatic despatches with that publicly available in the commercial newspapers of the Republic, we also challenge a dichotomy between public and private news provision and a perception of the regents as obsessed with secrecy. We suggest that the printed despatches were not valued by the States General because they contained exclusive information, but rather because they could be used to verify news already available to the regents through other sources, and to facilitate the circulation of information from the States General in The Hague to the provincial States and city councils. This article also presents evidence that the States General’s printed despatches occasionally circulated among foreign agents and officials.

Felons, Right-Wing Extremists, Foreign Criminals, and Islamist Terrorists: Frames of Criminals in German Television News

ABSTRACT The discrepancy between official crime statistics and media coverage of crime is well known. This is particularly the case for criminals with a migrant background. Their disproportionate and stereotypical representation in crime news can reinforce prejudices among audiences. For this reason, the German Press Code was amended in 2017 to stipulate that the origin of criminals shall not be mentioned in crime news. Using quantitative content analysis, the present study examined frames of criminals in German television news (n = 290), taking into account differences in references to the origin of criminals before and after the amendment of the Press Code, as well as between public and private news programs. Cluster analysis identified four frames of criminals: felons, right-wing extremists, foreign criminals, and Islamist terrorists. The frames differ significantly in the frequency of references to the origin of criminals. However, the frames do not differ between public and private news programs. Crime coverage remains largely unaffected by the amendment of the Press Code guideline.

PERCEPTION OF YOUTH REGARDING THE CREDIBILITY OF TV NEWS CHANNELS IN PAKISTAN

Television is considered a powerful mass medium, which is not only meant for dissemination and analyzing the news but also has a strong impact on the social, cultural, and political approach of the audience. The boom in the TV industry of Pakistan in the early 21st century has resulted in the massive popularity of private news channels among viewers. The Urdu transmission of these channels is one of the reasons for popularity as the national language is spoken and understood by the majority population all over the country. However, the credibility of the content remains an issue always. The purpose of this research is to find out the perception of youth regarding the credibility of leading TV news channels Dunya News, ARY News, and Geo News. The study examines the youth’s perception regarding the credibility of news content. It also seeks to find out to what extent, prime-time talk shows of these channels, “On the Front”, “Off the Record” and “Capital Talk” are considered credible among youth considers. The present study is survey research in which data was collected from the undergraduate students of public and private sector universities of Lahore. Data were analyzed through Descriptive Statistics. Further, T-test was applied to find out the difference in perception based on demographic characteristics. The results show that the youth is more interested in watching talk shows rather than news bulletins. TV news channels are popular among youth due to a better understanding of the Urdu language, but with compromised credibility. The viewers believe that every TV channel has a certain agenda and it gives coverage to every news with a political bias. This biasedness has raised a question about the credibility of news channels among young viewers. Keywords: Perception, Credibility, Talk shows, News Channels, Political Bias

Intention to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine among Brazilian immigrant women in the U.S.

COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted low-income immigrant communities. There is concern that the current uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is suboptimal and that this may be contributing to COVID-19 inequities. However, little is known about the acceptability of COVID-19 vaccines among immigrants in the U.S. Our goal was to gauge COVID-19 vaccine intentions among Brazilian immigrant women living in the U.S. We conducted an online survey between July and August 2020 offered in Portuguese and English languages among a convenience sample of Brazilian immigrant women ages 18 years and older. Women were recruited through online advertisements by community-based organizations and social media groups to complete a survey that assessed intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine, attitudes toward vaccines, and perceptions about the pandemic. Of the total sample (N = 353), most (70.8%) indicated they intended to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In bivariate analyses, vaccine intentions were significantly associated with perceptions about the severity of the pandemic, trusted sources of health information, and the number of years lived in the U.S. Multinomial logistic regression models revealed that those who did not intend to be vaccinated had lived a longer time in the U.S. (OR: -0.12 95% CI: -0.19, -0.05), perceived the pandemic to be a minor issue (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 0.62, 2.42), and trusted information from social networks (OR: -1.94, 95% CI: -3.25, -0.63) or private news sources (OR: -1.71, 95% CI: -2.78, -0.63). While most women reported they would get a COVID-19 vaccine, efforts to reach those who may be hesitant should target those who have lived in the U.S. for longer periods of time and do not perceive the pandemic to be a major crisis. Healthcare providers may be particularly suited to deliver this information given high levels of trust.

