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Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The competition to attract audiences has led to an increase in sensational or misleading headlines and content, with the aim of garnering user clicks in the news media. This dynamic alters the journalistic manner in which news is presented, and it does so by reducing informative quality and eroding the trust of the audience. This study examines the proliferation of clickbait strategies on the front pages of reputable international 'serious' press and how it manifests in readers' consumption and sharing habits. We carried out a comparative content analysis of digital news articles from four international media sources (N = 1680): The Guardian (UK), The New York Times (USA), El País (Spain) and Público (Portugal). Our results confirm the existence of clickbait (N = 516) on the front pages, the most read content and the articles most shared on social media. Most clickbait titles resort to headline strategies of containing incomplete information that affect both hard and soft news topics. This particular finding highlights the inclusion of clickbait in the agenda of 'serious' journalism, despite the negative implications on information quality and trust. Associated with irrelevant content, this 'hook' captures the attention of the online audience more than the social media audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although data-driven 'quantitative' journalism has increased in volume and visibility, little is known about how it is perceived and evaluated by audiences. This study helps fill this research gap by analysing the characteristics of quantitative journalism that a diverse group of 31 news consumers pay attention to and, within those characteristics, where their preferences might lie. In eight group interviews, participants read and discussed articles chosen to represent the diversity that exists in the forms and production of data-driven journalism. Our analysis reveals 28 perception criteria that we group into four major categories: antecedents of perception, emotional and cognitive impacts, article composition, and news and editorial values. Several criteria have not been used in prior research on the perception of quantitative journalism. Our criteria have obvious application in future research on how audiences perceive different types of quantitative journalism, including that produced with the help of automation. The criteria will be of interest too for researchers studying audience perceptions and evaluations of news in general. For journalists and others communicating with numbers, our findings indicate what audiences might want from data-driven journalism, including that it is constructive, concise, provides analysis, has a human angle, and includes visual elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the self-representations of Portuguese media professionals and their work practices. Utilizing data from a broader empirical study, this paper delves into the dynamics of influence among various actors within newsrooms. Based on journalists' perceptions of the content, the methods they use to assess the quality of the news are also identified. To address these enquiries, a survey was conducted among professionals engaged in the news production process. This sample comprised 72 individuals from various sectors of newsrooms, including photographers, designers, IT professionals, social media managers, and videographers. The main results indicate that seven out of ten respondents acknowledged their reliance on colleagues in newsrooms for success. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are no significant disparities among different professionals, with personal satisfaction emerging as the primary criterion for assessing the work quality. It is notable that almost twice as many women tend to indicate the low impact of the journalist on their work compared to male respondents. Moreover, most respondents stated that there is space for hybrid professionals in newsrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent surge in disinformation targeting gender themes poses a substantial threat to women’s equality in democratic systems. This study investigates the efforts of three fact-checking platforms prominent in Ibero-America (Maldita.es and Newtral in Spain and Chequeado in Argentina) in countering antifeminist fake news. Employing a dual methodology, we conducted a content analysis of pieces published on gender issues over one year and semi-structured interviews with representatives from these platforms. The findings unveil a consistent production of texts addressing contemporary feminist affairs. Disinformers target both the feminist movement and its historical grievances, including gender-based violence. Fact checks emerge as the primary format for combating these hoaxes, with explainers gaining against increasingly complex disinformation narratives. The verification methodology emphasizes consulting official sources and expert testimony. Interviewees acknowledge that there is still much progress to be made in gender-related fact-checking.

This paper analyses the self-representations of Portuguese media professionals and their work practices. Utilizing data from a broader empirical study, this paper delves into the dynamics of influence among various actors within newsrooms. Based on journalists’ perceptions of the content, the methods they use to assess the quality of the news are also identified. To address these enquiries, a survey was conducted among professionals engaged in the news production process. This sample comprised 72 individuals from various sectors of newsrooms, including photographers, designers, IT professionals, social media managers, and videographers. The main results indicate that seven out of ten respondents acknowledged their reliance on colleagues in newsrooms for success. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are no significant disparities among different professionals, with personal satisfaction emerging as the primary criterion for assessing the work quality. It is notable that almost twice as many women tend to indicate the low impact of the journalist on their work compared to male respondents. Moreover, most respondents stated that there is space for hybrid professionals in newsrooms.

