ECREA2024 Abstracts

Day 1 - Thursday 11 April 2024

Panel 1

Venetia Papa, Leandros Savvides and Theodoros Kouros: Can AI-tools help journalists or replace them? Exploring the relationship between affordances of JECTAI and Connexun and journalistic norms.

10:00

On October 8, 2023, we asked GPT-3 a question regarding how journalists utilize artificial intelligence. In response, GPT-3 provided insights on the various ways AI benefits journalists by enhancing their work, streamlining processes, and improving the quality of their reporting. These AI applications include data analysis, content generation, curation, predictive analytics, social media monitoring, fact-checking, and verification (Chat GPT3, 2023). Subsequently, we inquired about the specific AI tools employed by journalists. The AI mentioned that tools like GPT-3 and its variants are used for automated content generation, including news articles, summaries, and reports. Journalists can input data or key information, and the AI assists in rapidly generating written content (Chat GPT3, 2023). Departing from this statement, our study engages in a sociotechnical analysis of two AI tools (along with their trainings for journalists) to understand the material means by which these tools strive to engage journalists vis-à-vis their business models. 

This manuscript is a response to the recent call of Lopez-Guttierez et.al (2023) that is only through uncovering the complex role of AI newsroom technologies that we can unpack their meaning in complex socio-technical environments. A sociotechnical perspective can allow the exploration of their potential for supporting but also undermining journalists’ work. Thus, it can offer both an understanding of AI tools but also help uncover the potential of blending algorithms and journalists’ expertise. We understand such a blend as a necessity of news industry outlets to increase productivity whilst also increasing or at least withstand validity claims and integrity of news produced, in order to remain competitive. This study is inscribed within the continuum of a previous study where Google News Initiative and Facebook Journalism Project (Papa & Kouros,2023) were identified as initiators of a form of platform schooling which, in addition to journalism schools and work environments, mediates understandings of what is and what is not proper behavior when practising journalism. 

Through affordance theory, we argue that interfaces of technological artefacts are manifestations of their material conditions, implicit politics and ideology, given that affordances entail normative claims about what users should do. Our study is based on two AI journalistic tools, the JECTAI and Connexun. JECT.AI is a research-based tool developed to enhance journalists' capabilities by automating the process of uncovering creative content perspective, angles, and voices for new articles. It functions as a co-creative AI tool, harnessing machine intelligence to enrich human creative thought processes. To achieve this, it combines natural language processing, multi-language creative search, and interactive creativity guidance. Its primary function is to extract information from published news articles and assist journalists in forging innovative connections with this data during their creative ideation processes (Maiden et.al, 2023). Connexun is a platform marketed as a versatile service to help news organizations harness online information effectively and increase productivity. It uses proprietary versions of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to engage in supervised and unsupervised learning enhanced by deep learning. This service covers multiple key areas. Real-Time News Tracking is a core function, suggesting “fast and accurate monitoring of over 20,000 trusted sources”, ensuring a real-time view of online media coverage. The platform implies that it is a valuable platform for journalists catering to the discerning needs of journalists by providing an extensive array of tools powered by NLP and real-time data. AI-Driven Media Intelligence goes beyond basic monitoring, using predictive AI to identify relevant web topics and trends, offering data-driven insights. Based on the premise that ‘the interface of a computing technology is the manifestation of its implicit politics and ideology’ (Sun & Hart-Davidson, 2014, p. 3534), affordances entail normative claims ‘about what Users should do’ (Stanfill, 2015,p. 1062) in our case journalists. 

Our study draws from JECT.ai and Connexun to explore how the affordances of these AI tools allow particular behaviours and encourage while challenging certain journalistic norms to emerge. Regarding the method of analysis, we proceeded in three steps. First, we studied all texts related to the projects’ websites (descriptions, instructions of use, available tools, etc.) and other sources linked to by their websites (e.g. media articles) to get a sense of the projects’ philosophy. Second, to explore the affordances of each project, we performed a discursive interface analysis of the selected cases. We argue that both AI tools affordances can facilitate and at the same challenge a form of platform schooling which, in addition to journalism schools and work environments, can might dictate what is and what is not “successful journalism”, initiating a form of AI-assisted reporting.

 

Jonas Blom, Lene Heiselberg & Arjen van Dalen: Is generative AI journalism credible? Audience perceptions of AI generated news headlines.

10:30

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, is currently being experimented with and implemented in news production by media organizations across the world. For instance, the Danish regional public service station TV 2 Fyn, has tested the use of ChatGPT to write news headlines, thereby improving their click-through rate with 59 % (TV 2 Fyn 2023). While such disruptive practices and AI journalism in general are heavily debated among journalists and journalism scholars (Beckett and Yaseen, 2023), and a growing body of research is dealing with AI in journalism production and distribution (Moran & Shaikh 2022, de-Lima-Santos & Ceron 2021), less attention has been given to audience perceptions of generative AI in journalism. 

In this study, we turn the attention to the audience and study how they perceive the implementation of generative AI in journalism practice. 

Audience perceptions of news automation 

Although, there is, for the moment, limited research on the use of generative AI in journalism seen from an audience perspective, insights can be gained from looking at research on how audiences perceive more traditional news automation. One line of research has suggested that audiences consider automated news stories – as well as stories merely labelled as automated – as credible or even more credible than stories written by or attributed to journalists (Jung et al. 2017, Graefe & Bohlken, 2020, Wu 2020, Cloudy et al. 2021, Wölker & Powell 2021). This finding has been explained by the somewhat formulaic style of automated news stories which the audience might perceive as objective or unbiased. In contrast, other studies have found that news attributed to human journalists can also be considered more credible than news attributed to machines, potentially because journalism is considered a human profession (Wadell 2018). 

Both perspectives underline that audience reactions to news automation, and by extension generative AI, may affect key assets of news production, such as perceived credibility (e.g., Clerwall, 2014, Tandoc Jr et al., 2020, Wu, 2020, Authors 2022). However, the contradictory results also highlight the need for further in depth-studies of audience perceptions. This is especially important with the journalistic application of generative AI, which has linguistic capacities that are a major leap forward compared to earlier simple template-based versions of automatically generated news. Public concerns around generative AI may also make audiences more alert to and skeptical about its application in journalism. Accordingly, this study seeks to investigate how audiences perceive the credibility of news written by generative AI. Specifically, we explore how different explanatory cues concerning the use of a prompted chatbot in generating news headlines, affects the audience’s perception of credibility. 

Transparency and explainability 

Previous research has shown that transparency seems to be pivotal if automated news is to be trusted by the audience (Authors 2022). For instance, explaining the audience how algorithm-driven AI systems are used to recommend news stories, has shown to increase trust (Shin 2021), while refraining from telling the audience what is going on behind the scenes, may result in the audience feeling cheated (Authors 2022). People see decisions made by news recommendations as more credible when they are presented with explanations of how the automated recommender system comes to its decisions (Shin, 2021). Correspondingly, when journalists prompt chatbots to write (parts of) a news story, it must be assumed that credibility will be strengthened by explaining how the chatbot was prompted. If so, the question remains which types – and what depths – of explanations the audience prefers. 

Data and design 

To answer our research questions, we make use of stimuli from the aforementioned experiment by TV 2 Fyn in which a series of ChatGPT-generated headlines were A/B-tested and compared to headlines written by the journalists. Re-using the headlines as stimuli, we investigate how an audience perceives the trustworthiness of the news (station) when being told that the headlines are not written – but only prompted – by humans. Also, we investigate if and how the audience prefers to be informed of the applied methods used to generate the headlines – i.e., the use of ChatGPT with specific prompts – and how such transparent approaches may affect the perceived trustworthiness of generative AI journalism. In our study, we apply a series of Online Video Research Interviews (OVRI) where the number of interviews is determined by a data saturation approach. Participants are users of TV 2 Fyn, and the sample is diverse in terms of gender, age, and background. 

Lynge Asbjørn Møller, Morten Skovsgaard, Arjen van Dalen: Artificial Ally or Adversary? How Journalists in Different Professional Groups Understand the Role of Artificial Intelligence in News Work

10:45

Recent years have seen the rapid proliferation of a new wave of newsroom technologies centred around using artificial intelligence for effective news automation (Broussard et al., 2019). In previous literature, many scholars have highlighted the potential of news automation as a means to free up resources for more in-depth journalism (Anderson, 2013; Coddington, 2015; Flew et al., 2012). But sentiments around artificial intelligence are also likely to be influenced by how news organisations have previously utilised automation to cheapen labour costs (Cohen, 2015). Especially when considering how recent advancements within generative artificial intelligence cast doubt over the previously assumed superiority of human journalists in for instance writing quality, raising questions about their future role in news work. The adoption of artificial intelligence in the newsroom is then likely to come with increasing worry among journalists that they will lose their jobs to technology, a sort of “automation anxiety” that is common in journalism (Lindén, 2017). 

The research presented in this abstract explores these newsroom tensions by investigating how journalists understand the role of artificial intelligence in news work. In this regard, some studies have found automation to be met with scepticism among journalists that see it as threatening their job security (Carlson, 2015; Jones et al., 2022; Kim & Kim, 2018; Lindén, 2018). Others have found that journalists are largely indifferent towards news automation (Rydenfelt, 2021; Wu et al., 2019). Finally, many studies have found that journalists are generally positive towards news automation on the grounds that it will leave them with more time for in-depth work (Milosavljević & Vobič, 2019; Moran & Shaikh, 2022; Schapals & Porlezza, 2020; van Dalen, 2012). But the recent technological developments highlight the need for new insights into how journalists react to news automation in a time characterised by growing media attention to the abilities of artificial intelligence as text generation tools. 

Further, current literature offers only limited insights into the perceptions of regular journalists working on the ground. Several studies have investigated journalistic discourse around automation and artificial intelligence through content analysis of mediated reactions to automated 

journalism (Carlson, 2015; Moran & Shaikh, 2022; van Dalen, 2012). Others have interviewed managers, editors, and other staff members key to the implementation of automation and artificial intelligence (Bucher, 2017; Lindén, 2018; Milosavljević & Vobič, 2019; Rydenfelt, 2021; Wu et al., 2019). These informants are often more intertwined with the economic viability of their workplace and therefore more likely to be techno-optimistic and willing to embrace automation and artificial intelligence that strengthens their business (Moran & Shaikh, 2022). Therefore, the research presented in this abstract aims to instead explore the conceptions of artificial intelligence among the journalists whose work is being increasingly automated. Specifically, we ask the following research questions: 

• RQ1: How do journalists understand the role of artificial intelligence in journalistic work? 
• RQ2: Where in their professional work process do journalists see the most opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, and where do they see the most threats? 
• RQ3: Does professional experience and area of work influence these conceptions? To answer these questions, we plan to carry out semi-structured interviews with approximately 20 journalists in different professional roles at two Danish news organisations. The interview data will be gathered and analysed in time for the conference. The informants are sampled to vary on three specific parameters, namely professional task area, journalistic subject area, and length of professional career. 

To understand how these three professional variables may affect the conceptions of different journalists towards artificial intelligence, we apply the system of professions framework (Abbott, 1988). Scholars have drawn on this framework to conceptualise how journalism is vulnerable to professional competition due to its lack of a specialised knowledge base, meaning that the work is easier to replicate by outsiders or through automation (Lowrey, 2006). Much journalistic work is “mundane, repetitious, and formulaic” (Deuze & Beckett, 2022, p. 5) and may therefore be at risk of redundancy given the latest advances in artificial intelligence. But the system of professions framework also provides a novel perspective on the professional potential of automating routinisable and vulnerable task areas for journalism to instead tightly protect its more complex tasks that help define the profession. The aim of this research is to explore how different journalists view these professional threats and opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.

Agnes Gulyas: Exploring the influence of national context and structures on local media: an international comparative analysis of variations in the sector in Europe

11:00

Local media have historically received less attention in academic research compared to national media. The dominance of national media can be attributed to several factors, such as the well defined boundaries of nations and the fact that media and news production tend to prioritize national agendas and champions national actors (Hanitzsch, 2009). However, there has been an increasing interest in local media in recent years. This is partly due to greater recognition of the importance of these media forms, and partly to a perceived crisis in the sectors. Indeed, over the past two decades, the sectors have encountered significant challenges due to digital transformation and economic downturns that have hindered their capacity to fulfill their political and social functions (Gulyas and Baines, 2020). 

The challenges faced by local media are often perceived as homogenous across different countries and regions. This assumption stems from a simplified view of the local media landscape, where outlets are often bundled into a single category. However, there is limited empirical research that explores the similarities and differences between local media across national boundaries. This paper aims to address this gap. It offers an international comparative analysis of pivotal issues within local media across 27 EU member states and five candidate countries (Albania, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia & Turkey) based on data gathered as part of the Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) project by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute between 2020 and 2023. The MPM is “a research tool that was designed to identify and measure potential risks to media pluralism in the Member States of the European Union, taking into account a broad and holistic definition of media pluralism” (CMPF, 2022, p.119). Our study selected data from the larger MPM dataset related to local media across four critical dimensions: Fundamental Protection, Market Plurality, Political Independence, and Social Inclusiveness. Thematic analysis was applied to investigate the mainly qualitative dataset. The paper offers an analysis of the challenges faced by local media in various European countries and how these interact with national contexts and structures. It argues that local media's challenges are far from homogeneous, and they are profoundly influenced by the unique combination of factors present in national contexts.

Panel 2

10:00

Jonathan Hendrickx, Phoebe Maares: Affordances of journalism. How scholarship adopts affordance theory to study journalistic practice

10:00

As more and more journalists integrate social media platforms in their everyday practices, be it through sourcing (Zhang & Li, 2020), distribution and sharing of news (AUTHOR, 2023), or audience engagement (Nelson. 2019), journalism scholarship has turned to other disciplines for new concepts to make sense of these phenomena. One conceptual approach to study journalistic practice on social media is that of affordances (Hase et al., 2022). Introduced from psychology and human-computer interaction research, affordances can broadly be understood as “possibilities for action” that can occur in the relation between “an object/technology and the user” (Evans et al., 2017, p. 36) emphasizing relationality and the specific materiality of technologies or users’ abilities (Leonardi, 2011). 

However, the use of affordances in communication research lacks analytical clarity, despite efforts to systematize approaches (Evans et al., 2017). A comprehensive literature review investigating its use in social media research finds blurred conceptual understandings, inconsistent operationalization, and only negligible contributions from journalism scholarship (Rhonzyn et al., 2023). While the affordances concept is frequently used to study social media, its initial conceptualization included the environment of people generally (Gibson, 1977). Consequently, the concept could be fruitful to study affordances of ‘old media’ vis-à-vis those of ‘new media’. As we have an incomplete understanding of how to best apply the affordance concept to journalism research, this study aims to address the following questions:

RQ1: How is the affordance concept operationalized in journalism research?

RQ2: What affordances can be identified to study how journalism becomes progressively more intertwined with social media platforms and logic?

We answer these questions by drawing on a comprehensive literature review following a systematic approach to identify journalism scholarship employing the affordances concept. We searched for a combination of terms in all fields of the Web of Science database to identify peer reviewed English-language articles that engaged with affordances in the time frame from 2012-2022. Search terms combined “affordanc*” with “journalis*”, “news media”, “news”, and “media”. After a first inspection of search results, our dataset consists of 79 relevant articles. 

We combine a quantitative content analysis with a more in-depth thematic analysis. First, for a comprehensive overview we coded all 79 articles with a codebook of 15 variables. Manifest categories included the publications’ metadata, more latent categories examined the main research object, methods used, and the setting examined, whether the affordance concept was named in the abstract and keywords and/or combined with other theoretical approaches, and to what extent it was conceptualized in-depth (ranging between in-depth and superficial application and distinguishing whether the concept is ‘explained, applied, and operationalized,’ ‘named more than once, but not explained/applied,’ ‘mentioned once in text,’ ‘only mentioned in title, abstract or keywords’; K’s α = .720). Data was coded by two researchers, with 10% used for reliability checks. Reliability was met sufficiently for most categories (K’s α ranged from .659 to 1).

