Picture: untitled by Priscilla Du Breez, license CC0 1.0

ARTICLE: “News-finds-me” perception is linked to social media use and political knowledge across countries

Social media has become the most important news source for many, and its use for finding news has increased tremendously over the past years. The “news finds me” perception (NFM) refers to the idea some have, that due to the vast amount of information available online and in social media, they don’t have to actively … Continued


Deepfakes do not fool people, but still undermine trust in news

So-called deepfake videos do not deceive the audience, but they increase uncertainty and thus decrease trust in news. The result is reported by Loughborough University researchers Cristian Vaccari and Andrew Chadwick. They conducted an online experiment with a statistically representative sample of the British population (N = 2 005). The participants were first asked about … Continued


Poor working conditions drive journalists into public relations

What drives journalists to become “turncoats” and how do they reflect upon their career change? Bernadette Kester, of Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Mirjam Prenger, of University of Amsterdam, interviewed 11 former journalists, who had abandoned journalism in favour of a career in PR. The interviewees cited two major reasons for “changing sides”. First, they felt … Continued


Seeing news in a foreign language can stoke racial resentment

The language of news articles can increase racial resentment or -depending on the person- feelings of belonging. The findings come from two online experiments with White Americans (n=620) and supposed Hispanics living in the United States (n=362). In both experiments the participants were shown a total of nine news articles, dealing with politics, sports and … Continued


ARTICLE: Donald Trump’s rise to power changed how news talk about ‘the border’

News discourse on the American-Mexican border region of Rio Grande Valley changed noticeably over 2015 – 2017. K. Jill Fleuriet, of the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Mari Castellano collected all Rio Grande Valley related news stories from nine national news outlets from that time and analysed how ‘the border’ was depicted in … Continued


ARTICLE: Which sources would journalists choose for immigration news?

Elite sources tend to dominate the coverage of immigration, but when journalists have the chance they include more immigrants’ voices. Akhteruz Zaman, of Massey University, and Jahnnabi Das, of University of Technology Sydney, came to the conclusion after analysing 525 news articles published by six newspapers in six countries. Zaman and Das made a distinction … Continued


ARTICLE: Egypt’s media missed its opportunity to reform

Egyptian media enjoyed a brief period of relative freedom after the 2011 revolution that ousted then-president Hosni Mubarak. However, journalists failed to reform their professional identities and the media system, which lead to the media’s descent into highly polarized political parallelism – and eventual regression back into the new regime’s servitude. Fatima el Issawi, of … Continued


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


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


ARTICLE: Most media inform better than mobile news apps

Citizens gain more political knowledge from almost any other news media than mobile news applications, a study on Danes discovered. Jakob Ohme, of University of Amsterdam, conducted a large-scale survey during the 2015 Danish election campaign. Over 9 000 people participated in the study, but only 1 108 completed both pre- and post-election surveys and … Continued