Regional Daily Newspapers Research Articles

Representations of Entrepreneurship in Local Media: A Comparative Analysis

Entrepreneurial culture is a key element of the success of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Previous studies have shown that regional levels of entrepreneurial activity tend to remain persistent over long periods of time and that cultural attitudes in favour of entrepreneurship and rooted in the history of the region can influence innovation activity and new business formation today. Prior research has studied the entrepreneurial culture investigating individuals’ perceptions, attitudes, values, and entrepreneurial personality fit. However, such approaches fail to address the importance of social representations of entrepreneurship as a part of entrepreneurial culture. The aim of this study is to increase understanding about the local entrepreneurial culture within entrepreneurial ecosystems by analysing local media representations of entrepreneurship as indications of local entrepreneurial cultures in the entrepreneurial ecosystem context. The research was carried out as a comparative study of two Finnish regions: Päijät-Häme and South Karelia. The primary research data consists of 120 newspaper articles from regional daily newspapers. The results suggest that in the studied regions local media particularly helps transmit entrepreneurial success stories as an ecosystem service. Also, narratives of entrepreneurial ambition, innovativeness and risk acceptance were transmitted to the local audiences. Some regional differences were also detected, which might reflect the different historical backgrounds and regional levels of entrepreneurial activity. This paper presents the preliminary results of the study which are of value for both ecosystem actors and policymakers designing initiatives to strengthen the local entrepreneurial culture and public discourse promoting entrepreneurship.

Worlds Apart

The concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship have been ever more present in public discourse during the past 20–30 years, along with radically different views of the kind and level of socioeconomic or political change that these specific economic ventures (should) aim for. Although social enterprise discourse is often dominated by neoliberal perspectives, which present market-based activity as simply an efficient means of solving all kinds of more or less local and isolated social problems, more critically minded strands of research have been questioning this approach and calling for a broader and more critical perspective. This paper aims to see how these opposing discourses are represented in the Croatian news media, as a discursive sphere which is accessible to a broad public. The analysis focuses on online media in the period 2007–2019 and is based on a comparison between three media types: the online versions of a national daily newspaper and a regional daily newspaper, as well as an online-only progressive non-profit news site. A stark contrast is apparent between mainstream commercial media and alternative non-profit media, i.e. a dominance of neoliberal “enterprise discourse” in the former and more emphasis on a broader political and economic agenda calling for more fundamental, comprehensive and long-term change in the latter.

Is large-scale wind power a problem, solution, or victim? A frame analysis of the debate in Swedish media

Media content analysis was used with the aim of developing an understanding of how the debate on large-scale wind power has played out over time in Sweden, especially in relation to the enactment of national interest areas for wind power. Covering the period 1999 to 2019 and using NVivo for coding and analysis, we reviewed a total of 788 articles in both national and regional daily newspapers. To identify which actors are present in media and how they frame large-scale wind power, we conducted a frame analysis by applying three theoretical elements developed by previous media studies. The first is a diagnostic element used to pinpoint the cause to a problem, the second a prognostic element used to pinpoint the solution to a problem, and the third a motivating element used to identify the person(s) or object(s) suffering from the problem, that is, victim. Our results emphasize that wind power in recent years has been framed as a solution more often than a cause to a problem. One prevailing framing is the localization of large-scale wind power per se and conflicts with other land-uses and national interests. We also identify a tension between international and national policy objectives and local implementation of large-scale wind power. Governmental agencies are the most common framers over time, together with individuals (e.g. locals and second home owners) and wind entrepreneurs. Importantly, whereas politicians and wind entrepreneurs most often frame wind power as a solution, individuals frame it as a cause to a problem.

Searching for Safe Haven: Donbas Discourses of the 1989–91 Miners' Strikes

The 1989–91 transition period in the USSR was marked by a series of major miners' strikes in Ukraine. The miners' movement was driven by growing popular dissatisfaction with and distrust of the Soviet government in Moscow. In the key Ukrainian coal mining region of Donbas, which was hard hit by economic decline in the USSR, the first strike in 1989 transformed local miners into the dominant political force at the regional and in some respects national levels. As this article demonstrates, the miners' economic situation and political moods played an important role in Ukrainian politics, as various antagonistic political elites tried to win their backing and mobilize their anger against competitors. By analyzing publications in two major regional daily newspapers, the article provides a close examination of changes in attitudes and loyalties of the protesters, as well as their influence on the general public in the region, whose reactions, detailed in the newspapers, shifted from sympathy to frustration with the industrial action at this time.