The structural analysis of 79 articles indicates that the affordance concept has been gaining traction in the past four years, with 62% of the research being published since 2019. Moreover, most of these articles were published in Journalism Practice, followed by Journalism and Digital Journalism. The affordance concept is further primarily used to examine journalistic routines (33%), as well as questions concerning the relationship of journalism to other social institutions, i.e., audiences, sources but also politics or advertisement (29%). In terms of methodological approaches, most studies employed qualitative methods (47%), and only one third used quantitative approaches. (Digital) ethnographic approaches as well as structural analyses are almost nonexistent in our sample

Most articles refer to ‘platform,’ ‘technical,’ ‘social,’ ‘social media,’ ‘temporal,’ or ‘communicative’ affordances without explaining or operationalizing these further into concrete affordances such as anonymity, persistence, or visibility (Evans et al., 2017). As such, the concept remains elusive and oftentimes only insinuates interface characteristics of social media or digital platforms. Only 37% of all articles explain the concept of affordances, operationalize, and apply it to journalism.

Through a more in-depth analysis of these 37% of articles with a thematic analysis, intended to identify 1) the level of abstraction in the definition of affordances in journalism research, 2) how they are operationalized, 3) and which types of media and phenomena they address, we provide a typology of old and new media affordances which can serve as a framework for future studies, ultimately contributing to a more systematic study of affordances in journalistic practice and production. 

Imke Henkel and Tim Markham: Parallel Commonalities: Imagining and Enacting the Public Sphere in UK and German News Texts and Audiences During Covid-19

10:15

The implicit assumption underlying much recent research of digital media and news environments holds that the mere exposure to and engagement with news is beneficial for democracy – tacitly suggesting that news conveys information as an essential building block for democratic engagement. Research focussed, for instance, on the effects of a fractured public sphere in high-choice media environments (Bennett & Pfetsch, 2018), on journalists’ “loss of their monopoly on the informational and power-scrutinizing role” (Esser & Neuberger, 2019, 196), on the lack of trust in news (e.g. de Bruin et al., 2021), and on news avoidance (e.g. Toff et al., 2021). 

However, while studying the pathologies that harm the democratic effect of news, this research rarely interrogates the assumed democratic value that supposedly has been lost through the ills of the digital news environment. It assumes that news conveys information as an essential building block for democratic engagement. It builds on the still prevailing Habermassian understanding of news’ democratic role according to which news media fulfil the essential democratic function of providing accurate information that enables citizens to participate in politics on the basis of well-informed rational decisions (Habermas, 1962; 2006). News, though, plays a much more multilayered and nuanced role in democracies, as some more recent studies have found (cf. Couldry, Livingstone & Markham, 2010). 

In particular, news has been shown to engage affectively beyond the structured expression of opinion or information (Papacharissi, 2015); to report, perform, and elicit emotions (Wahl-Jorgensen, 2019); to present dramatic action that audiences observe like a play (Carey, 1999); to act as moral educator that cultivates “cosmopolitan sensibilities” (Chouliaraki, 2008, 831); to evoke imagined identities revealing as much about the reporter who “draws” a picture of the object as about the object itself (Chernobrov, 2021); and, more generally, to shape our mediatized political and ethical being (Markham, 2020).

This paper aims to explore news’ democratic function beyond the reductionist view of news as the provider of information. It does so from two angles: the actual news stories published on digital news sites, and the audiences exposed to this news.

Consequently, we are interested in two research questions: 

RQ1 What qualities can be found in digital news stories that are relevant for democratic life?

RQ2 What responses to news can be found with audiences that are relevant for democratic life?

As a case study, we analyse texts that were published on mainstream ‘elite’ news websites during Covid-19. We selected the time of the pandemic because it represents a well-defined shared experience. In addition, Covid-19 posed a tough test for democracy’s ability to respond (Greer et al., 2020; Karabulut et al., 2021) and consequently to news’ role in a challenged democracy. 

Furthermore, our study focusses on so-called “quality” or “elite” news outlets because these are generally perceived to be the most trustworthy and accurate news, escaping the ills of news in digitised high-fractured news environments, instead presenting a positive model for democratically valuable news (Cushion, 2022; Toff et al., 2021). 

Finally, we compare news websites in two different western democracies, the UK and Germany, drawing on previous research that established notable differences in how UK and German journalists view their political and societal role (Henkel et al., 2019).

We selected twelve elite news websites in the UK and Germany (e.g. BBC News, Süddeutsche Zeitung) and collected the top four news items from the homepages of these sites during two weeks in spring 2020 and late winter 2021 as a proxy for what editors (or content management systems) considered the most important stories (N=672).

We recruited four focus groups of people who regularly consume one or several of the elite news sites in our text corpus, two in each country (UK and Germany), using convenience and snowball sampling. Each focus group consisted of five or six members. 

We choose Grounded Theory for the analysis of both news texts and focus group transcripts because it affords an open-minded approach most suitable for our research questions (Charmaz, 2014; Saldaña, 2021).

We find, among others, some news texts, notably on BBC News¸ that imagine a shared public sphere. These texts create social imaginaries in four dimensions: temporal, spatial, referential and emotional. Other texts, particularly on digital native sites, imagine a fractured public. Audiences, on the other hand, refute the imagined shared public sphere, while enacting it through shared news habits. Audiences establish their being in and with the world through their news habits. We further find notable differences between UK and German news stories and audiences in how commonalities are imagined.

Alexandra Schwingesa, Toni G.L.A. van der Meera, Irina Lock, and Rens Vliegenthart: Are the media biting hard enough? A cross-national study of public watchdog role expectations and performance evaluations in the era of Big Tech

10:30

The journalistic watchdog role lies at the heart of journalism cultures and encompasses both what critical-monitorial role journalism plays and should play in our societies. In light of the increasingly reciprocal relationship between journalism and its audiences, the latter are essential in assessing whether the media fulfill their role in holding the powerful accountable (Riedl & Eberl, 2022). Omnipresent media criticism (Newman et al., 2022) and a decline in trust in news (Kalogeropoulos et al., 2022) often root in a discrepancy between the audiences’ role expectations, i.e., the extent to which the public demands journalists to perform a role, and the role performance evaluation, i.e., the extent to which the public sees journalists performing this role (Fawzi & Mothes, 2020). 

Digital technologies have not only facilitated a mutually reinforcing connection between journalists and their audience, but the media’s inextricable relationship with Big Tech(nology corporations) like Meta, Google, and Microsoft has also raised scholarly concern (Neilson & Balasingham, 2022; Napoli, 2021). In light of ongoing attempts to regulate these companies, we argue that the role of news media in holding these players accountable becomes crucial. While recent research has shown that news media perform a detached watchdog role towards these companies (author omitted), the extent to which audience perceptions are congruent with this crucial monitorial function of the media remain unknown. 

Across different countries (NL, GER, UK, FR, IN, POL, US), we conducted an online survey (N= 3074) to explore (1) the extent to which discrepancies emerge in audience expectations and performance evaluations related to a general and Big Tech-specific watchdog role; (2) the discrepancies between audience expectations and performance evaluations specifically concerning a Big Tech-specific watchdog role; (3) how these discrepancies in watchdog role expectations and performance evaluations impact the audience's evaluation of news media as potential accountability mechanism; (4) associations between these role expectation-evaluation discrepancies and media trust; and lastly, the relationships between media use role expectation-evaluation discrepancies. 

We asked participants to what extent news media should monitor and scrutinize “powerful people and businesses” (general watchdog role) and “big technology corporations” (Big Tech specific watchdog role) in particular, and to what extent they saw the media actually fulfilling this role. The questionnaire also asked participants to indicate to what extent different societal institutions, e.g. the media, should hold Big Tech accountable, and included measurements of media trust, media use, and. Adding age, gender, education, and a general attitude towards large technology corporations as covariates, we conducted several ANCOVAs and regression analyses to inspect audience perceptions of the media’s watchdog role. 

Our data indicate significant discrepancies in role expectations and role performance evaluations between a general and Big Tech-specific watchdog role. Across these seven countries, watchdog role expectations are significantly higher than evaluated role performance towards both a general and Big-Tech specific role. Compared to a general watchdog role, participants in four countries (UK, GER, NL, POL) place higher expectations towards journalists to critically monitor Big Tech, but see this role less fulfilled. These expectation-performance evaluation discrepancies in the critical scrutiny of large technology corporations significantly predict how audiences evaluate news media as potential actors to hold these companies accountable (in FR, GER, IN, POL, UK, US) and place trust into news media (in GER, IN, NL, UK, US). Surprisingly, frequent social media news audiences perceive smaller discrepancies, while traditional news audience perceive larger discrepancies. 

Our findings affirm that news audience do in fact ascribe importance to the news media’s watchdog role (Fawzi & Mothes, 2020), and also particularly consider the news media’s relationship with large technology corporations. We conclude with a discussion of how these findings foster our understanding journalistic cultures and the idea(l)s of democracythat underlie normative public perceptions of the media’s role in a digital society.

Jonathan Hendrickx and Kenza Lamot: The Relationship Between “User Needs” and User Engagement in Contemporary Digital Journalism: A Mixed-Methods Case Study

10:45

In recent years, the advent of audience analytics and the insights that can be gathered from them have emerged as increasingly important factors in newsrooms’ editorial decisions for contemporary digital news production and dissemination. Recent research has indicated that news shared on profiles such as Facebook tends to be ‘softened’ and that the origin and type of news outlet can affect the way its newsroom workers adapt to profound (technological) changes (Hendrickx et al., 2021; Lamot et al., 2021). In this study, we offer a novel multi-method case study of a leading Belgian media corporation that boasts legacy news titles in various European countries. Conceptually, we draw on Bourdieu’s field theory and the habitus and doxa of new technological changes affecting the course of journalistic production (see for instance English, 2016; Maares & Hanusch, 2020). 

The corporation we study has recently attempted to introduce a new internal program to better label and tag online news articles, closely related to users’ established “user needs” at different times of the day (Groot Kormelink & Costera Meijer, 2014). The company largely based these “needs” on the ones currently used by BBC newsrooms and include: update me, give me perspective, educate me, keep me on trend, amuse me and inspire me (Mediamakersmeet, 2018). The ultimate aim of this approach would be to let this new program present algorithmic recommendations on what types of news content would be most desired throughout the day, thus partially replacing the typical gut-feeling approach of outlets’ editors(-in-chief) (Jácome et al., 2021; Schultz, 2007). However, it was generally assumed that this practice would predominantly add to the already heavy workload of online journalists. 

First, we outline findings of a series of qualitative ethnographic observations and expert interviews with journalists, editors and editors-in-chief. These were carried out in 2022 and 2023 among two leading, disparate news outlets (the one a quality title and the other more popular and regional). The goal was to retrieve to what extent journalists of these divergent newsrooms resisted and would eventually adopt the new program in their daily work routine (Larrondo et al., 2016). This answers RQ1: How do journalists engage with “user needs” in their daily work?

Second, we complement these findings with quantitative insights derived from a dataset provided by the media corporation to the authors. In this dataset, articles were pre-classified by the journalists of the news outlets on range of variables such as the article’s genre (news story, interview, column, fact-check, …), main modality (text, video, audio, infographic), rationality (rational versus emotional), story nature (new event, follow-up, seasonal, habit). Cross-analysing all online articles published between September and November 2022 (N=7,818) by the same two news titles with audience metric data from Facebook, still the leading platform for digital news distribution and retrieval (Newman et al., 2023) allows gathering unique perspectives in the effects of and the relationship between increasing efforts to create news content for audiences and their success rate in terms of user engagement on the leading social media platform for news content retrieval. This answers RQ2: How is audience engagement affected by the journalistic pivot towards “user needs”? 

Ultimately, we conclude that resistance towards adopting the new program was fiercest at the quality news title, in line with previous scholarship (Hendrickx et al., 2021) and also that the effects of the new content production approach to audience engagement are rather limited. Within Bourdieu’s framework, we discuss effects on the structure and workflow of contemporary newsrooms in light of the imagined audiences to which individuals’ online news consumption behaviour tend to be characterised (Nelson, 2021), as well as effects on the diversity of news content. 

Clara Juarez Miro, Sandra Banjac, Folker Hanusch: Audience-centric methods for journalism studies: Insights from a large-scale two-sided video ethnography

11:00

Given the importance of considering news audiences’ needs for the survival of journalism (Costera Meijer, 2020), journalism scholarship has begun to focus on understanding how journalism can be valuable to its audiences (Swart et al., 2022). While this has entailed a theoretical rethinking towards more audience-centric approaches (Costera Meijer, 2019) and led to considerable growth in such research, many of the implications for traditional methods in journalism studies have been less developed in scholarship. To address this shortcoming, this paper presents insights from a large-scale two-sided video ethnography to help better develop this method for studying audiences. 

Two-sided video ethnography focuses on how audiences experience news use (Groot Kormelink & Costera Meijer, 2019), which involves five steps: (1) recording participants from both frontal and over-the-shoulder perspectives; (2) viewing and interpreting the videos with participants; (3) analyzing the data; (4) sharing interpretations with participants; and (5) incorporating participant feedback to refine findings. Groot Kormelink and Costera Meijer (2019) stress the importance of a trusting relationship between participants and researchers, particularly as sessions require substantial time and effort, and take place at participants’ homes. Consequently, in their study, a relatively small sample (13) was chosen from the first author’s social circle, raising the question of how to apply this method to larger samples lacking previous rapport with researchers.

To address this question we conducted a two-sided video ethnography between March and September of 2023, for a larger study on audiences’ expectations of news. Out of 34 participants in the study, only six had a prior relationship with the researchers. Participants were diverse in terms of news consumption patterns, demographics, and ideology. This study allowed us to propose three considerations for researchers intending to conduct a two-sided video ethnography with diverse participants outside their social circle, concerning (1) location; (2) duration; and (3) technological equipment.

Location: Participants’ Choice

We gave participants the choice to conduct recording sessions at the university or their homes. The six participants who had existing connections to the researchers opted for home sessions. Additionally, two participants with no prior relationship agreed to home sessions. Most participants, however, conducted the sessions at the university. This posed the challenge of unfamiliarity with the location, potentially affecting their comfort in sharing and enacting media consumption. Nevertheless, allowing participants to conduct these sessions at the university facilitated the recruitment of a diverse sample, including participants without prior rapport with the researchers. Furthermore, conducting recording sessions at the university offered participants greater control over captured data, a crucial factor in a methodology that can be invasive in this regard.

Duration: Aligned with Study’s Goals

Two-sided video ethnographies place significant demands on participants regarding time and resources. Recording sessions alone can be lengthy. Additionally, viewing sessions can at least duplicate the time demanded from participants, as it might be required to stop the recording to comment on it. To address these challenges, viewing sessions with participants were removed from our protocol. While this adjustment may have limited capturing certain aspects of a natural media consumption experience, our study prioritized participants’ time (recordings were approximately 2.5 hours long on average). We maintained techniques like think-aloud protocols, watch-and-discuss methods, and video reenactments (Groot Kormelink, 2020) to ensure sample diversity without compromising results.

Technological Equipment: Practical and Non-Invasive

As using professional recording equipment was considered too invasive, we devised a setup involving video call and screen recording software. After arriving at the university, participants were asked to join a video call and share their screens. This allowed us to record their front view alongside the content they consumed. This setup also captured offline media by adjusting the frontal camera angle. Although the over-the-shoulder view was not recorded, micro gestures were captured from the frontal view. The researchers’ laptop side-by-side view was screen recorded and saved on hard drives for data security and to avoid third-party storage. This aspect within the data protection protocol, aligned with GDPR, was aimed at upholding control over participants’ data, again an essential ethical consideration in this methodology.

Conclusion

Our experience conducting two-sided video ethnography with diverse participants with whom we lacked rapport underscores the importance of continuing to use and refine audience-centric methods, as they yield necessary rich and nuanced data. We showed how study-aligned adjustments can be conducted without compromising data quality. Furthermore, continued use and sharing of insights regarding these methods can contribute to their enhancement and a more comprehensive understanding of approaches to effectively examine news audiences’ perspectives.

