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- Volume 3, Issue 2, 2014
Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies - Volume 3, Issue 2, 2014
Volume 3, Issue 2, 2014
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Journalists and scholars: A short manifesto
By Vin RayMedia and journalism practitioners and academics do not and should not do the same thing. Their approach to what they do – and the result – is entirely different. Yet many academics see journalists as their ‘subjects’, or the targets of their research. Despite this, scholars rarely have practitioners in mind when writing and publishing their research. The language they use, as well as the methodologies, philosophies and theories they employ, are all alien to journalists and the way they operate. As a result, practitioners pay little heed to the work of academics. They see their job as providing – in simple language – the kind of information and analysis that will allow citizens to make the most informed choices in the way they live their lives. This editorial note outlines how practitioners view academic research and what they think academics need to do to make their work relevant, useful and practical. Second, it highlights the hurdles that prevent the two sides from bridging the existing gaps. Third, it proposes three important ideas as to how the two camps can work together to meet the editorial goal of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies (AJMS), which is, ‘devoted to research with an applied angle in which a clear link is made between the prevalent theories and paradigms media and communication scholars work with, and the real world where media and communication activities take place’.
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The digital transformation of Arab news: Is there a future for online news after the ‘Arab Spring’?
Authors: Mohamed Ben Moussa and Aziz DouaiThis study examines online news delivery and how Arab newspaper journalism has harnessed the Internet’s potential to deliver news in novel ways, reach new readers and audiences, and the implications for the way these users consume and interact with online news. Existing research on online journalism has documented the web’s effects on journalism practice and online news at several levels, including the reorganization of newsrooms and the incorporation of technical features such as interactivity and media convergence. Based on those research findings, we conduct a comparative analysis of 54 websites of online and print newspapers in the Arab world. The comparative analysis focuses on six main variables: (1) revenue resources, (2) editorial organization, (3) hyperlinks, (4) interactivity, (5) media convergence issues, and (6) updating/immediacy. While the Internet has opened new and immense opportunities for journalism in the region, the study finds little evidence to suggest that it is substantially contributing to transforming communication dynamics and journalistic practices that can foster dialogical discourse and participatory communication, both of which are central to the development of civic culture and liberal democracy.
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Recurring topics in the social media policies of mainstream media
More LessIn recent years mainstream media from all over the world have been regulating the behaviour of their journalists as far as reliance on social media is concerned, fearing these new forms of communication might damage the credibility of their institutions. Those who have not yet done so are now facing this unstoppable challenge with concern and have begun to outline guidelines for their social media policies. In order to outline the design of these new policies, this article presents recurring topics in social policies and guidelines by leading media such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, BBC, NPR, AP, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and also the ASNE. To identify them, a qualitative content analysis of 22 of these policies has been conducted.
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Media professionals’ perceptions of the online media: Cognitive tensions related to technological change
Authors: Hanna-Kaisa Ellonen, Miia Kosonen and Ari JantunenA firm’s dominant logic refers to the mindset of the business in which it operates, and incorporates elements such as core beliefs about its role in its operating environments. We unravel the dynamics of competing dominant logics in the publishing industry. We identify five tensions between the traditional print-oriented dominant logic and the new emerging dominant logic of the online business. We also observe differences between the mindsets of four professional groups, namely chief editors, journalists, online developers and managers. We argue that the tensions do not only exist on the operational level but also on the cognitive level and between the professional groups.
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The impact of entertainment factors on news enjoyment and recall: Humour and human interest
By Jie XuThe inclusion of entertaining factors in broadcast news is a widely debated topic and enduring issue in journalism, which has both significant theoretical and practical implications. The constant battle over how to attract the largest audience without changing the ‘hard news’ format is a source of contention for many in the industry today. This research project aims to ask questions, the answers to which may have some significant impact on the format of television newscasts. In a between-subjects experiment, this study investigates how two entertainment variables, humour and human interest, as well as the combination of both in a story, impact news enjoyment and recall. Results show that humorous news stories and humorous human interest news stories are enjoyed significantly more than neutral news stories. Respondents (N=156) recall the news stories better when humour is featured. However, the combination (news story with humour and human) condition generates lower recall than the humorous version. Several observations related to the findings and implications for broadcast journalism are elaborated. The conclusions drawn from the study might provide television news producers with a strong foundation for changing the structure of newscasts in the future. Limitations and directions for future research are also outlined.
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Traditional versus online newspapers: The perspective of news audiences in Botswana
Authors: William Lesitaokana and Eno AkpabioContemporary studies of journalism and new media indicate that news audiences prefer to read online newspapers because they are generally interactive, host multimedia content and report breaking news. However, the literature on the impact of digital media technologies on traditional print publication consumption patterns in Botswana and the African continent is hard to come by. Thus, this study, using multistage cluster sampling and focus group discussions, sets out to explore how audience members in Botswana engage with online news vis-á-vis traditional newspapers. It finds out that news audiences have a favorable attitude towards online newspapers but still prefer traditional newspapers, and that in Botswana specifically, access to online and traditional newspapers is influenced by factors such as cost and convenience. The study’s findings indicate clearly that while new media technologies continue to influence new trends and practices in journalism globally, audiences’ experience with these technologies differ from country to country.
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Conflict between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kongers: A social identity perspective in explaining the hostile media phenomenon and the third-person effect
Authors: Bolin Cao, Zhiqun Chen, Yingjie Huang and Wai Han LoThis study adopts social identity perspective to examine hostile media effect (HME) and the third-person effect (TPE) in the context of conflicts between Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong people. We conducted a field experiment involving Mainland Chinese (N=77) and Hong Kong (N=74) university students using a constructed neutral newspaper article as the stimuli. The results provide evidence that social identity could be a predictor of HME. It also suggests that perceptions of hostile bias in news coverage are not only limited to partisans, but also happen among readers of different cultural identities. Moreover, the research links up HME with the TPE, and further illustrates that TPE would happen even when neutral article is employed.
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The nature of Arab public discourse: Social media and the ‘Arab Spring’
More LessThis article focuses on the use and significance of social media in the Arab region, particularly among Arab journalists within the context of the events known as ‘the Arab Spring’. Besides describing the social media tools preferred by the public and by Arab media professionals, the article assesses the relative use and trust of new versus old media tools. The article also explores the relationship between the use of social media in the Arab region and the political and social uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria. The main research question is: what is the relation between social media and Arab discourse in these countries? The article uses a multi-method approach, combining survey data with qualitative data from interviews. Surveys were distributed to 1000 people across the UAE, and 789 surveys were received back. The interviews were drawn from Arab media experts from various media organizations in the relatively understudied UAE. The research concludes that, although social media cannot be said to have been the sole cause for social change, certain social media outlets have indeed complemented old media and served as a catalyst for the uprisings that have swept several Arab states in the Middle East.
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