A “nasty woman”: assessing the gendered mediation of Hillary Clinton’s nonverbal immediacy cues during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign

ABSTRACT Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was a stunning upset that confounded pollsters, pundits, and journalists predicting a solid win by the former secretary of state and Democratic candidate against businessperson and reality television star Donald Trump. This article uses the theoretical lenses of gendered mediation and the double bind to investigate how U.S. media framed Clinton’s credibility and likability as a female candidate during the last six weeks of the election campaign. Employing a qualitative thematic content analysis, the paper examines how two regional daily newspapers in traditionally red and blue states assessed Clinton’s credibility and likability through her use of nonverbal immediacy cues. It finds that though Clinton was able to gain credibility through her use of immediacy behaviours, the portrayal of her likability was still confined by gender norms and depicted as a barrier to her viability as a presidential candidate.

La apuesta por el deporte en la prensa local española como elemento clave para hacer comunidad. Un análisis de las fotografías de portada

Esta investigación analiza la importancia estratégica los contenidos sobre deporte en la prensa regional española a la hora de hacer comunidad y estrechar vínculos afectivos con los lectores. Para ello se han estudiado todas las portadas publicadas en sus ediciones en papel por los doce principales diarios regionales (La Vanguardia, El Periódico, Levante, Las Provincias, La Voz de Galicia, El Faro de Vigo, El Correo, El Diario Vasco, Heraldo de Aragón, Diario de Burgos, El Diario Montañés y Diario de Navarra) en el periodo comprendido entre el 1 de enero y el 31 de mayo de 2016. El estudio se ha completado con una revisión de diferentes coberturas deportivas especiales desarrolladas por diarios regionales en los últimos años.

Applying Linked Data Technologies for Online Newspapers

The constantly growing data volume at the companies along with the necessity for finding information for the shortest possible time span involves methods of information search different from the ones conventionally used. The semantic technologies, developed in the late 90s and the beginning of the new century, are viewed as a new generation of databases and as text analyzing technologies. The present paper deals with researching the opportunities and examining the advantages of applying the semantic web technologies and the linked data for online newspapers. Besides, a RDF-based ontology for the purposes of a system for study and evaluation of online editions of regional daily newspapers is proposed. SPARQL endpoint is implemented to access the RDF data.

The citizen as producer of information: a case study in the Portuguese online newspapers

Considered by some authors (Gilmor, 2005; Rosen, 2008) as one of the traditional journalism greatest challenges, the so called “citizen journalism” is far from delivering its original promises. Regardless of their location and dimension, some of the most promising online media projects developed by citizens or created with this aim, lost their initial dynamic or closed down completely. In Portugal, the online versions of the major regional daily newspapers also created sections for citizens participation, some of them using the word “journalism” or “reporter” in their denomination. But can we consider “journalism” the texts published on these spaces? To answer this and other questions, an analysis of contents published by readers in the specific sections of four Portuguese daily newspapers was carried out. The main goal is to verify if there are characteristic elements in journalistic practice, i.e. if citizens do journalism in the spaces denominated as “citizen’s journalism”.

Do men with excessive alcohol consumption and social stability have an addictive personality?

The existence of an "addictive" personality has been extensively debated. The current study investigated personality in male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption (n=100) in comparison to a population-based control group (n=131). The individuals with excessive alcohol consumption were recruited by advertisements in a regional daily newspaper and controls from a population based Swedish Twin Registry. Personality was assessed by the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). Comparisons were made with normative data. Furthermore, by using a multivariate projection-based approach (Principal Component Analysis; PCA), hidden structures of traits and possible relationships among the individuals with excessive consumption and the controls was investigated. The individuals with excessive alcohol consumption as well as the controls had mean values within the normative range in all scales of the KSP. Moreover, the PCA analysis revealed no systematic between-group separation. Taken together, this result demonstrates that male individuals with excessive alcohol consumption do not have a personality different from that of a general population, which supports the notion of no "addictive personality".