Panel 3

10:00

Daniel Jackson, Claudia Kozman, Jamie Matthews: Sourcing practices in sports news in comparative perspective.

10:00

Despite being responsible for some of the most popular and commercially valuable journalistic content, sports journalists have often found themselves marginalised by other journalists and side-lined – relative to their ‘hard news’ counterparts - in academic study. Pejoratively described as “the toy department” of the newsroom (Perreault & Bell, 2022; Rowe, 2007), in the literature sports journalists have been variously characterised as fans, cheerleaders, and sycophants; responsible for biased and subjective reporting, and uncomfortably close to athletes, sports teams and the sports industry at large (e.g. (Hardin, 2005; Hardin et al., 2009; Steen, 2007). Such occupational cultures are juxtaposed with the higher standards of journalism typically practiced by journalists in ‘harder’ news beats (English, 2017).

One measure of these occupational cultures is the sourcing practices performed by sports journalists. This includes the individuals, organisations and institutions that journalists use to provide informational content, comment, and opinion as an essential factor determining the quality of journalistic reporting. Sigal (1986) stated that “sources make the news.” Studying news sources can, therefore, provide insights into social power, including who is able to shape news and define the parameters of debate. 

One of the features of sports journalism in its coverage of elite sport  is a tendency for journalists to ‘travel and work closely’ with their sources (Boyle, 2017: 493). We also know that social media have become valuable sources for sports journalists (Schultz & Sheffer, 2010)  and in particular the accounts of athletes (Nölleke et al., 2017). Sports journalists have, however,  largely eluded sustained empirical attention in relation to sourcing. Nor have studies systematically compared sourcing practices across multiple countries, particularly those from outside the Global North. 

In this paper, we draw attention to the sourcing practices in sports news through a manual content analysis of (N=16,111) of sports stories that were published in 2020 (using the constructed week sampling method). Our data is drawn from 37 countries representing all geographic regions of the world and different media systems. After mapping the share of voice for various types of sources in sports news, our analysis considers the differences across regions, media systems and journalists cultures. We then explore institutional-level factors and their influence on sourcing. First we examine the role of media platforms (press, TV, radio and digital) in shaping sources practices, and then ask whether the popular press behave differently to the quality press in their relationships with sport sources. Further to this, an important question we seek to answer is the extent to which viewpoint diversity within sports journalism is reflected in the breadth and type of sources used by journalists and how sports sources, representatives of sports organisations, coaches and agents, may appear in non-sport news topics. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the routines of sports journalists (Gentile et al., 2022) and there was a significant shift in sports news content, in part due to the pausing of sporting competition. Our analysis, therefore, also considers this context in shaping sourcing practices in sports journalism. 

Claudia Mellado and Sarah Van Leuven: News sources in global perspective

10:15

The study of journalistic sourcing practices has a foundational role in journalism studies and remains a key indicator of the exercise of power in any given society. Our study contributes to this body of literature in several ways. First, despite its long tradition, research on sourcing practices is often ethnocentric and struggles to overcome the level of national or Western case studies. There are important exceptions of cross-national, comparative research beyond Western newsrooms such as most recently the computational content analysis of sources and actors in social media posts of 78 news outlets in 7 countries across three different continents (Mellado et al., 2021), but we still need to know more about sourcing practices in comparative perspective. Second, research often focuses on isolated news topics, mostly harder news topics and especially political news. This makes sense considering the normative role of political news in stimulating democratic debate, but taking into account the hybridization of news genres and the increasing appearance of political actors in softer news topics (Otto et al., 2017), research that provides a comprehensive overview of news sources in a range of topics is more crucial than ever.

In potentially the most comprehensive study of global news sourcing practices conducted to date, our study is based on data from a content analysis of the news published in 365 TV, radio, print and online news outlets in 37 countries. Using the constructed week method, a two-week stratified-systematic sample was selected for all outlets from January 2 to December 31, 2020 leading up to a total of 148,474 news items. Our content analysis included measures related to (1) general information on each news item, such as the type of medium in which it was published, the news outlet, story type, and story placement; (2) the characteristics of the story, such as the topic of the news item and the location (foreign/ domestic) where the news story takes place; (3) the sources cited, including number of sources, source type, the diversity of type of sources, and the diversity of points of view; (4) characteristics of the news outlet, including it’s political orientation (left to right), its ownership type (public service, private, state etc); and (5) characteristics of the country context, including indicators for press and political freedom.

While on the surface our findings may support the status quo of elite-centered sourcing practices that previous literature has so often documented, we believe that our data may offer some important advances to knowledge. These are found especially when we look away from the most-studied Western contexts, and examine the nuances that lie between political systems, press freedom and national context. Here, we find national cultures of news sourcing that seem to belie their press freedom status (for example); the explanations for which require further analysis. At the organizational level, while there is more data to explore, we also find some important differences according to an outlet’s ownership model, that have not been systematically explored in previous research. Across our findings, data therefore seems to point towards the hybridized nature of journalistic cultures (Mellado et al., 2017), that often elude either existing ideal media system typologies or conventional assumptions about political or regional clusters. The implications of which, will inform our discussion and conclusions.

Liri Blum and Zvi Reich: What should journalists know? A curriculum for beat journalists

10:30

This study develops and puts into test a new approach for studying one of the most challenging phenomena in journalism studies – the knowledge and expertise of news beat reporters and commentators. It combines a new research method and two theoretical frameworks: 

1. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Based on a theory developed in education research to account for specialized teachers’ knowledge (cf. Shulman 1986), we offer that journalists have Journalistic Content Knowledge (JCK), combining subject-matter knowledge and journalistic knowledge how to report it. 
2. Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM). An approach that highlights research of expert performance in natural settings (cf. Klein 2022).

Methodology

The News Sorting method, developed for this study, is based on face-to-face interviews, during which journalists are asked to sort twice a deck of circa 24 cards that represent their recent publications – in five rows. First, according to subject-matter complexity (how much beat knowledge was involved) and the second – according to the journalistic complexity (how challenging was news gathering). 

The theory and method were tested on one of the most experienced, senior and proficient species of news workers – Israeli military journalists (N=16) who sorted 379 news items.

Findings 

Findings illuminate four main aspects of journalistic expertise: 

1. Trans-occupational traits of expertise. Traits that are attributed to experts in general, like pattern recognition, making fine discriminations and detection of absent phenomena (Klein, 2022), were found among the studied journalists, however they were overwhelmingly concentrated (72% to 92%) among five senior commentators (two of whom are winners of lucrative prizes). 
2. Typology of challenges. Based on reporters’ reasoning of their rankings, we found six factors that make some stories more challenging than others. Sourcing challenges (30% of the rankings) when sources are inaccessible or recalcitrant; Cognitive challenges (27%) items require nuanced understanding and connecting non-obvious dots; Event challenges (17%) complex and incremental stories that often involve controversy and confidentiality; Knowledge challenges (14%) involving excessive / shortage of knowledge; Arena challenges (6%) involving more than one military arena; Validation challenges (5%) involving doubtful information, denials and lies. 
3. Convergence of rankings. Both rankings, subject-matter complexity and journalistic complexity, differed substantially only in 16% of the cases. 
4. Frequency of challenges. A third of the sorted items were ranked as highly challenging, indicating that journalists find themselves not too rarely outside their comfort zone, a necessary condition for the development of expertise (Ericsson and Pool 2016; Sennett 2009). 

Conclusion

Contrary to the wide criticism of journalists’ meager subject-matter expertise (Anderson, Bell and Shirky, 2014; Patterson 2013; Ward, 2018), this study finds, based on the new method of News Sorting, a series of trans-occupational traits of expertise among a few senior commentators. 

Trans-occupational traits of expertise can probably be expected – though similarly rarely – in other beats and news cultures, since their development requires a combination of opportunity and motivations, that – throughout the years – can develop into a substantial edge of expertise. The substantial opportunity, in our case, included a relative release of these (and other) commentators from routine news cycles, freedom to pursue their interests and a focus on analytic sensemaking. The extra motivation rests on a higher social status (compared to reporters), better access to sources, and relentless curiosity to learn even non newsworthy background materials. Though most journalists do not enjoy these rare privileges, they can still develop more beat-specific traits of expertise, like most other journalists in our study, that showed impressive beat-specific knowledge on myriad of military issues.  

The high convergence between subject-matter and journalistic complexity, represents according to our interviewees, a journalistic reality since most items tend to be challenging on both scales. There are several reasons to accept their explanation. First, since journalists managed to differentiate between rankings though in a minority of items. Second, since interviewees are the first to differentiate between a complex story and a recalcitrant source. And yet, at least some of the merged rankings may represent an intuitive and automated decision making, that characterizes advanced experts (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986; Klein 2022). 

Scholars that wish to implement the News Sorting method to other news beats, should expect less experienced and less knowledgeable journalists, that rank more items as challenging (especially scientific beats), different mixes of subject-matter and journalistic complexity, and different typologies of complexity. The sorting method can be considered for studying other genres of journalism (e.g. data journalism, solutions journalism), and other creative occupations, as long as their ordinary output can be sampled, sorted and reflected upon.    

Jared Ahmad: (Re)Imagining the Caliphate: Exploring the Interplay between Media and Political (Self)Representations of the Islamic State (2014-2016)

10:45

In recent years there has been a proliferation of research into the Islamic State group; from scrutiny of its propaganda and communications output, to analyses of political and journalistic constructions of the terror threat (see Pennington & Krona 2019; Ahmad 2020; Baele et al 2020; Winter 2022). Despite providing much-needed insight, much of this literature has tended to focus analysis on a single format or site of meaning, neglecting the way Islamic State propaganda, alongside the various frames generated by its enemies, interact, circulate and engage in dialogue with one another within contemporary, hybridised media environments (after Chadwick 2013). 

The current paper provides significant empirical and conceptual contributions to this literature, alongside studies into the wider media-state-terrorism relationship, by exploring the interplay between different actors’ “imaginations” and representations of terror threats. In particular, the paper brings into dialogue political communications scholarship on “framing” (Entman 1993 & 2004), alongside ethnographic and conversation analysis-based literature on “dialogical networks” (Leudar & Nekvapil 2004 & 2022), to analyse the “communicative interactions” that take place between the Islamic State group and U.K.-based politicians and journalists. The paper’s conceptual apparatus is further supplemented by recent research into the way frames are influenced by the social identity of individuals speakers, drawing on Vera Toltz et al’s concept of “reverse mirror imaging” to show how different actors involved in communication networks appropriate and repurpose one another’s frames in line with their social, political, and religious identities (2020: 2979-2980).  

The paper uses framing analysis, specifically Robert Entman’s four-part analytical framework that focuses on the identification of problems, causes, moral evaluations and solutions (1993), and the investigation centres around frames produced within three main representational sites: (1) 15 issues of Islamic State’s English-language Dabiq magazine produced between 2014-2016; (2) 123 U.K. parliamentary debates that took place during the same period; (3) and three months of BBC, ITV and Channel 4 news bulletins broadcast between September 2014, November 2015, and March 2016. This timeframe coincides with unprecedented military and territorial gains by the Islamic State, and also saw significant levels of media, political and scholarly attention to the group.

The findings reveal how four frames dominate the three sites of analysis (these are identified in the paper as the “War/Military” frame, the “Calip/hate” frame, the “Elusive” frame, and the “Criminal” frame), with each frame being further developed within the emergent dialogical network that takes place between Islamic State propagandists, U.K. parliamentarians, and journalists and their sources. Crucially, however, the analysis also shows how each frame constitutes reverse mirror images of one another, with each speaker inverting the original meanings of the frames in ways that reflect their social identities. For instance, Islamic State’s use of the “Caliphate” frame constructs the group as a secure, utopian and religiously just actor, while U.K. parliamentarians’ appropriate and repurpose the same frame to portray the caliphate as a “brutal state”, a “hideous caliphate”, or a “vile, Stalinist death cult”.  

In so doing, the paper generates much-needed empirical insight into the way Islamic State, and non-state terrorist actors more generally, are framed across a range of representational sites. As noted above, much of the existent literature on the Islamic State tends to focus on a single site. The implications here for journalism studies, for instance, are particularly noteworthy, as concerns about equal representation, diversity of opinion, and inclusivity are an enduring concern within the discipline. Finally, the paper also offers a conceptual contribution to the literature by drawing together scholarship on framing and dialogical networks, and shedding light on the way frames are produced, circulate, develop, and interact with one another within different representational sites and according to speakers’ social identities.  

Ella Hackett, Gregory Perreault, Teodora Florido Tavares De Souza: Memorializing Women Journalists: Obituaries on Women Journalist Role Performance

11:00

The obituary would seem to be a deceptively simple concept: a short essay which offers a remembrance of the deceased. Yet when applied to the experiences of journalists, the obituary offers not just memorialization but also an opportunity to metadiscourse on journalism. Metajournalistic discourse or “journalism about journalism” serves an essential purpose in stabilizing the journalistic field (Perreault, Perreault & Maares, 2022) by norming ethical approaches, standardizing practices, and providing opportunity to compare shared experiences. Obituaries provide a particular metajournalistic function in that they “provide[] a way for the field to reflect on what journalism is by remembering what journalism was” (Perreault, Tandoc & Caberlon, 2023, p. 12). 

To this end, Carlson (2007) notes that “by presenting the deceased as models, the memorializing discourse … possesses an instrumental function for working journalists” in that it “reaffirms the mission of journalists, reinforces journalistic norms, and “creates models for emulation through constructing, supporting, and recalling a recognized tradition of journalistic success” (p. 179). Prior research on obituaries argues that obituaries of women tend to be distinctive—offering opportunities to reflect on the mold breaking activities of women in a range of fields. Among women, obituaries tend to fit into one of the categories according to Fowler (2005): 

• Traditional positive—This is the most common obituary, in which the deceased is treated with celebration and a focus on continuous ascent (Fowler, 2005).
• Untraditional positive—This is a category particular to the experiences of women, which highlights the “mould breaking” (Fowler, 2005, p. 160) work of women.
• Negative—A rare form of obituary for stigmatized individuals in which the deceased tends to be an ‘other’ as opposed to ‘one of us’ (Fowler 2005)
• Tragic—These obituaries place the deceased as the victim of structural inequalities: with personal misfortune often resulting from structural injustice.

In this way, obituaries would seem to reflect the particular role of women journalists. Women’s roles in the newsroom are often defined by (or directly derived from) stereotypical feminine opinions and interests, as well as principles and values such as cooperation, non-violent conflict settlement, peace, compassion, emotionality, honesty, congeniality, and altruism. Women also hold a significant responsibility in increasing the overall representation of women in news media, as studies have shown that there is a higher level of source and outlet credibility when the reporter and source gender are congruent (Shor et al., 2018; Paul et al., 2022).

The present study seeks to understand how women journalists are memorialized through an analysis of a sizable corpus of obituaries of women journalists (n=1129) from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the Philippines. The research team analysed this dataset through an iterative, constant-comparative analysis (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). Fram (2013) notes that such analysis is valuable for etic coding, driven by literature and theory. Over the course of several months, the authors analyzed the data via in-person coding sessions, comparing themes and returning continually to the data to see if themes resonated with the overall corpus. 

The data reflects that women journalists are often associated with more affectively driven roles in journalism, as seen in advocacy and service-oriented roles. This is in part a reflection of women journalists presence in newsrooms, often at times they were dominated by men, and in which they were, by nature of their very presence, expected to advocate on the part of women in their audience. 

Panel 4

10:00

Morten Skovsgaard: The Real-World Effects of Constructive Journalism: A Field Experiment of Climate Change News Coverage"

Journalists tend to focus on problems, conflicts and wrongdoings resulting in a negativity bias in news coverage (Esser et al., 2016; Soroka & McAdams, 2015). While this is in line with the role as watchdogs of society, the focus on negative events risks leaving the public feeling distressed, disengaged and disempowered (McIntyre & Gyldensted, 2018; Boukes & Vliegenthart, 2017) in turn leading to news avoidance (Kalogeropoulos, 2017). 

