United States Archives - Journalism research news

Journalists are bad at communicating scientific consensus

Most news articles do not clearly state expert consensus, even when one exists. The finding is reported by Eric Merkley, of University of Toronto. Merkley analysed over 280 000 news articles on 10 different topics – all ones on which most experts agree (e.g. vaccinating children). The author analysed over 3 000 articles by hand … Continued

Tags: representation, science journalism, sources, United States
Published: 24 Feb 2020

ARTICLE: Online experiments can indicate audience preferences like field research does

Does an experimental setting affect news audiences’ behaviour? The question is a relevant concern to researchers who consider sending participants to a mock news website as part of their methodology: if the knowledge of taking part in a study affects the participants’ behaviour, the method is not externally valid. University of Texas at Austin researchers … Continued

Tags: audience, Canada, methodology, online journalism, United States
Published: 4 Feb 2020

ARTICLE: Fact-checkers cannot transcend partisan divides

Americans’ views of fact-checking sites are highly politicized, Michigan State University researchers Craig T. Robertson, Rachel R. Mourão and Esther Thorson write. They surveyed a representative sample of 1 033 Americans over their views on and use of fact-checking sites. People who self-identified as liberals or who consumed liberal or mainstream news were more favourable … Continued

Tags: audience, fact-checking, political journalism, United States
Published: 14 Jan 2020

Picture: untitled by Sora Sagano, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: The first year of reporting #MeToo in Indian English language press focused on celebrity stories

A new research article by Suman Mishra of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, examines the phenomenon of news domestication and shows how hashtag activism originating in one country can have very different resonance in another. Mishra did a textual analysis of 641 news articles from five prominent English language newspapers: The Hindustan Times, The Times of … Continued

Tags: domestication, gender, India, journalistic norms, newspapers, political journalism, representation, United States
Published: 8 Jan 2020

ARTICLE: Worry over finances makes audiences pay for local news

Audience members who worry over the financial situation of their local news outlets are more willing to pay for news, Manuel Goyanes, of University Carlos III de Madrid, discovered. Goyanes analysed survey responses from almost 35 000 Americans, collected in 2018. The author investigated three factors’ connection to audience members’ willingness to pay for local … Continued

Tags: audience, local journalism, United States
Published: 2 Dec 2019

Picture: untitled by Paweł Czerwiński, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Working in news media often spills over to family life, and vice versa

Work-life balance is a difficult one to handle in a newsroom job. A new study seeked to find out perceptions, strategies and advice from newsrooms workers. “Every respondent reported some degree of difficulty while attempting to balance the nontraditional schedules and long hours inherent in the news industry along with caring for families and self-wellbeing”, … Continued

Tags: journalistic profession, United States
Published: 2 May 2019

Picture: capturing a few textural images through the window at a stop sign by Tim Foster, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: What do journalism textbooks teach about reporting suicide?

Journalists’ use of news values on specific topics change as societal and scientific norms change. A new research article shows how this transformation can be seen in the case of suicide coverage. Perry Parks of Michigan State University analysed journalism textbooks published in the United States between 1894 to 2016. Suicide has long been a … Continued

Tags: health journalism, journalism education, journalistic norms, journalistic profession, United States
Published: 26 Apr 2019

Picture: What’s going on here by John Schnobrich, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: How advertising tech firms see fake news, and how this affects the business of journalism

Different online marketing platforms and programmatic advertising has made it possible to profit from producing fake news. On the other hand, also legitimate news organizations use this infrastructure and the same tools for their livelihood. Joshua A. Braun and Jessica L. Eklund, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wanted to find out how the programmatic … Continued

Tags: advertising, journalism funding, online journalism, political journalism, United States
Published: 1 Feb 2019

Picture: SH-60B helicopter flies over Sendai by United States Navy, public domain

ARTICLE: Western newspapers used a cultural framework when reporting the Great East Japan Disaster

The Great East Japan Disaster of 2011 provides an important case study through which to evaluate how the western media cover Japan. Besides the nuclear crisis, limited attention has been paid to news reporting across the multiple overlapping disaster. Jamie Matthews of Bournemouth University did a critical discourse analysis of coverage of the disaster in … Continued

Tags: crisis journalism, foreign correspondence, japan, media systems, United Kingdom, United States
Published: 22 May 2018

Picture: North America satellite orthographic by NASA, public domain, cropped and modified

ARTICLE: The US news system as “polarized liberal”

While many of the changes in United States’ media are discussed in relation to the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s presidency, “they are the symptoms of broader systemic dynamics that have been fermenting years before Trump first announced his bid”, a new study by Efrat Nechushtai of Columbia University, argues. The article uses Hallin and … Continued

Tags: media systems, United States
Published: 9 May 2018