Changing Newsroom Culture by Putting Readers First: How Australian Journalists Reacted to a Corporate Change Program

This article explores the attitudes of journalists towards the introduction of a corporate-change program in the newsrooms of 14 regional daily newspapers in Australia. It draws data from a survey of journalists working for one of Australia's largest regional media corporations, Australian Provincial Newspapers. The article examines the journalists' attitudes towards the change effort, a year and a half after its introduction. The program had two over-arching aims. The first was to bring about a change in the relationship between journalists and their communities; the second was to get the journalists to use more ‘real’ or ordinary people as news sources. The study found that support for the corporate-change program remained high in the 18-month period between its introduction and the survey.

Changing Newsroom Culture by Putting Readers First: How Australian Journalists Reacted to a Corporate Change Program

This article explores the attitudes of journalists towards the introduction of a corporate-change program in the newsrooms of 14 regional daily newspapers in Australia. It draws data from a survey of journalists working for one of Australia's largest regional media corporations, Australian Provincial Newspapers. The article examines the journalists ‘attitudes towards the change effort, a year and a half after its introduction. The program had two over-arching aims. The first was to bring about a change in the relationship between journalists and their communities; the second was to get the journalists to use more ‘real’ or ordinary people as news sources. The study found that support for the corporate-change program remained high in the 18-month period between its introduction and the survey.

INDIVIDUALS WITH EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL INTAKE RECRUITED BY ADVERTISEMENT: DEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Studies have shown that most individuals with alcohol problems have never received any treatment for their alcoholism. The purpose of the present study was to describe demographic and clinical characteristics in male individuals with excessive alcohol intake who were recruited by advertisements. These characteristics were compared between individuals with or without prior treatment histories. Subjects (n = 367) responded to the advertisements in a regional daily newspaper and called the investigators. A structured interview was performed and a complete dataset of demographic and clinical information was collected in 342 individuals. Individuals with no prior treatment history (n = 238) were found to be more often cohabitant, employed, and they reported fewer on-going psychiatric symptoms than individuals with treatment histories (n = 104). Since individuals with no prior treatment history seldom experience psychiatric symptoms, they are less likely to seek treatment in the health care system. It is therefore of importance to find ways to reach this 'hidden' group early with excessive alcohol consumption. One way to do so might be via alcohol treatment programs at working places since the majority of them are employed.

Everyday Editorial Practices and the Public Sphere: Analysing the Letters to the Editor Page of a Regional Newspaper

This paper investigates the social construction of a site of public discourse: the letters to the editor page of an Australian regional daily newspaper, The Daily News.1 Of key concern are the processes through which public discourse is constructed and mediated by those who select and edit letters for publication. Drawing on a content analysis of the letters page and in-depth interviews with the editorial staff, it is demonstrated how routine practices and the social knowledge of media workers play a specific and discernible role in shaping public dialogue. In light of the findings presented, the concluding section discusses the relationship between editorial practices and the public sphere.

L'Ouest-Eclair: Naissance et essor d'un grand quotidien regional, 1899-1933 (review)

