Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Editorial: Data-Driven Campaigning in a Comparative Context—Toward a 4th Era of Political Communication? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9227 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.9227 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 9227 Author-Name: Stephanie Luke Author-Workplace-Name: School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University, UK Author-Name: Esmeralda Bon Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK Author-Name: Katharine Dommett Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK Author-Name: Rachel Gibson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK Author-Name: Sophie Lecheler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Sanne Kruikemeier Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Strategic Communication, Wageningen University of Research, The Netherlands Abstract: Contemporary political campaigning takes place both online and offline, and can be data-driven. In this piece, we review existing knowledge around data-driven campaigning (DDC) and introduce the new contributions made by the pieces within this thematic issue. We reveal how the studies included in this thematic issue of Media and Communication contribute to this existing knowledge by providing an up-to-date account of how DDC in general, and political microtargeting in specific, have been employed in election campaigns between 2021 and 2023, in a range of countries: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the US. As a collection, these studies highlight the variance that exists in the degree to which DDC is practiced, the range of DDC tools used, and attitudes toward DDC. In recent election campaigns, DDC takes many forms, and disapproval of DDC varies depending on how it is implemented. Keywords: data-driven campaigning; digital campaigning; elections; microtargeting; personalisation; political advertising; political communication; public attitudes; targeting Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:9227 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Data-Driven Maintaining: The Role of the Party and Data Maintenance in the US Context File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8735 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8735 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8735 Author-Name: Jessica Baldwin-Philippi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University, USA Abstract: Political campaigning in the US is unique in the global context for its lack of attention to the role of the party, largely due to the centrality and power of campaigns. In the US context, successful data-driven campaigning (DDC) has often been covered by the press and analyzed by US scholars as an innovative campaign creating new tools and new tactics (and earning more media coverage for them). This research investigates the oft-ignored role of party organizations in DDC in the US, and in doing so, highlights the invisible work of data maintenance that is their purview. Methodologically, it brings together interviews with staffers from both party organizations and campaigns with thematic analysis of news coverage to answer questions about how the data-driven practices of parties versus campaigns differ, how parties’ data work is (and is not) covered, and what, in staffers’ views, contributes to such coverage. Ultimately, this research highlights how a lack of attention to party organizations’ work has gone hand in hand with a lack of attention to maintenance work in both academic and public discussions of DDC. Keywords: big data; campaigns; data-driven campaigning; maintenance; political campaigning; political parties Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8735 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: More Than Meets the Eye: Understanding Political Microtargeting Processing With Gaze-Cued Retrospective Think-Aloud Methodology File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8679 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8679 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8679 Author-Name: Selina Noetzel Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Alice Binder Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Jörg Matthes Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Political microtargeting is a popular campaign tool in elections worldwide. However, it is associated with democratic risks. Foremost, scholars and policymakers are concerned that citizens cannot cope with political microtargeting and, thus, stand vulnerable to persuasion. To assess this risk, an in-depth understanding of how citizens make sense of and cope with political microtargeting is required. However, empirical studies are scarce, partially inconclusive, and provide global rather than nuanced insights. This study contributes to this research by employing an innovative, qualitative gaze-cued retrospective think-aloud design to distinguish coping patterns and, based on that, assess citizens’ vulnerability to persuasion via political microtargeting (N = 25). The results reveal similarities regarding conceptual persuasion knowledge activation (i.e., advertising and targeting awareness) but differences in attitudinal and behavioral coping, illustrated along five coping patterns (avoidance, coherence assessment, ad quality assessment, partisanship bias, and neutral observation). Only individuals who cope by neutrally observing the political message seem vulnerable to political microtargeting. For individuals who cope with political messages based on their partisanship, political microtargeting might strengthen existing ties but backlash when employed by a non-preferred party. This study informs educators and policymakers about citizens’ coping mechanisms with political microtargeting and their potential vulnerability, which may guide intervention and regulation decisions. Keywords: cognition; coping; persuasion; political attitudes; targeted ads Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8679 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Data-Driven Campaigning in Data-Dense Small Multiparty Systems: A Party-Level Analysis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8634 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8634 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8634 Author-Name: Anamaria Dutceac Segesten Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Language and Literature, Lund University, Sweden Author-Name: Linn Sandberg Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract: This study examines data-driven campaign (DDC) practices in Sweden. We explore the extent of data-driven practices adopted in Swedish political campaigns, and parties’ motivations to adopt them. Since this is a comparison of domestic parties, we test the importance of four party-level factors—resources, structure, attitudes toward data use, and ideology—using extensive interviews with key campaign managers in Sweden during the 2022 election year. Our results show that the differences among the eight parties studied are rather small, and that systemic factors are more important than party variables to explain the adoption of data-driven approaches. Zooming in on these finer differences we distinguish between top DDC adopters (Social Democrats, Center, and Conservatives) and a lower tier with lower levels of DDC implementation. To explain the differences between the two tiers, we find that economic resources are important, with richer parties being more advanced in DDC use. Party structure, attitudes to data, and ideology do not affect the likelihood of a Swedish party using data analytics in their strategic decision-making. Instead, we suggest party type (catch-all vs. niche) is a potentially more useful party-level factor in explaining variation. Keywords: data analytics; democracy; election campaigns; political communication; political parties Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8634 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Quantifying Data-Driven Campaigning Across Sponsors and Platforms File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8577 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8577 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8577 Author-Name: Michael M. Franz Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Government and Legal Studies, Bowdoin College, USA Author-Name: Meiqing Zhang Author-Workplace-Name: Wesleyan Media Project, Wesleyan University, USA Author-Name: Travis N. Ridout Author-Workplace-Name: School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Washington State University, USA Author-Name: Pavel Oleinikov Author-Workplace-Name: Wesleyan Media Project, Wesleyan University, USA / Quantitative Analysis Center, Wesleyan University, USA Author-Name: Jielu Yao Author-Workplace-Name: East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore Author-Name: Furkan Cakmak Author-Workplace-Name: Wesleyan Media Project, Wesleyan University, USA Author-Name: Erika Franklin Fowler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Government, Wesleyan University, USA Abstract: Although modern data-driven campaigning (DDC) is not entirely new, scholars have typically relied on reports and interviews of practitioners to understand its use. However, the advent of public ad libraries from Meta and Google provides an opportunity to measure the scope and variation in DDC practice in advertising across different types of sponsors and within sponsors across platforms. Using textual and audiovisual processing, we create a database of ads from the 2022 US elections. These data allow us to create an index that quantifies the extent of DDC at the level of the sponsor and platform. This index takes into account both the number of unique creatives placed and the similarity across those creatives. In addition, we explore the impact of sponsor resources, the office being sought, and the competitiveness of the race on the measure of DDC sophistication. Ultimately, our research establishes a measurement strategy for DDC that can be applied across ad sponsors, campaigns, parties, and even countries. Understanding the extent of DDC is vital for policy discussions surrounding the regulation of microtargeting and data privacy. Keywords: data-driven campaigning; digital campaigning; election campaigns; political advertising Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8577 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Reaching the Voters: Parties’ Use of Google Ads in the 2021 German Federal Election File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8543 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8543 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8543 Author-Name: Jasmin Fitzpatrick Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany Author-Name: Felix-Christopher von Nostitz Author-Workplace-Name: ESPOL-LAB, Université Catholique de Lille, France Abstract: Election campaigns during the pandemic showcased the increased use of costly digital campaigning by parties. While many studies focus on the use of Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and other social networking sites during elections, parties’ use of Google Ads remains widely unstudied. This is surprising given that parties spend a substantial proportion of their budget on Google Ads and Google reports on this spending and other details of the ads in its Transparency Report. Based on the equalisation vs. normalisation thesis, we identify party factors (size, age, government/opposition status, and electoral strongholds) that affect parties’ use of this instrument to a different degree in their campaigns. We aim to highlight parties’ use of Google Ads during the campaigns for the 2021 German Bundestag election, relying on the official data provided via Google’s Ad Library. We discuss both empirical work on the factors that determine the use of Google Ads and conceptual work on the merit and perils of such ads in democratic elections, and we present descriptive and exploratory findings of our deep dive into the archive of Google Ads. Keywords: e-campaigning; elections; Germany; Google Ads; political communication; political parties; transparency Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8543 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Are Certain Types of Microtargeting More Acceptable? Comparing US, German, and Dutch Citizens’ Attitudes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8520 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8520 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8520 Author-Name: Esmeralda Bon Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK Author-Name: Katharine Dommett Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK Author-Name: Rachel Gibson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK Author-Name: Sanne Kruikemeier Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Strategic Communication, Wageningen University of Research, The Netherlands Author-Name: Sophie Lecheler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Much of the research on political microtargeting has focused on growing public concerns about its use in elections, fuelling calls for greater regulation or even a ban on the practice. We contend that a more nuanced understanding of public attitudes toward microtargeting is required before further regulation is considered. Drawing on advertising psychology research and the results of academic analyses into microtargeting, we argue that individual concern, and by corollary, acceptance of microtargeting will vary based on socio-demographic characteristics and political orientations, and the type of personal data used. We hypothesise that microtargeting that relies on observable or publicly accessible personal information will be more accepted by voters than that which uses unobserved and inferred traits. We test these expectations and the expected variance of public acceptance by individual characteristics using comparative survey data from the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. We find that across countries and socio-demographic groups, not all microtargeting is considered equally problematic. For example, whereas the use of age and gender is generally deemed acceptable, the use of sexual orientation is not, and right-leaning individuals are more accepting than those who lean left. Additionally, overall, the US is more accepting of microtargeting than Germany or the Netherlands. Thus, we find that not all microtargeting is considered equally problematic across countries and socio-demographic groups. We conclude by calling for a more contextualised debate about the benefits and costs of political microtargeting and its use of “sensitive” data before the expansion of current regulation. Keywords: data; microtargeting; political microtargeting; public attitudes; regulation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8520 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Data-Campaigning on Facebook: Do Metrics of User Engagement Drive French Political Parties’ Publications? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8487 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8487 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8487 Author-Name: Julien Figeac Author-Workplace-Name: National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), University of Toulouse, France Author-Name: Marie Neihouser Author-Workplace-Name: Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France Author-Name: Ferdinand Le Coz Author-Workplace-Name: University of Toulouse, France Abstract: Research on data-driven campaigning has mostly focused on the strategies of central campaign teams. However, there is a lack of evidence explaining how parties and supporters use data-driven campaigning techniques to organise their social media campaigning. Do user engagement metrics influence the choice of campaign themes by encouraging political parties to concentrate their communication on issues that are most liked, commented on, and shared? Our study focuses on the use of Facebook by French political parties and their supporters during the 2022 presidential election campaign. We conducted a supervised content analysis based on machine learning to examine their Facebook posts (n = 17,060). Our results show that the issues prioritized by parties on Facebook may be different from those that are most prominent in their broader communications. In most cases, however, these themes are not chosen based on user engagement, even for parties that claim to have developed their base through digital channels. Instead, the choice of themes seems influenced by more traditional campaign strategies, such as the desire to capture the electorate of their closest rival. In our conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for the adoption of data-driven campaigning in digital election communication across Europe. Keywords: data-driven campaigning; issue salience; political communication; political programs; social media; supervised learning; user engagement Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8487 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: An Exploratory Study of Fact-Checking Practices in Conflict and Authoritarian Contexts File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8698 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8698 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8698 Author-Name: Samba Dialimpa Badji Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Kristin Skare Orgeret Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Bruce Mutsvairo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Abstract: This study explores fact-checking practices in Ethiopia and Mali in times of conflict and in a context marked by increasing restrictions to press freedom. The objective is to understand how, in this hostile environment, fact-checkers in these two countries manage to carry out their activities. Our findings reveal that fact-checkers are often victims of online bullying and harassment and fear reprisal from governments. This pushes them to self-censor, avoiding working on sensitive topics, such as military issues in Mali. In addition, fact-checking organizations in both countries highlight the difficulty of accessing reliable sources. Consequently, they focus more on debunking viral social media content, thus effectively becoming content moderators who have turned away from the mission of holding leaders accountable, one of the primary functions of fact-checking. Regarding their role conception, fact-checkers in Ethiopia and Mali see themselves more as guides helping navigate the information disorder than “guardians of truth” or “truth keepers.” Keywords: disinformation; Ethiopia; fact-checking; information disorder; journalism; Mali; media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8698 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Beyond Verification: The Evolving Role of Fact-Checking Organisations in Media Literacy Education for Youth File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8690 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8690 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8690 Author-Name: Lucia Mesquita Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Margarida Maneta Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Maria José Brites Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Abstract: This research investigates the crucial role of fact-checking organisations in promoting media and information literacy (MIL) amid the challenges of widespread misinformation. By educating and empowering individuals, these organisations and their educational branches are identified as emerging components within MIL ecosystems, particularly focusing on engaging youth. Using qualitative research methods, our study analyses the activities of seven prominent fact-checking organisations and two university-affiliated projects across Spain, Catalonia, Poland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Argentina, and Brazil. Thus, our study aims to understand why fact-checking organisations have become involved in MIL education and training for youth and what types of MIL, approaches, and subjects fact-checking organisations employ in their MIL education and training initiatives for this audience. Our findings reveal a shift in these organisations toward actively promoting MIL education through dedicated divisions and teams driven by mission-oriented action and peer collaboration. Various institutions and political and educational policies support or hinder this transformation. A significant issue observed is the limited availability of open-access materials and general opacity regarding their pedagogical approaches. Although these organisations have integrated educational components into their models, achieving financial sustainability remains challenging. Keywords: education; educational policies; fact-checking; media and information literacy; misinformation; youth training Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8690 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Body of Mine, Yours, and Everyone in Between: Communicating Gender Dysphoria Through Immersive Storytelling File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8687 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8687 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8687 Author-Name: Cameron Kostopoulos Author-Workplace-Name: Narrative and Emerging Media Program, Arizona State University, USA Abstract:
This article explores the potential of new, immersive realities to convey the complex experiences of gender dysphoria and body dissatisfaction, using the innovative and multi-award-winning experience Body of Mine as a case study. Recognizing a gap in understanding and empathy towards gender-queer communities, Body of Mine employs an innovative full-body tracking solution to place users into the body of someone else, combined with first-person documentary interviews and interactive elements aimed at fostering a deeper connection and insight into the transgender experience. Initial feedback from users indicates a heightened awareness and emotional connection to the challenges faced by individuals with gender dysphoria, as well as an increase in self-body positivity, based on a study conducted in collaboration with the University of Tübingen’s Department of Psychology. This project underscores the power of immersive storytelling in fostering embodied understanding, while also acknowledging the ethical complexities and voyeuristic risks when sharing narratives from vulnerable communities, and explores innovative methods for tackling social issues through emerging technology. It concludes by contemplating the implications of immersive technologies for the concept of identity in a world that increasingly transcends the physical body, suggesting a future where the notion of self is not confined to physical form but is fluid, multifaceted, and continually redefined within boundless digital horizons.
Keywords: embodiment; gender dysphoria; identity; immersive; interactive media; LGBTQ+; storytelling; technology; transgender; virtual reality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8687 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Beyond Digital Literacy: Exploring Factors Affecting Digital Performance of University Staff File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8913 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8913 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 13 Year: 2024 Number: 8913 Author-Name: Carmen Koch Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland Author-Name: Fiona Fehlmann Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland Abstract: Digital literacy is essential but doesn’t guarantee digital performance. Many researchers consider factors such as attitude, cultural environment, or institutional setting in their frameworks when researching digital literacy. Yet, their significance often gets lost in a catalog of required skills and knowledge. Here we develop a model outlining factors influencing university personnel’s digital performance across diverse tasks, and we discuss associated challenges. The model derives from literature and insights from 20 qualitative interviews with academic staff in teaching, research, or consulting roles. Results show that institutional settings and employee empowerment are pivotal in shaping openness to digital tools. Intentions fail due to resource constraints and lack of recognition, leading to limited experience with digital opportunities. Well-being significantly influences willingness to embrace digital resources amidst the balancing act of anticipating future efficiency against investing time and resources. Maintaining a team atmosphere often results in alignment with the least digitally competent. With appropriate conditions, time resources, and support, staff could efficiently utilize digital resources, even with only basic skills, which fosters the integration of all workforces. We argue for comprehensive assessments of university employees’ digital performances, considering context and holistic aspects beyond personal skills and knowledge. Our model encompasses digital literacy, openness to digital developments, digital culture, primary conditions, services/empowerment offerings, and mindfulness. Keywords: academic digital literacy; digital culture; digital literacy; digital performance; digital well-being; empowerment Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2024:a:8913 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Ghosting on Tinder: Examining Disconnectivity in Online Dating File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8563 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8563 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8563 Author-Name: Anamarija Šiša Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Abstract: This study examines the phenomenon of ghosting on the mobile dating app Tinder among Slovenia’s dating app users. Ghosting is defined as the unexpected unilateral termination of communication in interpersonal relationships exerted through digital platforms. Drawing upon data from the walkthrough of the mobile dating app Tinder and 26 semi-structured interviews with users living in Ljubljana (Slovenia), ghosting is conceptualized as an undesirable but normalized disconnection strategy on Tinder. We argue that choosing ghosting as a communication strategy emerges predominantly from two different contexts. Firstly, from the need to protect oneself from harassment and vulnerability, and secondly, as a reaction to the information overload in an environment that demands perpetual activity, availability, and interaction. Therefore, it manifests as a disconnection strategy on an interaction level or as a consequence of disconnecting from the platform itself. According to users, the desire to disconnect from others and exit the app is as high and ambiguous as the desire to connect and experience an ego boost or the excitement of interactions. Ghosting on Tinder, therefore, emerges as a response to general hyperconnectivity to navigate the increasing information overload and to a feeling of loss of the possibilities for safe and authentic connections in digital spaces. Keywords: digital disconnection; ghosting; hyperconnectivity; information overload; safety strategy; Tinder Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8563 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Individual Disconnection to Collective Practices for Journalists’ Wellbeing File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8628 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8628 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8628 Author-Name: Diana Bossio Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia Author-Name: Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, USA Author-Name: Avery E. Holton Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Utah, USA Author-Name: Logan Molyneux Author-Workplace-Name: Lew Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University, USA Abstract: Journalists are increasingly experiencing the negative consequences of online news transformations, such as trolling and harassment, as well as audience distrust. Despite acute need, intra-organisational efforts to support journalists’ online wellbeing have so far been limited. More recently, research has explored how journalists have turned to individual practices of disconnection, such as blocking, muting, or small breaks from online media to mediate the impacts of their everyday online labour (Bossio et al., 2024). Building on this research, this study explores how these individual practices are moving toward collective practices of disconnection. Using interviews with 21 journalists, this study traces how emergent collective practices might contribute to systemic change in journalism. We argue that in lieu of intra-organizational support, journalists seek to disconnect through informal sharing of experiences and support as well as collective efforts toward inter-organisational training and intra-organisational formalization mentoring programs. Keywords: disconnection; journalism; journalism practice; online connection; professional identity; social media; wellbeing Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8628 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Countering Disinformation Moderated by Intellectual Humility File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9109 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.9109 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 13 Year: 2024 Number: 9109 Author-Name: Eduard-Claudiu Gross Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Work, Journalism, Public Relations, and Sociology, Lucian Blaga University Sibiu, Romania Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania Abstract: There is an ongoing debate among scholars on how to tackle disinformation. Media education initiatives to increase literacy are effective ways to counter disinformation. Hence, the European Commission (2022) published Guidelines for Teachers and Educators on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training. The present research looked at the role of social media literacy in increasing awareness of the role of social media in spreading disinformation. We developed an educational intervention based on the European Commission guidelines. We investigated its impact on perceived social media literacy, the intention to share fake news on social media, and general conspiracy beliefs. We conducted a within-subject (two times measurement: before the educational intervention and one week after) +1 experiment with N = 127 young adults (aged 18 to 23). After filling in an initial survey, the experimental group received a 15-minute educational intervention on the role of social media for disinformation dissemination in complex digital information environments. One week later, all participants completed the second survey to assess perceived social media literacy and general conspiracy beliefs. In both surveys, participants saw three Instagram posts from a fictitious media outlet to express potential intentions to share on social media. Among the three posts, two showed false information. Findings showed that educational intervention produces a significant increase in perceived social media literacy and a decrease in general conspiracy beliefs. Intellectual humility moderates the impact of educational intervention on algorithmic awareness. Keywords: conspiracies; conspiracies belief; digital literacy; Instagram; intellectual humility; social media; social media literacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2024:a:9109 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Augmented Landscapes of Empathy: Community Voices in Augmented Reality Campaigns File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8581 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8581 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8581 Author-Name: Katerina Girginova Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Jeffrey Vadala Author-Workplace-Name: Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Andy Tan Author-Workplace-Name: School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Kate Okker-Edging Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Kyle Cassidy Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Terri Lipman