Copyright of Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodistico is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It is more difficult to judge news quality on digital news platforms because editorial cues (such as size and placement of news articles that signal the quality of articles in the traditional news environment) are far less obvious. Without these editorial cues, how do users process news cues to judge news quality in conformity to professional standards? Relying on dual information processing literature, this study investigates five combinations of news content/formal cue processing to identify user information processing mechanisms for news quality judgment conformity to professional standards. A total of 88 news articles were evaluated by 3547 survey respondents and two professional editors. Based on the partial-least-squares structural equation modeling, we found that the joint functioning of content/formal cue processing better explains news quality judgment conformity than other combinations (such as the independent functioning of each cue processing and the biased functioning of content cue processing affected by formal cue processing). The large, negative effect of joint functioning suggests that the less the respondents relied on formal cues, the greater they achieved news quality judgment conformity as they elaborated more on content cues. Elaboration on a given article's believability/depth as a content cue and heuristics regarding its number of quotes as a formal cue had greater impact on judgment conformity. These results imply how the elaborative and heuristic routes of news processing interact and in what ways news cues can be processed to identify quality news which is necessary for democratic decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommending high-quality news to users is vital in improving user stickiness and news platforms' reputation. However, existing news quality evaluation methods, such as clickbait detection and popularity prediction, are challenging to reflect news quality comprehensively and concisely. This paper defines news quality as the ability of news articles to elicit clicks and comments from users, which represents whether the news article can attract widespread attention and discussion. Based on the above definition, this paper first presents a straightforward method to measure news quality based on the comments and clicks of news and defines four news quality indicators. Then, the dataset can be labeled automatically by the method. Next, this paper proposes a deep learning model that integrates explicit and implicit news information for news quality evaluation (EINQ). The explicit information includes the headline, source, and publishing time of the news, which attracts users to click. The implicit information refers to the news article's content which attracts users to comment. The implicit and explicit information affect users' click and comment behavior differently. For modeling explicit information, the typical convolution neural network (CNN) is used to get news headline semantic representation. For modeling implicit information, a hierarchical attention network (HAN) is exploited to extract news content semantic representation while using the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) model to get the subject distribution of news as a semantic supplement. Considering the different roles of explicit and implicit information for quality evaluation, the EINQ exploits an attention layer to fuse them dynamically. The proposed model yields the Accuracy of 82.31% and the F-Score of 80.51% on the real-world dataset from Toutiao, which shows the effectiveness of explicit and implicit information dynamic fusion and demonstrates performance improvements over a variety of baseline models in news quality evaluation. This work provides empirical evidence for explicit and implicit factors in news quality evaluation and a new idea for news quality evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competition to attract audiences has led to an increase in sensational or misleading headlines and content, with the aim of garnering user clicks in the news media. This dynamic alters the journalistic manner in which news is presented, and it does so by reducing informative quality and eroding the trust of the audience. This study examines the proliferation of clickbait strategies on the front pages of reputable international ‘serious’ press and how it manifests in readers’ consumption and sharing habits. We carried out a comparative content analysis of digital news articles from four international media sources (N = 1680): The Guardian (UK), The New York Times (USA), El País (Spain) and Público (Portugal). Our results confirm the existence of clickbait (N = 516) on the front pages, the most read content and the articles most shared on social media. Most clickbait titles resort to headline strategies of containing incomplete information that affect both hard and soft news topics. This particular finding highlights the inclusion of clickbait in the agenda of ‘serious’ journalism, despite the negative implications on information quality and trust. Associated with irrelevant content, this ‘hook’ captures the attention of the online audience more than the social media audience.

