Untitled by Michael Schwarzenberger, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Which social media posts by newsrooms gather most likes and comments?

Which types of social media posts gather most interaction from the audience? Are there differences between newsrooms and social media platforms? Anders Olof Larsson, of Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology, investigated these questions with a quantitative comparison of four Norwegian newsrooms on two social media platforms. The data sample consists of the … Continued


Untitled by Pexels, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Skeptic post-Millenials like opinionated journalists, but don’t trust them

How does the post-Millenial generation assess the Twitter behaviour of journalists compared to celebrities and opinionators? Jasun Carr, of Idaho State University, and Mitchell Bard, of Iona College, conducted an online experiment with 310 American college students. The participants were first surveyed over their demographics and their tendency to skepticism. Then they were presented with … Continued


And the pieces came to life... by HonghuW, licence CC BY-NC 2.0

ARTICLE: Partisanship can help news media literacy

What kind of people are more likely to develop their news media literacy (NML) skills, ask Melissa Tully, of University of Iowa, and Emily K. Vraga, of George Mason University. The authors surveyed 946 American college students before and after a semester of taking general communication courses. Against their expectations, Tully and Vraga noticed that … Continued


Picture: Screenshots of the news websites Plaza Pública and Confidencial Digital

ARTICLE: Readers want quality journalism, innovation, and financial independence from Guatemalan and Nicaraguan news sites

Readers associate innovation with unique or alternative ways of doing journalism, not necessarily with just technology. A research by Summer Harlow, of Florida State University, looked at audience motivations of choosing news sources and their opinions about digital news sites in Guatemala and Nicaragua. A convenience sample of readers of Plaza Pública and Confidencial Digital … Continued


Untitled by Tania Dimas, licence CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: Incomprehensible news create “illusions of knowledge”

People with low need for cognition (NFC) will feel more knowledgeable after reading an incomprehensible news article than after reading a comprehensible article, Mathias Weber and Christina Koehler, both of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, discovered. The authors conducted an online experiment with 82 Germans. The participants read one of two versions of the same … Continued


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



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