Author-Workplace-Name: School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Melanie Kornides Author-Workplace-Name: School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, USA Abstract: In contrast with virtual reality which often aims to isolate a user from their surroundings in order to transport them to a distant place, augmented reality (AR) was uniquely designed to (re)contextualize local landscapes and to provide expanded human experiences in situ. This critical reflection adopts a “research through design” process to examine AR’s technological and affective capabilities in the context of three community co-created AR campaigns. We discuss how AR can become both a conceptual and practical tool for creating conditions of self-identification and, potentially, empathy between audience and content. Further, we explore how people and place become a critical part of AR’s infrastructure through the practice of empathic feedback loops. Keywords: augmented reality; community research; empathy; research through design Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8581 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Dis/Connection as Everyday Boundary Work Among Hong Kong BN(O) Migrants in the UK File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8573 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8573 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8573 Author-Name: Jade Jiewen Deng Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jason Pridmore Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: While digital media can be seen to keep alive social connections among migrants across borders, the impact of how digital disconnection has redrawn migrants’ boundaries has not been adequately researched. Migrants subjected to the dual border-and-boundary work of Western host countries and their non-Western home countries make for complicated self–other boundary narratives. This study explores the everyday boundary work of migrants originating from Hong Kong, a former British colony, who have chosen to relocate to the UK through the British National (Overseas) (BN[O]) visa scheme. The scheme was catalysed by the 2019 political upheaval in Chinese Hong Kong and the UK–Hong Kong colonial affiliation. Through the lens of dis/connection assemblage, we conceptualise digital dis/connections as a form of boundary work and conduct in-depth interviews and thematic analysis of 14 BN(O)s. We demonstrate that digital disconnection can be seen as a socio-political practice related to identity regulation by situating BN(O)s’ digital media practices within the political projects of belonging in the UK, Hong Kong, and China. Through a matrix of disconnected approaches, BN(O)s shape boundaries around identity politics in terms of social positions, a sense of belonging, and social relations. The political meaning of digital disconnection is highlighted through its fracture of connected space-time and resilient management of social relationships. Keywords: borders; boundary work; digital connection; digital disconnection; Hong Kong; migration Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8573 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Understanding Expressions of Self-Determination Theory in the Evaluation of IDEA-Themed VR Storytelling File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8601 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8601 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8601 Author-Name: Kandice N. Green Author-Workplace-Name: Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, USA / Department of Communication, Fairfield University, USA Author-Name: Shengjie Yao Author-Workplace-Name: Mass Communication Department, Sam Houston State University, USA Author-Name: Heejae Lee Author-Workplace-Name: Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, USA Author-Name: Lyndsay Michalik Gratch Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Rhetorical Study, Syracuse University, USA Author-Name: David Peters Author-Workplace-Name: Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, USA Author-Name: T. Makana Chock Author-Workplace-Name: Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, USA Abstract: This study investigates how prior experiences (personal or a close other’s) influence individuals’ engagement with virtual reality (VR) stories designed to promote understanding and foster prosocial behavior. Integrating self-determination theory and self–other overlap, we conducted an experimental mixed-method study with 35 participants who experienced three VR stories focused on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA): living with Alzheimer’s, blindness, and in a refugee camp. Findings indicate that while participants felt some autonomy with the VR headset, they experienced a lack of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the storytelling. Participants engaged in perspective-taking but often thought about those close to them who had similar experiences rather than themselves. Thus, a close other’s experience affected whether people engaged in perspective-taking. However, prior experience with IDEA topics did not predict cognitive effort, indicating that individuals with such experience do not exert more cognitive effort than those without it. Additionally, cognitive effort did not predict prosocial attitudes or behaviors. This study highlights the complexities of how previous experiences affect engagement with IDEA-centered VR, perspective-taking, and cognitive effort and suggests directions for future research. Keywords: diversity; equity; self-determination theory; self-other overlap; virtual reality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8601 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Finally, Me Time!”: Korean Middle-Aged Women’s Platform Practices File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8746 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8746 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 13 Year: 2024 Number: 8746 Author-Name: Eujong Kim Author-Workplace-Name: Content Strategy Team, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Republic of Korea Author-Name: Yeran Kim Author-Workplace-Name: Kwangwoon University, Republic of Korea Abstract: This work builds on the legacy of feminist reception studies by expanding the research focus from mass media to digital platforms, particularly YouTube, and from media use to the practices of consuming and engaging with media in the context of Korean middle-aged women. The research also integrates Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance with the digital media environment: It suggests that while Rosa may reject digital technology in his view of resonance, digital technology, or YouTube in this case, can contribute to enhancing resonance, but only depending on how people practice it. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the importance of middle-aged women, who are not merely viewers, but rather active participants within the burgeoning YouTube scene. Lastly, we expand the current understanding of how audience groups may potentially exert agency, moving beyond the ideological binaries of submission versus resistance in the process of interpreting media texts. Our emphasis lies in the creativity embedded in Korean middle-aged women’s platform practices within their daily lives. This process is fuelled by a deep desire and will to find resonance with themselves, others, and the world. Keywords: digital platforms; feminist reception studies; middle-aged women; resonance; South Korea; YouTube Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v13:y:2024:a:8746 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Fact-Checkers on the Fringe: Investigating Methods and Practices Associated With Contested Areas of Fact-Checking File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8688 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8688 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8688 Author-Name: Silvia Montaña-Niño Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne, Australia Author-Name: Victoria Vziatysheva Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, University of Bern, Switzerland Author-Name: Ehsan Dehghan Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Anand Badola Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Guangnan Zhu Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Otávio Vinhas Author-Workplace-Name: School of Information and Communication Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland Author-Name: Michelle Riedlinger Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Sofya Glazunova Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia Abstract: This study investigates the methods and practices used by self-identified fact-checkers situated on the fringe of the field of fact-checking to support their agenda for public recognition and legitimacy. Using a case study approach and selecting nine cases across five countries (Russia, Brazil, India, China, and Singapore), we identify the most common distinguishable attributes and tactics associated with this ambiguous collection of actors. In addition to identifying how fringe fact-checkers weaponize fact-checking practices and exploit or mimic the social standing of accredited fact-checkers, we critique examples where state-supported fact-checkers associated with authoritarian governance structures fact-check for national interests. We propose a spectrum of fact-checkers including those where public or general interest fact-checkers follow journalistic ideals and align with accredited communities of practice or non-accredited peer recognition, and a collection of fringe fact-checkers ranging from “special interest” actors promoting specific political agendas to hostile actors with disruptive, destructive, and openly propagandistic interests and aims to destabilize the global public sphere. The article contributes to current research and debates about the institutionalization of fact-checking and the understudied area of fact-checking impersonation, a problematic activity associated with misinformation and propaganda on platforms and the internet. Keywords: fact checking; fact-checking norms; fringe fact-checkers; International Fact-Checking Network; politics; state-sponsorship Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8688 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Fact-Checking Role Performances and Problematic Covid-19 Vaccine Content in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8680 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8680 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8680 Author-Name: Michelle Riedlinger Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Silvia Montaña-Niño Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne, Australia Author-Name: Ned Watt Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Víctor García-Perdomo Author-Workplace-Name: Research Center for Digital Technology and Society, Universidad De La Sabana, Colombia Author-Name: Marina Joubert Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Abstract: The move from political fact-checking to a “public health” or debunking model of fact-checking, sustained by policies and funding from platforms, highlights important tensions in the case of Covid-19. Building on findings from studies focused on journalistic role performance, we investigated how professional fact-checkers in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa conceived of and performed their professional roles when addressing Covid-19 vaccination topics. Interviews with fact-checkers from six well-established, Meta-affiliated, International Fact-Checking Network-accredited organizations operating in these regions indicated that fact-checkers recognized the diversification of tasks and new roles associated with addressing problematic content from social media users. However, fact-checkers expressed unanimous commitment to prioritizing political and media watchdog activities in response to problematic Covid-19 vaccine information spreading from elite sources. To compare these role conceptions with role performance, we conducted a content analysis of Covid-19 vaccine content posted in 2021 to these fact-checkers’ Facebook accounts. We found that content was mostly associated with explainers or debunking content (addressing hoaxes or rumors about Covid-19 vaccines from non-elite social media users). In particular, the abundance of explainers, compared with other genres of fact-checking content, aligns fact-checkers with professional roles as civic service providers, educators, and “interpreters” of health information. Only a small proportion of the Covid-19 vaccine-related posts from each fact-checker contained verifications of claims from authoritative (elite “top-down”) sources (i.e., politicians, media, and health/science professionals). This study offers insights into a particularly tumultuous time of political activity in these regions and considers implications for practice innovation. Keywords: Africa; Covid-19; debunking; fact-checking; journalistic role performance; Latin America; Meta; politics; social media; vaccines Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8680 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Classification of Features for Interpersonal Disconnectivity in Digital Media: Block, Unfriend, Unfollow, Mute, Withhold, and Eject File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8716 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8716 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8716 Author-Name: Nicholas John Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Abstract: This article presents for the first time a classification of, and lexicon for, features for dissolving interpersonal ties in digital environments: blocking, unfriending, unfollowing, muting, withholding, and ejecting. There are two main motivations and two main contributions. The first motivation is that analyses of social media features have not included treatment of features for interpersonal disconnectivity; the second is that analyses of interpersonal disconnectivity have not included reference to the features that enable it. The two main contributions are the disambiguation of a confusing terminological field, thus making it possible to analytically distinguish between types of feature, and an intervention in the question of whether the features described in the article concern filtering information or avoiding people. Data were collected from 37 social media platforms and other services that enable digitally-mediated communication. Features for interpersonal disconnectivity were documented and then the features were grouped based on five questions about their use, where A is the person using the feature, and B is the target of A’s use of the feature: (a) Does it affect A’s feed?; (b) does it affect B’s feed?; (c) is A still connected to B?; (d) is B still connected to A?; (e) can A and B see each other’s profile? Keywords: blocking; disconnection; disconnectivity; feature analysis; social media; unfollowing; unfriending Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8716 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Immersive Stories: From Technological Determinism Towards Narrative Determinism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8415 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8415 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8415 Author-Name: Jorge Vázquez-Herrero Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain Abstract: Following the wave of immersive production that occurred between 2015 and 2018, and in the face of new virtual, augmented, and mixed-reality devices, this article discusses the need to move from a technology- or device-focused perspective in the analysis and use of immersive technology towards a story-focused or story-first perspective. It starts with a technological perspective, contextualising the evolution of immersive technologies and their interpretation from a technological determinism point of view. Secondly, the ecological perspective provides an integrative reading of the technique, its use, and its experience, based on the concept of the environment. Finally, and after acknowledging previous research on the effects of immersive media on the audience, the article considers the narrative elements that are reinforced by immersive technologies in journalism and nonfiction, based on the qualitative analysis of projects. The article highlights narrative resources associated with the social character of the story, the spatio-temporal framework, and the emotional impact. It suggests a shift towards “narrative determinism,” which would allow us to analyse and employ immersive resources in terms of their contribution to storytelling and to overcome the limitations of perspectives that are highly dependent on specific platforms or technologies. Keywords: immersive storytelling; immersive technology; journalism; narrative; virtual reality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8415 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Accepting Exclusion: Examining the (Un)Intended Consequences of Data-Driven Campaigns File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8685 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8685 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8685 Author-Name: Sophie Minihold Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria / Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Fabio Votta Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Using citizens’ data not only enables precise targeting of campaign messages online, but also the deliberate exclusion of certain groups of citizens. This study asks (a) to what extent have citizens been excluded from political (online) ads during the Dutch 2021 and 2023 election campaigns and (b) how acceptable citizens find the practice of exclusion. To answer these questions, we use data from the Meta Ad Targeting dataset to investigate any employed exclusion criteria by parties and rely on survey data collected during the 2023 Dutch general election to learn about citizens’ opinions. Our study reveals that political parties across the spectrum allocated less budget to targeting and excluding citizens in 2023 compared to 2021. Predominantly, exclusion is based on age, gender, and place of residence, with criteria such as political views, migration background, and religious beliefs being relatively uncommon. Despite citizens considering all forms of exclusion unacceptable, they view exclusion based on political views as the most tolerable. Moreover, individuals leaning towards the political right exhibit greater acceptance of exclusion, particularly based on migration background. In scrutinizing the extent of citizen exclusion from political campaign messaging and citizens’ perceptions, we contribute to the discourse on the unintended consequences of data-driven campaigning. Keywords: citizens; data-driven campaign; exclusion; information asymmetry; meta ad targeting dataset Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8685 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Screens as Battlefields: Fact-Checkers’ Multidimensional Challenges in Debunking Russian-Ukrainian War Propaganda File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8668 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8668 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8668 Author-Name: Laurence Dierickx Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway Author-Name: Carl-Gustav Lindén Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract: This study examines the challenges fact-checkers face when dealing with war propaganda and how their socio-professional contexts influence these obstacles. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research identifies common difficulties such as time constraints, resource limitations, and the struggle to find reliable information amidst language barriers and geographical distances. The findings highlight the impact of socio-professional contexts on investigative methods, ranging from traditional journalism to advanced open-source intelligence methods. The study underscores the importance of international cooperation and support networks in addressing these challenges and also in mitigating the impact that exposure to violent content and harassment has on well-being and professional integrity. Keywords: fact-checking; information warfare; professional practices; Russia–Ukraine war; war propaganda Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8668 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital In- and Exclusion in Everyday Life: Practices and Literacies Across the Lifespan File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9245 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.9245 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 9245 Author-Name: Marcel Broersma Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Joëlle Swart Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Denise Mensonides Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Alex Smit Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Maud Rebergen Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: In this thematic issue of Media and Communication titled Practices of Digital In- and Exclusion in Everyday Life, we bring together insights from around the world to offer a diverse set of perspectives on digital practices and digital literacies across the lifespan. Moreover, emphasizing the development of digital literacies as a situated social practice, this thematic issue provides insights into the social contexts through which people develop digital literacy practices, how they construct and integrate social norms around technologies, and the links between digital literacies and (digital) citizenship. As concerns about digital in- and exclusion grow, this thematic issue hosts numerous relevant studies by academics that collectively help us gain insight into the impact of digital in- and exclusion in everyday life across the lifespan, gaining insight into the role of different contextual factors, including time, place, and social, economic, and political contexts in the ways in which citizens use digital media and develop digital literacies. Keywords: citizenship; digital inclusion; digital exclusion; digital literacies; lifespan development; socio‐digital inequalities Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:9245 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Periphery-Centric” Approach as a Tactic for Everyday Digital In- and Exclusion of Indonesian Villages File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8162 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8162 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8162 Author-Name: Subekti Priyadharma Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication Science, Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia Abstract: Much has been said about the importance of digital inclusion in reducing the digital divide and ensuring equal access and use of ICTs for all. Generally, inclusivity has a positive connotation, meaning that no one should be left behind by digitalization processes. However, the inclusion of marginalized communities into the digital system could lead to new exclusions within the new system because it amplifies the pre-existing social inequalities that these communities face, creating digital inequality. By observing the implementation of School of Community Networks in 10 Indonesian villages, this article attempts to describe those inequalities and explain how rural communities actively design a strategy to make their involvement in Indonesia’s digitalization more meaningful. The conceptual framework developed in this study adopts a “periphery-centric” approach, aligning with the user-centric approach, as it examines from the perspective of marginalized communities how they perceive, understand, and utilize digital technology by generating new forms of innovation that have real impacts on their community, such as tailored applications for public services and local internet infrastructure to reach remote areas. The approach poses the problem and strategic dimension of the issue and puts forward the ownership and locality of these innovations to overcome digital inequality. With the meaningful use of digital technology, the inclusiveness of socially less-advantaged groups into the digital system does not immediately create new inequality; rather, they make themselves the center of their respective bottom-up innovation projects. Keywords: digital divide; digital exclusion; digital inclusion; digital inequality; Indonesia; periphery-centric; rural digitalization; School of Community Networks Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8162 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Young People’s Diversity and Digital Media: A Systematic Review (2010–2022) File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8237 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8237 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8237 Author-Name: Ana Filipa Oliveira Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Maria João Leote de Carvalho Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences (CICS.NOVA), NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Portugal Author-Name: Carla Sousa Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, Portugal Abstract: Youth is not a homogeneous group. With this motto in mind, YouNDigital aims to study youth, their engagement with news, and digital citizenship dynamics. One of the core elements of the project is a digital newsroom, a space for meeting and exploring digital citizenship and news, considering the significant disparities that characterise individuals in this group. In order to better understand the target groups and to support the decisions regarding the development of the youth-led digital newsroom, the research team carried out a systematic literature review focused on youth, digital citizenship, diversity, and different methodological approaches. This article explores the outcomes of the systematic literature review, particularly delving into the data gathered in one of the subclusters (Diversities). Findings underscore the challenges of inclusivity and diversity and the need for tailored media and digital literacy interventions that consider cultural differences, socioeconomic factors, and evolving technological landscapes. They also highlight the difficulties, as well as the positive results, of using digital tools and strategies to trigger learning and motivational processes for diverse audiences—digital tools that rely on media creation, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration can promote the empowerment and inclusion of youth from distinct backgrounds, bridging the gap between their realities and citizenship experiences. For research teams, the findings point out that involvement in collaborative, immersive, and participatory processes anchored on sustained literature review processes can encourage distancing preconceptions while bringing them closer to research participants. The article contributes to discussions regarding the potential and the challenges of considering youth’s diverse backgrounds through pillars such as co-creation or inclusive design, and the urgency of mitigating youth social and digital exclusion in order to enhance democratic participation. Keywords: digital citizenship; digital media; diversity; media literacy; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8237 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Combating Repeated Lies: The Impact of Fact-Checking on Persistent Falsehoods by Politicians File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8642 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8642 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8642 Author-Name: Irene Larraz Author-Workplace-Name: University of Navarra, Spain Author-Name: Ramón Salaverría Author-Workplace-Name: University of Navarra, Spain Author-Name: Javier Serrano-Puche Author-Workplace-Name: University of Navarra, Spain Abstract: The rise of repeated false claims within political discourse is undermining fact-checking efforts. By reiterating similar statements that perpetuate previous falsehoods, political actors shift from misinformation to deliberate disinformation and even propagandistic tactics. Through an analysis of 1,204 political fact-checks conducted by the Spanish fact-checking organization Newtral, this study quantifies and characterizes the prevalence of repeated false claims in political discourse, revealing that a substantial 24.8% of false statements are repeated, with each being repeated an average of four times. By delving into the nature and types of claims most susceptible to recurrence, the study identifies five primary patterns employed by political actors: nuanced variations, data manipulation, multilateral attacks, discourse qualification, and cumulative repetition. These tactics blur the lines between deception and self-correction. The annotated database of these repeated false statements can serve as a valuable resource for exploratory qualitative analysis as well as claim-matching research in automated fact-checking. Keywords: disinformation; fact-checking; falsehoods; political discourse; propaganda Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8642 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Informing Immersed Citizens: The Impact of Interactivity on Comprehending News in Immersive Journalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8571 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8571 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8571 Author-Name: Hannah Greber Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Loes Aaldering Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Sophie Lecheler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Abstract: Immersive journalism has emerged as an innovative journalistic approach promising enhanced attention and understanding through interactive, virtual environments. Previously, this was mostly tested through factual knowledge. However, evaluating immersive audio-visual modalities solely along factual knowledge falls short of considering, firstly, what about and how an immersive experience is remembered and, secondly, the importance of considering the perceptions surrounding information acquisition. Therefore, this study examines how interactivity in immersive journalism affects traditional as well as novel ways of comprehending news, such as episodic memory. In addition, we consider perceptions related to knowledge. We draw on a laboratory experiment (N = 149) testing the effect of three levels of interactivity provided (no interactivity vs. looking around vs. looking around + control over pace and order of storyline). Results indicate that a higher range of interactivity does not influence factual memory, but leads to an increase in perceived knowledge, thus indicating an illusion of knowledge. Moreover, there is a tendency to formulate more subjective takeaways in the high-interactivity condition, while interactivity did not influence the credibility evaluations. This provides partial empirical support for the credibility paradox of immersive journalism. Keywords: immersive journalism; information retention; interactivity; memory; virtual reality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8571 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Politics of Disconnective Media: Unraveling the Materiality of Discourses on Disconnectivity File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8586 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8586 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8586 Author-Name: Veysel Bozan Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Media, and Culture, Cardiff University, UK / Faculty of Communication (ILEF), Ankara University, Türkiye Author-Name: Emiliano Treré Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Media, and Culture, Cardiff University, UK Abstract: The commodification of disconnection has attracted growing scholarly attention. Previous research highlighted the instrumentalisation of disconnection for productivity, self-governance, and healthy life. Researchers have also explored the politics of the “products” used for disconnecting, such as smartphone applications and offline commodities. Yet, current studies generally neglect