Electronic News Division
Learning Without Seeking: Incidental Exposure to Science News on Social Media May Fill Knowledge Gaps • Joshua Anderson, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Emily Howell; Michael Xenos; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin at Madison; Dominique Brossard • Using a U.S. nationally representative survey, we find that incidental exposure to science-related news interacts with interpersonal discussion and network heterogeneity. Results indicate that the relationship between incidental exposure to news and knowledge is strongest among those who discuss the least. This suggests that incidental exposure could alleviate knowledge gaps between Facebook users who are the most and least involved in interpersonal discussions about science. Incidental exposure, then is potentially valuable feature of social media platforms for science news, discussion, and knowledge.
The Impact of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Perceived Objectivity of Broadcasters on Twitter • Kelli Boling, University of South Carolina; Denetra Walker • Using an online survey (N = 528), this study examines the impact of race/ethnicity and gender on perceived objectivity of broadcasters. Findings show that when the broadcaster is a woman of color, engagement on Twitter does not necessarily equal perceived objectivity. Most respondents following broadcasters on Twitter agreed (52.6%) that broadcast women of color were more biased than other broadcasters they follow on Twitter, with men and conservatives being more likely to agree than others.
A Matter of Tone and Sources: Toward A Black Men on TV News Analysis • George Daniels, The University of Alabama; Keonte Coleman; Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama; Gheni Platenburg • Much of the research on Blacks in television news has focused on criminal portrayals to demonstrate the over-representation of this minority group. Using data from a content analysis of newscasts in two Southern markets, the Black Men on TV News Analysis, accounts for topic, tone and sourcing in stories. Among the 1163 items analyzed, White males appeared more frequently in crime stories, but black males were most often associated with negative toned stories.
What to watch? Text-image relationship strategies and their use on framing the 2019 Hong Kong protests on YouTube • Brenna Davidson; Jeffry OKTAVIANUS • This study investigates YouTube thumbnails to understand how different content creators have utilized framing and text-image relationship strategies to shape and disseminate meaning online during the 2019 Hong Kong protest. Around 498 video titles and their corresponding thumbnails were examined. The results indicate that media organizations mostly employed frames focusing on protest violence and reinforced this frame through the illustration strategy for the title and thumbnail. Factors impacting the videos’ popularity metrics are also discussed.
Mastering Metrics: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Broadcast Journalists’ Self-Presentation Strategies on Social Media • Stefanie Davis Kempton, Penn State Altoona; Colleen Connolly-Ahern, Penn State University • Access to social media has given journalists more opportunities than ever to connect with audiences and disseminate important information. Broadcast journalists are using social media as a self-branding tool to gather an audience following and audience trust. However, the popularity of social media has also prompted unique challenges for traditional journalism norms. Through a mixed-method approach of qualitative interviews and social media discourse analysis, this paper investigates how broadcast journalists are negotiating through these new evolving media structures. The goal of this paper is to provide practical insight into the social media strategies top broadcast journalists are using and to analyze their effectiveness with audiences.
Readable Expressions – Nonverbal Neutrality in Crisis Coverage: A Content Analysis of the Parkland School Shooting • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • “Journalists go to great lengths to keep their reports neutral and unbiased. Entire classes in journalism school are taught on this very subject, and yet very few, if any, journalists are trained in a critical aspect of communication – nonverbal expression. Despite making up nearly 90% of all communication, broadcasters very rarely consider their nonverbal communication patterns in reporting practices, even when it comes to adhering to professional norms like neutrality. This study examines this issue in the context of crises coverage. Because crisis reports show broadcasters unedited and reacting in real time, they serve as an observational field that can help scholars better understand newsmaking practices. This focus on nonverbal communication adds to previous research in neutrality, expanding the various ways broadcasters can communicate partiality or bias in their reports. This study looks specifically at school shootings, utilizing a content analysis method to study nonverbal expressions of network broadcasters during the Parkland school shooting coverage.”