These adverse effects have led to calls for a more constructive approach to journalism in which the negative focus is balanced with stories on potential solutions, positive examples, and long-term positive developments (Hermans & Gyldensted, 2019). Constructive journalism is put forth as way to increase efficacy, to increase engagement in solving important societal issues, and to decrease discontent with news (McIntyre & Lough, 2023). 

However, extant research still provides limited systematic knowledge of whether a constructive approach to news coverage can indeed remedy the adverse effects and increase efficacy and decrease discontent with news. Some studies based on survey experiments indicate that constructive journalism might have such effects (e.g., Hart & Feldman 2016; McIntyre, 2019). While results from this type of experiments are well-suited for establishing whether constructive journalism has the potential for yielding the theorized effects, the external validity is limited. Participants are exposed to a single news story and the effects are measured immediately after exposure. It is not clear whether these effects can be sustained in a media environment where people are exposed to a substantial amount of information and news each day.

Thus, studies of the effects of constructive journalism are faced with a trade-off between establishing causality and ensuring high external validity. To bridge that trade-off, this study utilizes a journalistic campaign in which the two dominant regional news organizations on the Danish island Funen, the newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende and the television station TV 2 Fyn, during two weeks in May 2023 produced more than 40 constructive news on the issue of climate change. These news stories—embedded in the daily news coverage—focused on positive examples and potential solutions to how climate change can be mitigated through changes in food production and individual eating habits. 

Climate change is a well-suited issue for studying effects of constructive news because it is often covered with a focus on the potential catastrophic consequences (e.g., Hart & Feldman, 2014) and risks leaving people feeling helpless and passive (Morton et al., 2011) which is in contrast to the need for changes in individual and collective behaviour to mitigate climate change (Nielsen et al., 2021). 

The geographically delimited campaign offers a unique opportunity to conduct a field experiment. This type of experiment can establish causal effects in a real-world setting and reduce the external validity problems of the survey experiments that have dominated the studies of the effects of constructive journalism so far. 

The study was designed as a so-called difference in differences approach in which a group that is exposed to constructive news is compared both before and after exposure to a control group that is not exposed to constructive news. In collaboration with the news media conglomerate JFM that publishes a number of regional Danish newspapers, a survey was distributed in March 2023 in a user panel with people from Funen who use Fyens Stiftstidende and people from Jutland who use another regional newspaper, Jyske Vestkysten. The responses provided a baseline measure of 

efficacy, evaluation of the climate coverage of their local newspaper, and intentions of increasing climate change mitigating behaviour. After the constructive climate change news campaign in Fyens Stiftstidende and TV 2 Fyn was launched in May, another survey measuring the same concepts again was distributed in the user panel in June. This allowed for a comparison of the changes in the treatment group (people exposed to the campaign in Funen, n=812) with the changes in the control group (people in Jutland exposed to regular climate change coverage, n=1684). 

The preliminary analyses showed statistically significant positive effects of being exposed to constructive climate change news on the evaluation of the climate coverage in the local newspaper and on self-efficacy, but no effects on collective and response efficacy as well as behavioural intentions. These results give one of the strongest indications so far that constructive news has positive effects on important outcomes even when exposure is only a smaller part of all the information people are exposed to in a real world-setting. 

Zhong Zhang: Nonprofit Environmental Journalism under China’s Authoritarianism: A Case Study of Chinadialogue

10:15

This study examines how a nonprofit newsroom, Chinadialogue, reports China-related environmental news during its 16 years’ operation in China. While prior research on nonprofit journalism in democratic settings reveals their propensity to cover marginalized stories and enhance news diversity (Requejo-Alemán and Lugo-Ocando 2014; Konieczna 2018; Sánchez-Torné et al. 2023), insights on nonprofit journalism under authoritarianism is limited. It is unknown whether news nonprofits can contribute to news diversity in a stringent media environment, and if so, how. Taking example of Chinadialogue as a nonprofit news media under China’s intensifying authoritarianism, this study aims to shed light on how the news nonprofit survives and maintains its public service role amid China’s deterioration of media environment (Tong 2019).

The research method mainly comprises two parts. Firstly, computational news analysis through LDA topic modelling is adopted to assess changes and consistency in the news topics identified in Chinadialogue’s contents during 2006 and 2021, which examines the influence of China’s increasing censorship on the diversity of news topics from Chinadialogue. Secondly, an interview with Chinadialogue’s current CEO is conducted to gain insight into what happened inside the newsroom during the sampling period. It also aids in interpreting the results derived from the computational analysis. 

This study finds that, on the one hand, Chinadialogue has weakened its criticism on China’s environmental issues with the degradation of news topic diversity. Critical topics such as pollution and food safety receive less coverage in recent years, despite their ongoing relevance to China's environmental governance. It is argued that these changes shall be largely attributed to China’s increasing control on the whole journalistic field and the necessary self-censorship inside the newsroom to ensure its survival, which can be seen as sacrifices on its public service pledge. On the other hand, the news analysis underscores Chinadialogue's potential to push the boundary of Chinese environmental news reporting. Climate change has remained a focal news topic throughout the whole period, despite its marginalization in mainstream environmental news in early years (Pan et al. 2021). Notably, Chinadialogue displays critical stances on China's climate governance, while the mainstream climate news has been found severely constrained by the propaganda needs (Duan and Miller 2021; Guo et al. 2023). This highlights the media potential to diversify environmental news in Chinese public discussion by carefully navigating the censorship system, which shall warrant further studies on nonprofit journalism practices beyond democratic contexts. 

Petra Kovačević, Natasha Van Antwerpen, Nadia Swijtink, Liesbeth Hermans: The effect of constructive and narrative journalism on audience responses to climate change news

10:30

Audiences are increasingly avoiding the news, often due to negativity, bias, and a lack of trust, with young audiences often being more inclined to avoid the news than other demographic groups (Newman et al., 2023). Climate change, in particular, is a news topic that young people profess strong interest in, yet often find negative and anxiety-provoking (Newman et al., 2022; 2023). In response to these concerns, new approaches in journalism have sought to address these criticisms, including constructive and narrative journalism. 

Constructive journalism builds on psychology and behavioural sciences, and looks to address the negativity and episodic bias of news by including stories about solutions and developments, stories with hope and optimism that empower audiences, and providing context and explanation to events in the news (McIntyre & Gyldensted, 2018; Haagerup, 2017). Many of the audiences who commonly avoid the news have reported being interested in news that is positive (55%), contains solutions (46%), or provides explanations and context (39%); all features consistent with the approach of constructive journalism (Newman et al., 2023). While constructive journalism has been suggested to improve engagement, trust, and hope, it has rarely been applied to climate change news specifically within audience effects research, and has often tested only discrete techniques rather than the wholistic approach.

Narrative journalism instead seeks to draw on storytelling techniques while reporting on real-world events, often centring them through the lens of a character or story voice (van Krieken & Sanders, 2019). It aims to provide audiences with a more immersive and relatable account of the topic or occurrence, and has often been proposed to increase empathy, reduce prejudice, improve comprehension, and increase behavioural intentions towards issues (van Krieken & Sanders, 2019). News avoiders have expressed interest in news about ‘people like me’ (38%; Newman et al., 2023), suggesting the potential of narrative journalism to increase engagement, while its other effects, such as empathy and behavioural intentions, may be beneficial when reporting on global issues such as climate change. 

Within this study, we will examine the effects of using constructive and narrative journalism techniques and approaches on audience responses to audiovisual news media across three countries (Australia, Croatia, and the Netherlands). Audiovisual news items were created on a global issue, rising sea levels, to form a non-narrative, problem-focused and a narrative, constructive version. Each audiovisual piece was constructed to reflect the journalistic approach to creating a news story in this format using the same visual materials, interviews, and source data, but varying the framing and selection of source material according to the approach (constructive vs. problem-focused, narrative vs. topic-focused). The audiovisual pieces were also adjusted for relevance to each national context, including language and key statistics.

Our overall research question concerns the perception and response of audiences to constructive and narrative journalism approaches within climate change news.  To understand the underlying perceptions of audiences that shape their responses, we will conduct four focus groups within each country with young people (18 to 25), recruiting participants of varying levels of education and geographical location. Participants will engage in an interactive discussion around their perceptions, use, and preferences for news, before being presented with two audiovisual pieces (problem-focused, no narrative; constructive, narrative: counter-balanced). After each news piece, they will engage in an interactive discussion on their perceptions of the news pieces, including their engagement, preferences, trust, and comprehension. The focus groups will be based on creative methods and design thinking, with participants able to provide interactive feedback through engagement tools and stills from the stimuli to encourage and stimulate responses. 

This study will provide insight into audience responses to constructive and narrative journalism techniques within audiovisual news across three countries on a global issue (rising sea levels). Our findings will help to inform journalistic techniques and practice, including their effects on the perceptions, engagement, and informativeness of young audiences.

Theresa Zeitlinger, Clara Juarez Miro, Sandra Banjac, Folker Hanusch: Hardly Important? Examining Audiences Understanding of ‘Soft’ and ‘Hard’ News Avoidance

10:45

In recent years researchers have increasingly studied audiences’ perspectives regarding questions of news use and lack thereof. From a normative standpoint, the latter has frequently been framed as a concern based on the civic duty of staying informed to participate in democratic societies (e.g. Toff & Nielsen, 2022). However, studying news avoidance matters beyond these normative concerns because news also fulfills other important functions from transporting knowledge (e.g. Davies & Horst, 2016) to constructing cultural identities and communities (e.g. Davies & Horst, 2016; Brookes, 1999). 

Studies of news avoidance have focused on its cognitive drivers—e.g., thinking that news is unnecessary to stay informed (Toff & Nielsen, 2018), or experiencing cognitive overload (Villi et al., 2022)—and emotional drivers—e.g., experiencing or anticipating negative emotional reactions including fear and anxiety (Toff & Nielsen, 2022; Villi et al., 2022). However, as the differences between the two at times appear blurred based on audiences’ narratives (Villi et al., 2022), research examining news avoidance drivers holistically is needed to advance our understanding of potential connections and interplay among them. Additionally, whilst scholarship examining news avoidance is on the rise, previous studies have largely examined the avoidance of ‘hard’ news (Villi et al., 2022). 

However, our understanding of whether audiences make a similar distinction based on ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ news genres when avoiding, remains limited. When concentrating on traditional hard news media, scholars may inadvertently fail to study the impact of journalistic content that serves as primary or sole newssource for many (Boukes & Boomgaarden, 2015). 

Therefore, the research questions guiding this study are: 

RQ1: How do cognitive and emotional drivers interplay regarding audiences’ news avoidance behaviors? 

RQ2: How do audiences experience the distinction of hard vs. soft news in relation to news avoidance behavior? 

This study aims to add a new perspective to studies of news avoidance by utilizing role theory (Biddle 1979) as a theoretical framework, focusing on expectations, which can be defined as reactions to behaviors that are perceived as typical for a person occupying a specific position (Biddle, 1979). It distinguishes three modes in which expectations can be expressed: (1) prescriptive demands for normative behaviors; (2) descriptive statements grounded in observations of behaviors; and (3) cathectic, expressing emotional evaluations of behaviors (Biddle, 1979). Exploring these different modes can help clarify cognitive drivers, by distinguishing their prescriptive and descriptive forms, and clarify the potential connections and interplay among them and the emotional ones, reflected in cathectic expectations. The framework is thus useful to explore whether and how audience expectations and potential conflicts among them may underlie behaviors such as news avoidance.

Submission to the conference theme 

Inductive and qualitative research methodologies allow for the examination of how audiences define news, which can help explore whether these definitions play a role in how audiences navigate decisions regarding news avoidance. Delving into how journalism is perceived as valuable and enjoyable by audiences, emphasizing their interpretations of journalism (Costera Meijer, 2013), is essential for gaining insights into the reasons behind audiences’ decisions to opt out of news. 

A total of 35 in-depth ‘two-sided video ethnographies’ (Groot Kormelink & Costera Meijer, 2019) from a diverse sample of news users in Austria were conducted to capture audiences’ expectations and conceptions of news as well as their news use and avoidance behaviors. Two-sided video ethnographies are designed to capture users’ expressions, and movements as they consume news and therefore allow us to unveil people’s unspoken embodied understanding of their news use (ibd.). 

Preliminary results suggest that there is an interplay between cognitive and emotional drivers. Emotional drivers appear as the dominant cause of news avoidance, whilst cognitive drivers serve to balance avoidance behaviors with respondents’prescriptive beliefs that they should stay informed. 

Some participants made a distinction between avoiding hard news (news which ‘mattered’) and soft news (news which don’t) while others didn’t, instead distinguishing between media platforms – e.g. avoiding an originally hard news source but consuming a ‘soft’ news presentation in order to stay informed. 

The study’s diverse sample of news users showed a broad range of news avoidance behaviors, sometimes limited to certain topics, platforms or news genres, as well as varying intensities of avoidance, ranging from news non-use to incidental exposure. The analysis revealed a dominant role of emotional drivers, suggesting a hierarchy of drivers of news avoidance that should be taken into account in strategies for its mitigation. These findings suggest that participants continue to seek content that meets their needs for information, and personal and social identity. Therefore, definitions of news avoidance should be refined accordingly. 

Erik Knudsen, Morten Skovsgaard, Nini Lykke Susanne Aandahl Berge, Agnes Stenbomd: Can Constructive News Counter News Avoidance? An Experimental Test of Audience Behavior as a Response to (Non-)Constructive News Frames

11:00

The phenomenon of news avoidance has seen a significant rise in recent years (Newman et al., 2023), often attributed to the overwhelming prevalence of negative news in mainstream media. Several studies have highlighted the promise of so-called constructive journalism to counter news avoidance by offering more constructive and solutions-oriented, in contrast to 

conflict-oriented, perspectives (e.g., Overgaard, 2023; Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2020). 

In this study, we develop and test the argument that exposure to constructive news can override news avoidance behavior (see Figure 1). We conceptualize news avoidance from a motivational perspective (e.g., Villi, et al. 2022), in which audiences can be temporarily motivated to either seek out or avoid certain news items – based on their immediate state of mind – when browsing news online. 

Our aim is to understand the extent to which the framing of news items, from either a constructive or non-constructive perspective, can influence audiences' motivation to avoid certain news items. In other words, can constructive news reduce news avoidance, and is this effect particularly strong among people who based on their immediate state of mind are most inclined to avoid the news?

Methods 

Using an innovative (2 x 2 between-subject) survey experimental design with a probability based sample (N=2270) representative of the Norwegian adult population, we examine the causal effect of constructive news on news avoidance behavior. First, drawing on the research on motivations in social psychology, we induce either an immediate “news seeking” or “news avoiding” state of mind inspired by the Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task (Mills & D'Mello, 2014). 

As indicated in Figure 2, we first randomly divided our respondents into two groups, encouraging them to recall and write down, through an open-ended question item, a memory they have related to either a time when they needed to seek out news (“news seeking mood treatment”) or a time when they were overwhelmed by the constant flow of negative news to the extent that they were not in the mood to seek out news (“news avoidance mood treatment”). This procedure was extensively pre-tested and piloted. 

As displayed in Figure 2, respondents were again randomized into two groups. Both groups browsed a news site that we had experimentally manipulated, with a front page presenting a total of 17 news articles. The two treatment conditions differed in whether respondents were presented with constructive or non-constructive framings of three news articles on the topics 

of tougher economic times and higher interest rates, climate change/sustainability, and increasing electricity prices – three topics that were high on the agenda in Norway at the time. The non-constructive versions of the articles highlighted a problem (e.g., record high electricity prices), while the constructive versions of the articles highlighted solutions in terms of how the reader could tackle such problems. 

In addition, both treatment groups featured non-manipulated “filler news” that was within the news genre of sports, entertainment, or food/health. To achieve strong ecological validity, all news articles were authentic, and all manipulations of the treatment articles were made by professional journalists. To replicate a natural news site browsing situation, the design of the website mimicked the mobile version of the second most popular news site in Norway, and respondents were free to browse the news site, click on headlines to read the full article, and return to the front page while we captured this user behavior unobtrusively. The news site was embedded in a larger online time-sharing survey panel. 