to connect digital disconnection’s symbolic and material dimensions. In this article, we critically examine the discourses of what we call “disconnective media,” the products (hardware and software) that offer disconnection from digital devices. To explain how discourses and products find a basis in material and social structures, we deploy a discourse-theoretical analysis grounded in a Marxist materialist approach to neoliberalism and the materiality of discourse. We critically analyse six disconnective media and focus on these key dimensions: justifications (why to disconnect), time/space (when/where to disconnect), devices/platforms (which devices are appropriate to disconnect from), and class (who is addressed to disconnect). Findings show that digital technologies in the workplace have been naturalised, whereas phones and social media remain problematic. Leisure time is constructed with a set of obligations to use time meaningfully and improve the self, while work time is presented through a scientific work management mindset that promotes efficiency. Disconnective media advocate the ideal image of healthy, efficient workers. This study stresses the importance of investigating disconnection concerning commodified labour and neoliberalism’s material consequences. Keywords: digital detox; digital disconnection; disconnection; labour; leisure; materiality of disconnection; media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8586 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Bringing the Future to Geomedia Studies: Geomedia as Sociotechnical Regime and Imaginary File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9112 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.9112 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 9112 Author-Name: Karin Fast Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media, and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Cornelia Brantner Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media, and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Pablo Abend Author-Workplace-Name: Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Germany Abstract: Geomedia, representing an epochal shift in spatial mediations and spatialized media, changes daily life. This future-directed thematic issue advocates for contextualized understandings of geomedia that transcend contemporary hegemonic representations of technology. It recognizes the transformative powers of geomediatization processes and asks what “geomedia futures” such processes might bring about. Bridging critical geomedia studies and critical future studies, it challenges dominant narratives about tomorrow’s technological society and promotes the exploration of diverse, equitable, and sustainable futures with and under geomedia. Through numerous methodological approaches, the collected articles examine the role of geomedia in contexts such as urban planning, tourism, surveillance, governance, and policy. The thematic issue emphasizes the importance of envisioning alternative futures that resist technological rationalization and unethical exploitation of geospatial data, supporting more inclusive and human-centered mediatized places. This work contributes to ongoing debates in geomedia studies, highlighting the need for critical and interdisciplinary approaches to understand and shape our technological future. Keywords: critical future studies; critical geomedia studies; geomedia; geomediatization; geomedia futures; sociotechnical imaginaries; spatialization Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:9112 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Geomediatization and the Messy Futuring of Geodata Commons File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/9002 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.9002 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 9002 Author-Name: Boris Michel Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Geosciences and Geography, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany Abstract: The concept of geomediatization has proven to be productive for describing current processes of geodatafication and geospatial technologies. With its focus on their future, this thematic issue calls for research into geomediatization beyond a narrow geomediatization realism. In my commentary, I take up this call and present some reflections from my research on recent corporate involvement in OpenStreetMap and the messy politics of digital commons. I argue that OpenStreetMap can tell us something about geomedia futures that challenges geomediatization realism but is also a sort of geomediatization pragmatism. This is not disruptive futurism but a project of digital commons that is constantly negotiating power, access, and enclosure. Keywords: digital commons; digital geography; geomedia; OpenStreetMap Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:9002 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Thinking Geomedia Futures: Indigenous Futurisms, Afrofuturisms, and Counter-Mediations of Temporality, Spatiality, and Digitality File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8935 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8935 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8935 Author-Name: Sarah Elwood Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Washington, USA Abstract: For critical scholars, abiding concerns about geomedia futures have included utopian–dystopian formulations of geomedia in popular culture and governance, the deep harms and inequalities that inevitably flow from technocapitalist geomedia regimes, and the urgent need for a plurality of counter-normative ways of theorizing and engaging geomedia. Toward these concerns, I argue here that Indigenous futurism and Afrofuturism hold vital conceptual and analytic insights for thinking and realizing geomedia futures that assemble time, space, and digitality in just and life-sustaining ways. Here, I briefly explore work by geographers, historians, and digital studies scholars that has engaged Indigenous and Black feminist speculative traditions to critique the structural, embodied, and emplaced violence of racial capitalist and settler colonial histories, chronopolitics, and futures. The minoritarian futures expressed and circulated through speculative fiction, visual arts, everyday digital practices, and technocultures by structurally-oppressed groups for whom the future has never been taken for granted hold vital conceptual and analytical insights for thinking geomedia futures beyond the limits of its technocapitalist roots and present structures. Keywords: Afrofuturism; digital geographies; geomedia; Indigenous futurism; speculative imagination Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8935 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Planners Becoming Visualizers in the Mediatized World: Actor-Network Analysis of Cairo’s Street Billboards File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8208 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8208 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8208 Author-Name: Mennatullah Hendawy Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty VI – Planning Building Environment, Technical University of Berlin, Germany / Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA / Impact Circles e.V., Germany / Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) gGmbH, Germany Abstract: While visual communication is crucial in urban planning, there is a gap in understanding how dominant narratives and visuals affect professional planning practice and planners’ roles, particularly in mediatized urban environments. This study addresses this gap by examining street billboards in Cairo to understand how planning visualizations contribute to the restructuring of the planning profession. It explores how these visual tools shape the practice and roles of urban planners, who are increasingly becoming visualizers. Employing actor-network theory, the study traces the relationships between billboards, planners, and other network actors. The primary research question is: How and why does the use of planning visualizations (billboards) restructure the profession of planning, including planning practice and the roles of planners? Utilizing a qualitative exploratory methodology, the study focuses on billboards along Cairo’s 6th of October Bridge. Data were analyzed through visual and content analysis of 209 billboards to understand their language, content, patterns, and geo-positioning. The analysis revealed that billboards in Cairo significantly impact urban landscapes and the visual culture of urbanization, often promoting exclusive real estate projects to a socio-economic elite. The research highlights the dilemmas in the changing professional roles of planners within a mediatized world and underscores the need for more inclusive planning practices. By employing actor-network theory, the study provides a nuanced understanding of the complex relationships that shape and are shaped by the visual culture of urban planning, offering insights into how planners can navigate and influence these dynamics for more equitable urban development. Keywords: actor-network theory; billboards; Cairo; mediatized world; urban planning; visual culture Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8208 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Unestablished Boundaries: The Capabilities of Immersive Technologies to Induce Empathy, Tell Stories, and Immerse File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8423 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8423 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8423 Author-Name: Eugene Kukshinov Author-Workplace-Name: Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo, Canada Abstract: This article presents a critical viewpoint on the existing research to establish the boundaries of immersive technologies, such as virtual reality, exploring distinctions between sensorial and mental experiences and highlighting the influence of technological determinism in this scholarly domain. The analysis reveals a lack of established conceptual structures for categorizing distinct types of immersion, emphasizing that immersion is not universal and is not inherently technological. In particular, it highlights that, fundamentally, immersive technologies are not designed to immerse into narratives. As a result, this article suggests a dual cognitive framework of immersion to explain the nature of different immersive experiences. The article also critically addresses ethical concerns related to identity tourism and argues against the oversimplification of complex psychological processes, emphasizing the overreliance of the existing studies on visual or technological stimuli. To avoid this, the article suggests a way to avoid technological determinism in relevant conceptualizations. Overall, the article scrutinizes the assumptions associated with immersive technologies, offering insights into their capabilities to stimulate senses and vividly inform, contributing to a nuanced understanding of their effects and ethical implications. Keywords: immersion; presence; storytelling; technology; virtual reality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8423 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Literacies as Socially Situated Pedagogical Processes: Genealogically Understanding Media, Information, and Digital Literacies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8174 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8174 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8174 Author-Name: Denise Mensonides Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Alexander Smit Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ieteke Talsma Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Joëlle Swart Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Marcel Broersma Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: Despite the increasing importance of digital literacies for citizens to be able to participate in society, there is little scholarly agreement over what digital literacies entail. This conceptual ambiguity hinders the translation of digital literacies into educational programs and policies that foster citizens’ digital literacies and inclusion. While various authors have attempted to define digital literacy separately and in relation to other concepts, such as information literacy and media literacy, little attention has been paid to the historical backdrop of these concepts. By tracing the historical development of three literacies (media-, information-, and digital literacy), we reflect on how societal demands shaped conceptual frameworks of these literacies and how these conceptualizations are situated within the broader pedagogical systems that aim to enable participation in digital societies. Using a genealogical approach, we explore and describe the changes in definition, understanding, and enactment of the three literacies, which illustrate how these concepts have developed towards the conceptual frameworks we employ today. Based on this analysis, we argue that digital literacies must be flexible to anticipate challenges that result from the rise of new technologies and need to be appropriated within different socio-cultural contexts. We pledge for an understanding of digital literacies as socially situated pedagogical processes aimed at the way citizens appropriate digital practices within their daily lives. This implies shifting away from formulating one-size-fits-all understandings based upon generic uses of digital technologies. Instead, we must appropriate the understandings of digital literacies based upon their socio-technical, cultural, political, economic, and material dimensions. Keywords: 21st century skills; digital inclusion; digital literacy; information literacy; media literacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8174 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Nordic Story File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8857 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8857 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8857 Author-Name: Toby Miller Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and New Media, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Abstract: Nordic cultural and communications studies have long been crucial contributors to numerous fields. Readers of Media and Communication are fortunate to have expert guides for this thematic issue on Sports Journalists as Agents of Change: Shifting Political Goalposts in Nordic Countries. Anders Graver Knudsen, Harald Hornmoen, and Nathalie Hyde‐Clarke have brought together—and themselves contributed to—a veritable tour d’horizon of the topic, with significance both for the region and research more generally. Keywords: journalism; media; Nordic countries; sports; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8857 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Sports Journalists as Agents of Change in Nordic Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8706 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8706 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8706 Author-Name: Anders Graver Knudsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Harald Hornmoen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Nathalie Hyde-Clarke Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: Sports Journalists as Agents of Change: Shifting Political Goalposts in Nordic Countries identifies and describes changes prevalent in political narratives of sports journalism. Although tensions between professional autonomy and commercial influences in sports journalism persist, shifts in public expectations and increased interest in investigative journalism present new possibilities for sports journalists to reshape this field. The research in this thematic issue examines media content and considers how sports journalists reflect on their role, how gender issues are tied to, and addressed by, that role, and how critical sports journalism develops through engagement with relevant national and international sports journalist associations. Keywords: critical analysis; critical reporting; gender; Nordic media; Nordic welfare model; sports journalism; sports journalist organisations Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8706 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Sports Journalists as Agents of Change: An International Academic Perspective File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8057 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8057 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8057 Author-Name: Alina Bernstein Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media Studies, College of Management Academic Studies, Israel Abstract: Sports journalists can act as agents of change in society since they have a unique and powerful platform to influence public opinion, raise awareness, advocate for various issues through their reporting and commentary, and overall promote positive change in society. This is perhaps more obvious when looking at recent research from the Nordic countries. However, are sports journalists able to be, and do they even wish to be, agents of change in countries such as Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Germany, and Israel? Based on academic writing and interviews with media and sports scholars, this article examines the academic discourse that tries to assess to what extent sports journalism may be professionalized in a select number of countries in the European Union and the Middle East. Respondents were asked to speak about how they, as academics, perceived the extent to which sports journalists in each country have substantial autonomy from the economic and political systems and to what extent they are agents of change in their country. Keywords: academic discourse; agents of change; international perspective; Nordic model; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8057 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Advertising and Data-Driven Campaigning in Australia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8462 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8462 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8462 Author-Name: Travis N. Ridout Author-Workplace-Name: School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Washington State University, USA Abstract: There have been breathtaking accounts of the use of data in political campaigns for microtargeting and message testing, among other practices. Most of these examine presidential campaigns in the US. But evidence speaking to the use of data-driven campaigning (DDC) beyond the US is rather thin. Here I examine the use of DDC in Australia, focusing on political advertising specifically. I interview 15 campaign practitioners, asking about several indicators of DDC, including (a) the extent of ad targeting, (b) tailoring of ads to specific audiences, (c) the use of data analytics in ad targeting/tailoring, (d) efforts at online fundraising, and (e) ad testing. I find considerable variation in the use of DDC that stems from differences in resources, different campaign philosophies, and uncertainties about the data. I also find an important role for marketing agencies in supplementing DDC capabilities. Keywords: Australia; data-driven campaigning; elections; political advertising Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8462 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Double Burden: The Digital Exclusion and Identity Crisis of Elderly Patients in Rural China File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8106 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8106 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8106 Author-Name: Runping Zhu Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Beijing Normal University – Hong Kong Baptist University United International College (UIC), China Author-Name: Xinxin Yu Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Lanzhou University, China Author-Name: Richard Krever Author-Workplace-Name: Law School, The University of Western Australia, Australia Abstract: The rapid digitalization of China’s healthcare system, a phenomenon that accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, had two negative consequences for a significant portion of elderly persons in China. The first is an unfortunate practical outcome: their exclusion from many health services such as online medical appointment platforms, e-prescription requests, obtaining e-referrals, and sharing electronic medical records. The second is an emotionally debilitating identity crisis as elderly persons’ former status as knowledgeable senior mentors was replaced with social perceptions of them as helpless and ignorant souls reliant on more youthful persons for guidance and assistance. This article adopts a grounded theory to explore the phenomenon from the perception of excluded elderly persons using participatory observation and in-depth interviews of 44 elderly clients of a rural hospital in the Shandong province in eastern China. The study shows that the current focus on direct practical aspects of digital exclusion may fail to capture the impact and ancillary consequences such as a painful loss of self-esteem by the digitally excluded. As the study illustrates, the practical aspects can all be overcome through intervention by those who aid the digitally excluded but this help may exacerbate the rarely considered ancillary harms of digital exclusion. Studies of digital exclusion will make more significant contributions to our understanding of the phenomenon if they look beyond the obvious direct consequences of digital exclusion to consider possible ancillary and flow-on effects. Keywords: digital divide; digital exclusion; e-health; elderly; health care app Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8106 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Geomedia Perspectives for Multiple Futures in Tourism Development File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8157 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8157 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8157 Author-Name: Lotta Braunerhielm Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Laila Gibson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Linda Ryan Bengtsson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Abstract: This article draws on five participatory action research studies to address how geomedia theory can induce multiple imaginations of the future. Critical future research advocates that societies need to collectively create visions of multiple futures, transcending the single rational (neoliberal) future path. The studies were conducted in collaboration with rural communities and local tourism entrepreneurs who were exploring geomedia technologies to develop destinations. The tourism sector uses geomedia technologies but often depends on commercial platforms that seek upscaling and generalisation, becoming detached from local practices and place-specific settings. By applying critical geomedia studies, we problematised the relationship between people, place, and technology in the present, the past, and the future. Geomedia studies provided a critical lens that provoked future visions beyond preformatted technological infrastructures and media practices. The participants were asked to engage with complex issues such as access, restrictions, equality, authority, and legitimacy in relation to the specific place, bringing forth a multitude of local assets and narratives envisioning alternative geomedia technologies. As a result of this process, participants paid greater attention to local assets, gained a more critical approach towards technology, and dared to use digital solutions in a more visionary manner. We, therefore, argue that researchers need to engage with society to bypass hegemonic geomedia representations. By illustrating how geomedia theory can be utilised within community development, we provide a framework for how collaborative research can more explicitly engage with local actors’ thoughts and imaginings of possible futures. Keywords: collaborative research; destination development; geomedia; multiple futures; participatory action research; representations Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8157 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Ideologies in Geospatial Futurism: A Computational and Critical Discourse Inquiry Into the ArcGIS and ESRI-Blogs File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8193 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8193 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8193 Author-Name: Helena Atteneder Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany Author-Name: Joan Ramon Rodriguez-Amat Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture and Media, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Abstract: Geographic information systems (GIS) are ubiquitous building blocks of geosurveillance environments embedded in everyday social practices. This article builds on the literature on geomedia, the criticisms of GIS, and communicative spaces, to delve into the realm of GIS software and spatial analytics. The data corpus consists of ArcGIS and ESRI blogs on the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) site, which defines itself as the global market leader in GIS software, location intelligence, and mapping. This project assesses the impact of their discursive representations of the future and the societal implications of these views through an iterative process of computational and critical interpretive analyses—extending from LDA topic modelling to critical discourse analysis—to unveil the ideological underpinnings of a corporate-prescribed understanding of (GIS) future. The analysis reveals that representations of the future in the main blogs of the geospatial industry are deeply embedded in ideological principles that emphasise perceived indispensability and technosolutionism as the inherent belief that complex social, political, and economic issues can be solved primarily or exclusively through technological means. The article identifies the rhetorical and structural operations in a discourse that ultimately kidnaps any alternative futures. The geospatial industry’s representations of the future serve as ideological tools that shape perceptions about societal development and democratic conditions. The critical engagement with these representations contributes to understanding the role of GIS technology in the shaping of fair futures built on democratic public spheres in the digital age. Keywords: computational methods; discourse analysis; ESRI; future tropes; GIS; geomedia; ideology; spatial analytics; public spheres; topic modelling Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8193 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Frontline Knowledge: Digital Media Literacy of Older Adults in Ukraine File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8277 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8277 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8277 Author-Name: Olga Pasitselska Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: Digital media literacy becomes crucial in modern conflict zones, as conflicts are increasingly digitized and hyperconnected. While a dangerous environment raises the need for orientation, propaganda and fakes discourage audiences’ sense-making efforts. Older adults often experience digital and social exclusion and might be vulnerable to mis- and disinformation. Previous research, focusing mostly on Western Europe, has studied digital media practices of older adults, however, there is very little knowledge on digital media literacy skills and needs of older adults in conflict zones. Drawing on eight focus groups, this article explores Ukrainian older adults’ challenges and compensation strategies during the digitized war. An inductive-qualitative analysis identifies three main factors that shape digital practices and dictate the literacy needs of Ukrainian older adults: (a) (lack of) access, grounded in material infrastructure and social ties; (b) self-(in)efficacy that often stems from pre-convictions about one’s agency and position in society; and (c) resilience that becomes crucial in the situation of continuous exposure to (mediated) violence. This research contributes to the understanding of the media literacy needs of older adults and lays the foundation for developing digital literacy study programs in conflict zones. Keywords: conflict; digital literacy; media literacy; older adults; Russian-Ukrainian war Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8277 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digitalizing Access to Care: How Self-Check-In Kiosks Shape Access to Care and Efficiency of Hospital Services File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8116 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8116 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8116 Author-Name: Ibrahim Loukili Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Ethics, Law and Medical Humanities, Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands Author-Name: Nicole S. Goedhart Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Ethics, Law and Medical Humanities, Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands Author-Name: Teun Zuiderent-Jerak Author-Workplace-Name: Athena Institute, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Christine Dedding Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Ethics, Law and Medical Humanities, Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands Abstract: Responding to labor shortages and rising healthcare expenses, hospitals increasingly turn to self-check-in kiosks to streamline service delivery and improve patients’ experiences. The purpose of this study was to reflect on the implementation of these self-check-in kiosks in a Dutch university hospital, particularly in relation to access to care for more vulnerable patients and intended efficiency goals. We followed a technology-in-practice approach to better understand how new technologies shape care practices in relation to in/exclusion and carried out an ethnographic action study involving desk research, participatory observations, semi-structured interviews, and reflection sessions with developers and hospital staff. Data were analyzed through ethnographic content analysis. Our results show that although self-check-in kiosks work well for some patients, many people experience practical and psychosocial difficulties, especially those who go through a complex care pathway, are low-literate, experience a distance the online world, or have sensory, motor, or cognitive impairments. Kiosks are not yet attuned to these patients and typically leave little flexibility and room for negotiation and personal support in what is, for many, a foreign environment. Therefore, patients frequently seek confirmation and assistance from already downsized or busy staff. In conclusion, we find that digitalization under the banner of efficiency within a healthcare system already under pressure carries risks, as it can unintentionally generate extra (invisible) work for patients and care professionals and threaten access to and quality of care for patients most in need. A more concentrated effort on refining the digitalization of healthcare processes using an inclusive-technology-in-practice approach has the potential to contribute to fairer and more efficient care for all patients. Keywords: access to care; efficiency; eHealth; health inequalities; hospital ethnography; self-check-in kiosks Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8116 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Smartphone- and Tablet-Reliant Internet Users: Affordances and Digital Exclusion File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8173 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8173 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8173 Author-Name: Becky Faith Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, University of Sussex, UK Author-Name: Kevin Hernandez Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, University of Sussex, UK Abstract: In countries where digital-only service delivery has become the norm, the removal of offline services and channels risks exclusion and alienation for marginalised communities, many of whom have access to the internet