ROLE OF MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT OF CONTENTS ON AUDIENCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MAINSTREAM PRIVATE CHANNELS

This paper explores the role of media and its impact of content on viewers. The purpose of this research is that researchers must first understand how society affects individuals. Everyone learns social behaviour through observing others. Before TV, children learned socialization through family and peers. Cultivation theory studies TV's long-term impacts. The more time people spend 'living' in the TV world, the more likely they would believe it's a social reality. The survey method was considered to be an appropriate method for collecting information and data analysis. The population is the male and female viewers of the private news channels. A stratified sampling method for the specification of the demographic characteristics was adopted, and the population was divided based on age and gender; for data collection, the target of one hundred and sixty viewers were selected. This research revealed that the viewers/respondents' credibility assessments could be predicted by their unique media consumption patterns and media platform preferences. One of the most significant takeaways from this research was the importance of familiarity with a media outlet's format and content in shaping viewers' perceptions of that media outlet's credibility. Keywords: Social Behaviour, Cultivation Theory, Television, Family, Media.

Prime Time News Bulletins: Exploring the Status of PEMRA Code of Ethics

Media ethics is a debatable issue among scholars and researchers. This study has examined the media ethics being practiced by Pakistani media outlets through a comparative analysis of defamatory,violence, indecency, hate speech and privacy in the news bulletins (9 pm) of three private news channels i.e. Geo news, ARY news and 24 news over a period of three months. The study also examines if the code of conduct enacted by the Private Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA)had any relevance to these channels. Using the content analysis research technique, the researchers found that each news channel carried indecent,defamatory, violent, hate speech and privacy content in its nine pm news bulletins. ARY news had more instances of defamatory. It was revealed that PEMRA's code of conduct had little relevance to these channels as they were found involved in an overt breach of its regulations.

Macroeconomic News and Exchange Rates: Exploring the Role of Order Flow

This article studies the effects of macroeconomic news announcements and order flow on exchange rates in Pakistan by considering both direct and indirect information channels during news announcements periods. For this purpose, it employs GARCH models by using real-time data on macroeconomic news, order flow, and exchange rates. The findings reveal that macroeconomic news directly, and indirectly affect Pak Rupee exchange rates. The results also show that the order flow drives fluctuations in Pak Rupee exchange rates indicating the role of trade signals and trading strategies of currency traders in the exchange rate determination. Hence, as part of an aggregated economic component and means of public and private information, macroeconomic news and order flow impact Pak Rupee exchange rates as an integrated determinant. When macroeconomic news strikes the foreign exchange market, it affects the decisions of market makers, influencing order flow, and then exchange rates.

Does corporate tax aggressiveness explain future stock price crash? Empirical evidence from France

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of corporate tax aggressiveness on future stock price crash. It also tests the impact of corporate tax aggressivness in predicting stock price crash for a two-year forecast window.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample consisted of 1,169 firm-years observations. The multivariate analysis uses three measures of stock price crash risk, as a dependent variable. The key variable is tax aggressiveness lagged by one period (one year) as all independent variables. As a robustness check, this paper uses alternate measures of earning management and a longer forecast window (two years) to predict stock price crash risk.FindingsTax aggressiveness activity is positively related to a firm-specific future stock price crash. Moreover, corporate tax aggressiveness predicts stock price crash risk for a long forecast window (two years). The findings are robust to a number of checks and have several policy implications.Practical implicationsThe cost of continuing to accumulate bad news will be greater than the cost of revealing them. Thus, board of directors should encourage disclosure in order to reveal private news and then, to increase the amount of firm-specific information in returns. Another point is that tax aggressiveness behavior implies a risk to be perceived by the market as socially irresponsible, and may harm the firm reputation. This fact leads, in terms of portfolio management, to deter investment in firm-equity. Therefore, Investors should be cautious about the different risks of corporate tax aggressiveness.Social implicationsThe accounting system in France, as in most European countries, relies upon codified rules and government requirement. Thus, our results provide some evidence of the effectiveness of the French laws and regulations in preventing indirectly earnings management from affecting stock price crash risk.Originality/valueFrench companies are among the heavily taxed in Europe which makes France a particularly suitable context for studying tax aggressiveness issues. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first in the french context, that document a signifcant and positive relation between tax aggressiveness and future crash risk. It focuses on the important role of corporate tax planning as a means of withholding bad news and its consequences in inflating stock prices.