After browsing the news site for 3 minutes, respondents automatically proceeded to answer further survey questions to identify the extent to which exposure to constructive news could influence efficacy, news reading intentions, and well-being. 

Analysis plan 

While the data is collected, we have yet to conduct the analysis. The study will be preregistered before we conduct any analyses and the results of the preregistered analysis will be presented at the conference, in line with the preregistration. 

Because we have data for clicking behavior and reading time for each of the 17 articles separately, we will be able to rearrange the data, so that we have multiple observations per respondent. We will use multilevel GLM (logistic, Bernoulli) models, as we will have several 

observations of article clicks nested within each respondent. The key dependent variable will be article click, but we will also conduct supplementary analyses on time spent per article. 

Panel 5

Hanne Peeters, Stephanie D’haeseleer, Kristin Van Damme, Pauljan Truyens: News consumption within media repertoires: prominent and diverse or absent and narrow?"

11:45

Digitization has fundamentally changed the media landscape, radically transforming how media is created, distributed, and consumed. Today’s media users find themselves in a high-choice media environment (Van Aelst et al., 2017). In this context, media users have more agency than ever, as they decide which media to consume, via which platform and device they do so, and in what context (Evens et al., 2021). On the other hand, unintentional media use is also increasing. Due to the abundance of media, users are exposed to media content even if they do not actively seek it out (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2021). Therefore, the agency of users is also more nuanced and complex than ever. These impactful changes have challenged scholars to analyse users’ cross-media uses, or media repertoires (Hasebrink & Hepp, 2017).

The supply of news also expanded rapidly in the 21^st century (Praprotnik, 2016). News, like other content, is more accessible and delivered by various actors, in multiple formats, and on a wide variety of platforms and devices. In this context, the question is raised whether this increased quantity and diversity of news leads to a more diverse news consumption, and a more prominent position of news in the broader media repertoire of all users. While previous research has examined audiences’ news consumption patterns in particular (e.g., Peters et al., 2022; Picone & Vandenplas, 2022) the role of news within the broader media repertoire remains underexplored. Our study seeks to fill this gap. To capture users’ media repertoires, this research relies on the quadruple articulation framework, which states that an individual’s media use can be divided into four main components: platform, device, media content, and context (Evens et al., 2021). 

We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to identify and scrutinize the media repertoires of Flemish media users. This mixed-methods approach allowed us to analyse distinct patterns of media use, as well as the motivations that drive media choices. In the initial phase of the study, we conducted an online questionnaire on the media habits of a representative sample of 2309 Flemish media users. Latent cluster analysis (LCA) was used to construct seven media repertoires, distinct in sources, platforms, and devices to consume media (nicknamed On-demand super streamers, Moderate viewers, News omnivores, Multimedia masters, TV addicts, Audio addicts, and Offline news users). In a subsequent phase, we conducted 47 in-depth interviews with Flemish media users, each belonging to one of the previously identified media repertoires. These interviews provided deeper insights into the meanings underlying the media repertoires. The quadruple articulation framework guides this analysis, allowing us to expose the four components of media use, and the prominence of news within these broader repertoires. 

Our results indicate that news plays a prominent yet divergent role in only a few identified media repertoires. The users featuring a predominantly online media repertoire with a diverse array of sources (e.g., On-demand super streamers) feature only a limited news repertoire. They consume news primarily through their smartphones and use few (digital) news sources. Users featuring a broad media repertoire (e.g., News omnivores and Multimedia masters) also have the most diverse news repertoires. As the name implies, News omnivores are the most interested in news and consume news through various devices and (online) news sources. Multimedia masters, who consume the most media of all repertoires, primarily consume news digitally via multiple sources. Finally, users with a more traditional media repertoire (e.g., Moderate viewers, TV addicts, Audio addicts, and Offline news users) are more likely to turn to television or newspapers for current events. Within this subset, TV addicts and Offline news users rely most heavily on these traditional channels for news. Offline news users even ignore digital news completely. Audio addicts, on the other hand, are the most digitally oriented of the traditional media repertoires, and their news consumption is distributed across multiple sources, while TV addicts rely primarily on television for their news.

In sum, this study comprehensively analyses the role(s) of news consumption within the seven media repertoires. Moreover, it identifies the drivers that keep different repertoires engaged with news, and the barriers that prevent some of them from expanding their news diet. These preliminary results already highlight the news needs of different media repertoires. A thorough analysis of the qualitative data at the final phase of this study can further nuance the position of news consumption within the media repertoires.

Folker Hanusch and Jonathan Hendrickx: The Concept of Diversity in Journalism Studies

12:00

Over the past decades, diversity has been foregrounded in wider societal debates as members of minority groups based on gender, race, sexuality and/or other dimensions call for more accurate reflections of increasingly diverse societies (Berg, 2020). This normative need for more ‘equal’ and/or ‘fair’ representation has affected virtually all aspects of journalism-related research (Schatto-Eckrodt & Quandt, 2023), with increased scholarly attention in the form of peer-reviewed publications and special issues, as well as books and conferences devoted to the topic. 

Within journalism studies, the majority of recently published conceptual contributions has focused on the notions of media (Loecherbach et al., 2020) and news diversity (Hendrickx et al., 2020; Joris et al., 2020). In turn, both notions have been operationalised as umbrella terms covering various subdimensions of diversity (Napoli, 1999; Sjøvaag, 2016; Voakes et al., 1996). Along with the semi-frequent interchangeable use with similar yet different theories such as pluralism (see for instance Karppinen, 2018), this contributes to the diversification and subsequent obfuscation of diversity as a concept in journalism studies. 

We propose a study of the various uses and underlying meanings of the uses of diversity. We hold the view that diversity as a concept remains underdeveloped in journalism studies, leading to a clear lack of a shared understanding necessary to advance scholarship. To remedy this, we propose a conceptual framework of diversity with three principal contexts in which the concept is invoked. 

The first principal context relies on the underlying subtext that the general degree of diversity is chronically insufficient. This context is mostly linked to the previously discussed notion of representation. It entails discussions on the (inadequate) diversity of newsroom workers (Vandenberghe et al., 2020), which remains particularly poignant at the higher levels of hierarchical management (Cherubini et al., 2020). Linked to the second context, this is particularly relevant as scholarship has found that having a more diverse newsroom does not necessarily lead to more diverse reporting and reflections of minority communities (Everbach et al., 2019).

The second context revolves around the idea that established degrees of diversity are under constant threats from a range of different factors. Scholarship has discussed how the diversity of news content in terms of topics (Magin et al., 2023), actors (Beckers & Van Aelst, 2019) and/or viewpoints (Masini, 2019) risks being threatened by factors such as increased media ownership consolidation (Hendrickx, 2020), the rise of alternative news outlets (Buyens & Van Aelst, 2021) and technological advancements such as social media, aggregators and paywalls (Joris et al., 2023; Wojcieszak et al., 2021). Similarly, the consumption of homogenous news content has been found to contribute to polarisation in democratic societies (Boczkowski & de Santos, 2007), contributing to wider discussions on the negative rippling effects of decreased diversity on democracy (Baker, 2007). 

Conversely, the third and final context implies that an abundance of diversity can also be harmful rather than advantageous. The rise of new platforms for news and wider media consumption and the interweaving of the two has led to recent studies about the advent and, most importantly, the only very minor role news content plays on popular social media platforms such as TikTok (Hagar & Diakopoulos, 2023). At the same time, other scholars are advocating a dissolution of news and journalism studies altogether in the light of more and more diverse platforms for constant news consumption and a dissipation of traditional consumption habits and routines (Steensen & Westlund, 2020). 

During the ECREA: Journalism Studies Section Conference, we present these and other findings of our conceptual contribution, which is still in production at the time of submitting this abstract. We intend to advance the quality of the debate on diversity in journalism studies by taking the concept back to its roots and dissecting it thoroughly, whereby we believe the three principle contexts outlined above can serve as a useful steppingstone. We make clear recommendations for more academic clarity in approaching diversity from a multitude of perspectives and methods in today’s digital media era. 

Kim Löhmann, Phoebe Maares, Folker Hanusch: Filling a Void: Exploring the contribution to diversity by peripheral journalistic actors

12:15

In the last 15 to 20 years, there have been increased efforts to enhance diversity within the news and newsroom staff through the implementation of new policies and guidelines aimed at recruiting journalists from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities. While there has been some progress in diversity among staff (Cherubini, 2022), the same cannot be said for diversity in the content itself (Edström, 2011; Masini et al, 2017). One explanation points at the dominance of newsroom cultures and editorial policies restricting individual journalists from utilizing their diverse backgrounds as valuable resources in their reporting, frequently under the guise of maintaining objectivity or avoiding perceived overinvolvement (Konieczna & Santa Maria, 2023). Moreover, practices of homogenization within newsrooms are increasingly prevalent (Lück et al., 2022), wherein journalists suppress aspects of their personal identity in favor of adopting the dominant professional newsroom culture (Nishikawa et al., 2009). This contributes to the reinforcement of pre-existing power structures within the content they generate, thus hindering efforts to diversify the news. 

However, traditional journalism has never been monolithic (Deuze & Witschge, 2018). Throughout history, alternative, feminist, or ethnic media have served as a counterpart to the traditional and normative understanding of what journalism ought to do and focus on. Broadly, the terminology "alternative media" encompasses a diverse array of entities, practices, and formats, which typically engage in the critique and questioning of the narratives and practices of mainstream media (Harcup, 2005). Alternative media typically focus on the underprivileged voices from below (Harcup, 2003; Rauch, 2016), fostering a discourse focusing on the (marginalized) counterpublics embedded in society, and ultimately striving to enhance media diversity. They usually operate as structured media outlets with similar practices as traditional media. Nonetheless, contemporary processes such as digitization have led to a surge in peripheral actors who also actively challenge the narratives of traditional journalism. However, they oftentimes encompass a wider range of individuals or small entities on the boundaries of mainstream journalism such as social media influencers, bloggers or news start-ups, who critically (re)evaluate the prevailing journalistic norms and values (Eldridge, 2017). 

Particularly in Austria, where scholars found legacy media to be neither diverse in its newsrooms nor its content (Kaltenbrunner & Lugschitz, 2021; Riedl et al, 2022), many of those peripheral actors claim to contribute to the media landscape’s diversity by creating formats and content specifically produced by diverse actors beyond traditional newsroom structures and media. Such formats typically emphasize identity markers like ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, ability or religion. While there is a growing body of literature dealing with the specific motivations and practices of peripheral actors such as influencers or bloggers (Author, 2020; Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2011) we are missing a more in-depth exploration of peripheral actors’ motivations, experiences and goals that led to the establishment of those peripheral, diversity endorsing media. Consequently, our study seeks to address the following questions: 

RQ1: Why and how do peripheral actors incorporate diversity into their work? RQ2: How do these approaches to diversity differ from those of traditional media? 

This study draws on 20 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with peripheral actors who are actively committed to advancing diversity in the Austrian journalistic field. We identified these actors through their respective media platforms and based on a definition of diversity as diverse workforce consciously engaging with a target audience that extends beyond the ‘white’, heteronormative, and male paradigm (Eddy et al., 2023; Lee & Kim, 2022), encompassing individuals from various ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, or abilities. We asked respondents to elaborate on their career trajectories and personal motivations to work for or establish peripheral formats centered around diversity. Furthermore, respondents were asked to reflect on their experiences in legacy newsrooms and propose strategies to combat the lack of diversity in newsrooms. The interviews were transcribed and examined using a combination of deductive-inductive thematic and critical discourse analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012; Fairclough, 2012; Carvalho, 2008). This two-fold approach was chosen to not only understand an actor’s motivations and experiences, but to further unravel the underlying power relations present in the Austrian media landscape. 

The data collection for this project is currently on-going and we expect to complete the interviews by the end of December 2023. By focusing on this specific group of peripheral actors, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the transformational aims of peripheral actors and how they contribute to more diversity in the media. 

Gregory Perreault, Miriam Donauer, Folker Hanusch: Reporting Diversity in Lifestyle Journalism: Conceptualizing Lifestyle Journalism as an act of Inclusion

12:30

The importance that journalism plays in addressing issues of diversity has been much discussed in scholarship, where many studies have bemoaned the lack of adequate coverage of pluralism and diversity in society (Karppinen, 2018). Because of its public and political relevance, diversity has been mostly studied in the context of political or hard news journalism, leaving us with relatively little knowledge regarding how other journalistic specializations may address such issues. One such specialization includes lifestyle journalism, which scholars and journalists alike have traditionally branded as ‘soft news’ that is of insufficient public relevance to examine seriously. Yet, as a growing body of research has been arguing over the past decade, lifestyle journalism may actually be at least as relevant for people’s everyday lives and equally as influential on their perceptions of the world. One such example includes the notion that travel journalism takes on increasing relevance as a window to the world. This may be, not in spite of but rather because of travel journalism’s unique position in presenting a different world to its audience. In this way, it offers important contributions from a cosmopolitan perspective (McGaurr, 2015).

Relatedly, recent research has challenged the binaries between so-called hard news and soft news, noting that both lifestyle and political journalists have been “engaging in ‘acts of lifestyle’ and ‘acts of politics’ respectively” (Banjac & Hanusch, 2022, p. 15). And indeed, lifestyle journalists have in some cases discussed engaging in serious topics such as responding to audience hostility (Perreault & Miller, 2022). This is to point out that while reporting on controversial topics is written into reporting on marginalized communities, prior research suggests lifestyle journalists would be unlikely to eschew such work. Lifestyle journalism tends to encourage engagement by journalists into the lives and interests of their audience, at odds with the hard news emphasis on detachment. This fundamentally different role perception may allow for an opportunity to report differently on diversity issues from the typically inadequate coverage bemoaned in much scholarship. Yet, we still have an incomplete understanding of how reporting on diversity actually takes place in specializations within lifestyle journalism. 

To address these concerns, this study explores how lifestyle journalists understand their reporting on marginalized communities and provide avenues for inclusion within the public sphere. Through 72 in-depth interviews with lifestyle journalists in Austria and the United States, we explore how these journalists conceptualize reporting on marginalized communities and think about their work in offering inclusion. The interviews were conducted based on jointly developed interview guidelines that would ensure comparability of results. We analyzed our respective datasets through an iterative, constant-comparative analysis (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011). Fram (2013) notes that such analysis is valuable for etic coding, driven by literature and theory. Over the course of several months, the authors analysed the data via video coding sessions (e.g. Zoom and Teams), comparing themes and returning continually to the data to see if themes resonated with the overall corpus. 

Our findings show that lifestyle journalists engage with issues of diversity and inclusion as an essential part of their work, which they attach to the core journalistic value of speaking for voiceless communities. Journalists in particular felt emboldened to report on issues of diversity and inclusion when it stemmed naturally from the work of their specialty (e.g. highlighting a range of cultures through food reporting), when their newsroom supported efforts to highlight diverse voices (e.g. with editors sensitive to offering more inclusive reporting), and when the audience supported efforts to highlight diverse voices (e.g. audiences engaging with inclusive reporting and promoting it). More broadly, lifestyle journalists defended their role in reporting on diversity as being a key aspect of their membership within the journalistic field.

Panel 6

PRECONSTITUTED PANEL: Emma Heywood, Ebele Okobi, Alasdair Stuart, Sacha Meuter, Dmitry Chernobrov: Ensuring high-quality journalism amidst conflict and crisis.