exclusively through a smartphone or a tablet computer. These users have been described as part of a “mobile underclass” who face challenges interacting with systems that are difficult to use on devices other than laptops or desktop computers. This article uses the theoretical lens of affordances to explore the everyday realities of digital engagement for economically and socially marginalised communities who only have internet access through a smartphone or tablet computer. This allows for an examination of the ways in which these devices might discourage or refuse certain actions such as applying for a job, as well as how they might encourage or allow other courses of action. Using data from qualitative interviews with people working at community-based organisations delivering support to digitally excluded unemployed people seeking welfare and employment support in three cities in the US and the UK, we seek to understand the role of the affordances of devices in preventing smartphone- and tablet-reliant users from accessing their basic entitlements and finding work. In doing so, we offer new perspectives on mobile-only internet access, digital divides, and digital inequalities. Keywords: digital by default; digital divide; digital engagement; digital exclusion; mobile internet access Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8173 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Inclusion Through Algorithmic Knowledge: Curated Flows of Civic and Political Information on Instagram File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8102 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8102 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8102 Author-Name: Shelley Boulianne Author-Workplace-Name: Digital News Dynamics Research Group, Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Germany Author-Name: Christian P. Hoffmann Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany Abstract: Social media platforms are a critical source of civic and political information. We examine the use of Instagram to acquire news as well as civic and political information using nationally representative survey data gathered in 2019 in the US, the UK, France, and Canada (n = 2,440). We investigate active curation practices (following news organizations, political candidates or parties, and nonprofit organizations or charities) and passive curation practices (liking friends’ political posts and those from parties or politicians and nonprofits or charities). Young adults (18 to 24 years) are far more likely to curate their Instagram feed than older adults in all four countries. We consider two possible explanations for this behavior: political interest and an understanding of how algorithms work. Young adults have more (self-assessed) knowledge of algorithms in all four countries. Algorithmic knowledge relates to curation practices, but there are some cross-national differences. Algorithmic knowledge is theoretically relevant for passive curation practices and the UK sample provides support for the stronger role of algorithmic knowledge in passive than active curation. In all four countries, political interest positively relates to active and passive curation practices. These findings challenge depictions of young adults as news avoiders; instead, they demonstrate that algorithmic knowledge can help curate the flow of information from news organizations as well as civic and political groups on Instagram. While algorithmic knowledge enables youth’s digital inclusion, for older adults, the lack of knowledge may contribute to digital exclusion as they do not know how to curate their information flows. Keywords: algorithmic knowledge; civic information; digital inclusion; Instagram; news; political interest Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8102 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Young People Learning About Algorithms: Five Profiles Spanning From Ineptitude to Enchantment File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8272 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8272 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8272 Author-Name: Maria José Brites Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Teresa Sofia Castro Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Mariana S. Müller Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Author-Name: Margarida Maneta Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal Abstract: This article focuses on young people’s understanding of algorithms and their learning methods. While many younger individuals are deeply familiar with digital media, it is erroneous to assume that this familiarity is equivalent to operational or critical knowledge. Given that algorithm awareness has only recently become a topic of debate, daily life practices and knowledge processes need further study, particularly through the lens of audiences. The analysis is based on 42 interviews carried out as part of a project on young people, news, and digital citizenship in Portugal. From the analysis, we came up with five profiles that include different ways of understanding and learning about algorithms: ethereal, ambivalent, unfamiliar, negative, and positive perspectives. Preliminary findings reveal strategies youth employ to bypass the influence of algorithms, with a dominant perspective of learning through the proximity contexts: alone, with social media (TikTok and Instagram), with peers/family, and few cases mentioning school, that surprisingly, is almost absent as a learning atmosphere. Given the newness of the collective awareness of the power of algorithms, the presented scenario claims that we need for a more structural and institutional learning context and response, which could help prevent recurring scenarios akin to digital “bowling alone.” Keywords: algorithms; digital inclusion; digital natives; digital rights; learning processes; young people Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8272 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Are We Replicating Yet? Reproduction and Replication in Communication Research File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8382 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8382 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8382 Author-Name: Johannes Breuer Author-Workplace-Name: Department Computational Social Science, GESIS—Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Germany / Research Data & Methods, Center for Advanced Internet Studies, Germany Author-Name: Mario Haim Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Abstract: The replication crisis has highlighted the importance of reproducibility and replicability in the social and behavioral sciences, including in communication research. While there have been some discussions of and studies on replications in communication research, the extent of this work is significantly lower than in psychology. The key reasons for this limitation are the differences between the disciplines in the topics commonly studied and in the methods and data commonly used in communication research. Communication research often investigates dynamic topics and uses methods (e.g., content analysis) and data types (e.g., media content and social media data) that are not used, or, at least, are much less frequently used, in other fields. These specific characteristics of communication research must be considered and require a more nuanced understanding of reproducibility and replicability. This thematic issue includes commentaries presenting different perspectives, as well as methodological and empirical work investigating the reproducibility and replicability of a wide range of communication research, including surveys, experiments, systematic literature reviews, and studies that involve social media or audio data. The articles in this issue acknowledge the diversity and unique features of communication research and present various ways of improving its reproducibility and replicability, as well as our understanding thereof. Keywords: communication research; meta-science; open science; replicability; reproducibility Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8382 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Direct Replication in Experimental Communication Science: A Conceptual and Practical Exploration File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7971 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7971 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7971 Author-Name: Ivar Vermeulen Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Philipp K. Masur Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Camiel J. Beukeboom Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Benjamin K. Johnson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Advertising, University of Florida, USA Abstract: Replication is generally considered a keystone of the scientific enterprise. Unfortunately, in communication science, there is a lack of clarity on what a replication actually entails, and to what extent replicators may deviate from original studies. In order to support researchers in conducting, evaluating, and justifying the setup of replications of communication science experiments, we provide a taxonomy of replication types. We argue that researchers almost always need to adapt some elements of an original communication study to meaningfully replicate it. The extent to which deviations—ranging from mere updates to deliberate deviations and additions—are permissible, however, depends on the motivation behind conducting a replication study. We distinguish three basic motivations: verification of an original study’s findings, testing the generalizability of an original study (which we further differentiate into the generalizability of study outcomes vs. theoretical claims), and extending an original study beyond the original goals. We argue that these motivations dictate what types of deviations are permissible and thereby determine the type of replication (i.e., direct, modified, and conceptual). We end with concrete recommendations for replicators: to specify the motivation to conduct a replication study and clearly label and justify any deviations from the original study for all study elements. Keywords: communication science; conceptual replication; direct replication; replication; stimulus development Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7971 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring Parents’ Everyday Experiences With Digital Media: Barriers and Opportunities for Digital Inclusion File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8172 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8172 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8172 Author-Name: Caroline Robbeets Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group on Knowledge Mediation, UCLouvain, Belgium Author-Name: Marie Bastien Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group on Knowledge Mediation, UCLouvain, Belgium Author-Name: Jerry Jacques Author-Workplace-Name: Research Group on Knowledge Mediation, UCLouvain, Belgium Author-Name: Baptiste Campion Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels School of Journalism & Communication, Belgium Author-Name: Margaux Roberti-Lintermans Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies, UCLouvain, Belgium Author-Name: Aurore François Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies, UCLouvain, Belgium Author-Name: Laura Merla Author-Workplace-Name: Interdisciplinary Research Center on Families and Sexualities, UCLouvain, Belgium Abstract: This article presents qualitative research findings on parents’ digital media practices. Through 32 in-depth interviews with parents of 0–6-year-olds in French-speaking Belgium, the study addresses digital inclusion by exploring the diverse ways parents experience and benefit (or not) from digital media. Our research uncovers the dual nature of digital media use in parenting, presenting both advantageous and problematic outcomes across four dialectical dimensions. Our work sheds light on how digital media can (a) offer informational support or constitute an informational challenge, (b) provide emotional assistance or cause emotional struggles, (c) grant access to social support or contribute to social pressures, and (d) serve as a tool for the daily organisation or complicate daily life. Our article also investigates the factors associated with either positive or negative outcomes. We show the role of personal, situational, social, and normative factors. To conclude, we identify strategies for childcare and parenting support professionals to promote digital inclusion among parents by addressing barriers to positive experiences and outcomes related to the use of digital media. By integrating the outcomes of parents’ experiences with digital media into discussions of digital inclusion, this article contributes to a comprehensive approach to promoting digital equity beyond questions of access and skills. It calls for user-centric strategies that consider the diverse experiences and concrete outcomes associated with digital media use and emphasises the importance of supporting parents and families regarding these tools. Keywords: Belgium; digital inclusion; media literacy; media practices; parenting support Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8172 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “AI Will Be the Beating Heart of the City”: Connectivity and/as Care in The Line File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8181 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8181 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8181 Author-Name: Linda Kopitz Author-Workplace-Name: Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Artificial intelligence will be “the beating heart” (Bell, 2022, para. 1) of the linear smart city The Line in Saudi Arabia, one of the most expensive and expansive urban living projects of our times—and crucial in the larger vision of a post-oil future for Saudi Arabia. Exemplary of the complex relationship between past and future in constructing alternative urban imaginaries, the promotional material of The Line highlights technology as the best—and apparently only—solution to “maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible” (Tronto & Fisher, 1990, p. 40), while at the same time imagining artificial intelligence itself as a living and “organic” presence in the urban. Following David Pinder’s understanding of cities as always both imagined and real, immaterial and material, this article draws on care as a critical lens to explore the construction of The Line in answer to Nick Dunn’s provoking question: “So can imagining the future change it?” (Dunn, 2018, p. 376). Tracing “care in a manufactured landscape” (Mattern, 2021, p. 144) here highlights the entanglement between technology and sustainability, between organic metaphors and artificial environments, between virtual connection and material exhaustion. Critically examining the promise embedded in contemporary architectural projects to deliver “new and imaginative solutions” (NEOM, 2022e) for the physical, psychological, and environmental exhaustion of urban life, this article proposes an understanding of connectivity and care as increasingly entangled—and argues that the urban vision put forward in The Line, ultimately, hinges on care as connectivity rather than caring interconnections, networked logics rather than networks of belonging. Keywords: artificial intelligence; care; disconnection; NEOM; sustainability; The Line; urban planning; utopianism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8181 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Mapping Geomedia Studies: Origins, Trajectories, and Future Directions File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8215 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8215 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8215 Author-Name: André Jansson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Author-Name: Christian S. Ritter Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden Abstract: This article explores the formation of and future avenues for geomedia studies. Drawing on a citation network analysis, we map the development of the interdisciplinary research terrain from its origins and identify central citation clusters. The term “geomedia” has been used in the humanities and social sciences since at least the early 2010s. Subsequently, geomedia studies have been advanced through an interdisciplinary scholarship from human geography, media and communication studies, and other related research areas, assessing the increasingly complex interplay between media technologies and the production of space. To detect the origins and growth of geomedia studies as an emerging field, we conduct a bibliographic citation and keyword analysis of 57 references from the Web of Science core collection. The generated charts and network graphs reveal that research on geomedia has mainly evolved within media and communication studies. A citation cluster analysis shows how two sub-communities and approaches have emerged, tentatively called “visual geomedia studies” and “urban-sociological geomedia studies.” A keyword cluster analysis reveals how the approaches are entangled with different theoretical perspectives. Given the societal relevance and the growing vitality of present-day geomedia studies, this article discusses the prospects of both approaches. Keywords: citation networks; communication geography; geomedia; keyword clusters; locative media; media geography Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8215 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Examining the Interplay of Sociodemographic and Sociotechnical Factors on Users’ Perceived Digital Skills File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8167 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8167 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8167 Author-Name: Massimo Ragnedda Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media, Sharjah University, UAE Author-Name: Maria Laura Ruiu Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University, UK Author-Name: Daniel Calderón-Gómez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology: Methodology and Theory, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain Abstract: The rapid pace of technological advancements of the last decades, accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, has increased the importance of digital skills for individuals, businesses, and society. However, despite efforts to increase digital ownership and educational initiatives, the digital divide remains a persistent issue and a barrier to social inclusion. Digital exclusion is not limited to access vs. no access but encompasses a spectrum of participation influenced by factors such as geographical location, skills, motivation, and identity. The study explores what sociodemographic and sociotechnical aspects shape users’ digital skills. It is based on an online survey of English internet users aged between 20–55 with school-aged children (N = 2,004), to measure their digital skills across six dimensions and analyzes the relationship between these skills and sociodemographic and sociotechnical variables. Results show that among the sociodemographic aspects, including gender, age, education level, employment status, income, and residential area, only income significantly contributes to distinguishing groups per level of digital skills. The study also shows that motivation gap, access gap, usage gap, and social support, are all associated with individuals’ digital skills. Keywords: digital divide; digital inequalities; digital poverty; digital skills; internet users Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8167 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Female Sports Journalists: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8200 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8200 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8200 Author-Name: Aage Radmann Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education and Outdoor Studies, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway Author-Name: Anna Sätre Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sport Sciences, Malmö University, Sweden Abstract: This article aims to explore the experiences of female sports journalists in Sweden from a gender perspective. The theoretical framework is inspired by Yvonne Hirdman’s understanding of gender in a binary system and R. W. Connell’s definition of hegemonic masculinity. Data consist of 10 semi-structured interviews with the most prominent female sports journalists in Sweden. The sports journalists in this study express that there has been a change in the media industry, resulting in a better understanding of women’s working conditions within the industry. Even so, the work is still grounded in a culture signified by hegemonic masculinity, where women need to find their own strategies to build a successful career, handle harassment, and cope with other gender-related challenges. Keywords: female sports journalism; gender; harassment; hegemonic masculinity; new media landscape; working conditions Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8200 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Futures: A Signal-Based Approach to Inclusive Digital Youth Work for Socially Vulnerable Youth File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8160 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8160 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8160 Author-Name: Lotte Vermeire Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Wendy Van den Broeck Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: This article examines inclusivity in digital youth work initiatives which use and discuss media and technology. The research focusses on initiatives aimed at socially vulnerable youth. Socially vulnerable and digitally excluded youth face educational inequalities due to limited resources, such as inadequate hardware or lack of academic support at home (Correa et al., 2020; Faure et al., 2022; Garmendia & Karrera, 2019). Youth work as non-formal learning plays a crucial role here, possessing certain advantages that formal education does not have—for instance, the freedom to set needs-specific learning goals that are more responsive to societal signals. Through a two-fold comparative case study analysis, we delve deeper into the successful approaches to organising digitally inclusive digital youth work. The case studies (N = 14), located in Flanders, Belgium, were conducted through an in-depth analysis consisting of a QuickScan of practices and in-depth interviews with practice representatives. Our findings identify four success factors for the setup of digitally inclusive practices: (a) providing young people with the means to actively participate during the activity, (b) informing youth workers about digital inclusion factors, (c) providing youth workers with the means to seek help from other actors working on digital inclusion, and (c) including the target group in the creation process of the activity. Based on these four success factors, this study emphasises the importance of a signal-based approach that starts from the needs and talents of youth. Keywords: digital inclusion; digital media; digital skills; digital youth work; socially vulnerable youth; youth workers Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8160 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Challenging Norms and Practices in Women’s Beach Handball: The Bikini Debate File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8031 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8031 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8031 Author-Name: Nathalie Hyde-Clarke Author-Workplace-Name: Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Birgitte Kjos Fonn Author-Workplace-Name: Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: Since 1978, the Norwegian Act for Gender Equality has created a strong emphasis on the importance of equality in all parts of society. This implies equal access to all cultural and welfare activities and services—including sports. In the media, we often see strong reactions to examples of discrimination based on gender, such as during the 2021 European Beach Handball Championship, when the Norwegian women’s beach handball team was fined by the European Handball Federation for refusing to play in bikini bottoms during their final matches. Media attention was given to the ensuing international outrage, which included well-known music artist Pink offering to pay on the team’s behalf in a gesture of solidarity. In November 2021, the sport’s International Federation agreed to allow women to compete in a similar uniform to men. This study analyses Norwegian newspaper coverage of the responses from Norwegian women athletes, politicians, and the international sports/media community from July 2021 to March 2022. It also provides an opportunity to determine to what extent the media framed and participated in calls for change. Keywords: beach handball; gender; Nordic model; Norway; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8031 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Armenian Media System Overview According to the Hallin and Mancini Model File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7850 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7850 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7850 Author-Name: Patricia Izquierdo-Iranzo Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication Sciences, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: Liana Sayadyan Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Yerevan State University, Armenia Abstract: An overview of the Armenian media system is presented from the perspective of media professionals. Interference with the media system by the political system is analysed and the health of the Armenian media system is explored in the context of its transition from a Soviet republic towards a liberal model. The international situation contextualises analysis (resurgence of Russia–West enmity and globalisation) as does Armenia’s troubled relationship with its neighbours: with Turkey due to the 1915 genocide and with Azerbaijan because of the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. Relevant domestic affairs, such as the successful citizens’ mobilisation and the 2018 Velvet Revolution are also considered. The methodology used is based on in-depth interviews carried out in Yerevan (09/23) with 13 key informants; their answers are explored with content analysis using Hallin and Mancini’s dimensions. The study will serve to discuss how the media are used as tools of power and how the media system reproduces the political system (polarisation and individual ownership). We find that media is owned and/or controlled by political parties, and that the government controls public media but also part of the private sector through broadcasting licences and economic pressure. News media are not self-sustainable, thus, media economic dependence compromises its editorial independence, and very few media are independent. There is plurality, but highly polarised; there is no systematic censorship, but defamation fines reinforce journalists’ self-censorship; internet freedom is high but generates misinformation. Even so, there is professionalism, therefore there may yet be hope for the media if peace and the economy stabilise. Keywords: Armenia; Armenian media; Hallin and Mancini; media systems; political system; press freedom Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7850 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Comparing Media Systems: A New Critical Academic Reading File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8357 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8357 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8357 Author-Name: Aurora Labio-Bernal Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism II, University of Seville, Spain Author-Name: Rainer Rubira-García Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: Rasa Pocevicienė Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Communication, Šiauliai State Higher Education Institution, Lithuania Abstract: The year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Comparing Media Systems (2004), by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini, a book that established three major media models in the Western world. Subsequently, the same authors published Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (2011), which extended the work to other countries such as Russia, Poland, and China. In both cases, the interest was in the comparative analysis using a series of variables that made it possible to classify the media structures of the countries into differential groups. For their analysis, the authors included different study categories that need to be reinterpreted considering technological evolution, changes in consumption habits, or the irruption of social networks. This thematic issue is a proposal for a review of media models in different countries and aims to be a starting point for future lines of research on this subject. A total of 10 articles are presented to address an academic debate on the scientific relevance of Hallin and Mancini’s work, its contribution to comparative media studies, and its necessary re-reading in a historical-temporal framework different from the moment in which it was published. Keywords: communication models; comparative studies; critical analysis; Hallin; Mancini; media systems; political economy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8357 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Critically Contextualising a Mega-Event: Nordic Sports Commentaries During the 2022 World Cup in Football File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8051 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8051 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8051 Author-Name: Harald Hornmoen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Anders Graver Knudsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: Prior to the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Nordic news media emphasised their ambitions of persistently covering problematic aspects of this mega-event to be hosted in Qatar, a country subjected to severe criticism of its human rights breaches in the build-up to the event. Focusing on the genre of commentary journalism—a form committed to articulating opinions on social and cultural issues—this study illuminates how key Nordic news media argued for their views on the World Cup 2022. Drawing on empirical material from Danish and Norwegian broadcasters and tabloids, the study analyses commentaries (excluding “sports only” commentaries) published during the event, highlighting the types of arguments, the discourses they articulate or imply, and their attribution of agency to organisational actors. Although a critical and contextualising argumentation runs through commentaries made during the tournament, the reasoning changes its character to such a degree that it is pertinent to categorise the commentaries as reflecting two distinct discursive phases. Argumentation in the first phase sustains a critique of FIFA and the organiser. Arguments were typically formulated as personal attacks but tended to elaborate on their premises by providing fact-based background from investigations of power abuse. The argumentation in the second phase changes its character by more clearly emphasising the action needed to transform current problematic circumstances in accordance with stated goals, not least a reformation of FIFA. The commentators now tend to be less moralising and more diverse and reflective in how they argue for changes in the governance of mega-events in football. Keywords: FIFA; FIFA World Cup; mega-events; Nordic news media; political agency; sports commentaries; sportswashing Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8051 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “It’s a Balancing Act”: Contradictory Ambitions of Journalistic Media in Addressing Harassment in Sport File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8198 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8198 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8198 Author-Name: Veera Ehrlén Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Abstract: Over the last five years, the Finnish sports media has played a key role in disseminating information and stimulating debate on gender equity, sexual harassment, and the structures and culture that perpetuate the latter in sport. Triggered by the Me Too movement, the handling of harassment cases has shifted from the private domain to the public debate in the media, making it political. In this article, I study the perception of the politicisation of harassment within sports media. The article utilises interviews with 16 Finnish sports journalists who have been reporting on harassment cases in national and regional media houses. In the thematic analysis, the facilitators and constraints of harassment reporting are examined in relation to the prevailing power structures, culture, and attitudes in the professional sports environment. While the interviews highlight the changing face of sports journalism and, within it, an ambition to move from entertainment and performance reporting to socio-politically critical journalism, the article also highlights the problematic contradictions embedded in the ambition within sports media to address harassment in sport. The findings of this research suggest that when studying the outcomes of news reporting, it is important to pay attention to news production processes and the gendered aspects that influence them. Keywords: digitalisation; gender equity; hegemonic masculinity; identity politics; sexual harassment; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8198 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Journalistic Framing of Finnish Ice Hockey Club Jokerit in the Russian-Led Kontinental Hockey League File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8120 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8120 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8120 Author-Name: Joakim Särkivuori Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Author-Name: Antti Laine Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Abstract: One of the major franchises in Finland’s top division in men’s ice hockey (Liiga), Jokerit Helsinki, sold its home arena and half of its shares to Finnish-Russian oligarchs in 2013. Jokerit also switched to the Russian-led Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and competed there from 2014 to 2022. Russia’s KHL project and its expansion to the West can be viewed as a form of soft power. This study delves into the journalistic coverage of Jokerit during two specific periods: Its early days in the KHL and its later stages when exiting the league. These periods coincide with critical geopolitical events, such as Russia’s annexation of Crimea (2014), Belarusian protests (2020–2021), and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022). Our data consists of Jokerit-related articles in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat as well as interviews of the journalists who followed the team closely. We explore the critical socio-political coverage of Jokerit in Helsingin Sanomat during these periods and investigate whether the sports journalists recognized the broader geopolitical context of the KHL project and, if so, how this influenced their reporting. Utilizing the framing theory, we identified five frames under which to divide the articles: (a) sports events, (b) international relations, (c) power and governance, (d) business, and (e) unity. The sports event frame predominated during the early KHL era, whereas international relations and power and governance frames only emerged later. These shifts were not initiated by sports journalists but resulted from the efforts of journalists in other fields and increased the societal scrutiny of ties to Russia. Keywords: ice hockey; Jokerit Helsinki; Kontinental Hockey League; newspapers; Russia; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8120 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Audio-as-Data Tools: Replicating Computational Data Processing File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7851 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7851 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7851 Author-Name: Josephine Lukito Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA Author-Name: Jason Greenfield Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Social Media and Politics, New York University, USA Author-Name: Yunkang Yang Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication & Journalism, Texas A&M University, USA Author-Name: Ross Dahlke Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Stanford University, USA Author-Name: Megan A. Brown Author-Workplace-Name: School of Information, University of Michigan, USA Author-Name: Rebecca Lewis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Stanford University, USA Author-Name: Bin Chen Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA / Journalism and Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong Abstract: The rise of audio-as-data in social science research accentuates a fundamental challenge: establishing reproducible and reliable methodologies to guide this emerging area of study. In this study, we focus on the reproducibility of audio-as-data preparation methods in computational communication research and evaluate the accuracy of popular audio-as-data tools. We analyze automated transcription and computational phonology tools applied to 200 episodes of conservative talk shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones. Our findings reveal that the tools we tested are highly accurate. However, despite different transcription and audio signal processing tools yield similar results, subtle yet significant variations could impact the findings’ reproducibility. Specifically, we find that discrepancies in automated transcriptions and auditory features such as pitch and intensity underscore the need for meticulous reproduction of data preparation procedures. These insights into the variability introduced by different tools stress the importance of detailed methodological reporting and consistent processing techniques to ensure the replicability of research outcomes. Our study contributes to the broader discourse on replicability and reproducibility by highlighting the nuances of audio data preparation and advocating for more transparent and standardized practices in this area. Keywords: audio-as-data; computational methods; conservative talk shows; data processing; reproduction; talk radio Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7851 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Longitudinal Perspective on Digital Skills for Everyday Life: Measurement and Empirical Evidence File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8159 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8159 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8159 Author-Name: Kiran Kappeler Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland Abstract: Our everyday lives are increasingly digital: We meet with friends, search for information, watch films, and buy goods online. This generates data that is automatically collected and analyzed. The ability to deal with the resulting algorithmically selected and personalized content is essential to benefit from digital technologies, and for this, digital skills are crucial. Studies focusing on digital skills, their antecedents, and consequences have mostly relied on self-reported, one-time measurements. A deeper understanding of the measures of digital skills and the role such digital skills play in everyday life and over time is needed. To address these gaps, this article compares self-reported measures of digital skills and knowledge of datafication and algorithmization in everyday internet use and maps the evolution of their relevance for digital everyday life. To do so, this articles analyzes data from multiple cross-sectional surveys conducted from 2011 to 2023 with representative samples of Swiss internet users. First, the findings indicate that self-reported skills reflect internet users’ knowledge of algorithmization and datafication in everyday internet use. This renders the measure a decent tool for empirical studies. Second, the findings show that digital skills are associated with socioeconomic background, cyber-optimistic attitudes, usage time, use of social media, health trackers, voice assistants, ChatGPT, and feeling included in the information society. These relationships varied over time. This article provides longitudinal empirical evidence on the relevance of digital skills in a highly digitized country. The findings highlight that promoting digital skills can contribute to fostering more inclusive digital societies. Keywords: algorithmization; datafication; digital inclusion; digital inequality; digital skills; online survey; skills measurement Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8159 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Social Clubs to Champions for Sports Journalistic Identity and Integrity File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8135 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8135 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8135 Author-Name: Kirsten Frandsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Journalism Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark Abstract: Taking the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as a point of departure, this article analyses the changing role of national associations of sports journalists in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Introducing the concept of meta-journalistic discourse and well-established media system theories, it is argued that Nordic sports journalism’s negotiations of professional practices and standards are shaped by a particular media systemic context with distinct Nordic welfare state-oriented features. One such feature is a tradition of using collective, organized social groups, like democratically based voluntary associations, as instruments for social change. The empirical study explores this through a qualitative thematic analysis of the changing structures, identities, and practices of the national associations of sports journalists across the three countries. This illustrates how the organizations in particular during the last two decades have started very similar processes of transformation away from being mainly social clubs. The associations have used their collective frameworks and bargaining power to ensure independent journalists’ access to sports organizations and athletes, and they have engaged in negotiations of what sports journalism is and what constitutes sports journalism in a sports media landscape shaped by strong combined forces of digitization and politicization. Keywords: boundary work; digitization; FIFA World Cup; media system; meta journalistic discourse; politicization; sports journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8135 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media Framing of Government Crisis Communication During Covid-19 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7774 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7774 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7774 Author-Name: Lore Hayek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck, Austria Abstract: During the early phase of the Covid-19 crisis, televised speeches and press conferences were one of the preferred means of government communication. They emphasized the urgency and severity of the situation and allowed actors to lead news coverage. While in the immediate phase of the crisis these press conferences were also directed at the general public, their original function was, of course, to inform and influence media coverage. The article investigates how government press conferences were received in newspapers in the first phase of Covid-19, answering two research questions: Did a rally-around-the-flag effect occur among journalists during Covid-19? And how did government press conferences influence salience and sentiment in newspaper opinion pieces? To answer these questions, I draw on a unique dataset, including transcripts of all Covid-19 press conferences in five European countries between January and July 2020, as well as opinion pieces from tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. Based on a mix of automated and manual content analysis, the results reveal how factors such as country context, newspaper type, and the progress of a pandemic can influence how the government agenda is reflected in the media in times of crisis. Keywords: agenda setting; crisis communication; Covid-19; media framing; political communication; political journalism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7774 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Editorial: Policy Framing and Branding in Times of Constant Crisis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8384 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8384 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8384 Author-Name: Vasiliki Tsagkroni Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Author-Name: George Dikaios Author-Workplace-Name: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Abstract: This editorial serves as an introduction to Media and Communication’s thematic issue Policy Framing and Branding in Times of Constant Crisis. Crises cast challenges for political actors and concurrently create opportunities for policymaking, public reflections, and political competition. In times of crisis, when it comes to communicating policymaking but also framing the crisis itself, issues close to political communication (including political marketing and political branding) become of paramount relevance. The eight articles of this issue cover a broad array of subjects, expanding the understanding of the relevance of communication when it comes to policymaking in times of crisis, through the lens of policy framing and policy branding. Keywords: branding; communication processes; crisis; crisis communication; governance; policy branding; policy framing; policymaking; representation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8384 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media Systems and Media Capture in Turkey: A Case Study File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7733 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7733 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7733 Author-Name: Murat Akser Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication and Media, Ulster University, UK Author-Name: Banu Baybars Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication, Kadir Has University, Turkey Abstract: This article attempts to explain the current situation of the Turkish media system through the media systems approach as a case study with special attention to the concept of media capture. We propose that the Turkish media system’s shift is heavily influenced by media capture. We associate four of Hallin and Mancini’s media systems concepts related to the effects of media capture in the Turkish media system shift: rise of political parallelism, erosion of journalistic professionalism (ethics), controlling role of the state, and government-friendly ownership concentration. In explaining the shift from a pluralist polarised to captured media in Turkey, we acknowledge the potential for new, independent, and alternative media to emerge. The article also comments that the potential reason for this shift from a captured liberal to a captured media in Turkey is the climate of fear that has allowed successive governments in Turkey to attempt media capture. In general, this article attempts to provide insight into the current relationship between media and politics in Turkey. Keywords: journalism; media capture; media systems; political parallelism; Turkey Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7733 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Commercial Television as a Blind Spot in Emerging Media Systems: Romania and Bulgaria’s Cases File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7765 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7765 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7765 Author-Name: Mădălina Bălășescu Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Author-Name: Vyara Angelova Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria Author-Name: Romina Surugiu Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Abstract: This study explores TV in Romania and Bulgaria, both considered “emerging” media systems in post-communist studies (Sparks, 1995). It uses Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) framework to analyze the central aspects regarding the configuration of commercial TV. The study offers an institutional perspective on TV by exploring the licensing frame and the TV offer. The interaction between commercial TV, politics, and the state underlines the intricate relations through powerful and influential networks involving the interests of a variety of individuals and groups. Currently, commercial TV is the most developed type of media in both countries. Through its empirical contribution, this study fills in the blind spot of media research, aiming to contribute to the understanding of the Romanian and Bulgarian media landscape. It offers a critical perspective on TV systems in relation to the polarized pluralist/Mediterranean model of Hallin and Mancini, considering its explanatory function within the analysis of Eastern European media systems. Elements of the national markets revealed particularities of the TV business, synchronically connected to the contemporary “hyper-television” vision (Scolari, 2009) and the “informational disorder” paradigm (Tambini, 2020). Keywords: audiovisual; Bulgaria; commercial TV; Hallin and Mancini’s model; media market; media system; Romania Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7765 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Challenges of Replicating Volatile Platform-Data Studies: Replicating Schatto-Eckrodt et al. (2020) File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7789 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7789 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7789 Author-Name: Philipp Knöpfle Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany Author-Name: Tim Schatto-Eckrodt Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Journalism Studies, Hamburg University, Germany Abstract: Replication studies in computational communication science (CCS) play a vital role in upholding research validity, ensuring reliability, and promoting transparency. However, conducting such studies in CCS often proves challenging due to the data environments’ dynamic nature and the complexities surrounding data and software sharing. To shed light on these challenges, we examine the replication process with CCS studies by computationally reproducing and replicating Schatto-Eckrodt et al.’s (2020) computational analysis of the X (formerly Twitter) debate about the term “gaming disorder” being added to the International Classification of Diseases 11. Our results indicate a reproduction success rate of 88.46% of the original findings. Replicating the analysis presents several obstacles, particularly in data access and availability. Five years after the original data collection, we were able to recollect only 55.08% of the initial sample, primarily due to user and platform activities, including account deletions, user suspensions, and privacy settings. Our reproduction and replication efforts revealed intricate challenges in conducting CCS research, particularly concerning data access and third-party platforms. To enhance replication in CCS, we emphasize the crucial role of data sharing, increased transparency, extensive documentation, and regulatory processes. Thus, our analysis underscores replications’ critical role in enhancing CCS research validity and reliability. Keywords: computational communication science; replicability; replication; reproducibility; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7789 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Replicating and Extending Soroka, Fournier, and Nir: Negative News Increases Arousal and Negative Affect File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7807 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7807 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7807 Author-Name: Roeland Dubèl Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Gijs Schumacher Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Maaike D. Homan Author-Workplace-Name: Organizational Behavior Group, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands Author-Name: Delaney Peterson Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Bert N. Bakker Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: The negativity bias hypothesis in political communication contends that people are more aroused by negative vs. positive news. Soroka et al. (2019) provide evidence for this negativity bias in a study in 17 countries across six continents. We find suggestive evidence for Soroka et al.’s (2019) central finding that negativity causes an increase in skin conductance levels in a conceptually close, well-powered, and preregistered replication. We extend Soroka et al. (2019) in three ways. First, we theorise, test, and confirm that negative (vs. positive) news causes an increase in activity of the corrugator major muscle above the eyebrow (using facial electromyography activity) and is associated with a negative affect. Second, we find people self-reporting negative news causes negative affect but that positive (instead of negative) news increases self-reported arousal. Third, we test Soroka et al.’s (2019) argument in another context, the Netherlands. Our article suggests that negative news is, especially, causing negative affect. Doing so, we contribute to the negativity bias argument in political communication research and, at the same time, show the importance of replication in empirical communication research. Keywords: corrugator; negative news; negativity bias; physiology; skin conductance Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7807 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Standardized Sampling for Systematic Literature Reviews (STAMP Method): Ensuring Reproducibility and Replicability File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7836 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7836 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7836 Author-Name: Ayanda Rogge Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany Author-Name: Luise Anter Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany Author-Name: Deborah Kunze Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany Author-Name: Kristin Pomsel Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany Author-Name: Gregor Willenbrock Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany Abstract: Systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are an effective way of mapping a research field and synthesizing research evidence. However, especially in communication research, SLRs often include diverse theories and methods, which come with a considerable downside in terms of reproducibility and replicability. As a response to this problem, the present article introduces the method of standardized sampling for systematic literature reviews (STAMP). The method is a structured, four-stage approach that is centered around score-based screening decisions. Originating from principles of standardized content analysis, a method common in communication research, and supplementing established guidelines like Cochrane or PRISMA, the STAMP method contributes to more transparent, reproducible, and replicable SLR sampling processes. As we illustrate throughout the article, the method is adaptable to various SLR types. The article also discusses the method’s limitations, such as potential coder effects and comparatively high resource intensity. To facilitate the application of STAMP, we provide a comprehensive guideline via the Open Science Framework that offers a succinct overview for quick reference and includes practical examples for different types of SLRs. Keywords: content analysis; replicability; reproducibility; STAMP method; standardized sampling; systematic literature review Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7836 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Evolution of Crisis Frames in the European Commission’s Institutional Communication (2003–2022) File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7778 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7778 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7778 Author-Name: Hanna Orsolya Vincze Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania Abstract: Historical accounts of the EU recurrently turn to crisis as a periodizing or structuring concept, reflecting the observation made by scholars that crisis has become a permanent feature of the social construction of our social and political reality. The concept of crisis can also be exploited for strategic purposes by political actors pursuing various policy agendas. Our article analyzes the discursive uses of crises by one of the central institutions of the EU, the European Commission, based on a corpus of press releases that referred to crisis (N = 4,414) going back two decades (2003–2022). Thus, our article examines crisis as a political language and its discursive uses. We ask: (a) how salient is the topic of “crisis” in the European Commission’s communication; (b) what are the main domains in which the crisis frame has been activated, from geographical scope to policy areas; (c) how did the deployment of crisis frames change in time along major policy areas like economy, migration, or climate change; and (d) in what terms has the crisis-frame been activated, and how does crisis word use vary by region and policy area. Methodologically, we pursue these research questions using text-as-data methods, combining natural language processing tools for identifying geographical scopes, actors, and policy areas with corpus methods for identifying keywords and collocates and manually coding the latter, relying on qualitative and quantitative reasoning. Our research contributes to understanding the dynamics of EU policy framing in times of crisis. Keywords: crisis communication; crisis framing; crisis policy framing; European Union; policy areas; policy framing; public communication; public diplomacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7778 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Attitudinal, Normative, and Resource Factors Affecting Communication Scholars’ Data Sharing: A Replication Study File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7666 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7666 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7666 Author-Name: Jinghong Xu Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China Author-Name: Rukun Zhang Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China Abstract: This study explores the factors affecting communication scholars’ data-sharing intentions, a critical component of reproducibility and replicability in open science. We replicate Harper and Kim’s (2018) study, which employs the theory of planned behavior to demonstrate the impacts of attitudinal, normative, and resource factors. Specifically, their original research examines data-sharing practices among psychologists, and our replication aims to reinforce their findings within the communication field. Data from a survey of Chinese communication scholars (N = 351) are analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that perceived benefit and perceived risk significantly influence the attitudes of communication scholars towards sharing their data, positively and negatively, respectively. Additionally, attitudes, subjective norms, journal pressure, and the conditions facilitating data sharing have a significant positive impact on communication scholars’ behavioral intentions. Perceived effort inversely affects attitudes toward data sharing but does not impact behavioral intentions. This study provides a theoretical framework for understanding data-sharing intentions and behaviors in the open science movement. The role of this research as a replication study serves as a compelling demonstration of scientific inquiry. Practical suggestions, such as fostering open dialog, institutional incentives, and cooperation between different actors to increase communication scholars’ data-sharing intentions, and recommendations for carrying out replication and reproduction studies, are discussed. Finally, we judiciously reflect on the methodological limitations of our research and highlight directions for future research on open science. Keywords: China; communication scholars; open science; replication study; structural equation modeling; theory of planned behavior Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7666 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Surveillance Working Groups as Geomedia Governance File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8201 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8201 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8201 Author-Name: Talia Berniker Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA Author-Name: Lee Humphreys Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA Abstract: Municipalities across the US are investing in smart technologies that rely on data collection tools and devices. Though proposals to procure these technologies often describe the benefits of optimization, privacy concerns and asymmetrical data access remain. Some municipalities are working to minimize such concerns by developing community working groups to evaluate the adoption of surveillance technologies. Many of these organizations have an explicit interest in geomedia technologies, yet their goals, composition, and technology review processes differ. We examined working groups from four US cities—Boston, Seattle, Syracuse, and Vallejo—to identify how group members articulate different sociotechnical imaginaries of geomedia. Through interviews with working group members and an analysis of public documents, we examine how working groups imagine the future use, and misuse, of these technologies in their communities. In turn, this project highlights how multi-stakeholder governance can shape decision-making about geomedia futures. Keywords: geomedia; smart cities; smart technologies; sociotechnical imaginaries; surveillance Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8201 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: On the Continued Need for Replication in Media and Communication Research File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7935 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7935 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7935 Author-Name: Nicholas David Bowman Author-Workplace-Name: S. I. Newhouse School of Communication, Syracuse University, USA Abstract: Common models of the scientific method articulate the processes by which we hypothesize about the correlation between variables and then test those predictions to make incremental conclusions about the world around us. Implied in this process is the replication and extension of that knowledge to various contexts. As with other social sciences, published analyses have demonstrated that media and communication scholarship suffers from a lack of replication studies, often due to presumptions about the lack of reward or incentive for conducting this work—such as perceived difficulties securing support for and/or publishing these studies. This commentary will reflect on and reinforce arguments for the intentional and important role of replication studies in media and communication scholarship. The essay reflects on replication as a key to post-positivist approaches, and then highlights recent developments that center replication work as key to scientific progression. Keywords: open science; post-positivism; replication; research integrity; social sciences Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7935 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Legitimating Policy Branding: Constructing “Sellability” of Sweden’s Feminist Foreign Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7772 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7772 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7772 