Exemplification, the use of emotionally evocative messages to elicit a response based on impression formation, are frequently present in news messages. The present study examined the use of positive vs. negative exemplars in news stories to determine the role of stigmatization and securitization in these messages and whether this impacts perceptions of the importance and quality of news. This study tested exemplification's effects using three conditions: positive, negative, and non-exemplar news stories—two valences of exemplification and a control condition. Results indicate that as stigmatized impressions increase, securitization decreases, valence of exemplification predicts perceptions on the quality of news, and valence of exemplification predicts perceptions on the general interest of the issues. Implications suggest news message creators should consider positive exemplars in place of negative exemplars to minimize unintended negative effects.

In this article, we investigate how Twitter's switch from a reverse-chronological timeline to algorithmic content selection in March 2016 influenced user engagement with tweets published by German newspapers. To mitigate concerns about omitted variables, we use the Facebook postings of these newspapers as a counterfactual. We find that the number of likes increased by 20% and the number of retweets by 15% within a span of 30 days after the switch. Importantly, our results indicate a rich-get-richer effect, implying that initially more popular outlets and news topics benefited the most. User engagement also increased more for sensationalist content than quality news stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising prominence of social media coupled with a myriad of recent developments in the built-in features has allowed users to instantly share news both within and across their social networks, making news-sharing a savvy trend. Additionally, these platforms have enabled users to share news critical to social and civic responsibilities, as well as political news critical to healthy socio-political function. Given the prominence of citizen-driven digital journalism, even ordinary users and passive receivers of information have a powerful voice in modern society, making news-sharing on social media a significant phenomenon spanning across social, economic, and political boundaries. News-sharing behaviour on social media demands further empirical investigation, especially with respect to the roles of online civic engagement and social influences. Drawing upon Elaboration Likelihood Model and Social Influence Theory, this study proposes a research model to explore individuals' news-sharing behaviour and validates the proposed research model using empirical data collected by a survey of 513 active social media users. Findings confirm that online news quality, news source credibility, perception of online civic engagement, perceived influence on others, and social influence play a crucial role in users' news-sharing behaviours. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science journalism can be challenging in societies with an emerging science culture such as the Philippines. In addition, the demands of the interest-based and taste-driven field of journalism can clash with the rigorous and technical nature of science. Science reporters must balance readability, comprehensiveness, and urgency of science stories to maintain high news quality. This study examines the coverage of science by Philippine newspapers and investigates the link of framing and sourcing to science news quality. Content analysis was performed on 394 news articles published from 2017 to 2019 and article characteristics, framing, sourcing, and news quality were coded during data collection. Results show that science reports in mainstream print media were understandable, relatable, contextualized, and explained thoroughly. However, there is much to improve on framing and sourcing of science news by Philippine print journalists, especially since these variables have been found to be significantly correlated with news quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measures the consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of news firms in Catalonia (Spain). The aim is to determine the dimensions of news media brands that are most important to their audiences. We surveyed more than 15,000 readers of two legacy and three native online brands. We conducted an array of exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to identify the dimensions with more impact on CBBE. Since empirical research on news firms' CBBE is scarce and focuses on legacy news media, our project provides an updated and more comprehensive scale that measures both legacy and native brands. Moreover, the study finds that in a polarized media market, the journalistic quality perceived by the audience has the strongest impact on CBBE. However, most consumers also prefer news firms that they perceive as politically congruent with their opinions. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mediterranean Journal of Communication / Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación is the property of Revista Mediterranea de Comunicacion / Mediterranean Journal of Communication and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growing influence of internet platforms acting as content aggregators is one of the most important challenges facing the media industry. We develop a simple model to understand the impact of third-party content bundling by a social platform that has a monopoly on showing user-generated content to consumers. In our model, consumers can access news either directly through a newspaper's website or indirectly through a platform, which also offers social content. We show that content bundling, when unilaterally implemented by the platform, tends to harm publishers and to increase the dispersion of quality across outlets, with initially high-quality outlets investing more and low-quality ones investing less. With many heterogenous newspapers, the result is robust even if each newspaper can prevent the platform from using its content. When content bundling follows an agreement between the platform and publisher, its effects are reversed, as publishers' profits go up while quality dispersion goes down. In a setup with heterogeneous consumers, we also show that the platform's ability to personalize the mix of content it shows to users induces publishers to invest more in the quality of their content. This paper was accepted by Dmitri Kuksov, marketing. Funding: The authors thank the Net Institute for financial support. A. de Cornière acknowledges funding from Agence Nationale de la Recherche [Grant ANR-17-EUR-0010 (Investissements d'Avenir Program)], the Toulouse School of Economics Digital Center, and the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4341. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overview of the areas of application of approaches and methods of forecasting events based on past events. The substantiation of urgency of a theme is given and possibilities concerning application of results of work are resulted. Requirements for incoming news regarding their quality are defined. It is noted that there are four key criteria for the quality of the media, which are often two-component, namely: the relevance of news, providing the context in which the event, compliance with professional standards and a variety of materials. The key stages of working with data in order to obtain knowledge from them for forecasting events are identified. These include pre-processing of data (reduction to a standardized view that will understand and be able to process the algorithm), their analysis and the forecasting process itself. The spheres of application of associative series and Markov processes for search of causal relations, and time series for definition of the period of occurrence of an event with the set probability are specified. Ref. 7, pic. 2.

This study examines the perceived relevance and implementation of competing normative ideals in journalism in times of increasing use of digital technology in newsrooms. Based on survey and content analysis data from 37 countries, we found a small positive relationship between the use of digital research tools and “watchdog” performance. However, a stronger and negative relationship emerged between the use of digital audience analytics and the performance of “watchdog” and “civic” roles, leading to an overall increase in conception–performance gaps on both roles. Moreover, journalists’ use of digital community tools was more strongly and positively associated with “infotainment” and “interventionism.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have found a clear gap between users' news preferences and editors' news choices, whether a similar user–editor gap exists when it comes to news quality evaluations remains an open question. We therefore conducted a nation-wide survey of 7810 South Korean users, collected online social indicators from a digital news platform, and asked users and editors to evaluate the quality of 1500 news articles and rank-order these articles' editorial importance, respectively. Even after controlling for users' news preferences and news genres, we found that users distinguished news articles quality in a manner comparable to that of editors. Our analysis also showed that users with higher issue involvement, issue knowledge, or ideological strength tended to rate news quality similar to editors. Moreover, we found that ideological strength served as an alternative cognitive schema for issue knowledge for individuals who lacked sufficient knowledge to assess news quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large and growing body of literature shows that audience metrics exert a significant influence in many newsrooms around the world. Scholars assume that this might affect the quality of news, but findings on how audience metrics influence news quality and media performance are scattered. Based on a widely used set of news quality criteria, this article is the first to focus on this question. It reviews and discusses the existing findings by considering the influence of audience metrics across four analytical dimensions: A) the allocation of resources and recognition; B) the volume, practices and rhythms of news production; C) the selection and placement of topics; and D) the formats and styles of news presentation. The analysis reveals that journalists’ use of audience metrics has a mainly negative impact on news quality. This effect is the result of both the growing economic pressures on newsrooms and a dominant rhetoric that equates measures of audience size with audience interests and good journalistic work.