11:45

In many politically and economically fragile settings, access to accurate, timely and relevant information is increasingly challenged, even more so in countries affected by conflict Even in countries where ostensibly democratic systems are in place, there has been an authoritarian creep, as governments have clamped down on media criticism and citizen protest by shutting down the internet for prolonged periods, restricting media freedom and by using public (state) media, and other digital platforms, as propaganda tools. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated “infodemic”, particularly on social media, further exacerbated the challenges facing the media, and highlighted the precarity of journalistic practice in many countries. Yet quality journalism remains essential in preventing the circulation of dis- and misinformation, the product not only of external manipulation, but which also circulates at grassroots level in an attempt to plug gaps in reliable information. Simultaneously, audiences are increasingly expecting a more inclusive and holistic approach to the news they receive, news which should be based on more equitable access to information and more nuanced and multi-perspective narratives. 

This round table brings together experts and academics from BBC Media Action, The New Humanitarian, Fondation Hirondelle, and the University of Sheffield. They, and their organisations and teams, work in, and from, a range of challenging contexts around the world, conducting research to understand media and information ecosystems, supporting accurate, engaging and inclusive journalism and tackling mis- and disinformation. Their work supports the supply of public interest media and more inclusive, participatory and decolonised media spaces, enabling more informed decision-making amongst conflict-affected audiences. They will discuss issues ranging from the challenges facing media and journalists in such contexts, how to support constructive and inclusive journalism, approaches to tackling disinformation, and audience expectations in contexts of chaos and adversity.

Panel members:

• Ebele Okobi, CEO of The New Humanitarian (TNH)
  Ebele describes herself as a values-led, transformational leader who builds mission-driven teams and organisations bent upon shifting the arc of the moral universe towards justice. She is passionate about disrupting systems of harm and amplifying untold stories and unheard voices.
• Alasdair Stuart, BBC Media Action
  Alasdair is a Senior Advisor and Senior Researcher at BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity. His work focuses on research, policy, strategy and programme design which effectively supports the provision of inclusive public-interest media and tackles mis- and disinformation across the 25+ countries where BBC Media Action works, many of which are fragile contexts. 
• Sacha Meuter, Fondation Hirondelle
  Sacha is Head of Research and Policy at Fondation Hirondelle, the Swiss non-profit organisation which provides information to populations faced with crises, empowering them in their daily lives and as citizens. He develops partnerships between Fondation Hirondelle and academic institutions, researchers and think tanks that are interested in the role of media and information in fragile contexts. His drive is to evidence the value of journalism in those contexts and contribute to a journalism that is more inclusive and self-reflective. 

• Dr Emma Heywood, University of Sheffield
  Emma is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Radio and Communication. Her research interests lie in the role of radio in conflict-affected zones, and she works closely with international media development agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs). She has conducted large-scale qualitative and quantitative research into the impact of radio on women's empowerment in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
• Moderator: Dr Dmitry Chernobrov, University of Sheffield
  Dmitry is a Senior Lecturer in Media and  International Politics at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on four interconnected strands: public perception of international crises, public diplomacy and humour, diasporas and conflict, and digital technology and humanitarian communication. Dmitry specialises in research on public perception of international politics.

Panel 7

Mette Stentoft: PARALLEL REALITIES: News-aversion and media practices among ethnic minority youth in Denmark

11:45

Media professionals and scholars alike are showing a growing interest in news avoidance and what has been called “the missing audiences” of news, not least due to concerns about polarization, misinformation, and the erosion of the public sphere (Newman et al. 2023, Landrum 2021). It is well-known that news avoidance is most common among disadvantaged groups (Toff et al. 2023). Nevertheless, we have very little in-depth knowledge of the news and media practice prevalent among an important part of this group: young people belonging to a Middle Eastern or African diaspora in Denmark. 

Using a mixed-method approach including focus groups, interviews, and digital observations in online communities (cf. Forberg & Schilt 2023, Scollon & Scollon 2007) this study attempts to provide such knowledge; to identify central aspects of prevalent media practices and media narratives among young Danes of Middle Eastern and African descent. The paper presents findings from the first part of this study; on wo focus groups, three qualitative interviews, and two sets of ethnographic observations: One in a classroom setting in a high school with no ethnic Danes, one in the digital setting of the community of followers of Danish minority media XOR on YouTube. The framework for understanding and discussing this data (in this paper as well as in the on-going, comprehensive study that it’s a part of) is inspired by Scollon & Scollon’s (2007) nexus analysis (also see Lane 2014). 

A preliminary analysis indicates that though majority and minority news-averse people have many things in common, one important difference is the preconception of media and journalism: A news-avoidant young ethnic Dane will, in general, define journalism as important to democracy and society and have a more or less articulated knowledge of e.g. how tabloid is different from public service (Bakkær Simonsen 2021, Lessinski 2022, Breidahl 2017). Though presented to the same media education via the Danish school system, these concepts are, very generally speaking, understood differently among young people of Middle Eastern or African descent. Part of this difference can be explained by the widespread misrepresentation of Muslim and non-Western sources in Danish media (Sinclair 2022, Jørndrup 2017) – and by a deliberate resistance to this misrepresentation. In other words, one media practice is a ‘deliberate aversion’ that can be condensed to: If you don’t represent me truthfully, I’ll find my information elsewhere, and I definitely won’t be the black token in your white feed. Another practice could be called ‘non-deliberative aversion’, characterized by media connotations from parents or grandparents; connotations that can best be understood within certain African or Arab media systems rather than a Danish one, e.g. that the media serves only those in power. 

Apart from these (preliminary) conclusions, the study contributes to the field and to future data collection by methodologically addressing a crucial but – in media research contexts – often overlooked premise: That many of the young people in question navigate an ambiguous, multifaceted lifeworld (also see Hunter 2023). Results from this study are a reminder that many minority youths exist, so to speak, in two equally important and equally ‘true’ realities or realms: One defined by Western/Danish values and norms as represented by the education system, Danish friends etc. and one defined by e.g. their parents and possibly the diaspora community (also see Abdelhady & Aly 2023). This means that though a mixed-method approach and a nexus analysis might be beneficial in many research contexts, not least to avoid the so 

called ‘transparent account problem’ in e.g. focus groups (cf. Hollway & Jefferson 2000), the methodological triangulation represented by the nexus analysis as a framework is all the more important when the scope of research is the practice of young people of minority background. 

All in all, the paper argues that minority and majority news-averse young people have many things in common, but the existence of this double reality is a crucial and fundamental difference. A difference we must understand as scholars and practitioners in order to grasp the media practices and in all their variety and complexity.

Kiki de Bruin, Sanne Kruikemeier, Rens Vliegenthart, Yael de Haan: How to stay in touch? An experience sampling method study examining news avoidance

12:00

The amount of people who indicate that they avoid the news has grown gradually in the past decade (Newman et al., 2023). Concerns about news avoidance are raised from a normative and journalism industry perspective (Swart et al., 2022). From a normative perspective, news consumption is always seen as important for an informed citizenry that contributes to a democratic society. Therefore, concerns are that news avoidance would leave people uninterested, un-, or misinformed, and unengaged, and may foster knowledge gaps among citizens (Blekesaune et al., 2012; Van Aelst, 2017). From an industry perspective, journalism practice benefits from news users for revenues and continuing their practices and roles, such as informing, mobilizing, or connecting citizens and investigating authorities (Swart et al., 2022; Schudson, 2014). 

Contrary, scholars engage with a radical audience turn in journalism studies: a different normative perspective beyond news-industry concerns (Swart, et al., 2022). Recent studies on news avoidance and disconnected news users demonstrate that limiting one’s news use could also benefit society and lead to meaningful political participation (Ohme et al., 2021). From an audience perspective, it can be seen as healthy behavior, as news use can also negatively influence one’s mental well-being or lead to experiences of news overload and emotional distress (De Bruin et al., 2021; Villi et al., 2022). With the radical audience turn in journalism studies, scholars call for “focusing on what users perceive as the right quantity of news and when they feel saturated and satisfied instead of aiming to minimize news avoidance or non-use per se (Moe and Ytre-Arne, 2021). Thus, while more news use might benefit news producers, this may not always be in the interest of news audiences nor society.” (Swart et al., 2022). Similarly, the public connection concept assumes that citizens in a ‘mature’ democracy should be orientated or pay attention to the public world or matters of common concern, but that there are many possible ways to do so (Moe & Ytre-Arne, 2022; Couldry, Livingstone & Markham, 2008), especially in the digital information society we live in.

Therefore, we explore how news avoiders inform or orientate themselves about matters of public concern from an audience-centric and non-news-centric approach. We wonder, if people are (actively) avoiding ‘news’, do they still pay attention to matters of common concern, about what and how (i.e., informedness; Kümpel et al., 2022)? Are they informed about politics and current affairs? Furthermore, we also investigate the relation with Feeling of Being Informed (FOBI), perceived mental well-being and public engagement overtime. Where informedness of news avoiders tells us something about the information content, FOBI refers to users’ meta-cognition of what they think they know: their subjective knowledge (Kümpel et al., 2022). Further, as news avoidance is often a way to protect one’s mental well-being, by limiting the news’ negative influence, we study how content is related to this. Last, studies showed news avoidance can lead to more public engagement, so we study the relation with public engagement. We pose the following research questions:

RQ1: How are news avoiders informed concerning matters of public concern and what specific information do they encounter?

RQ2: How do news avoiders perceive FOBI, mental well-being and public engagement over time and how are those perceptions related to informedness?

RQ3: To what extent are news avoiders informed about salient political and current affairs?

We conducted an Experience Sampling Method study among 225 Dutch news avoiders in the panel of certified research company I&O Research in October and November 2023. People who avoid the news ‘often or always’ were invited to participate (i.e., intentional news avoidance). Over the course of two months, they are invited twice a week to upload items or describe topics of public concern they encountered, incl. the source, what they did with the information, whether they find it informative (16 times in total leading to 3600 observations). In four of the questionnaires the FOBI, Perceived Mental Well-being and Public Engagement is measured. In the post-test we measure political and current affairs knowledge. We analyze the uploaded material on topic, level of informedness (e.g., thematic interests, local, regional, national, or international affairs) (Kümpel et al., 2022) and source, and investigate how these content characteristics are related to their FOBI, perceived mental well-being and public engagement over time and to their knowledge about salient current affairs.

While amidst the data collection, this research will contribute to understanding how news avoiders are connected to and informed about public life.

Kiki de Bruin, Erik Espeland, Rens Vliegenthart, Jesper Strömbäck: Investigating news (avoidance) repertoires: a longitudinal study of the relationship between intentional news avoidance and news repertoires.

12:15

As we have transitioned into a high-choice media environment where the proliferation of media choices both on- and offline continues to increase, a growing number of citizens take the opportunity to tune out from the news (Newman et al., 2023; Van Aelst et al., 2017). Given that news consumption is generally thought to provide the necessary information and skills for citizens to be self-governing (Strömbäck, 2005), the concept of news avoidance has increasingly garnered scholarly interest and concern in the recent decades. Despite these concerns and ample scholarship, research on news avoidance has been hampered by conceptual ambiguity, hurting the generalizations of findings and knowledge accumulation (Skovsgaard & Andersen, 2020).

The most recent of these conceptual discussions has concentrated on normative notions about news use, news avoidance and how to measure both. For example, self-reported news avoidance seems only weakly related to actual low news consumption (Toff & Kalogeropoulos, 2020) which have led some scholars to question self-reported measures of intentionality, arguing that such measures fail to reflect individuals lived experiences (e.g., Palmer et al., 2023). Other scholars argue that the defining factor of news avoidance is individuals’ intention to avoid news and consider intentionality as a defining feature of avoidance (e.g., Villi et al., 2021). One question that is central to this discussion concerns the relationship between self-reported intentions to avoid the news and actual news consumption. In this paper we aim to fill this research gap and provide empirical insights to the ongoing discussion around news avoidance as a concept. Another research gap is the lack of a dynamic l perspective on news avoidance. In short, we know surprisingly little about the stability of news avoidance practices and whether this behavior is a temporary or more permanent restructuring of existing news repertoires. Utilizing a longitudinal perspective does not only provide deeper knowledge of the dynamics of news avoidance, but it also helps us discern its implications. 

In sum, the aim of this study is to investigate (1) what news repertoires can be identified, (2) how these repertoires are related to intentional news avoidance and (3) how this intentional news avoidance impacts subsequent news repertoires. 

Empirically, this study employs a four wave panel data, spanning four years in Sweden (N=7283). First, we conduct latent profile analyses (LPA) to identify news repertoires present among Swedes. Second, we use Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models (RI-CLPM) to investigate the longitudinal relationship between these news repertoires and intentional news avoidance.

The results show that six media repertoires can be identified in our sample. These can be labeled as the news minimalist, newspaper user, traditional news media user, news omnivores, alternative news media user and public television user. Preliminary results indicate that the news minimalist and alternative news media users are more likely to intentionally avoid the news. Furthermore, during the pandemic (wave 3), news avoidance was significantly higher. Lastly, we find that news avoidance can lead to a minimalist news media repertoire, indicating that intentional news avoidance can turn into structural low news consumption. These results highlight the need to study news avoidance as a dynamic, multifaceted phenomenon and prompts us to ask when and why — rather than if — a temporary intentional avoidance of news might turn into a habitual estrangement from it.

Wang Haoyu: Moderated Mediation Between Disaster News Overload and Avoidance: The Role of Compassion Fatigue and Collectivism Value

12:30

Introduction

Before 2019, the Reuters Insititute for the Study of Journalism noted that nearly one-third of the public in 40 countries or territories worldwide said they actively avoid news (Newman et al., 2019). Presently, news avoidance remains at 32%, with the public's news avoidance being attributed to affective distress and social anxiety caused by negative newspaper subjects (Newman et al., 2023). Twenty years ago, Narayan (2011) found that users may actively avoid any form of bad news. Still, bad news as an ‘umbrella term’, a unifying term covering related subjects, lacks discussion of topic details. It is disaster coverage that a specific type of bad news in this regard, which has been described as the ‘biggest stories’ (Sood et al., 1987) at the collective level. Especially in collectivist social contexts, disaster coverage can frequently invoke the compassionate mechanisms of collectivists (Hui et al., 1986), considering the concept of ‘self’ is defined by ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ (Zhu et al., 2018), and so is more likely to lead to compassion fatigue, compared to individualists. However, limited research focused directly on news avoidance in disaster coverage. Furthermore, although news avoidance is a global phenomenon, it presents heterogeneous manifestations in different countries and regions (Villi et al., 2022). For instance, in Japan, a typical collective society, news avoidance does not seem to be something that is commonly recognized and explicitly on people’s minds, which differs from the US where the public reflects a high level of intentionality of news avoidance (Villi et al., 2022). This may explain why Japan (11%) reported the lowest ratio of news avoiders (41% in the US; Newman et al. 2019). Consequently, research on news avoidance inevitably needs to consider the local context (Chang & Li., 2022). Between China and Western countries (e.g. the United Kingdom, and the United States), clear contrasts can be observed in the individualism versus collectivism dimension of cultural differences (Hofstede Insights, 2020). Unlike the West, China is known for its collectivism, with a historical tradition dating back to Confucianism, which highlights that ‘individuals exist in relation to others’ (Chen & Chen, 2004). This study adopted the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory (Mehrabian, 1974) to explore the association between disaster news overload and avoidance, and the mediation of compassion fatigue and the moderation of collectivist values in Mainland China. 

Method and Results

In this study, conducted in Mainland China in August–September 2023 (N=621), we employed structural equation modeling. Key measures included disaster news overload (α=.83), disaster news avoidance (α=.82), compassion fatigue (α=.84), and collectivism (α=.76). The findings indicated a positive association between disaster news overload and disaster news avoidance (β=.187, p<.001). Compassion fatigue mediated this relationship, indicating that higher levels of disaster news overload resulted in increased compassion fatigue (β=.120, p<.01), subsequently intensifying intentions of disaster news avoidance (β=.284, p<.001). Additionally, collectivism positively moderated the relationship between compassion fatigue and disaster news avoidance (CF*CV=.124, p<.01), with the association being stronger for individuals with high collectivism (M+1SD, β=.408, p<.01) compared to those with low collectivism (M-1SD, β=.159, p<.001).