Author-Name: Isabelle Karlsson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Strategic Communication, Lund University, Sweden Abstract: This article examines how foreign policy branding is legitimated as a response to human rights crises. Drawing on legitimation theory (van Leeuwen, 2007), this study takes a discourse perspective with a focus on the enactment of foreign policy in communication and argues that legitimacy is the foundation for constructing a convincing and credible image of a country and its foreign policy. Building on the example of Sweden’s feminist foreign policy and an analysis of relevant policy documents, three themes were formulated. These illustrate that Sweden’s feminist foreign policy branding was legitimated by framing the policy as a form of “good” activism, creating a knowledge brand of the policy, and aligning the policy branding with established discourses of solidarity. Thus, the study suggests that a branding logic imposed by the attention economy leads foreign policy communication to focus on constructing “sellability” of foreign policy, legitimating it in ways that make it relatable to wider publics. This article contributes to foreign policy communication research through the conceptual development of foreign policy branding. Keywords: branding logic; discourse; feminist foreign policy; foreign policy branding; government communication; legitimation; Sweden Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7772 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Evolution of Government Intervention in the Mediterranean Media System: Spain, France, and Portugal File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7738 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7738 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7738 Author-Name: Ana Fernández-Viso Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media, Communication, and Culture, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Author-Name: Isabel Fernández-Alonso Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media, Communication, and Culture, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain Abstract: Based on the comparative analysis of the three Western media system models distinguished by Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini (2004), this article revisits their thesis of a tendency towards the convergence of the Mediterranean model and the Liberal model—in terms of the weakening of links between media institutions and the political sphere—two decades after it was first posited. By studying the degree and nature of state intervention in the media systems of Spain, France, and Portugal in the 21st century, the aim is to ascertain whether, within a context of growing political polarisation and shrinking journalistic industry income, the distinctive characteristics of the role of the state in the Mediterranean model remain the same or have changed—and in what sense. The contextualised analysis of Spanish, French, and Portuguese policies relating to public service media, independent audiovisual media regulatory bodies, media subsidies, and state advertising on the one hand allows us to question whether state intervention in Mediterranean media systems has weakened, thereby reaffirming the thesis of the importance of nation-states in media governance and the relevance of the comparative study of national media systems in the era of digital globalisation. And, on the other hand, it enables continuities, discontinuities, and differences between the three countries to be identified in relation to the logic of clientelism that Hallin and Mancini observed in their media policies in 2004, as well as some initial elements for their interpretation to be noted. Keywords: France; media policies; media subsidies; media systems; public service media; Spain; Portugal Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7738 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Shaping and Branding Migration Policy: A Retrospective Analysis of Portugal’s Contemporary Model File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7912 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7912 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7912 Author-Name: Vasiliki Tsagkroni Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: Migrant populations have been consistently more vulnerable than others, with their vulnerability being exacerbated in crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic. In the meantime, in their effort to “flatten the curve,” governments have been adopting policies that have significantly impacted migration in various ways. The effect of these policies has found migrants suffering disproportionately from the social and economic consequences of the pandemic crisis. Mobility restrictions have stranded them in the host countries, often without decent housing conditions, exacerbating xenophobic and discriminatory treatment of migrants. The study focuses on the case of Portugal and, more specifically, aims to provide a contextual feature of historical discussions of migration in Portugal and explore the perceptions and branding of migration policies in a crisis environment during the Covid-19 pandemic through the framing lens. Using empirical evidence from a frame analysis of parliamentary debates, the article investigates how immigration policies are branded and framed within Portugal, while it also evaluates the role of branding in migration policy-making, particularly in crisis scenarios. Overall, the article underscores the importance of branding in shaping migration policies, emphasising its significance in policy making. Keywords: branding; crisis; framing; immigration dynamics; immigration narratives; immigration policy; Portugal Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7912 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Nazis Aren’t Welcome Here”: Selling Democracy in the Age of Far-Right Extremism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7853 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7853 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7853 Author-Name: Kurt Sengul Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature, Macquarie University, Australia Author-Name: Jordan McSwiney Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra, Australia Abstract: This article critically examines the communicative and policy-framing response of Australia’s Victorian government to the state’s growing crisis of far-right extremism. Through a critical discourse analysis of the Victorian Andrews and Allan Labor governments’ political communication from 2021 to 2023, we explain how the government discursively responded to the rise of far-right extremism. We found the Andrews and Allan governments employed a range of communicative, discursive, and legitimisation strategies to both legitimise the government’s policy to ban Nazi symbols and gestures and to (re)establish Victoria’s reputation as an inclusive and multicultural liberal democracy. The findings of this article broaden our empirical understanding of the central role of political and crisis communication in responding to extremism and may provide a template for other governments to respond to the global crisis of far-right extremism. Keywords: Australia; crisis communication; democracy; extremism; far right; policy framing; public sphere Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7853 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Romanian Media System: Dynamics, Challenges, and Implications for Democracy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7847 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7847 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7847 Author-Name: Madalina Botan Author-Workplace-Name: College of Communication and Public Relations, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), Romania Abstract: This article endeavors to delve into the recent transformation of the Romanian media landscape, aiming to offer a nuanced comprehension of the cultural and political dynamics that have influenced journalistic practices. The Romanian media environment has undergone swift changes, transitioning from a monolithic structure to one increasingly driven by commercial interests, all while navigating economic and political pressures. The shift toward a free-market framework has not only reshaped the social and political fabric but has also significantly impacted the media sector. This article posits that the Romanian media landscape is shaped by the interplay of cultural, economic, and political forces, evident in journalistic outputs across both traditional and digital platforms. This assertion aligns with Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) notion of parallelism between journalism and politics. Moreover, it extends this perspective to encompass cultural influences and the evolving media landscape resulting from shifts in the media market, changing consumption patterns, and the proliferation of digital media. Key indicators such as professional standards, editorial autonomy, transparency, financial sustainability, political influence, and media regulations are critically examined within the unique context of Romania, in which political interference and growing reliance on advertising revenue often curtail editorial independence. In conclusion, the article reflects on the current state of the Romanian media system and the manifold challenges it confronts amidst the changing dynamics of the media landscape. Keywords: advertising money; Eastern Europe; editorial independence; journalism; media consumption; media regulations; media systems; media trust; political interventionism; Romania Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7847 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Politicisation Persists and Is Increasing in European Public Service Media in the Digital Society File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7759 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7759 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7759 Author-Name: Tania Fernández-Lombao Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain Author-Name: Olga Blasco-Blasco Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Applied Economics, Universitat de València, Spain Author-Name: Francisco Campos Freire Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain Abstract: The open conclusions with which Hallin and Mancini (2004, 2011) approached their comparative study of Western media systems, initiated in 1998, retain their empirical, revisionist, and prospective value—even from critical perspectives—after a quarter of a century of profound historical, social, and technological changes. The names given to the three traditional media models in those authors’ first publication are used in this article to compare the evolution of funding, audience shares, governance, structure, and political intervention in European countries’ public service media on the one hand, and to contrast the operational hypothesis that politicisation persists and is increasing in European public service media in their adaptation to the digital society, on the other hand. Based on the variables from Hallin and Mancini’s empirical model, five crucial questions about the evolution of public service media in the EU are addressed: intervention and development of regulation by states and by the European Commission in the area of shared powers; a comparative analysis of the funding systems and consumer audiences of each European country’s public service media; the changes in the governance and management structures of said public service media; the variation in the professional culture and the rational-legal authority of their organisations; and the evolution and legitimation of public service media’s public value in the internet society, as well as the persistence or mutability of the national media systems’ fit within Hallin and Mancini’s three original models. Keywords: European Union; funding systems; media regulation; media systems; politicisation; public service media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7759 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Transnational Network Analysis of Refugees in Crisis File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7680 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7680 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7680 Author-Name: Linda Jean Kenix Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Author-Name: Eliot Gibbins Author-Workplace-Name: College of Social Sciences, National Chengchi University, Taiwan Abstract: Over 3,000 articles from 2012–2022 in Spanish and English across the US, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras were manually coded to better understand how refugees in crisis were framed in both home and destination countries. This study uses a detailed frame analysis and a broad transnational network analysis to highlight each refugee attribute on the media agenda that then informs policy across nations. While there is wide variation in the immigration policies of the countries sampled, there was nearly uniform negative framing and clustering of identical negative attributes across all countries sampled. This negative transnational homogenization of news content problematises the idea of unique journalism norms and may have profound “real world” consequences that can further stigmatize refugees throughout the Americas. This research also found that the valence of content became more negative and emotive over time. This suggests that the debate around immigration will continue and even escalate as a battleground of politics and culture—and that refugees may be portrayed even more negatively across media in the future. Given this increasing negativity and emotionality in coverage, societies may see more nationalistic—and xenophobic—immigration policies throughout the Americas and a less empathetic focus on the human rights of refugees. Keywords: immigration policy; media; media framing; negative attributes; news coverage; policy branding; refugees Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7680 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Remembering Reasons for Reform: A More Replicable and Reproducible Communication Literature Without the Rancor File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7852 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7852 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7852 Author-Name: James D. Ivory Author-Workplace-Name: Department of English, Virginia Tech, USA Abstract: Increasing awareness of the “replication crisis” has prompted discussion about replicability and reproducibility in social and behavioral science research, including in communication. As with other fields, communication has seen discussion about concerns with the interpretation of existing research. One response has been the piecemeal adoption of “open science” practices in communication to reduce selectivity in analysis, reporting, and publication of research. Calls for further adoption of such practices have, in turn, been met with criticisms and concerns about the negative consequences of their adoption. Amidst disparate perspectives regarding solutions to replicability and reproducibility issues in communication science, difficulties building consensus and caution about negative outcomes are understandable, but they also present the risk of a status quo bias that could stall the improvement of the replicability and reproducibility of communication research. The urgency of the replication crisis for communication and the cost of inaction are presented here along three exemplifying dimensions perhaps of particular importance in communication research: (a) responsibility to the public, (b) stewardship of resources, and (c) membership in a community of scholars. While debate over solutions will continue, we would do well to keep in mind that problems with replicability and reproducibility in communication research are indeed a crisis needing immediate attention. Keywords: communication; open science; replicability; reproducibility; science reform Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7852 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: South African Media and Politics: Is the Three Models Approach Still Valid After Two Decades? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7723 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7723 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7723 Author-Name: Bernadine Jones Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Media, and Culture, University of Stirling, UK Author-Name: Adrian Hadland Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Media, and Culture, University of Stirling, UK Abstract: When Hallin and Mancini (2004) produced their watershed three models theory, South Africa was a new democracy barely a decade old. Even then, along with other countries of the Global South, the experience of a young democracy posed certain critical challenges to Hallin and Mancini’s understanding of the way that media and politics interrelate. Two decades later, South Africa has continued to change. There has been increased diversity in media ownership, rapid growth in community and social media, digital disruption, and significant challenges to media freedom. How does the three models theory stack up now? This article reviews scholarly critiques of Hallin and Mancini’s model, including their follow-up work, Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World (2012), and assesses to what extent the three models is still a valid approach to understanding the connection between media and politics in the Global South. The article concludes by evaluating Hadland’s (2012) Africanisation of the model in light of the complex postcolonial trajectories of South Africa, suggesting that this, along with Hallin et al.’s (2021) expanded hybridisation model, still offers a better set of variables with which to understand how the media and political systems intertwine in the postcolony. Keywords: comparative media systems; democracy; Global South; South Africa; three models Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7723 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Comparing Media Systems Through the Lens of Neoliberal Hegemony: Evidence From the US and Flanders File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7792 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7792 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7792 Author-Name: Nils Wandels Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Jelle Mast Author-Workplace-Name: Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Hilde Van den Bulck Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Drexel University, USA Abstract: This article argues that increased insight into the global characteristics of the post-Cold War era provides journalism scholars with alternative interpretative lenses to engage in comparative analysis of media system development in the West. We adopt the sociohistorical approach pursued by Hallin and Mancini (2004) in their seminal work Comparing Media Systems to embark on an examination of the dialectic relationship between global neoliberal hegemony, the transformation of media markets, and the emergence of a new journalistic consciousness (doxa). This examination concerns a comparative analysis of developments in a selection of Flemish and American legacy newspapers between 1980 and today, based on a data set consisting of 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews with high agency individuals (executive editors, managing editors, senior journalists, and publishers). The goal of the article is to establish the lens of global neoliberal hegemony as a viable alternative framework to the regional lens of the media systems typology for engaging in comparative analysis of developments in media structures and journalistic practice. Keywords: comparing media systems; Flanders; journalism history; media markets; neoliberalism; oral history; USA Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7792 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Redefining Hallin and Mancini’s Media System: Cross-Border Investigative Networks in Europe File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7712 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7712 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7712 Author-Name: Lorena R. Romero-Domínguez Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Seville, Spain Abstract: This article analyses how cross-border investigative journalism (CBIJ) has expanded the parameters of the media system described by Hallin and Mancini (2004), with the addition of new indicators to adapt it to the paradigm of global convergent media. To this end, it examines how this type of journalism has been conceptualised in Europe as a result of the forums articulated at Dataharvest (the European Investigative Journalism Conference). A quantitative method is applied with text mining techniques to analyse the frequency, associations, and groupings of terms mentioned in the sessions offered from 2014 to 2023. To classify the language units, the variables of CBIJ’s economic model, its thematic relationship with national contexts, and its professional practices are used. The results reveal a clear predominance of the word “data,” reflecting Dataharvest’s particular interest in the dynamics of data processing, which has become an essential part of the work in these networks. An analysis of organisational culture reveals that high-profile associations play a more important role in collaborative projects than less institutionalised networks. The business model encourages non-profit organisations that depend on foundations to support their work. In thematic terms, CBIJ projects address topics emerging in the supranational space, offered with a common frame of reference for multiple countries. These networks necessitate a redefinition of the model defined in 2004, as they have developed qualities of their own in relation to the business model they adopt, the transnational orientation of reporters, the issues addressed, and, to a lesser extent, professional practices. Keywords: cross-border investigative journalism; data; Europe; funded journalism; intertwined newsrooms; media systems; non-profit organisations; transnational network Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7712 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Hallin and Mancini: Two Decades of Influence in Politics and Communications File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7695 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7695 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7695 Author-Name: Daniel Ángel Corral de la Mata Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: José Ramón Sarmiento Guede Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Author-Name: María García de Blanes Sebastián Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Abstract: Since its publication in 2004, Hallin and Mancini’s model has become a pioneer in understanding the dynamics of media systems in different national contexts. Many studies related to politics that identify the patterns, trends, and variations used by communication systems in different countries and historical moments follow this seminal study to evaluate the formation of public opinion and the quality of democracy. For this article, we obtained 3,455 articles published in Web of Science within the Social Sciences Citation Index using the open-source software Science Mapping Analysis Tool, which we chose as a bibliometric technique for its feasibility in providing a conceptual structure through the spatial representation and disciplinary interrelation with fields like specialization, studies, and authors. By analyzing the co-occurrence of keywords, we drew scientific maps that enable the analysis of their conceptual and social evolution over consecutive periods. The results provide up-to-date information on the state of the model and its relevance in the field of communication and policy today, its strengths, limitations and potential areas of development. The findings identify less studied areas in the field, drawing inspiration from the Mancini model. This opens up a guide for future research by identifying themes and questions through bibliometric analysis. Keywords: bibliometrics; clustering; network analysis; pluralism; political parallelism; professionalization; scientometrics Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7695 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: (De)Legitimation in Policy Transfer and Branding: A Dialogical View of the Romanian Covid-19 Vaccination Policy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7743 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7743 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7743 Author-Name: Camelia Cmeciu Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Author-Name: Anca Anton Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania Author-Name: Eugen Glăvan Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies, University of Bucharest, Romania / Research Institute for Quality of Life, Romanian Academy, Romania Abstract: With the growth of marketing’s influence extending from the commercial domain into governance strategy, public health branding and promotional communication relating to the Covid-19 vaccine were essential for national authorities trying to transfer the WHO communication strategy and vaccine policies to their domestic contexts while maintaining public trust. This study explores the role of (de)legitimation in the Covid-19 vaccine communication (#ROVaccinare/ROVaccination) policy transfer and branding conducted by the Romanian government on Facebook. Adopting a top-down and bottom-up approach to the meaning-making process of the message strategy promotion, we employed a mixed-methods approach. We drew on categorizations of message tailoring related to health communication and operationalizations of discursive (de)legitimation. The main findings showed a preference for rationalization legitimation through the usage of fact-based posts and a clear integration of authorization and narrativization into the message strategy promotion of the ROVaccination page. However, despite the prevalence of fact-based posts, legitimation through personal and medical stories was a positive predictor of engagement, unlike legitimation through facts. The bottom-up approach revealed polarized attitudes towards healthcare professionals as sources of the campaign, the Romanian medical system, and past and present vaccination. The dominance of polarization in online users’ comments emphasizes their role as agents of conversion, contesting either the message sources employed in the campaign or other commenters as personal authorities. Keywords: Facebook; health messages; legitimation; message tailoring; narratives; policy; vaccination Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7743 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Journalistic “Innovation” Is Hard to Hate, but Actual Change Is Just Hard File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7459 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7459 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7459 Author-Name: Jane B. Singer Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, City, University of London, UK Abstract: Who is opposed to “innovation”? For most newsroom publishers, managers, editors, and reporters, the word connotes progress; it implies a strategy for achieving success—and dodging failure. But innovation inescapably entails change: Doing and thinking about things differently means giving up the old as well as embracing the new. This commentary recaps journalists’ response over 30 years of digital news. It suggests that calls for change meet with initial resistance, typically on normative grounds; only over time do practitioners normalise the innovation, incorporating it into their perceptions and routines. Keywords: change; digital news; innovation; journalism ethics; normalisation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7459 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media-Tech Companies as Agents of Innovation: From Radical to Incremental Innovation in a Cluster File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7501 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7501 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7501 Author-Name: Ana Milojevic Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia Author-Name: Leif Ove Larsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway Abstract: During recent decades new players, forms, and practices have been entering the journalism field, prompting a re-examination of journalism’s professional and organizational boundaries. Many scholars argue for expanding the scope of journalism studies beyond the newsrooms to encompass actors labelled as strangers, peripheral players, or interlopers. Those actors do not belong to traditional journalism but are becoming involved in the production of news, challenging journalism borders from the inside and out. Their influence has been growing and scholarship is increasingly mapping out these strangers and assessing their role in journalism innovation. In this article, we examine the role of one type of implicit interloper in journalism innovation: media-tech companies. We consider companies that provide video management and virtual reality services as implicit interlopers, due to their connection to journalism through the boundary object of news production and lack of claim over journalistic authority. We argue that media-tech companies have been under-researched based on a review of literature on innovation according to Holton and Belair-Gagnon’s (2018) typology of interlopers. Therefore, we examine what kind of innovation comes from the periphery of journalism, and the prerequisites for and the role of those innovations in the context of a specific cluster. We conducted a case study of Media City Bergen based on a thematic analysis of semi-structured elite interviews with executives of media-tech companies. Our findings show how media-tech companies bring innovation to production and distribution, content, and content consumption. Furthermore, they show how disruptiveness and the degree of innovations change with the maturation of the cluster. Keywords: interloper; journalism boundaries; media cluster; media innovation; media-tech companies Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7501 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Contextualization: A Path to Chinese Traditional News Media’s Integration Into Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7429 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7429 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7429 Author-Name: Difan Guo Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China Author-Name: Haiyan Wang Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China Author-Name: Jinghong Xu Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China Abstract: Meyrowitz’s media context theory proposes that new media and their contexts will lead to new behaviors. This article adopts media context theory as a framework and utilizes a textual analysis approach to analyze what Meyrowitz termed middle region behaviors and the contextualization strategies of the traditional Chinese news media (People’s Daily) on the social media platform Weibo. The findings reveal three of People’s Daily’s Weibo news’ innovation strategies: the middle regionalization of news contexts (live news, vlog news, chatbox news); personalized production of important news (Weibo commentary, user-produced news); and equal dialogue with the public (daily greetings, holiday greetings, popularizing science). The study also indicates that traditional news media can utilize social media to consolidate communication effectiveness and reconstruct their credibility while actively participating in social governance. In light of these findings, we think that the “contextualization” strategies employed by People’s Daily on the Weibo platform offer meaningful possibilities for traditional news organizations’ integration into social media, such as exploring innovative approaches to news presentation, emphasizing audience interaction, appropriately providing “non-news content” for the audience, and maintaining a commitment to objectivity and