Both the news media and citizens have been blamed for citizens’ lack of political sophistication. Citizens’ information source choices can certainly contribute to suboptimal results of opinion formation when citizens’ media menus feature few, redundant, or poor-quality outlets. How strongly news consumers’ choices affect the quality of information they receive has rarely been investigated, however. The study uses a novel method investigating how content-as-sent translates into content-as-received that is applicable to high-choice information environments. It explores quality-as-sent and quality-as-received in a content analysis that is combined with survey data on news use. This study focuses on ‘selection quality’ measured in terms of scope and balance of subtopic units, information units, and protagonist statements sent/received. Regarding quality-as-sent, the scope of news proves to be lowest in TV news and substantially greater for online news and newspapers; imbalance of coverage varies only moderately between outlets. As for quality-as-received, the scope citizens received was only a small fraction of what the news outlets provided in combination or what the highest-quality news outlet provided, but was close to what one average news outlet provided. There was substantial stratification in the extent to which news coverage quality materializes at the recipient level. Scope-as-received grew mainly with using more news, relatively independent of which specific news outlets were used. Imbalance-as-received, however, was a function of the use of specific outlet types and specific outlets rather than the general extent of news use. Using additional news media improved the quality-as-received, invalidating the notion that different news outlets merely provide “more of the same.”

Media performance is constitutive for functioning democracies. But what is the situation regarding media performance in the age of digitalisation? And how can media performance continue to be assured under the current difficult economic conditions for the news industry? In this essay, we give a short overview of how media performance research has developed from the introduction of private broadcasting to the spread of the Internet and social media. In the course of this development, the initial focus of media performance research on media content has broadened to include media quality from the user perspective. We show how the contributions to this thematic issue relate with existing lines of media performance research, but also add new facets to them. Finally, we point to the directions in which research on media performance should evolve in order to keep pace with current developments in the media market.

Journalism professionals and media experts have traditionally used normatively formed criteria to evaluate news quality. Although the digital news media environment has enabled journalists to respond at unprecedented speed to audience consumption patterns, little academic research has systematically addressed how audiences themselves perceive and evaluate news, and even less has focused on audio-visual news. To help fill this research gap, we conducted in-depth group interviews with 22 online news video consumers in the UK to explore their perceptions of online news videos—an increasingly popular news format. Thematic analyses suggest audiences evaluate online news videos using a complex and interwoven set of criteria, which we group under four headings: antecedents of perceptions, emotional impacts, news and editorial values and production characteristics. Some of these criteria can be positioned clearly in relation to the literature on news quality in general, while our documentation of the others contributes new, format-specific knowledge. Our findings offer journalists practical insights into how audiences perceive and evaluate a host of characteristics of online news videos, while our conceptual framework provides a foundation for further academic research on audience evaluations of online news videos, and even audio-visual news more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the news media and citizens have been blamed for citizens' lack of political sophistication. Citizens' information source choices can certainly contribute to suboptimal results of opinion formation when citizens' media menus feature few, redundant, or poor-quality outlets. How strongly news consumers' choices affect the quality of information they receive has rarely been investigated, however. The study uses a novel method investigating how content-as-sent translates into content-as-received that is applicable to high-choice information environments. It explores quality-as-sent and qualityas- received in a content analysis that is combined with survey data on news use. This study focuses on 'selection quality' measured in terms of scope and balance of subtopic units, information units, and protagonist statements sent/received. Regarding quality-as-sent, the scope of news proves to be lowest in TV news and substantially greater for online news and newspapers; imbalance of coverage varies only moderately between outlets. As for quality-as-received, the scope citizens received was only a small fraction of what the news outlets provided in combination or what the highest-quality news outlet provided, but was close to what one average news outlet provided. There was substantial stratification in the extent to which news coverage quality materializes at the recipient level. Scope-as-received grew mainly with using more news, relatively independent of which specific news outlets were used. Imbalance-as-received, however, was a function of the use of specific outlet types and specific outlets rather than the general extent of news use. Using additional news media improved the quality-as-received, invalidating the notion that different news outlets merely provide "more of the same.