Prime Minister Tony Blair by Center for American Progress, licence CC BY-ND 2.0

ARTICLE: What affects politicians’ media reputations?

How are political leaders treated by newspapers, and how does that affect the leaders’ popularity? Daniel Stevens, of University of Exeter, and Barbara Allen, of Carleton College compared the United States and United Kingdom by examining their leaders’ press coverage and election success. The authors wanted to test three different theories. Reinforcement: opposition supporters and … Continued

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Published: 26 Jun 2017
Picture: Please tell me why we worry by Jacob Ufkes, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Friends’ recommendations attract users to read political news and opposing views

How do our Facebook friends influence what news we read? Nicolas M. Anspach, of Temple University, studied how people select political news in social media. The author conducted a survey experiment (105 participants) using mock Facebook News Feeds. The news feeds contained activity attributed to different sources, from fictional individuals to participants’ own friends. Each … Continued

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Published: 23 Jun 2017
Untitled by Jan Vašek, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Information overload makes readers willing to pay for news

People who feel overloaded by news information are more willing to pay for news, write Sun Kyong Lee and Nathan J. Lindsey, both of University of Oklahoma, with Kyun Soo Kim, of Chonnam National University. The authors surveyed 1 001 Americans over their news consumption habits, views on news, and their “perceived news information overload”. … Continued

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Published: 14 Jun 2017
Picture: Untitled by Neonbrand, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Narrative news form informs, but does not gain appreciation from young audiences

Do news written in a narrative form better attract younger audiences? This presumption was tested in a new study by Mariska Kleemans, Gabi Schaap and Mitchel Suijkerbuijk, of Radboud University. The participants representing different age groups were given four online news articles written in either a narrative or an inverted pyramid stucture. The study measured … Continued

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Published: 13 Jun 2017
Untitled by crystal710, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: News comments hardly expand citizens’ agency

Being able to comment on news about public policy issues will enhance the “citizenship positions” available to the audience, but that potential is largely untapped, write Zara Pinto-Coelho, Anabela Carvalho, and Eunice Castro Seixas, all of University of Minho. The authors conducted critical discourse analysis on news stories from four Portuguese newspapers, and on reader … Continued

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Published: 13 Jun 2017
Megaphone by Ashley Adcox, licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

REPORT: Blame for disinformation falls upon mainstream media

Were it not for the logic of mainstream media, disinformation spreading and media manipulating “far right” groups would have remained in the margins, Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis, both of Data & Society Research Institute, write. A recent report by the Institute reviews the online world of “conspiracy theorists, techno-libertarians, white nationalists, Men’s Rights advocates, … Continued

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Published: 12 Jun 2017
Picture: 20151104-OSEC-LSC-0828 by US Department of Agriculture, license public domain

ARTICLE: News factors and previous comments guide users’ commenting behaviour

Content of news articles and comments dynamically shape the discussion value of news pieces online. Marc Ziegele, Mathias Weber, Oliver Quiring and Timo Breiner, all of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, studied the effects of news articles and previous comments on user commenting. The authors conducted an experiment with 436 participants. In the experiment, … Continued

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Published: 7 Jun 2017