Influence of Electronic Media on Public Policies and Narratives in Pakistan Post-2005

The research article investigates the role of the news media and specifically electronic media since 2005, which has emerged as a strong force in Pakistan in the past decade and, under certain circumstances, shapes public policymaking in Pakistan. Media across the world is seen as a tool to shape public narratives and influence policymakers in crafting policies that adhere to the interest and welfare of the general public. Electronic media has emerged as a powerful medium of communication in Pakistan, even though its political decision-making role has mainly been ignored. The independence of electronic media in Pakistan is highly debatable; the emergence of private news channels has a relatively short span of age. Before the emergence of a broad spectrum of electronic media channels, a single state-owned news channel existed, and information flow was highly controlled. The influx of news channels made the news media landscape in Pakistan highly vibrant from 2005 onwards. During the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, the mushroom growth of electronic channels was witnessed, which made media the fourth pillar of the state. During the same rule, electronic media in Pakistan started influencing public policies and narratives and saw sanctions imposed by the same ruler. In Pakistan, electronic media played a more significant role in influencing public opinion, policies, and views that compel policymakers to draft policies accordingly. The public was made aware of their rights as citizens and reacted to government policies and current political happenings. Interestingly not just in Pakistan, but the international academia as well has not paid much attention to the media's influence on public policymaking. There is limited scholarly literature available as not much focus has been given to how media influences policymaking. This research article using a Foucauldian lens on "power-knowledge" will specifically examine how certain media groups in Pakistan have impacted policymaking and have played a significant role in major political happenings, which have directly impacted Pakistan's public policies.

Public Information and Ultranationalism in Myanmar: A Thematic Analysis of Public and Private Newspaper Coverage

International focus on the Myanmar military regime and liberalization and reform within the nation’s press circles has increased, in light of the ongoing plight of the Rohingya people. Where information and official messaging has been tightly controlled, differentiation in products of government-led and private-sector news outlets is worthy of attention. This study offers a thematic analysis of news reporting in Myanmar, considering: What can be learned from a comparison of public and private news sources in Myanmar about the coverage of the Rohingya genocide? Discussions of literature on the Rohingya experience in Myanmar as well as fascism and ultranationalism provide context. The analysis showed that private news has responded to semi-democratic tendencies, but remains resistant to interpretations that overstep governmental norms; state-run news coverage is a world and reality unto its own, favoring elite perspectives. The result is an increasingly divided portrayal of a story with international importance.

Multilingual Discourse in News Broadcasting in Pakistani Urdu Channel: A Case Study

Code-mixing is a common phenomenon in the modern multilingual and bilingual society and it occurs in media as such as it does in other domains of life. This research targeted to find out the scope of code-mixing practicing in Urdu news of a private news channel in Pakistan, and to catch out the equivalent words in Urdu language if there are. Qualitative approach has been applied using the method of Case study. The population consisted of Urdu news aired on the private News channel ARY by using Convenient and Purposive sampling techniques. Forty online audio-video bits and pieces on YouTube which were broadcasted on ARY News channel were recorded for the analysis as a sample. The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of code switching between English and Urdu languages in light of Myers-Scotton’s (1993) Markedness Model .The tabulated data showed that the phenomenon of code-mixing is commonly practiced although having their equivalents in Urdu language. It reflected the general behaviour prevailing in the society about code mixing. The records assisted in finding out if code-mixing is dominant in Urdu news in particular channel and to what extent. Moreover, these recordings also helped to interpret, find substitute and word class of the English word inserted in the Urdu news. Keywords: Case study, Code-mixing, Private Pakistani channel, Urdu news, English Language DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/72-05 Publication date: October 31 st 2020

Dependence of Editorial Independence, Influence of Economic Factors on News Channels in Pakistan

Private news channel in Pakistan get sponsorships and commercials from state as well as from private companies to run their businesses. Selling ads may lead to sell content shaped in favor of the sponsor. This study has analyzed the influence of commercialization on editorial autonomy of broadcast journalists of Pakistan. A survey of senior journalists from top ten news channels was conducted to asnalyse perception of the professionals about the influence of commercialization on the content of news and current affairs. It is found that economic pressures restrain newsroom staff to make editorial decisions independently.

Asymmetric Attention and Stock Returns

This paper constructs a new measure of attention allocation by local investors relative to nonlocals using aggregate search volume from Google. We first present a conceptual framework in which local investors optimally choose to focus their attention on local stocks when they receive private news, leading to an asymmetric allocation of attention between local and nonlocal investors. Consistent with the main prediction of this framework, we find that firms attracting abnormally high asymmetric attention from local relative to nonlocal investors earn higher returns. A portfolio that goes long in stocks with high asymmetric attention and short in stocks with low asymmetric attention has an alpha of 32 basis points per month. The results are stronger for stocks with a greater degree of information friction. The new measure of asymmetric attention allows one to infer the arrival of unobservable private information by observing investors’ attention allocation behavior. This paper was accepted by Karl Diether, finance.