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large and growing body of literature shows that audience metrics exert a significant influence in many newsrooms around the world. Scholars assume that this might affect the quality of news, but findings on how audience metrics influence news quality and media performance are scattered. Based on a widely used set of news quality criteria, this article is the first to focus on this question. It reviews and discusses the existing findings by considering the influence of audience metrics across four analytical dimensions: A) the allocation of resources and recognition; B) the volume, practices and rhythms of news production; C) the selection and placement of topics; and D) the formats and styles of news presentation. The analysis reveals that journalists' use of audience metrics has a mainly negative impact on news quality. This effect is the result of both the growing economic pressures on newsrooms and a dominant rhetoric that equates measures of audience size with audience interests and good journalistic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media performance is constitutive for functioning democracies. But what is the situation regarding media performance in the age of digitalisation? And how can media performance continue to be assured under the current difficult economic conditions for the news industry? In this essay, we give a short overview of how media performance research has developed from the introduction of private broadcasting to the spread of the Internet and social media. In the course of this development, the initial focus of media performance research on media content has broadened to include media quality from the user perspective. We show how the contributions to this thematic issue relate with existing lines of media performance research, but also add new facets to them. Finally, we point to the directions in which research on media performance should evolve in order to keep pace with current developments in the media market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalists often include exemplars in their reporting to produce news that is perceived as appealing and informative. In this paper, we ask the question whether the audience perceives news with ordinary citizens as exemplars as more appealing and informative, as argued by the journalists. Relying on two survey experiments based on samples representative of the adult Danish population, we show that news stories with exemplars are perceived as more appealing, but we also see a tendency toward lower levels of perceived informativeness. In addition, we also document that effects of exemplars depend on the characteristics of the exemplars, and the characteristics of the news audience. In a concluding section, we discuss the implications of our findings for journalism practice and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigative journalism's value to democracy is straightforward: it provides useful information to citizens by exposing wrongdoing and holding powerful institutions accountable. But its financial value is questionable. There are indications that this often-expensive form of reporting can enhance audiences and thereby increase revenue, but very few large-scale projects have examined the connection between investigative content and audiences. Numerous studies have established a link between news quality and newspaper circulation, yet television studies of quality and audiences are less definitive. The present study addresses these research gaps, using Lacy's Model of News Demand to explain the interaction between investigative quality and U.S. local television audiences. Results show that investigative quality is strongly associated with larger television audiences, even when controlling for factors such as market competition and organizational structure. Investigative stories that disclosed concealed information were particularly predictive of audience size. However, stations producing a higher quantity of investigative stories were not associated with greater viewership. This suggests that investigative quality might be a more important audience motivator than quantity. The findings are discussed in light of the possibility that quality investigative journalism could provide economic as well as democratic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing expansion of Internet access and mass-scale usage of social networking platforms and search engines have forced digital newspapers to deal with challenges, amongst which are the need to constantly update news, the increasing complexity of sources, the difficulty of exercising their function as gatekeepers in a fragmented environment in which the opinions, biases and preconceptions of pundits, their followers, Twitter users, etc. has taken on a new and decisive weight and the mounting pressure to publish certain news items simply because they sell. They must also share audiences with aggregators devoted to the business of disseminating content produced by digital news publishers, blogs and RSS feeds, which is chosen on the basis of search engine algorithms, the votes of users or the preferences of readers. The fact that these computerized systems of news distribution seldom employ the criteria upon which journalism is based suggests that the work of gatekeeping is being reframed in a way that progressively eliminates journalists from the process of deciding what is newsworthy. This study of these trends has entailed a 47 point assessment of 30 news aggregators currently providing syndicated content and eight semi-structured interviews with editors of quality mass-distribution digital newspapers published in the U.S., Spain and Portugal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media biases may caused by various factors. One of them is called political parallelism. Political parallelism weakens the roles of media in democratic process by becoming overly one-sided leading to low quality of news news quality. The aim of this article is to investigate the presence and effect of media political parallelism on election news during the 2014 legislative and presidential elections in Indonesia, using content analysis on news items from four print media outlets. The findings show that media with certain political parallelism display high favorability in coverage of its own affiliations.