Contributions

This study has the following contributions to research. First, the study shows that disaster news overload is positively related to disaster news avoidance which has been proven in social media news (Song et al., 2016), health information (Link, 2021), and political information (Metag et al., 2023). But beyond the direct relation, we further find that compassion fatigue positively mediates this link in the disaster coverage context, which is rarely taken into account, but variability in cross-domain patterns of avoidance may prove a fruitful avenue for further study(Howel & Shepperd, 2016). In addition, this study finds that collectivism reinforces the relation between compassion fatigue and disaster news avoidance in the China context, which differs from previous research (Zhu et al., 2018). In political communication studies, previous research has consistently indicated that individuals with a collectivist orientation tend to exhibit higher levels of tolerance in political discussions, which is inversely associated with information avoidance behaviors (Zhu et al., 2018). However, the findings of this study present a contrary conclusion. Individuals with high collectivism have greater compassion for others, contributing to disaster news avoidance. 

In the nutshell, this paper introduces innovative research that illuminates the mediating role of compassion fatigue in the connection between overload of disaster news and avoidance behavior. Additionally, we provide an in-depth examination of the moderating influence of collectivism values—a crucial yet frequently overlooked cultural factor—on the relationship between compassion fatigue and the avoidance of disaster news.

Panel 8

Corinna Lauerer, Andreas Riedl, Magdalena Obermaier: Risk or Chance? Effects of (Non-)Binary Gender Fair Language in News

11:45

Over a third of the world population speaks languages classifying nouns as male and female (Jakiela & Ozier, 2018). In plural forms, the masculine form (in German, e.g., “Journalisten”) is usually used to refer to all genders. This can cause male bias in mental gender representations (Stahlberg et al., 2007) and reinforce societal gender gaps (Prewitt-Freilino et al., 2012). 

Gender-fair language (GFL) is discussed as more inclusive. Binary GFL forms (pairs, e.g., “Journalisten und Journalistinnen;” capital-I, e.g., “JournalistInnen”) explicate the female version in mixed-gender groups. Non-binary forms symbolically include people not identifying as female or male (gender star, e.g., “Journalist*innen;” colon, e.g., “Journalist:innen”). 

Studies on the effect of GFL have mixed results: Some indicate that texts in GFL take longer to read and are evaluated more negatively (Klimmt et al., 2008; Pöschko & Prieler, 2018; Rothmund & Scheele, 2004). Others show that binary GFL forms can increase women’s mental representation (Blake & Klimmt, 2010; Jöckel et al., 2021; Sczesny & Stahlberg, 2005). Effects of non-binary forms have not been studied yet. 

We examine the risks and chances of using GFL in news by testing if (non-)binary forms of GFL (compared to masculine generic) decrease the comprehensibility of news (H1), the evaluation of the journalistic quality (H2), and of the news media brand (H3), and if they increase the mental representation of women (H4) and non-binary persons (H5). 

Study 1 

Method 

To test the hypotheses, we conducted an online survey experiment in 2022. Sociodemographics of the German population are represented by a quota sample (N=1,081). As stimulus, participants read a modified news article on the economic effects of home-office during the pandemic (Figure 1). Using a 5x1 between-subject design, we varied the GFL form for office workers as gender-neutral group and of scientists as stereotypically male group (three times each): feminine-masculine word pairings, capital-I, gender star, and colon (control group: masculine generic). 

For our measures, we used validated scales: 

1) Comprehensibility (Table 1; Blake & Klimmt, 2010) 

• Objective – reading time and recalling facts 

• Subjective – perceived clarity and readability 

2) Journalistic quality – 11 items (Table 2; Prochazka et al., 2018). 

3) Journalistic brand – 16 items (Table 3; Voigt, 2016). 

4) Mental gender representations – estimated percentages of men, women, and non-binary persons among office workers and scientists (Tables 4-6; Klimmt et al., 2008). 

Findings and Discussion 

ANOVAs revealed that GFL did not negatively impact comprehensibility, the evaluation of the journalistic quality, and brand (Tables 1-3; H1-3 rejected). However, non binary forms marginally reduced subjective readability but not objective comprehensibility. Although participants felt that the article read bumpier, they got the facts right and reading did not take longer. Non-binary GFL slightly reduced perceived diversity but no other quality dimension. 

Likewise, the GFL forms did not affect the mental representation of women and non binary persons (Table 4; H4&5 rejected). Subgroup testing (age, gender, education, and political orientation) and stepwise regression models containing participants’ GFL knowledge, engagement, and personal use yielded no effects. However, deliberately using GFL when talking increased awareness of non-binary people (Tables 5&6). 

Thus, journalists do not sacrifice objective comprehensibility or journalistic quality or brand by employing GFL – but GFL may not instantly and directly impact gender mental representations. However, the few repetitions of GFL in the news article may have influenced these findings. Additionally, we used a restrictive measure of mental gender representations – the estimated gender distributions among professionals – which can be shaped by prior knowledge.

Study 2 

The design of study 2 mostly mirrors study 1, but we tweaked two essential features to assess the results’ consistency. 

Participants read the identical news article as in study 1. However, we not only varied the form of GFL when referring to professionals like in study 1, but also the frequency of GFL (low vs. high) (5x2 between-subject design). We examine whether a higher frequency of GFL in news articles increases the mental representation of women and non-binary persons and whether this comes at the expense of comprehensibility, perceived journalistic quality, and reactance. Further, we added a more situational measure of the mental representation of gender that is less likely triggering prior knowledge about the gender distributions as the measure in study 1. We compare if participants evaluate the gender distribution differently when they respond to statements about the gender distribution instead of estimating percentages themselves. 

We are currently conducting this second experiment with a comparable sample and will discuss the results of both studies at the conference.

Cato Depauw and Stefaan Walgrave: News Diversity throughout the 21st century: Analysis of content diversity in the Flemish television news

12:00

News diversity is an essential component of news quality, with significant implications for democracy (Van Cuilenburg, 1999). Given that news influences what people consider important issues and how they perceive this reality, a narrow view in the news will, in turn, lead to an incomplete political information environment (Peter & De Vreese, 2003; Van Aelst et al., 2017). To ensure news diversity, policymakers in many Western-European media systems have established public service media. These media have the obligation to ‘contribute to a societal and pluralistic debate, promoting diversity’ (VRT, 2021). However, these public service media are nowadays under scrutiny regarding the quality of the news they produce (Jacka, 2003; Puppis & Ali, 2023, p. 7). Given the importance of news diversity amongst scholars (McQuail & Van Cuilenburg, 1983; Raeijmaekers & Maeseele, 2015), policymakers, (VRT, 2021) and journalists (Vos & Wolfgang, 2018), news diversity has been extensively studied as a theoretical concept. Still, empirical insights on news diversity remain both limited and inconclusive. These conducted studies either concentrate on one single element of news diversity (f.e. actor diversity by Masini and Van Aelst (2017)) or rely on a restricted sample (f.e. study by Carpenter (2010)), making it difficult to discern trends. Therefore, we fill this gap by studying news diversity of television broadcasts over an extended period of time, providing us the opportunity to identify differences over time and between public and private broadcasters. 

We analyze 'content diversity,' a dimension of news diversity that explores specific elements within a news medium to assess variation of that element (Hendrickx, Ballon, & Ranaivoson, 2022). For many years, there has been uncertainty about the elements belonging to content diversity. Nevertheless, there are several components that have, throughout the diversity literature, received greater emphasis. These are: actor-, viewpoint- and topic diversity (Loecherbach et al., 2020; Napoli, 1999). Actor and viewpoint diversity are often used interchangeably. Since the data consists of longitudinal population data, it only allows us to measure actor diversity. However, it has already been demonstrated that actor and viewpoint diversity are closely intertwined, with the variety of actors serving as a good representation of the diversity of ideas (Masini & Van Aelst, 2017). Topic diversity is the last element of content diversity of news items that will be studied. Its absence may distort what voters regard as important, subsequently influencing their decision-making (Napoli, 1999; Sjøvaag & Kvalheim, 2019). 

In this paper we answer the overarching research question: What are the differences in news content diversity over time and between broadcasters in Flanders (Belgium)? 

We formulate three hypotheses. Based on previous research on public service media (Donders, Van den Bulck, & Raats, 2019; Raeijmaekers & Maeseele, 2015) I hypothesize that the news of the public broadcaster shows more actor- and topic diversity compared to the news of the commercial broadcaster (H1a, H1b). Second, the longitudinal character of the data gives us insights on the justification of many concerns amongst journalism scholars about commercialization of the news (Benson & Hallin, 2007; Plasser, 2005; Väliverronen, 2022). Whilst it has not been extensively explored, researchers believe that market pressures, heightened competition, and audience metrics force the diversity of actors, topics to go down (Benson & Hallin, 2007; Fürst, 2020; Karppinen, 2007). We therefore assume that the trend of decline in topic- and actor diversity will be visible for both the private and public broadcaster (H2a, H2b). Lastly, the pioneers of news diversity have posited that there may be a correlation between the sources used in news production and the content they present (topic diversity) (Napoli, 1999). Hence, we proceed with the assumption that actor- and topic diversity correlate on the news item level (H3). 

To test the hypotheses and address our main research question, we examine data from the electronic news archive (ENA) in Flanders, Belgium, an excellent comparison for other Western media-systems (Donders, Van den Bulck, & Raats, 2019). This dataset constitutes all, no sample, data on television newscasts of the Flemish public and private broadcaster since 2003. 

The pre-coded data enables us to measure actor and topic diversity. We categorize actors and topics in categories following existing classifications (Beckers & Van Aelst, 2019; Humprecht & Esser, 2018; Magin et al., 2023; Masini & Van Aelst, 2017). These categories are used to measure the Shannon’s H index, a commonly used index for measuring content diversity, on both topics and actors. 

The next steps include: measuring content diversity of this dataset, examining the interplay of the diversity elements, and determining how this varies across broadcaster type and over time.

Andreas Riedl and Corinna Lauerer: Equality in and through Language? Journalists' and Recipients' Perspectives on Gender Fair Language in Journalism

12:15

Gender-native languages (GNL) (e.g., Spanish, French, or German) assign "nouns to distinct sex-based categories" (Jakiela & Ozier, 2018, abstract). In German, for instance, there is a male form for the noun "journalist" ("Journalist") and a feminine form with a specific ending ("Journalistin"). In plural forms, German traditionally uses the masculine form ("Journalisten") for – seemingly – all genders. That has been criticized for symbolically excluding genders other than males. For that reason, gender-fair language (GFL) was developed. It initially should increase the visibility of women by using feminine/masculine pair forms ("Journalistinnen und Journalisten") or marking the feminine form with a capital I ("JournalistInnen"). More recently, non-binary forms of GFL should also represent non-binary persons by visually providing 'space' for them. These place the 'gender star' ("Journalist*innen") or a colon ("Journalist:innen") between the feminine and masculine forms to indicate the existence of genders 'between' male and female. Empirical studies exist for binary forms of GFL and show that it can raise the mental representation of women (for an overview, see Braun et al., 2005). Adverse effects, like lower readability and comprehensibility, were widely disproved (e.g., Friedrich & Heise, 2019). 

Journalism is in a dilemma about using GFL in the news on different levels. On the one hand, journalism is closely tied to normative functions like integration – not least of marginalized groups –, orientation, and socialization (McQuail & Deuze, 2020). These can be interpreted as the responsibility to also use language that adequately represents the diversity of genders. On the other hand, GFL is often associated with a ‘woke culture’ and object of hateful criticism (Vergoossen et al., 2020). For journalism, there is the danger of affronting parts of the recipients, which have reservations about GFL. Using GFL in such a polarized environment might even be perceived as a political statement, which conflicts with the norm of detachment in Western journalism as an integral part professional journalistic roles (Hanitzsch & Vos, 2018). Moreover, there is the question who should decide about the use of GFL in news. Journalists, who incorporate individual attitudes and predispositions, and news organizations, which follow strategic aims, might diverge in this respect. 

To holistically understand the use of GFL in journalism, we, therefore, need to take both the journalism-audience relationship (Loosen & Schmidt, 2012) and individual versus organizational levels of agency (Shoemaker & Reese, 2014) into account and need to understand what motivates journalists' preferences. Thus, we are interested (RQ1) to what extent journalists and recipients support GFL and (RQ2) how both groups perceive possible 

advantages and disadvantages of GFL. We further (RQ3) examine to what extent journalists’ individual preferences overlap with the use of GFL in the news media they work for, and (RQ4) which individual and professional factors explain journalists' preferences for or against GFL. We answer these questions based on a representative standardized survey of professional journalists in Germany (two-step stratified random sampling; CAWI/CATI, N=1,221, 2022/23) and a standardized survey of German citizens representative for the German society regarding sociodemographic quotas (commercial panel, CAWI, N=1,081, 2022). 

Findings show that a majority of almost 60% of recipients oppose GFL while only a minority of 30% of the journalists do so (Table 1). A slight majority of the journalists are yet undecided whether to use GFL. Both groups clearly prefer gender-neutral wording and binary forms of GFL, while non-binary forms are only supported by a minority. The reasons for this undecided or negative climate seem to stem from fears of over-complexity and lowered comprehensibility, particularly among recipients (Table 2). Journalists as professional communicators especially worry about linguistic aesthetics, yet at the same time significantly stronger understand GFL as a tool to increase gender equality. They have a realistic picture of their audience and anticipate that the majority prefers 'traditional' GNT. Almost all journalists work in news organizations, in which the use of GFL matches their own preferences; only 2% work for news media whose organizational practice diverges (Table 3). Journalists’ preferences are primarily driven by individual characteristics: A male gender, older age, and more right political ideology significantly lower the support of GFL in news and explain more than 20% of variance (Table 4). Among journalistic role orientations as an expression of the institutional logic of professional journalism, the role of being a detached observer significantly decreases and the role to give marginalized groups a voice significantly increases the support of GFL among journalists. They, however, only explain a marginal share of variance.

Joëlle Swart and Marcel Broersma: Overcoming news inequalities? How access to paid journalism affects low-income citizens’ news habits, informed citizenship and social involvement

12:30

Access to quality news and reliable information is still unequally divided between low- and high-income citizens. Despite the increase in free alternatives such as online-only news media and news on social media, studies on news inequalities consistently find correlations between individuals’ income and their level of news consumption across countries (Bergström et al. 2019; Strömbäck et al. 2013). This paper analyzes the impact of unequal access to paid journalism for low-income citizens’ news habits, informed citizenship and social involvement, focusing on local news in particular. 

While an increasing number of people consider free-to-access intermediaries such as social media as their main news source (Newman et al., 2023), recent studies demonstrate that people’s socio-economic status remains an inhibiting factor for news use. For instance, people with a lower socio-economic status and those from lower social grades use comparatively less news sources and tend to have less varied news repertoires (Kalogeropoulos and Nielsen, 2018; Vandenplas & Picone, 2022). Such differences also apply to the use of digital news and journalism. Lindell and Mikkelsen Båge (2023) find that people from low-income households are 1.8 times more likely to avoid news online. 

Moreover, people with lower levels of education, a variable often used as a proxy for income, are known to be less inclined to pay for news and to opt for free alternatives instead (Lee et al., 2016). Now that newspapers are increasingly establishing paywalls for their more in-depth, investigative reporting to counter the loss of advertising revenues and declining subscription rates, this might lead to quality differences in the news that those who can and who cannot afford paid journalism can access, and thus, cause new information inequalities (Moe, 2019). 

Research on news inequalities has mapped what differences exist between groups regarding their access to offline and online news, and how these coincide with pervasive social inequalities around, e.g., income, class, age and gender. However, how such inequalities affect citizens’ news habits and their consequences for people’s informed citizenship and sense of belonging to local communities still remain largely unexplored. Consequently, we ask:

• RQ1: What individual, social and technological factors facilitate or inhibit the formation of stable online local newspaper reading habits among low-income citizens?
• RQ2: How do low-income citizens experience the relevance of having access to paid local journalism for their informed citizenship and social involvement?