fairness in news reporting. Keywords: China; innovation strategy; news organizations; People’s Daily; social media; traditional media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7429 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Transforming Crises Into Opportunities: Self-Managed Media in Argentina File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7455 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7455 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7455 Author-Name: Carolina Escudero Author-Workplace-Name: Journalism School, University of Missouri, USA Abstract: The current situation for journalism in Argentina represents a great challenge due to the continuous economic changes linked to inflation and labour precariousness. Faced with this, a phenomenon known as self-managed media has grown over the recent years, also connected to recovered media that promotes innovation, providing material for use in newsrooms to produce novel content and connect with audiences. For this explorative study, based on journalists’ roles and innovation, we conducted a mixed-methods design to analyse self-managed media composed of recovered, cooperatives, community, popular, and alternative media. First, a focus group was held with 10 communicators to understand their current situation; second, 60 journalists were consulted about their roles and innovations; finally, in-depth interviews were conducted with three communicators who work on self-managed media at the Community and Cooperative Media Confederation. The findings reveal the presence of innovative actions, reported by 90% of respondents, and confirm that 70% of the consulted journalists had assumed new roles in management and administration. In addition, 80% of the journalists praised community work as fostering a sense of belonging and its associated benefits regarding motivation and freedom. These sentiments were further validated by the insights shared by the three interviewees. This sense of belonging could be included in the fifth area of innovation in journalism, which centres on the social dimension. Keywords: Argentina journalists; community media; cooperatives; innovation; journalist roles; news reporters; self-managed media; sense of belonging Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7455 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Innovations in Journalism as Complex Interplay: Supportive and Obstructive Factors in International Comparison File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7443 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7443 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7443 Author-Name: Klaus Meier Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany Author-Name: Michael Graßl Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt, Germany Author-Name: Jose Alberto García-Avilés Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Miguel Hernández University, Spain Author-Name: Dámaso Mondejar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social Sciences, Miguel Hernández University, Spain Author-Name: Andy Kaltenbrunner Author-Workplace-Name: Medienhaus Wien, Austria / Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Klagenfurt, Austria Author-Name: Renée Lugschitz Author-Workplace-Name: Medienhaus Wien, Austria / Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Klagenfurt, Austria Author-Name: Colin Porlezza Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Journalism, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland / Department of Journalism, City, University of London, UK Author-Name: Petra Mazzoni Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Journalism, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland Author-Name: Vinzenz Wyss Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Author-Name: Mirco Saner Author-Workplace-Name: IAM Institute of Applied Media Studies, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Abstract: Where does innovation in journalism come from, how is it implemented, and what factors drive or hinder its development? Scholars have explored these questions from different perspectives for over two decades. Our research holistically considers the broader factors that influence the development of journalistic innovation at the macro, meso, and micro levels, and whether it is internally or externally driven. In a three-year international research project, we have unpacked innovation with this multidimensional approach, looking at the most important innovations in journalism in Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Our study focuses on the mutual interplay between journalists, media organizations, and society. We investigated 100 case studies with 137 guided interviews with senior managers or project leaders. The results show that the focus of supporting and obstructive factors is internal and on the meso level and that many parallels exist between media systems. Internal factors are the intrinsic motivation of individuals, which need the support of open-minded management, allowing a culture of experimentation without economic pressure and assembling interdisciplinary teams. Across countries and independent of the respective media system, three external key drivers of innovation in journalism can be identified: technology, societal change, and change in the digital media universe. The study confirms once again as if through a magnifying glass that journalism is primarily a public service, especially for those innovations that strengthen the role of journalism in a democratic society. Keywords: Austria; Germany; innovation; journalism; media organizations; obstructive factors; Spain; supportive factors; Switzerland; UK Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7443 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Can’t Fix This? Innovation, Social Change, and Solutionism in Design Thinking File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7427 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7427 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7427 Author-Name: Annika Richterich Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, The Netherlands Abstract: Design thinking is commonly presented as a solution-oriented approach to innovation. It aims to solve so-called “wicked problems,” with various textbooks and toolkits promising to equip their readers with the skills needed to do so. By rendering design thinking as a magic bullet for problem-solving towards innovation and social change, some of its proponents fall back on a solutionist position. This is despite a growing body of research highlighting critical approaches to design thinking. Drawing on, and adding to, such literature, this article examines how innovation and social change are concretely conceptualised in design thinking guides. Using a cultural media studies approach, the article first contrasts design thinking literature with critical design research, emphasizing the notion of (technological) solutionism. It then zooms in on a purposively selected case: a design thinking textbook aimed at tertiary students. Based on an interpretative analysis of this example, it discusses what understandings of innovation and social change are encouraged in the envisioned design thinking. In linking the reviewed literature and observations from the case study, the analysis highlights two main arguments: First, complex interrelations between innovation and social change are causally simplified in outlining design thinking, thereby fostering techno-fix approaches and mindsets: Readers are encouraged to not merely select but in fact construct solvable “problems,” in turn avoiding confrontations with substantive issues that cannot be fixed through the envisioned design thinking. Second, innovation is conflated with corporate activities and normative questions of innovation, (in-)equality, privilege, and social change are neglected, in turn suggesting a misleading symbiosis between economic and societal interests. Keywords: design thinking; inequality; innovation; social change; solutionism; techno-fix; technological solutionism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7427 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Breaking Away From Hectic Daily Media Production: Unleashing Explorative Innovation Through Inter-Firm Collaborations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7414 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7414 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7414 Author-Name: Giordano Zambelli Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Author-Name: Luciano Morganti Author-Workplace-Name: imec-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Abstract: Beyond the widespread disruption narrative around media innovation, journalism scholarship has put forward valuable remedies to counteract a techno-deterministic perspective by embracing socio-constructivist and socio-technical approaches. Nevertheless, thus far, scholarly attention has primarily been directed towards the newsroom despite the journalism field having undergone significant structural transformations. In this article, we adopt an organisational perspective to journalism innovation and apply it to the emerging locus of inter-firm collaborations in journalism. In fact, while the newsroom has traditionally been considered the dominant location for implementing innovations, an increasing amount of media work currently occurs in decentralised settings. Our study draws upon 20 qualitative interviews with media practitioners and media managers who have been involved as project leaders in inter-firm collaborative projects. These projects have received institutional funding specifically aimed at fostering media innovation. We strive to understand how practitioners conceive of innovation in their overall activity, what obstacles they encounter in their usual routines, and how collaborative practices support them in their innovation trajectory. Our findings indicate that innovation is predominantly perceived as a demanding and complex ongoing practice characterised by adaptation to an evolving environment and hindered by a lack of resources and time. We also find that collaborations offer media practitioners a temporary framework for balancing their efforts to keep up with the demand for daily media production and their aspiration to carry out explorative activities. Lastly, our research reveals that these collaborations provide occasions for knowledge exchange and self-reflection that are frequently absent in non-collaborative settings. Keywords: dissonance; explorative innovation; inter-firm collaboration; journalism innovation; news media organisations Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7414 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Institutional Arbitrageurs: The Role of Product Managers as a Locus of Change in Journalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7374 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7374 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7374 Author-Name: Allie Kosterich Author-Workplace-Name: Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University, USA Author-Name: Cindy Royal Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Texas State University, USA Abstract: The modern news industry demands a continuous stream of products ready to meet audience needs; the emergent newsroom role of product manager serves to prioritize them by providing a holistic perspective on an organization’s goals. Product professionals bring in new skill sets and help to bridge the divide and align the priorities among editorial, business, and technology functions, serving as a locus of change in journalism. This sets the stage for institutional complexity where actors struggle to make decisions due to competing logics, which are socially constructed rules created to normalize behavior. This article thus focuses on the dynamics of change in a complex environment by examining news product professionals as institutional arbitrageurs, which are actors who bring competing logics together to create value during a time of complexity. This framing raises questions regarding the locus of change in journalism and aims to further understand the tactics used by actors in a complex environment such as the field of journalism. A qualitative study using interviews with digital journalism’s product professionals is used to address this phenomenon, which allows for a theoretical contextualization of the dynamics of change in journalism and specifically, how product managers act as a locus of change using their roles to manage complexity by bringing incompatible logics together to leverage differences between them. Keywords: innovation; institutional arbitrage; institutional change; journalism; news product manager; news professional; product managers Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7374 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Organizations as Innovations: Examining Changes in Journalism Through the Lens of Newly-Emerging Organizations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7399 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7399 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7399 Author-Name: Christopher Buschow Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany / Hamburg Media School, Germany Author-Name: Maike Suhr Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany Abstract: This article argues that the growing variety of new journalistic organizations and their diversification beyond the traditional newsroom may offer a deeper and broader understanding of change and innovation within journalism. Newly emerging organizations play a multifaceted role in journalism: They are both drivers and results of change; they serve as indicators of the ways in which the structures of journalism and its production processes are evolving; they reveal industry trends early on and enable longitudinal research. Despite the emergence of non-traditional organizations in journalism, existing studies on these new entities remain fragmented and have yet to coalesce into a sustained research program. Against this background, this conceptual article aims to contribute to the ongoing theoretical progress in journalism studies in three ways. First, it identifies key factors of why organizational innovations happen. Second, it systemizes recent studies exemplifying the plurality of new organizations in journalism according to different levels from organization studies, including the field level, the level of organizational populations, and the level of the single organization. Finally, the article proposes a research agenda for establishing “organizations as innovations” as a novel conceptual lens for understanding change and innovation in journalism studies. Keywords: digital journalism; journalistic organizations; media start-ups; new organizations; new organizing; organizational innovation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7399 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “It’s New to Us”: Exploring Authentic Innovation in Local News Settings File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7444 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7444 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7444 Author-Name: Ragnhild Kr. Olsen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Author-Name: Kristy Hess Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University, Australia Abstract: Many local newsrooms across the globe have been forced to re-assess (and re-assert) their value and function during a period of intense digital disruption. “Innovate or die” has become an accepted mantra as governments, policymakers, and academics focus on shifting, for example, traditional newspapers into the digital era to maintain their perceived relevance. This article argues the need to understand and learn from the experiences of traditional commercial local news providers who have been encouraged to consider innovative solutions for their businesses. The article adopts a pooled case comparison approach, drawing on data from two separate studies examining media innovation in Norway and Australia. We outline three specific themes that appear to shape localized innovation practices: there is ambivalence or challenge to innovation discourse; introduced innovations are done so incrementally and re-contextualised to adapt to a local setting; and there is an authentic approach to innovation that prioritizes change aligning with local journalism’s social and community values. Keywords: authenticity; localized innovation; local journalism; local news; media innovation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7444 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Venture Philanthropy, Local News, and the Murky Promise of Innovation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7496 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7496 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7496 Author-Name: Brian Creech Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Communication, Lehigh University, USA Abstract: As local news has grown as a research and policy concern, venture philanthropy organizations, like the Google News Initiative, Meta Journalism Project, and American Journalism Project, have forwarded a capacious vision of innovation as offering a broad set of revenue-based solutions to local news’ crises. This article analyzes materials produced by these organizations as a form of metajournalistic discourse to understand how venture philanthropists’ focus on local news and innovation buttresses their authority to intervene in journalistic cultures and articulate visions for the future. Venture philanthropy organizations have claimed a broad and granular authority to define the directions of local journalism’s future, recursively justifying their role as stewards of tech industry largesse by declaring which problems, practices, and innovations are worthy of investment and attention. Keywords: American Journalism Project; Facebook journalism; Google News Initiative; local news; Meta Journalism Project; metajournalistic discourse; venture philanthropy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7496 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Conceptualizing and Contextualizing Media Innovation and Change File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/8152 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.8152 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 8152 Author-Name: Frank Harbers Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Sandra Banjac Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Scott A. Eldridge II Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: An innovation and change discourse has become central in journalism studies scholarship concerned with highlighting solutions to the many challenges confronting media in the digital era. Although with good intentions, these debates have been predominantly technocentric in their imagination of media’s future, inadvertently directing its development towards a preoccupation with mastering digital technologies. On the one hand, media have strategically appropriated and exploited such technocentric discourse to position themselves within the field as leaders with considerable prestige and status. On the other hand, however, journalists and media professionals have approached technological innovation with caution, demonstrating innovation to be a gradual process with incremental changes that need to align with or reimagine practices that support journalism’s core ambitions and public service ideals. Drawing on the scholarly work of colleagues included in this thematic issue, in this editorial we conceptualize media innovation as a fuzzy and contested concept and call for an expanded research agenda that redirects our attention more firmly towards: exploring organisational and institutional innovation; considering the role of ancillary organisations, collaborative projects, and the various newly emerging innovative actors within and outside of the journalistic field; adopting bottom-up approaches to examine societal innovation and its public value and scrutinize questions around who benefits from change; and finally, paying more attention to the transnational as well as culture-specific contexts in which media innovations happens. Keywords: innovation discourse; journalistic change; media change; media innovation; technocentrism Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:8152 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Securing the Future of UK Public-Interest News: Navigating Change With Foresight and Innovation File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7497 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7497 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7497 Author-Name: François Nel Author-Workplace-Name: School of Arts and Media, University of Central Lancashire, UK Author-Name: Kamila Rymajdo Author-Workplace-Name: School of Arts and Media, University of Central Lancashire, UK Abstract: This article delves into the factors driving change in the UK’s public-interest news sector, pinpointing key uncertainties that shape its future. Through a participatory action research approach and scenario planning, the study News Futures 2035, seeks to answer the pivotal question: How can the UK ensure the ongoing supply of trustworthy, public-interest news? It stands out for its unique focus, enriching the debate among industry, academia, policymakers, and civil society on safeguarding the sector’s future. The research identified two primary, unpredictable elements with significant influence: the realm of policies, regulations, and governance; and the industry’s capacity for innovation to maintain the relevance of public-interest news for all stakeholders. The study highlights the indispensable role of collaborative action research and continuous dialogue among key stakeholders. It emphasizes the need for structured, cooperative efforts to navigate the complexities of policy, regulation, and consumer relevance, introducing the concept of back-channel deliberations, akin to track 2 diplomacy, as a valuable strategy for engaging diverse stakeholders in informal yet structured discussions. This method promises to foster a platform for innovative solutions and mutual understanding, addressing the challenges to the future supply of public-interest news. The participants’ commitment to advancing this dialogue through a dedicated forum underlines the importance of ongoing stakeholder engagement to ensure the sector’s relevance, sustainability, and societal impact. Keywords: action research; foresight; news innovation; public-interest news; track 2 diplomacy; trust in news Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7497 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Jobs-to-Be-Done and Journalism Innovation: Making News More Responsive to Community Needs File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7578 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7578 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7578 Author-Name: Seth C. Lewis Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, USA Author-Name: Alfred Hermida Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Samantha Lorenzo Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, USA Abstract: Developing successful innovations in journalism, whether to improve the quality and reach of news or to strengthen business models, remains an elusive problem. The challenge is an existential concern for many news enterprises, particularly for smaller news outlets with limited resources. By and large, media innovation has been driven by never-ending pivots in the search for a killer solution, rather than by long-term strategic thinking. This article argues for a fresh approach to innovation built around the “jobs to be done” (JTBD) hypothesis developed by the late Clayton Christensen and typically used in business studies of innovation. However, attempts to bring the JTBD framework into the news industry have never taken hold, while scholars, too, have largely overlooked the framework in their study of journalism innovation. We argue that the JTBD approach can foster local journalism that is more responsive and relevant to the needs of local communities. It reorients journalism by focusing on identifying and addressing the underserved needs of communities, as understood by the communities themselves. It suggests that a bottom-up approach to appreciating the “jobs” that community members want done offers a model that supports both the editorial and business imperatives of local news organizations. Keywords: audience; business; community needs; engagement; innovation; jobs to be done; journalism; management Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7578 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Policy Framing Through Policy Branding: International Maritime Organization, Climate Change, and Twitter/X File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7924 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7924 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7924 Author-Name: George Dikaios Author-Workplace-Name: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Abstract: Climate change, which nowadays is frequently framed as climate crisis in order to highlight the urgent need to take action to tackle it, has been studied extensively both in communication and political science disciplines. This contribution uses as an example the International Maritime Organization to highlight the utilization of its social media, and in particular its Twitter/X account, to frame that it supports climate action in the shipping sector and to brand itself as a green organization. The article offers an analytical framework which illustrates that policy branding is one of the most accurate tools to perform policy framing. It continues by showcasing that this is a procedure that governance institutions use to promote a deliberate message, even if this is not on track with what the institution is expected to do. The empirical data gathered, and processed through content analysis, paints a clear image of how this happens in the era of social media and leads to the conclusion that it is necessary to study policy framing and policy branding within the context they take place; otherwise, wrong conclusions might be drawn. Keywords: climate change; climate crisis; International Maritime Organization; policy branding; policy framing; Twitter; X Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7924 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Bundling Digital Journalism: Exploring the Potential of Subscription-Based Product Bundles File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7442 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7442 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7442 Author-Name: Lukas Erbrich Author-Workplace-Name: TU Dortmund, Germany Author-Name: Christian-Mathias Wellbrock Author-Workplace-Name: Hamburg Media School, Germany Author-Name: Frank Lobigs Author-Workplace-Name: TU Dortmund, Germany Author-Name: Christopher Buschow Author-Workplace-Name: Hamburg Media School, Germany / Faculty of Media, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany Abstract: This study explores the potential of cross-publisher bundled offers as a strategy for increasing subscription sales in digital journalism. While innovative forms of bundling are an integral part of media distribution in music (e.g., Spotify) and film (e.g., Netflix), their adoption in digital journalism has been limited, despite research showing that bundled access to products can increase consumers’ willingness to pay, especially in younger target groups. Against this background, we conduct a choice-based conjoint analysis using data from a representative survey of the German online population (n = 1,542). Results show that bundling digital journalism has the potential to raise publisher revenues and subscription sales in digital markets. In particular, they highlight that a comprehensive, cross-publisher bundled offer, available at a fixed monthly rate, has the potential to stimulate digital journalism sales among different consumer groups in a relatively balanced way, including those who are typically more reluctant towards journalism. These findings align with the principles of information goods economics, which posit that maximising the size of digital content bundles often tends to be the most profitable distribution strategy. However, it is crucial to examine these findings in the context of the potential negative effects associated with this emerging business model in digital journalism, such as the cannibalisation of print subscriptions, diminished brand identification, and a possible imbalanced distribution of revenues. Keywords: bundling; choice-based conjoint analysis; collaborative platforms; digital journalism; innovation; market expansion Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7442 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: E-Commerce as a Source of Revenue in Spanish Digital News Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7388 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7388 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7388 Author-Name: Alfonso Vara-Miguel Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain Author-Name: Cristina Sánchez-Blanco Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain Author-Name: Samuel Negredo-Bruna Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain Author-Name: Charo Sádaba-Chalezquer Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain Abstract: This study analyzes e-commerce strategies in Spanish active digital news outlets comprehensively based on a 2021 census. Out of the 2,862 outlets, 11.8% (or 337) incorporated some form of e-commerce, with a higher prevalence observed among legacy media than among digital-native outlets. The study also revealed that e-commerce was more prevalent among outlets with national coverage and specialized subject matters. A detailed examination of 34 high-reach outlets, including 25 legacy and nine digital-native news outlets, found that both types employed on-site sales and affiliate marketing. However, legacy media exclusively engaged in promotional editorial collections, merchandise, tickets, and travel sales. The study highlights that while some outlets are diversifying revenue streams, most still rely primarily on traditional income sources such as advertising and subscriptions. This reliance poses a risk as these conventional streams are becoming less dependable. Furthermore, the increasing move towards market-oriented journalism raises concerns about a shift from the democratic role of news media to a more consumerist model. Keywords: affiliate marketing; digital journalism; digital media; e-commerce; financial sustainability; news media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7388 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Press Subsidies and Business Performance of Newspaper Publishing in Three Nordic Media Welfare States File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7570 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7570 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7570 Author-Name: Mikko Grönlund Author-Workplace-Name: Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, Finland Author-Name: Mikko Villi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Author-Name: Marko Ala-Fossi Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland Abstract: The Nordic countries have been regarded as so-called “media welfare states.” Despite the large amount of public money used on press subsidies over the decades in the Nordic countries, there is not much academic research on the financial performance of the newspaper publishing industry in these countries. This study examines the “media welfare state” approach to public support for newspapers and the financial performance of newspaper companies in three Nordic countries: Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Our data consists of the key financial figures of newspaper publishing companies in the aforementioned countries from 2005 to 2019. Based on our analysis, we argue that direct press subsidies in Sweden and Norway have not been able to prevent a decrease in the number of titles and, importantly, have resulted in a number of subsidy-dependent news outlets unable to survive on their own