Visual Framing Effects of Nonverbal Communication in Crisis • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • During a national crisis, journalists have tremendous influence over audiences. Viewers who turn to the news for the latest breaking news during a disaster are particularly vulnerable to the influence of the media (Graber, 1990). While journalists strive to remain neutral in their verbal presentations of news and are extensively trained to do so (Coleman & Wu, 2006), most journalists do not consider the potential impact of their nonverbal communication (e.g., hand gestures, facial expressions) on crisis coverage. In addition, journalists do not receive the same training to control and conceal nonverbal communication patterns as they receive in their written or verbal communication (Coleman & Wu, 2006). Recent studies on broadcaster nonverbal neutrality during a crisis show that broadcasters communicate significantly more nonneutral nonverbal expressions than neutral nonverbal expressions in their coverage (Coleman & Wu, 2006; [author], 2018; [author], 2019a; [author], 2019b). Yet, little to no research has been done to understand the implications of these nonneutral nonverbal expressions on audiences’ impression of the communicator and message being communication. This study seeks to understand the potential effects of nonneutral nonverbal expressions of broadcasters on audiences during crisis coverage events. Specifically, it explores how exposure to a broadcaster’s nonverbal communication during a news segment on a mass shooting affects audience beliefs about the broadcaster’s credibility, their support for gun control and mental health regulation, their belief that the government can prevent mass shootings, and their perception of risk to be involved in a mass shooting.
Like, Comment, or Share? Exploring the Effects of Local Television News Facebook Posts on User Engagement • Miao Guo, Ball State University; Fu-Shing Sun • This study examines the effects of local television news Facebook posts on user engagement. By scraping 4,151 Facebook posts from a local television station’s Facebook page, this investigation performs a content analysis on different features of Facebook news posts, including news topics, message vividness and interactivity, post time, and length of post. This study further examines how different news post features to affect three levels of user engagement behaviors indicated by reactions, comments, and shares.
Second Level Agenda Setting in CNN News Coverage of the Columbine and Parkland Mass Shootings • Hannah Hume • Through discourse analysis, this article seeks to compare the cable news coverage of the Columbine High School school shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School school shooting using second-level agenda setting theory, with CNN broadcast transcripts as the unit of analysis. The research showed that the shooter was the dominant shaping force in the creation of the agenda for cable news coverage in both school shooting events.
TV News and the Military: Exploring Media Frames of an American Institution • Alex Luchsinger, Elon University; Jane O’Boyle, Elon University • This exploratory study analyzes television news transcripts (N = 300) to examine how broadcast news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and cable news networks (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) cover military veterans and service members in news programming. Findings show that broadcast news networks’ stories and sources focused on veterans and service members themselves or their families, while cable news networks relied on legislative issues, politicians and other elite sources. Other findings and recommendations are discussed.
Widening News-Seeking Gap? Moderating Roles of Perceived News Importance and News Efficacy in the Effects of News Aggregator Use on News Seeking • Chang Sup Park, University at Albany, SUNY; Qian Liu, Jinan University • This study examines how using news aggregators influences news consumption, based on an online survey of 1,340 adults of South Korea. The analysis shows that news aggregator use is positively associated with news seeking from both offline and online news media. Further, individual-level characteristics such as perceived news importance and news efficacy moderate the relationship between news aggregator use and news seeking. This result suggests that news aggregator use may widen news seeking gap between those who are highly interested in news and those who are not.
What is Digital Journalism? Defining the Practice and Role of the Digital Journalist • Gregory Perreault; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado-Boulder; Anna Dollar, Appalachian State University • Through the lens of theories of field and normalization process, this research seeks to understand technology’s current role in how self-identifying digital journalists define the field. Built on long-form interviews with 68 self-identifying digital journalists, this manuscript will argue that the digital turn in the industry has emboldened new entrants to the field and required traditional, dominantly-placed journalists to reconsider their definition of journalism as well as their practices
Media Credibility in the Fake News Era: Assessing the Influence of Sourcing and Political Affiliation • Sean R Sadri, University of Alabama; John P Kelsey, University of Alabama • Misinformation and “fake news” remain ubiquitous throughout online platforms, and perceptions of news credibility have declined as a result. Using a sample population of U.S. adults (N = 324), the present study sought to analyze news consumption habits nationwide and examine variables that influence media credibility and online share likelihood. An experiment determined that political affiliation, among other factors, can significantly influence perceived credibility and the likelihood of an article being shared on social media.
