Process-tracing methodology in the study of armed conflict

The new study “ Forensic conflict studies: Making sense of war in the social media age” by Jakob Hauter from UCL School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies discusses how to sort out the information from the disinformation when studying conflict zones, particularly those that are far away. The article is directed toward social science … Continued


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


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ARTICLE: The field of comparative journalism research is growing

In the recent years, comparative journalism studies have become more common. They have focused on Western authorship, the study of Western countries and elite media, quantitative methods of analysis and political aspects of journalism, a new analysis finds. Folker Hanusch of the University of Vienna and Tim P. Vos of the University of Missouri did … Continued


ARTICLE: Journalism researchers should look beyond “hybridity”

The concept of “hybridity” and “hybrid journalism” has been useful in describing things that do not fall into dichotomous categories. However, the concept is insufficient in describing the complexity inherent in journalism, a team of researchers argues. They review the history of the concept and propose a way for journalism scholars to move towards a … Continued


ARTICLE: Journalism research is too fixated on novelty

Journalism studies is lacking historical perspective, an essay by Matt Carlson, of Saint Louis University, and Seth C. Lewis, of University of Oregon, argues. They call for more “temporal reflexivity” both in journalism research and education. Despite undeniable changes, many aspects of journalism have remained static. Journalism research and education, however, embrace novelty – for … Continued


PAPER: News stories’ heroes and villains can be detected automatically

The way different actors are framed in news stories is an important part of news literacy, a team of Northwestern University researchers posits. Analysing each story carefully enough to detect these frames, however, is a tall order for the average reader. In order to assist critical reading, Diego Gomez-Zara, Miriam Boon and Larry Birnbaum have … Continued


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ARTICLE: How to predict news spread across media?

Can the dissemination of news be predicted from the early phases of their spread? Elisa Mussumeci and Flávio Codeço Coelho, both of Fundação Getulio Vargas, conducted an experiment with 2129 Brazilian online news articles. The authors began by searching for news about the 2015 terrorist attack against the French satirical paper, Charlie Hebdo. They then … Continued


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ARTICLE: A multi-level look at environmental journalism

How do different levels of influences affect the daily work of environmental journalists? Ever Josue Figueroa, of the University of Texas at Austin, studied environmental journalism as a space for a multi-level analysis, using a newer configuration of the hierarchy of influences model (HOI) as a theoretical framework. Figueroa conducted in-depth interviews with 13 environmental … Continued


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ARTICLE: A portrait of data journalism research

Julian Ausserhofer and Michael Oppermann, both of University of Vienna, with Robert Gutounig, Sarah Matiasek and Eva Goldgruber, all of FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, have conducted a systematic review of research on data journalism (author names not in original order). The review covers the years 1996-2015, and it details the field’s most important … Continued


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ARTICLE: How to study news reading on Twitter?

Collaboration between computer and communication scientists can be very fruitful in investigating social media, Mathias Verbeke, Bettina Berendt, Leen d’Haenens and Michaël Opgenhaffen, all of University of Leuven, write. The authors’ new article reviews currently available methodologies and presents their own, devised for and used in a study of news reading on Twitter. The authors’ … Continued