Thai news organizations are developing innovative cross-media news strategies and several of these strategies revolve around social media, which are fast becoming a hub for repurposing and extending traditional content. This paper reports on an empirical study conducted by using in-depth interviews with journalists from the social-media teams of three news organizations in Thailand - PPTV HD36, Nation Multimedia Group and Thairath - to analyse storytelling strategies. The key finding shows that cross-media content can extend news coverage to different aspects of a story, to inform and explain issues, and engaging audiences. This study suggests the objective use and design of content by dividing it into four types, based on functions: repurposing, engaging, cross-promoting and extending exclusive content to new-media platforms, so that it is designed with narrative styles that will carry a story across multiple platforms while ensuring that the different aspects and presentations remain connected to the main issue. A clear understanding of the function to be served by content can help newsrooms to plan suitable narrative styles and the sequence in which long-tail journalism is distributed across platforms to ensure that the quality of journalism is upheld in respect of providing a well-rounded coverage of diverse issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Analisi: Quaderns de Comunicacio i Cultura is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The present study aims to reconcile conflicting evidence from previous research on the role of objectivity in journalists’ and citizens’ information behaviors. Drawing on news quality frameworks and confirmation bias research, the article proposes a model of “biased objectivity” that was tested by a quasi-experiment with 430 journalists and 432 citizens in Germany. Results show that both perceived objectivity value (news quality perspective) and attitude consistency of a message (confirmation bias perspective) enhanced the informational value of a message, with objectivity value mediating the effect of attitude consistency on informational value perceptions (“biased objectivity” perspective). Journalistic professionalism did not moderate this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current age is called the Information Age. This has caused various media outlets to make efforts in this competitive environment (i.e. media competition) to have a larger share of the world audience. This is only possible when the media can play out an active and distinguished role in the society. In this competitive space, what makes a particular media form in the world distinguished is their reputation. The human resources of a media outlet are among the most important and advantageous aspects of competition. The present paper aims to study the role of development of human resources as the most important factor affecting the public acceptability of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIB)'s Central News Unit. The outcome of actions, capabilities, abilities, skills and knowledge of news media staff are disseminated in the information market, causing the media to achieve fame. The paper attempts to examine the role of media's reputation as the most important factor affecting the development of human resources in this field. Therefore, this paper seeks to provide a model of human resources development in the national news media, which can consequently bring in reputation for the media. Our results indicated that a significant relationship does exist between these variables which in itself indicates the validity of the proposed model.

Given the widespread adoption of social media for sharing and accessing news, as well as the possibility of news consumers' direct interactions with journalists through social media, this study analyzed the relationships among news access via social media (NASM), perceived news information overload (NIO), news consumption, and perceptions of journalistic norms and practices. The results indicated that NIO moderated the relationships between NASM and selective exposure and between NASM and willingness to pay for quality news. Regarding journalistic norms and practices, participants valued the speed of journalism when they frequently accessed news on social media more so than traditional journalistic norms. Finally, there were statistically significant interactions between NIO and two types of news consumption behaviors (i.e., selective exposure and news avoidance) concerning participants' perceptions of news quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have shown that cases in news reporting have substantial attitudinal effects on the audience. The direction of results has been mixed, however. Some studies reported that news audience change opinion in favour of the position of the case, while other studies reported the opposite. In this article, we emphasize the deservingness of cases as a potential factor explaining the differences in previous results. In two population-based survey experiments, we empirically investigate how exposure to cases in the news affects the audience's opinion about the political issue covered. Drawing on insights from welfare state studies, we argue that the deservingness of cases drives the effect of cases on public opinion. Our results confirm this assumption. In a concluding section, we discuss the implications of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sports journalism has been characterized by a series of ethical deficiencies that have challenged the normative standards of the profession. Media accountability instruments can play an invaluable role in addressing these shortcomings. With this in mind, this article identifies and examines the most relevant accountability instruments in the field of sports journalism, including those produced within media organizations and those created outside of them. The researchers have scrutinized the specialized codes in this area and the stylebooks promoted by major sports media, as well as the recommendations proposed by news agencies, general information outlets and key stakeholders worldwide. Innovative practices such as chats, social media, online ombudsmen, observatories and blogs have also been identified as positive examples of the cultivation of a two-way conversation about the standards for and quality of sports content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]