An Analysis of Viewers’ Perception Regarding Role of News Media in Promoting Peace Between Pakistan and India

The relations of Pakistan and India have always been critical since the partition due to unresolved issues. Although both have tried to find mutual ground and reap the benefits of peace through bilateral dialogues and agreements but a state of the cold war has always been a reality. This research paper highlights the role of Pakistani news media as perceived by the public. The role of media is very important in highlighting the issues and make public perception (Wanta et al., 2004). This study investigates whether and to what extent Pakistani news media play its role in promoting friendly relationships. The major objective of this study is to compare the role of private News media regarding Pak-India relationship through coverage of issues like Sports, Water, Kashmir, Line of control, Trade, Showbiz, and Terrorism etc. For that purpose, three foremost watching Pakistani news channels were selected i.e. Geo News, ARY News and Dunya News and perception of their audience has been analyzed. A methodology based on survey has been used for this study by taking a sample of 300 respondents. The convenience sampling technique has been applied to collect respondents’ views. Finding illustrates that viewers were gratified with the coverage of Geo news over other channels and its role in de-escalating ties between Pak-India. The study also elaborates that media has been doing great discussion on terrorism, sports and showbiz. The audience thinks that both media and dialogues are important factors for promoting peace and friendly relationship between India and Pakistan

Coverage of indian parliamentry elections 2019: Content analysis of prime-time news coverage of top three news channels

During the last decade, no other mass media platform has changed the way it perceives, creates and disseminates content, as News on Indian Cable Television. Private News Channels in India have often come under severe criticism for reducing news and ground reports to prime-time panel discussions and endless sessions of allegation and counter accusations. General Elections, the biggest festival of any democracy and a huge visual spectacle are supposed to bring tremendous opportunity of varied content creation and showcasing different issues from ground reporting for understanding the real issues and concerns of voters and capturing the pulse of the nation This is also a time for them to mobilize resources for better coverage of pan nation news since there is a better inflow of revenue through political as well as government advertisement. 2019 general elections, however, saw more of views created from inside the newsroom studios than on ground coverage of news. This research picked up top 3 news channels India based on average BARC ratings and captured the prime-time news coverage during the period of general elections 2019, beginning with the announcements of dates and ending at the last round of voting (11th March-18th May). The content analysis of the top channels Aaj Tak, ABP News and India TV (selected based on weighted average of BARC ratings during the time period) has been categorized based on them being news dominated vs opinion dominated and ground reporting vs studio chats. Analysis of content differentiation among the channels has also been taken into consideration.

Private News and Monetary Policy - Forward Guidance As Bayesian Persuasion

When the central bank has information that can help the private sector predict the future better, should it communicate such information to the public? In a simple New Keynesian model, such Delphic forward guidance unambiguously reduces ex ante welfare by increasing the variability of inflation and the output gap. In other words, it cannot persuade private agents to change their actions in favor of the central bank. In more elaborate DSGE models, the welfare effect may be either positive or negative, depending on the type of shock as well as distortions and frictions. These results suggest that improving welfare by Delphic forward guidance may be particularly difficult under model uncertainty.

Corporate Bond Price Reversals

I demonstrate that investors trade U.S. corporate bonds not only for liquidity reasons but also on private information. Bond dealers let less-informed investors provide liquidity to informed traders and are not adversely selected. I obtain these results by contrasting corporate bond price reversals in bonds with different information asymmetry, trading volume, and dealers' capital commitment. I find strong price reversals that become less pronounced following high-trading-volume days. The effect is the strongest for bonds with high information asymmetry, and when dealers' end-of-day inventory does not change. The results suggest that information reveals itself in prices on high-volume days when dealers do not accept overnight inventory risk. The findings are in line with the predictions of a theoretical model in which investors trade both for liquidity reasons and on private news that arrive independently of changes in inventory. I further show that realized bid-ask spreads are not wide enough to negate reversal profits of high-asymmetry bonds. Such reversal portfolios earn 3% per year after trading cost adjustment. By connecting low market transparency with high non-fundamental price volatility, the paper also contributes to the ongoing policy debate.