income. By contrast, the Finnish newspaper publishing industry has been in a better financial situation in terms of almost all indicators and throughout the review period, despite Finland abandoning direct press subsidies in the 1990s. Keywords: business performance; Finland; media support; media welfare state; newspapers; Norway; press subsidies; Sweden Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7570 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Google’s Influence on Global Business Models in Journalism: An Analysis of Its Innovation Challenge File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7562 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7562 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7562 Author-Name: Alfred Hermida Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Mary Lynn Young Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British Columbia, Canada Abstract: This study investigates how Google is shaping journalism innovation, particularly in business models, through an analysis of one of its global funding competitions, the Innovation Challenge. It adds to an understanding of the impact of platforms on journalism through a descriptive analysis of 354 projects funded between 2018 and 2022 in 78 countries and five regions. Grant recipients were largely for-profit journalism organizations, with a significant US focus. Projects related to audience engagement, business models and distribution dominated the published winning innovation proposals, accounting for 72.6% of funded projects. The three areas were closely connected as they were mostly related to plans to increase reader revenue. Findings suggest that the Innovation Challenge validates reader revenue as the key innovation in business models through a funding competition aligned with Google’s global industry and government relations interests. The orientation is problematic as it narrows journalism innovation to a financial issue, with audiences as the answer, even though people are largely unwilling to pay for news and journalism is considered a public good rather than simply a commercial product. Keywords: business models; Google; Innovation Challenge; journalism; journalism funding; reader revenue Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7562 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Symbiosis or Precarity? Digital Platforms’ Role on Australian Digital-Native Journalism and Their Funding Models File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7529 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7529 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7529 Author-Name: Andrea Carson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University, Australia Author-Name: Denis Muller Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne, Australia Abstract: Legacy media outlets, especially newspapers, have confronted significant challenges this century due to the shift of advertising revenues to digital platforms like Facebook and Google. Major events like the Global Financial Crisis (2007–2009) and Covid-19 pandemic intensified the financial strain, resulting in further downsizing and newsroom closures. Despite these difficulties, digital-native journalism has experienced widespread growth globally. This article explores funding models of selected digital-native journalism in Australia, drawing on platform dependency theory to address questions of what role digital technology platforms and nascent regulation have played in shaping the state of digital-native journalism in Australia. Australia’s concentrated media ownership landscape and its introduction of the world-first News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC), provide a unique backdrop to examine the economic and regulatory environment that impacts Australia’s digital-native journalism. Using a case-study approach, the research explores seven diverse digital-native news outlets over six years across three time periods: several years after the Global Financial Crisis (2017), just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (2020–), and after the introduction of the NMBC (2023). Expert interviews provide insights into the role of digital platforms in shaping digital-only media. The digital native fail rate in this study is high (>40%). But we also find that of those that endure, the most successful placed a premium on building a distinctive brand (often through specialized reporting), adopting a diversified (hybrid) funding model, and growing audience share through trust. Most benefited from regulation in the form of the NMBC to increase newsroom resources, yet were also cautious of platform dependency. Keywords: Australia; digital-native journalism; Facebook; Google; journalism business models; Meta; News Media Bargaining Code; platform dependency; social media; TikTok Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7529 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “Communal News Work” as Sustainable Business Model: Recent Print-Centric News Start-Ups in Regional Queensland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7555 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7555 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7555 Author-Name: Harry Dugmore Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia Author-Name: Renee Barnes Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia Author-Name: Peter English Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia Author-Name: Elizabeth J. Stephens Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia Author-Name: Rosanna Natoli Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia Abstract: The Covid-19 emergency in Australia precipitated the closure of dozens of print newspapers across Australia but, conversely, the heightened state of anxiety of the early Covid-19 period amplified the need for local information and communality. This was the impetus for a wave of print-centric newspaper start-ups. We previously examined 22 Covid-19 era start-ups in Queensland (see Barnes et al., 2022, p. 21–34) and found that their editors/publishers universally “reassert(ed) and claim(ed) more vigorously the normative values associated with community journalism as ‘social glue.’” These proprietors deployed an “affective rationale” as the foundation of their journalism and their “lean start-up” business models. We called this a “community cohesion model.” Returning to these start-ups 18 months after the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in Queensland, we find that about 60% of these newspapers have continued operating, still drawing on deep wells of community support. They are transitioning to more conventional “newsonomics,” seeking—like the news organisations they replaced—to expand their advertising and raise other revenue, keep costs low, and expand their digital channels while remaining focussed on their core print offering. Drawing on in-depth interviews and editorial statements by editors/owners of these start-ups, as well as a close examination of advertising in the surviving newspapers, this study argues that adopting affective “hybrid” business models can be a basis for news organisations’ longer-term viability. Keywords: Australia; business models; entrepreneurial journalism; funding models; local journalism; newspapers Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7555 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Unraveling US Newspapers’ Digital and Print Subscriptions in the Context of Price, 2016–2022 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7482 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7482 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7482 Author-Name: Hsiang Iris Chyi Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, The University of Texas at Austin, USA Author-Name: Sun Ho Jeong Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Mass Communication, Konkuk University, South Korea Abstract: Despite industry-wide efforts in digitally transforming news organizations, research showed that most newspapers’ legacy products still outperformed the same newspaper’s digital offerings in terms of engagement, circulation, readership, pricing, advertising, and subscription revenue—all by a wide margin. But Covid-19 created an unprecedented scenario where the need for instant, local news updates, the fear of contacting anything tangible, and financial stress may have changed consumer behavior. To assess the state of the newspaper industry, this study analyzes short-term and long-term trends in US newspapers’ digital and print circulation before and during the pandemic. The analysis considered price, an important factor often neglected in discussions about newspaper demand. Utilizing rich industry data, this study analyzed 18 US metro daily newspapers’ circulation trends during 2016–2022. The results revealed that digital circulation increased rapidly after the onset of Covid-19 but subsequently decreased after reaching the peak in Q3 2021. Print circulation continued its rapid decline since 2016, accompanied by continuous, substantial price hikes for print subscriptions—a typical print subscription now costs over $1,000 a year. Despite circulation declines, the print edition remains the core product, with more subscribers paying far more than digital subscribers. Because of the immense price gap (6 to 1), the seemingly promising increase in digital subscriptions during Covid-19 could not generate nearly as much revenue to cover the loss on the print side, resulting in a substantial loss in total subscription revenue. The state of the US newspaper industry needs immediate attention. Keywords: Covid-19; digital subscription; digital transformation; newspaper circulation; newspapers; subscription revenue Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7482 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Value of News: Aligning Economic and Social Value From an Institutional Perspective File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7462 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7462 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7462 Author-Name: Terry Flew Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication, The University of Sydney, Australia Author-Name: Agata Stepnik Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication, The University of Sydney, Australia Abstract: Journalism is considered essential to a functioning democracy. However, the continued viability of commercial news production is uncertain. News producers continue to lose advertising revenue to platform businesses dominating digital advertising markets, and alternate consumer direct revenue streams are not yet meeting the financial shortfall. This has led to questions of who should pay for news, the role of governments in maintaining news production viability, and whether digital platforms have social or economic responsibilities to pay news publishers. In this article, we seek to make explicit what is often implicit in such debates, which is the value of news. This is hard to know in advance as news is an experience good whose value and quality are only known after consuming it, and a credence good, whose perceived qualities may not be observable even after it is consumed. As such, preparedness to pay for news can be hard to ascertain, accentuated by the large amount of free news available online. This article seeks to use a value perspective to consider the relationship between individual consumer choices and questions of news’s value to society. Applying a new institutional economic perspective, it is observed that the value of news as a consumer product needs to be examined in relation to its value as a social good in democratic societies as both a media product and part of the institutional environment in which other social actors operate. We consider news’s social and economic value within a context of platformed news distribution and declining advertising revenues that appear to be structural and not cyclical. Keywords: digital platforms; media economics; media regulation; news business; platformisation; social value; value of news Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7462 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: New Funding Models in Journalism Are Emerging, but Major Leap Forward Is Lacking File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7891 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7891 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7891 Author-Name: Merja Myllylahti Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Author-Name: James Meese Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia Abstract: This editorial introduces our thematic issue, titled Examining New Models in Journalism Funding, at a pivotal time. While news companies have attempted to build sustainable business models, we have not yet seen a major leap forward. As observed by the authors of this issue, digital reader revenue has become a prominent source of income for many publishers, but the bulk of them continue to rely on advertising and print subscriptions for money. Recently, Google and Facebook have become major funders of news and innovation in journalism. Some governments have also launched specific support programs. After providing some background context, we introduce the articles featured in the issue. We go on to argue that these articles signal a renewed interest in the business of journalism, which will help us better understand the ongoing financial crisis in the commercial news sector at a more granular level. Keywords: business model; e-commerce; funding; innovation; journalism; journalism revenue; news; newspapers; platforms; subscriptions Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7891 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media and Journalism Research in Small European Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7205 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7205 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7205 Author-Name: Ragne Kõuts-Klemm Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Tobias Eberwein Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria Author-Name: Zrinjka Peruško Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Zagreb, Croatia Author-Name: Dina Vozab Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Zagreb, Croatia Author-Name: Anda Rožukalne Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia Author-Name: Ilva Skulte Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia Author-Name: Alnis Stakle Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication, Riga Stradiņš University, Latvia Abstract: Big and small states all function as comprehensive entities: they require state apparatuses, the ability to provide services for citizens, the capacity to protect themselves, and appropriate media systems to guarantee a deliberative communication space for democratic processes. Investigating media, in turn, is important since it informs us about risks and opportunities for media transformations. To examine the impact of smallness on monitoring and research capabilities in news media and journalism, we have compared four small European countries with contrasting historical backgrounds and different types of media systems: Austria, Croatia, Estonia, and Latvia. While earlier research has mainly focused on Western European countries, the current study broadens the perspective to Central and Eastern European countries. The analysis shows that smallness can influence research capabilities in different ways, with advantages and disadvantages for media and journalism research. Fewer national resources can foster internationalisation, with the side effect of less attention to country-specific problems. In the situation of growing specialisation in media and journalism research, small countries may be less capable of providing sufficient infrastructure for knowledge exchange. The article builds on research performed within the framework of the H2020 project Mediadelcom. Keywords: Austria; Croatia; Estonia; journalism; Latvia; media; media research; monitoring Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7205 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Legal and Ethical Regulation in Slovakia and Its Relation to Deliberative Communication File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7257 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7257 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7257 Author-Name: Ľudmila Čábyová Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Author-Name: Peter Krajčovič Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Author-Name: Magdaléna Švecová Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Author-Name: Jana Radošinská Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Author-Name: Andrej Brník Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Author-Name: Juliána Mináriková Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovakia Abstract: The offered social-scientific analysis is based on a critical discussion of key problems present in the Slovak media environment, such as the ethical self-regulation of the media, freedom of expression, the right to obtain information, or the legal protection of the sources of information. The study also refers to available scholarly sources and the previously published body of knowledge to assess the development of the media system in Slovakia over the past 30 years, outlining the country’s (in)ability to foster deliberative communication and democracy. The results suggest that the legal and ethical aspects of the Slovak media system do support some of the principles of deliberative communication, specifically freedom of expression and free access to information; however, free speech is not sufficiently confronted with the boundaries of protecting privacy and human dignity to prevent defamation and hate speech. Media autonomy based on the possibility of self-regulation is not sufficiently developed either. A serious problem is the lack of transparency in the media. Keywords: deliberative communication; media; media accountability; media ethics; media legislation; Slovakia Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7257 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Media Accountability: Global Trends and European Monitoring Capabilities File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7256 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7256 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7256 Author-Name: Marcus Kreutler Author-Workplace-Name: Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism, TU Dortmund University, Germany Author-Name: Susanne Fengler Author-Workplace-Name: Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism, TU Dortmund University, Germany Abstract: This article summarises the global state of the art of research into media accountability, using this overview as a framework for an analysis of 14 European countries’ structures and the possibilities for monitoring their media accountability landscapes. The first step shows that a model developed purely in the context of liberal Western democracies struggles to explain the diversity of media accountability instruments, actors, proceedings, and the effectiveness of these systems in different countries. When a broad understanding of media accountability is applied, different models of media accountability frameworks can be identified globally, and even within Europe. These findings on structures and actors in the field function as guidelines for the second part of the article, which analyses monitoring capabilities in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden—with a special focus, not only on the status quo, but also the capability to monitor changes and trends over time. Even in countries with generally well-developed monitoring and research structures in the media sector, much of the available literature focuses on normative questions, and available data is not necessarily comparable longitudinally or cross-nationally. International efforts have inspired key publications in a number of countries, but they are rarely followed up by continuous monitoring of developments in the field. Several cases describe a common reason for monitoring deficits: Weak professional culture among journalists leads to ineffective and often neglected media accountability measures, which in turn limits research activity and funding opportunities. Keywords: co-regulation; journalism ethics; media accountability; monitoring capabilities; self-regulation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7256 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Deliberative Democracy Framework for Analysing Trust in Journalists: An Application to Italy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7251 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7251 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7251 Author-Name: Sergio Splendore Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy Author-Name: Diego Garusi Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria Author-Name: Augusto Valeriani Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy Abstract: In the current public sphere, the “deliberative model of democracy” may represent both the necessary benchmark and the best lens through which to view developments in the public debate. Democracy can never become really deliberative without the active participation of news media. The assumption of this article is that if news media are to disseminate knowledge, trust in them is crucial. This article examines an aspect neglected by studies on media trust: trust in journalists. It presents the results of a longitudinal survey carried out in May and September 2020 in Italy, right at the end of the first mass Covid-19 lockdown (Wave 1) and after the first pandemic summer (Wave 2), therefore a time when there was a great need for quality information. The main findings reveal that the use of social media decreases trust in journalists; furthermore, those who mainly rely on political institutions’ social media accounts for information place less trust in journalists than those who mainly rely on journalistic sources on those platforms. Instead, the use of traditional media (radio, television, newspapers) increases trust in journalists. Keywords: deliberative democracy; information crisis; media trust; news consumption; trust in journalists Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7251 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Who Watches the Watchdog? Understanding Media Systems as Information Regimes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7216 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7216 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7216 Author-Name: Mart Ots Author-Workplace-Name: Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden Author-Name: Peter Berglez Author-Workplace-Name: School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (HumES), Örebro University, Sweden Author-Name: Lars Nord Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Study of Democracy and Communication, Mid Sweden University, Sweden Abstract: This article explores institutions that monitor news media performance. It opens up critical inquiry into how knowledge about media systems is shaped, shared, and bounded in society. Using Sweden as an illustrative and data-rich case, we first map the overall media monitoring structure in Sweden. Second, we examine the kind of knowledge and data about media that monitoring institutions produce, including their motives and the underlying values they support. Third, we extrapolate questions about implicit and explicit motives to participate in an “information regime.” Fourth, by means of media system theory, we discuss the international relevance of the Swedish case to understand media monitoring systems in other parts of the world. Keywords: democracy; governance; media development; media monitoring; media regimes; media systems; Sweden Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7216 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Researching Media and Democracy Researchers: Monitoring Capabilities in Poland File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7239 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7239 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7239 Author-Name: Michał Głowacki Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Author-Name: Jacek Mikucki Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Author-Name: Katarzyna Gajlewicz-Korab Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Author-Name: Łukasz Szurmiński Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Author-Name: Maria Łoszewska-Ołowska Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland Abstract: In this article, we look at the conditions of media and democracy discourses in Poland via the lenses of monitoring time-related capabilities. We are interested in how media–societal change in 2000–2020 has influenced the Polish researchers’ responses to deliver applied research and further foster hyper-knowledge sharing between policymakers, media industries, and academia. Through an in-depth investigation of Poland’s media researchers’ publications database (N = 1,000), we aim to examine the crucial interest areas considering the critical cultural junctures in three highly related areas: technology, politics, and society. The critical junctures theory review follows the mapping of changes in related scholarly analyses to uncover three sides of Polish scholarship monitoring capabilities alongside cultural conditions of researchers’ impact on democracy and the media. The overall hypothesis is that examining media and democracy in Poland reflects technological and political change, with the cultural research path dependencies in analyzing broader social context (see, for instance, a young democracy, illiberal turns and social polarization conditions, and so on). This corresponds to related tensions between the Western media’s theories and practices concerning democracy. Keywords: critical cultural junctures; media and democracy; media monitoring; media researchers; monitoring capability; Poland Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7239 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Delayed Reflections: Media and Journalism Data Deserts in the Post-Socialist Czech Republic File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7198 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7198 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7198 Author-Name: Lenka Waschková Císařová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Iveta Jansová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Author-Name: Jan Motal Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies and Journalism, Masaryk University, Czech Republic Abstract: One of the key obstacles to the normative development of post-socialist media systems, in general, and the Czech Republic in particular, is the deferral of the thoughtful reflection and critical examination of the evolution of the media industry by academics and professionals. In the early years of post-socialist development, there was a lack of collected data and relevant analysis of the state of the media and journalism. It was foreign researchers who provided the first studies of the post-socialist media systems. Plus, the commercial industry, which systematically collected data, but made it inaccessible and/or expensive. This lack of domestic contemplation and transparency led to the existence of data deserts, which made it difficult to effectively reflect upon the development of the media and its role in the transition society. This article is based on a comprehensive literature review and expert interviews with witnesses of the media industry development. These sources—academia, industry, and NGOs—make it possible to highlight specific areas that were overlooked and to propose reasons that data deserts are created in post-socialist media systems. Analysing the data through the lenses of availability, continuity, accessibility, and topicality, we delimit three eras for the general reflection of the development of the media environment, setting a distinguishable timeframe for the post-socialist media data reflection’s evolution. Keywords: Central European media; Eastern European media; data desert; media research; post-socialist media system; post-socialist transition Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7198 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: News Media Monitoring Capabilities in 14 European Countries: Problems and Best Practices File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7199 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7199 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7199 Author-Name: Halliki Harro-Loit Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia Author-Name: Tobias Eberwein Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria Abstract: Social acceleration has been a catalyst for rapid changes concerning the mediascapes of European societies. Democratic societies need deliberation, but what kinds of journalism and communication cultures are supported by different stakeholders and structural possibilities? The aim of this article is to conceptualise and analyse the risks and opportunities concerning the monitoring capabilities in key domains of the media field. This includes the performance and normative regulation of news media (journalism) as well as media usage patterns and competencies of different actors, all of which influence the quality of deliberative communication across cultures. The monitoring potential is related to various stakeholders who gather data and information on media and media usage, transform the information into knowledge, and use this knowledge to create evidence-based media policy. What interests and values are served by which stakeholders and how does this actual monitoring serve the media policy in different European countries? What is the role and resources of media researchers? These questions are answered with the help of an extensive literature review and a synoptic analysis of the monitoring capabilities of 14 European countries, based on original case studies. The article will, thus, broaden the conceptual understanding of risks and opportunities for deliberative communication in democratic societies—and at the same time offer an initial inventory of typical problems and best practices for monitoring deliberative communication across Europe. Keywords: deliberative communication; Europe; media monitoring; monitoring capabilities; risks and opportunities; structure and agency Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7199 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Can Media Enhance Deliberative Democracy? Exploring Media Monitoring Capabilities in 14 EU-Countries File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/7888 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.7888 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 12 Year: 2024 Number: 7888 Author-Name: Epp Lauk Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Estonia / Department of Public Communications, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania Author-Name: Peter Berglez Author-Workplace-Name: School of Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden Abstract: The editorial introduces the topic of this thematic issue, which is the important role of society’s media monitoring capabilities, i.e., to produce information about what media “do” to society, and more precisely for democratic development both the here and the now and in the longer term. The theoretical and methodological aspects of the thematic issue are presented according to the approach of an EU-funded project Mediadelcom, which aims to explain interconnections between the news media transformations and the risks and opportunities for deliberative communication. One of the stages of the project investigates media monitoring capabilities in different countries. The eight articles introduced in the editorial contribute to deepening the perspectives on the capabilities of media monitoring in the 21st century, and to understanding their function in detecting potential risks and opportunities for democratic public deliberation. Keywords: deliberative communication; deliberative democracy; news media; media monitoring capabilities; risks and opportunities Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7888