All The News That’s Fit to Watch: How The New York Times Uses Video on Facebook • Jeremy Saks, Old Dominion University; Pamela Walck • The New York Times has a long history as the purveyor of all the news that’s fit to print. In a multi-layered journalistic world, this study examined how the Times utilized Facebook video and found the Gray Lady highlighted its strong news values, while expanding into videos. The legacy newspaper used Facebook to drive traffic to its website through hyperlinks while abiding by algorithms that controlled what information rises into users’ consciousness.
Beyond Social Media News Use Algorithms: How Political Discussion and Heterogeneity Networks Clarify INE • Rebecca Scheffauer; Manuel Goyanes, Carlos III University; Homero Gil de Zúñiga • In recent years, the popularization of social media platforms has enabled new opportunities for citizens to be incidentally informed. Relying on UK and USA survey data, the paper shows how socio-political conversation attributes (i.e., political discussion and discussion network heterogeneity) may explain incidental exposure to information. Heterogeneous networks and sheer level of political discussion are positively related to incidental news exposure. The paper also highlights the positive role of social media news use as moderator.
The Voice of America and Ethiopia: Examining the Contours of Public Diplomacy and Journalistic Autonomy • Tewodros Workneh, Kent State University • Established in 1982, the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic Service became one of the most popular news outlets for Ethiopians in Ethiopia and Ethiopian diaspora communities across the world. Angered by the Service’s coverage of human rights abuses, bad governance, and other issues of public interest, Ethiopia’s ruling party made the discontinuation of the Service one of the top priorities of its diplomatic ties with the United States. This study examines the major pressure points of the Service’s newsroom autonomy permeating from Ethio-American shared public diplomacy interests through the optics of newsroom staff. Findings from document analysis and interviews reveal VOA Amharic journalists experience primary pressure sources (host political factors and homeland political factors) and secondary pressure sources (personal/relational factors, diasporic political factors, and audience factors) challenging their journalistic autonomy. Despite these pressures, journalists highlight the significance of the organization’s legislative “firewall” and evidence-based external review process in upholding the newsroom’s autonomy.
Fake News or Alternative Facts? Veracity Assessment of the Content and Comments of Unfamiliar News • Huai-Kuan Zeng, National Chiao Tung University; Tai-Yee Wu, National Chiao Tung University; David Atkin • Given growing concerns regarding the spread of medical misinformation, the current research set out to assess the message effects of social media news on reader veracity assessments. Results from an experiment indicate that news balance is more predictive of perceived credibility, news sharing, and fact-checking tendencies than is comment incivility. These findings indicate that when readers encounter an unfamiliar news issue, central-route processing plays a more important role in veracity assessment than peripheral-route processing.
Examining the influence of Facebook comments on news stories: Can anonymous comments induce spiral of silence? • Sherice Gearhart; Bingbing Zhang, Pennsylvania State University • Previous research has demonstrated that the spiral of silence theory is applicable to behaviors among social media users, especially Facebook users who interact among their peers. However, existent work has limitedly tested whether the theory remains applicable to social media contexts during a non-peer interaction. Using a 2 x 2 between subjects factorial design (N = 744) of adult Facebook users across the United States, participants were asked about their opinions on two controversial issues (i.e., either abortion or the potential ban of assault-style rifles). After exposure to comments on a news story advertisement posted by a reputable news outlet that either agreed or disagreed with their opinion, users were asked how they would respond to the circumstance. Results generally support the spiral of silence theory in a non-peer environment. Further, evidence shows that selective exposure on social media may influence the perception of opinion environments.
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