Reviewed by: L’Ouest-Éclair: Naissance et essor d’un grand quotidien régional, 1899–1933 M. Patricia Dougherty L’Ouest-Éclair: Naissance et essor d’un grand quotidien régional, 1899–1933. Under the direction of Michel Lagrée, Patrick Harismendy, and Michel Denis. (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 2000. Pp. 203. 150 Ff.) A team of historians under the able direction of three professors from the University of Rennes has produced a very interesting selection of essays on the first thirty or so years of the regional daily newspaper, L'Ouest-Éclair. The collection of fourteen essays by twenty-one contributors is divided into three sections: the context (four essays), the newspaper and its personnel (four essays), and the content (six essays). The essays vary in length from eight to twenty-four pages, and there is some overlapping of information. Because of the overlapping, an index would have been helpful. L'Ouest-Éclair first appeared on August 2, 1899; it sought to reconcile Catholicism with republicanism. It never claimed to be Catholic but always claimed it was written by militant Catholics ("catholiques sociaux" and "démocrates chrétiens") who were republican. The majority of bishops in western France never trusted L'Ouest-Éclair; they supported a rival conservative paper, Le Nouvelliste de Bretagne. In 1910, the bishops of Brittany forbade their priests from subscribing [End Page 336] to L'Ouest-Éclair; in 1927 the bishop of Nantes labeled L'Ouest-Éclair "bad press." Abbé Félix Trochu, one of the founders, had repeated troubles with his ecclesiastical superior over his activity in the print media. Despite this lack of support from the Catholic hierarchy, L'Ouest-Éclair prospered because of its self-proclaimed moderation, its business acumen, and its appeal to rural Brittany. In 1899, the printrun was 1800; in 1913, 100,000 and in 1924, 250,000. The first section (context) provides an overview of Catholicism in the 1890's and shows how L'Ouest-Éclair interacted with society and other newspapers (four daily and eight weekly) in the West. It sought an alternative path—a third way—between liberalism and socialism and between the politics of the conservative, royalist archbishop and the politics of the secular, anticlerical republic. Among the topics in this section are the ralliement of Leo XIII, the Dreyfus affair (and anti-Semitism), Le Sillon, election politics, and the conflict with reactionary Catholics. After setting the religious context, the authors focus on the newspaper itself. Though sympathetic with the ralliement of Leo XIII, the Sillon, and the Parti démocrate populaire (PDP), L'Ouest-Éclair never became an organ of any movement. Thus, it succeeded despite the hot issues that it confronted: Dreyfus Affair, the separation of church and state, the condemnation of Le Sillon. Christian Hamon's essay traces the growth and financial success of L'Ouest-Éclair despite many obstacles (distribution, costs, world war, hierarchical antipathy, rival newspapers). Despite all the problems, L'Ouest-Éclair remained true to its Christian democratic origins; it instituted social benefits for its employees before they were enacted by the state. Though there is no essay focusing on the two men responsible for the success of L'Ouest-Éclair, the roles, talents and shortcomings of Abbé Trochu and Emmanuel Desgrées du Loû come through very clearly in the overall coverage of the book. The third section begins with a discussion of the changes of the L'Ouest-Éclair's appearance (masthead, columns, photography). The next four essays analyze one topic each in order to illustrate how L'Ouest-Éclair reflected and/or molded cultural attitudes. The final essay discusses its expansion into Loire-Inférieur (Nantes). Particularly fascinating are the discussions of sports, of women, and of religion. By 1923, L'Ouest-Éclair had a daily sports page. Virna Cogo-Sternberg argues that the essential role of women remained good wife and mother. Nonetheless, L'Ouest-Éclair covered new careers for women and commented on female fashion (short skirts—knee length in 1920's—were "fort mauvais gout"). The essay on religion and death examines the secularization of Breton society and the changing attitudes toward death. This collection is a welcome addition to study of...

The Politics of a Country Culture

The Politics of a Country Culture

METRO DAILY PULLBACK AND KNOWLEDGE GAPS

In a study of metro daily pullback, analyses of metro and regional daily newspaper penetration were conducted in 87 Minnesota counties. Readership data for metro and regional daily newspapers and small-town weekly and semiweekly papers were studied in 28 communities. Metro daily newspaper penetration has declined sharply in nonmetropolitan areas, with the sharpest drops occurring in agricultural counties. Although change in circulation of regional daily newspapers is negatively related to change in metro circulation, the “compensation” is only partial, because regional gains do not completely offset metro losses, either in circulation or in the amount of content provided. In outlying communities, education is more strongly associated with reading the metro paper than with reading the local paper, a finding that underscores the differential opportunity for access among higher status groups in the community. Among regional communities with daily papers, the relationship between education and reading the metro paper is greater where the pullback has been greater. This difference does not occur in the more rural communities with weeklies. Also, in rural communities, the low opportunity structure for media appears to have consequences similar to universal availability in the metro communities. In both metro and small communities, a change in penetration has little effect on what status groups will have access to the metro newspaper.