ARTICLE: Comments have little effect on news evaluation

Reading user comments to online news stories does not significantly affect the readers’ evaluations of the story, write Nili Steinfeld and Azi Lev-On, both of Ariel University, and Tal Samuel-Azran, of Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (names not in original order). The authors showed 197 Israeli college students online news stories and tracked their eye movements, and … Continued

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Published: 14 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: The audience expects little of local journalism

The audience does not expect journalism to meet the ideals described by its consumers, write Scott Eldridge II and John Steel, both of University of Sheffield. The authors sent questionnaires to two local civic groups, and conducted discussion workshops with them. The study described is a part of a longer project intended to redefine the … Continued

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Published: 11 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: Audience not interested in offered news

Social media users interact less with the kind of news that are most offered by newspapers’ social media managers, writes Anders Olof Larsson of Westerdals Oslo School of Arts. Larsson analysed the audience interactions with a total of 800 news stories, published online by four Swedish newspapers. Two of the investigated newspapers were tabloids and … Continued

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Published: 10 Mar 2016

CFP: Constructing constructive journalism

The conference Constructed|Constructive Journalism is now open for submission proposals. The event itself will take place at Brussels, Belgium on the 8th and 9th of December 2016. The conference is organized by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and hosted by the Academy of Flanders. The conference considers two different meanings of the word “construct”: that of … Continued

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Published: 10 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: “Dirty” TV news are harder to follow

Television news that present a lot of on-screen visual elements are harder to remember correctly, write Rui Rodrigues, of Instituto Superior Miguel Torga, and Ana Veloso and Óscar Mealha, both of University of Aveiro. The authors presented 80 university students with different versions of the same newscast, tracked their eye movements, and had them answer … Continued

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Published: 4 Mar 2016

ARTICLE: Consumers seek like-minded audiences

When consuming news online people tend to select sources that have like minded audiences, writes Shira Dvir-Gvirsman, of Tel Aviv University. The author conducted two separate studies: First a sample of Israelis were surveyed with regard to their political opinions both before and after national elections, and their online activities were recorded for seven weeks. … Continued

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Published: 26 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: Readers’ and journalists’ interests diverge

The journalists and readers of the newspaper The Guardian prefer different topics in human trafficking related news, write Maria Eirini Papadouka, Nicholas Evangelopoulos and Gabe Ignatow, all of University of North Texas. The authors analyzed the specific themes of The Guardian‘s news on human trafficking and the subjects of readers’ comments posted in conjunction to … Continued

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Published: 8 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: MPs do not react the same to all news

Negative news regarding a politician’s own party’s pet issue is more likely than others to inspire him or her to act, writes Luzia Helfer, of Leiden University. The author asked members of the Swiss parliament to read manipulated news stories and evaluate whether they would take action based on the story. Several factors affected the … Continued

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Published: 5 Feb 2016

ARTICLE: Quality press increases voter turnout

Exposure to high quality newspapers increases voter turnout in elections, write Florian Arendt, of University of Munich, and Cornelia Brandtner, of Dresden University of Technology. The authors studied 460 Austrians’ media use and voting behaviour by a two-wave panel survey before and after the 2014 Europarliamentary elections. According to Arendt and Brandtner, exposure to one … Continued

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Published: 5 Feb 2016