To address these questions, this study draws upon data from in-depth semi-structured interviews and web metrics data from low-income citizens living in a large regional city in The Netherlands. Via a municipality program, locals who earned up to 130% of the minimum wage could apply for a free digital subscription to a local newspaper in the period May - October 2023. After a six-week period, the average time that it takes to form a stable media habit (Lally et al., 2010), we then interviewed N=30 of these new subscribers. We asked this sample, that was varied in terms of gender, age and the neighborhood where they lived, about: a) their formation of novel and adaptation of pre-existing news habits; b) their (local) news preferences and interests; and c) the impact of having access to paid local journalism for their informed citizenship and social involvement in the community. These qualitive data were contextualized by quantitative web metrics data of the total group of N = 626 free subscription users, measuring the frequency, recency and duration of their digital newspaper use as well as the device used and the topics of the content they accessed.

We find that having access to paid local journalism allowed the interviewees to search for more information about news events and to deepen their understanding of local issues, making them feel better informed compared to when they relied exclusively on free news alternatives. They are relatively more interested in crime news and ‘softer’ news topics, and prefer news stories that directly relate to their personal context or that they already know much about. While their subscription offered a “window to the outside world” and made them feel more equipped to act in everyday life, having access to paid journalism did not affect their social involvement in their local communities. Finally, we find that gaps in digital literacy and in technological skills in particular form a major hurdle for the formation of news habits for this group. This emphasizes the importance of digital capital in mitigating news inequalities and for news organizations to broaden their reach to a more diverse audience.

Panel 9

Emma Graves: Lacking Diversity: News Sources in Mainstream Coverage of Extended Reality Technologies

15:30

When a journalist chooses to include a source within a news item, this affords the source the power to define a topic, argue a particular point of view or represent something in a certain way (Carlson and Franklin, 2011; Coleman and Ross, 2010). Diversity in news sources is important because it allows the news to play its role in facilitating effective public engagement in democratic society (Coleman and Ross, 2010; Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2014). In particular, news coverage of emerging technologies can have an impact on public debate and perceptions (Anderson et al., 2005; Schäfer, 2017), regulation (Marwick, 2008) and adoption (Hetland, 2012). If news sources are not varied in this coverage, the sources that are used have substantial power to shape the news in a way that benefits them. It is therefore worthwhile to examine news sources in coverage of emerging technologies.

This paper discusses source usage in news coverage of one group of emerging technologies: extended reality (encompassing virtual, augmented and mixed reality). Based on a mixed methods study of 977 mainstream UK news articles, it shows that the companies creating extended reality devices and applications dominate as news sources. These sources, which are invested in the technology’s success, have impacted the news coverage of extended reality in a way that benefits their commercial interests. This goes so far as to result in similarities between the news and marketing of extended reality. Such practices compromise the journalistic principles of impartiality and independence that are intended to ensure that news content holds the interests of the general public above all else (Fjæstad, 2007). The paper concludes by considering potential reasons for these results and what can be done to improve practice. 

Gurvinder Aujla-Sidhu: Listening for diversity, an analysis of equality, diversity and inclusion in narrative news podcasts

15:45

The growth of podcasting in terms of listening and production has been well documented in the UK and aboard (Newman and Gallo, 2019, Newman et al 2023). This paper examines award winning narrative news podcasts and questions if the medium of podcasting enables greater diversity of stories and voices from marginalised groups or restricts them? A content analysis of 10 narrative news podcasts shortlisted for the British Podcast Awards and the Audio and Radio Industry Awards (ARIAS) was conducted to understand how many women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ, or disabled interviewees were included the in story? On television or in film these characteristics are more obvious but in audio where the audience listens diversity can be less apparent and requires other clues in the script, storytelling or description to underline their protected characteristics.

There are numerous ways to tell people’s compelling stories in journalism. Newsroom diversity studies have revealed journalists are not representative of the audience they serve in terms of class and race (Ofcom 2022). This results in news that is often grounded in white news sources (Aleman 2014). Moreover, ‘whiteness’ within news and media is associated with power and privilege (McIntosh, Moon and Nakayama, 2019).

Podcasting on the other hand is perceived to be inclusive and diverse, due to the low costs of broadcasting, the lack of gatekeepers, and the multiple entry points. This has enabled a range of individuals and organisations to create successful podcasts that appear to be intersectional and representative both, in terms of the content and the voices included. However, numerous organisations including Spotify and the BBC have moved into this space to enhance their own journalism offer and secure new listeners. This has led to the growth of narrative news podcasts which often involves international collaboration between media organisations and a focus on covering investigative journalism or true crime. 

The study analyses how topics encompassing race, gender, LGBTQ, and disability are conveyed and presented and how much time is given in the plot to diverse interviewees and their lived experiences. Attention is also paid to the type of stories being told. Equality, diversity and inclusion is important within production companies because they want to reach diverse audiences. Equally, organisations such as the BBC and Channel 4 are requiring independent production companies to meet their inhouse EDI targets. Podcasting is distinct from traditional radio which been described by Ofcom has continuing to “fail to reflect the breadth of communities living in the UK” (Ofcom 2019). News podcasts are studied as opposed to lifestyle or entertainment podcasts because this is a growth area and popular among listeners globally. 

Henrik Bødker: The Leafing out of Beech Trees in Danish Journalism

16:00

In Denmark, beech trees are central both to national identity and for perceptions of seasonal changes. Covering the leafing out of beech trees has thus been a stable of both local and national journalism since at least the late 19^th century. This paper investigates a broad sample of this coverage across national and local news media in order to understand how the annually recurring articles construct national and environmental continuity and change and what characterises the journalistic language through which this happens. What emerges from the study is, in fact, a significant development in the journalistic wording of human-nature relations — from intimate and poetic depictions to more distant and objective descriptions. 

Analytically, the paper works with the notion of ‘seasonal journalism’ as developed by Author (2023a). This concept refers to journalistic content “aligned with political, cultural and natural rhythms that structure recurring articles on [for instance] the opening and closing of parliament, anniversaries, holidays and, not least, events and activities related to the natural environment at specific times of the year, e.g. articles about gardening at different points in its annual cycle …, [and] articles about berry or mushroom picking” (Author, 2023a, n.p.); or, as in this paper, recurrent articles on the leafing out of beech trees. In a broader sense the notion of seasonal journalism calls attention to the how seasons — as amalgamations of astronomy, biology, meteorology, historical data, memory and culture — constitute an important interpretive layer through which we make sense of continuity and change. Regular weather coverage and season-related news are precisely important in such sense-making processes because such coverage often relates everyday observations to broader trends (see Author 2023b). In the case of beech trees leafing out this partly means that the event timing towards the end of the studied period becomes linked to climate change. 

In relation to seasonality, the paper draws on key insights from environmental humanities and anthropology to understand how conceptions are based on intersections between data and vernacular understandings of weather rooted in cultural memory (e.g. Rayner, 2003). The study also draws on journalism studies, meteorology, climatology and media history. As such, it partly also builds on research on the mediation of extreme weather events, e.g. Leyda and Negra (2015) and Strauss et al (2022). This is an important background for understanding events through which seasons and seasonal changes are perceived, not least in relation to their predictability (or lack thereof). The paper will also draw on and speak to research on climate-change journalism more broadly. Yet, as the majority of this research mainly focuses on political processes and events, extreme weather events and developments within science, this paper will supply an important supplement by investigating more subtle and continuous ways in which environmental issues have been woven into journalistic products, which is precisely what the study of seasonal journalism can help unravel. 

Based on the historical study and the identified shifts in language, the paper ends by situating the journalistic coverage of natural phenomena in a broader context at the intersections of journalism studies, environmental communication and humanities in order discuss how journalism plays into constructions of nature-culture relations. This discussion about journalistic language constitutes an important backdrop for analysing and engaging with contemporary political and cultural controversies that have been summed up as “green conflicts” (Eskjær and Horsbøl 2023). While such conflicts often pit climate-change mitigation measures, e.g. windmill or sonar panels farms, against other interests (e.g. natural beauty), they also concern fault line lines between public concerns for safety and institutional strategies of rewilding and biodiversity, as evident in, for instance, current debates around the return of the wolf to Denmark. The concluding discussion thus hopes to inspire new research and (perhaps even) new journalistic practices. 

Sumaya Alnahed: The Implications of Political Messaging and Newsroom Diversity on Mediating Anti-Racism Protests in 2020

16:15

This paper explores dominant narratives relating to media coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. In doing so, it considers some of the influences that affected the BBC’s reporting of anti-racism protests in June 2020, following the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. 

The paper’s purpose is two-fold. The first is to explore how political messaging from government politicians impacted the BBC’s coverage of BLM protests in the UK, by determining the impact of political messaging on the ‘framing’ of these protests on BBC News. The second purpose is to explore the impact of newsroom diversity, and the value of diverse voices, in mediating these protests. 

Research I conducted on a sample of coverage from June 2020 shows that the framing of these protests was largely in line with political messaging from Conservative government politicians. This particular strand of coverage forwarded privileged viewpoints, and lacked situational awareness. In a sense, there was a failure to recognise the causal effect between the high rate of Covid related deaths amongst communities of colour in the UK and the ensuing protests against racial injustice. 

However, there is also evidence that diversity within the BBC newsroom impacted news media narratives around the protests, with black and minoritised ethnic journalists mediating the protests in an equitable and considered manner; a manner that resonated with the demands of the anti-racism movement. 

The latest data from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism shows evidence that, as of 2023, only 6% of UK journalists are people of colour (Eddy, K; Arguedas, A.R.; Mukheerji, M; and Nielsen, R.K, 2023). Leadership within newsrooms also has its implications. The same research also evidences that, in 2023, only 6% of editors in the UK were people of colour; a jump from 0% in 2020, 2021 and 2022 (Eddy, K; Arguedas, A.R.; Mukheerji, M; and Nielsen, R.K., 2023). While this is a positive shift, there is more work to be done, as these percentages are well below the percentage of people of colour in the UK (18%). The inclusion of diverse voices, as evidenced in this paper, helped to frame some of the coverage in a manner that resonated with the aims of the protesters. This type of inclusive reporting also recognised the implications of structural racism, particularly within healthcare, on black and minoritised ethnic groups. 

This comes in contrast to narratives that criminalised protesters, focussed on looting, vandalism or on ‘clashes’ between protesters and the police. The latter are narratives which fall in line with statements from government officials at the time. 

The study utilises framing theory to analyse a sample of live news coverage from 7-9 June 2020; the pinnacle of the protest movement in the United Kingdom. Framing refers to the way a news story is packaged and is described as the central organising idea of a news story (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989). The analysis also considers differences in the BBC’s coverage of BLM protests in the UK and protests in the US, with findings showing more sympathetic coverage with US protests. This is evidence of how UK political narratives may have impacted the BBC’s coverage of the anti-racism protests which took place in the UK. 

Finally, this paper will consider, in a broader sense, how pervasive political narratives from the political elite may impact journalists and news production, through drawing on this particular case study, and further case studies. An example of this would be the pressure placed on journalists to report on Covid 19 (at the height of the pandemic in 2020) in ways that were aligned with government messaging (Alnahed, 2022). With 54% of audiences in the UK holding the perception that “news organisations force journalists to cover stories in a certain way” (Banerjee, S. et al, 2020), this is a very important issue to consider for media theorists, journalists, and audiences alike. 

Ans De Nolf, Lise-Lore Steeman, Rozane De Cock, Leen d’Haenens: Comparative Analysis of Discrimination Reporting in Flemish Television News: A Multi-Method Approach

16:30

Marginalized groups often find themselves depicted in media through a lens of negativity, stigma, and discrimination, leading to one-sided and biased portrayals that shape the perceptions of the majority (De Cock et al., 2018; De Coninck et al., 2018). Within this context, certain groups are either correctly acknowledged, misunderstood, or entirely disregarded, contributing to the perpetuation of negative stereotypes (Driessens & Nærland, 2022). Furthermore, television news remains a pivotal source of information for numerous Flemish households, reaching as many as 76% of them on a weekly basis (Statistics Flanders, 2022). This study explores how Flemish television news covers issues of discrimination from 2017 to 2021, using a multi-method approach to compare the public broadcaster VRT with its commercial counterpart VTM. The analysis concentrates on news segments that address various forms of discrimination, including those based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. 

This research aims to understand how discrimination is represented within Flemish news broadcasts and the impact of different discrimination grounds on this news coverage. A comprehensive dataset comprising 295 news items spanning five years is employed in a comparative statistical analysis, involving analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square tests to identify patterns and correlations. It encompasses the prevalence of discrimination grounds, the individuals or entities featured, and indicators of responsibility. Moreover, a Critical Discourse Analysis is used to explore the discourse on discrimination in Flemish news media, as discriminatory attitudes can be reinforced through language and discourse (Henry & Tator, 2002). More specifically, the dominant framing, attribution of responsibility, visual representations and discourse diversity in discrimination-related news stories are analysed, thus pinpointing potential disparities in how discrimination is addressed within the media landscape and anticipating the potential impact on public perceptions and attitudes. To ensure reliable results, coder training was conducted, inter-coding reliability was measured, and only reliable variables were used in the analyses. 

The initial findings revealed that both broadcasters allocated relatively equal attention to discrimination in significant contexts, such as legal cases and prominent political events. However, VTM featured shorter news segments on discrimination as minor events (faits divers), a characteristic absent from VRT’s coverage. Statistical analysis confirmed significantly longer news segments on discrimination cases on VRT (M = 110.62, SD = 49.16) than on VTM (M = 88.32, SD = 53.64; t = 3.72, df = 290.26, p < .001). The predominant themes in the examined news segments were discrimination based on racial criteria (.36), sexual orientation (.18), gender (.16), and religion (.12).

The study also revealed that men as victims were slightly more likely to be visually featured in news segments (M = .80, SD = .41) than women (M = .73, SD = .45; t = -.83, df = 115, p = .41). However, these differences did not reach statistical significance. Notably, the portrayal of victimhood varied considerably: men had minimal visual representation in legal cases, whereas women were frequently quoted, paraphrased, and visually depicted in video segments. Moreover, the narrative research highlighted a tendency in news coverage to prioritize reporting on discrimination-related legal proceedings, especially those with potential implications for Belgian and European laws as it a societal significance rather than an individual one. 

In summary, Flemish television news primarily focused on specific discriminatory incidents, provided a balanced representation of perpetrators and victims, and offered limited coverage of the broader issue of discrimination in society. This empirical comparison offers valuable insights for media professionals, policymakers, and the general public, offering a deeper understanding of the role of news and information media in promoting equality and social cohesion. The analysis of discourse and narrative patterns plays a crucial role in analysing biases and fostering accountability within media production (Koivunen-Niemi & Masoodian, 2019). These findings lay the groundwork for an informed discourse on the responsibilities of both public and commercial broadcasters in addressing societal challenges, promoting inclusivity, and combating discrimination. 

Panel 10

Zvi Reich: Rethinking Generalism: An Old/New Epistemic Framework for Understanding Journalists’ Knowledge

15:30

This conceptual paper offers an old/ new theoretical framework, illuminating unacknowledged parts of journalists’ knowledge that can reinvigorate their epistemic role in modern knowledge societies. In such societies, generalists can play a role of social connectors, bridges, cross-pollinators, knowledge brokers, translators, facilitators, catalyst, messengers, synthesizers and community managers (Martin & Mikkelsen 2019).

While current epistemology forefronts the depth of journalists’ knowledge (Donsbach, 2004; Lippmann, 1922; Pattrson, 2013), and its inevitable weaknesses, the suggested framework forefronts the breadth of their knowledge around the reported matters and its potential strengths and weaknesses.

Generalist epistemology applies not only to pure generalists like editors and general-assignment reporters, rather even to specialists like health or economy reporters, whose domains are too broad and too fragmented into numerous sub-domains, to enable real expertise. 

A generalist epistemology brings several advantages. First, it fits the generalist nature of journalists’ knowledge indicated by numerous scholars who saw is primarily as an epistemic weakness (Anderson, Bell & Shirky 2015; Hess, 19996; Marchetti, 2005; Tuchman, 1978; Patterson, 2013; Schudson & Anderson, 2009; Stepens, 2014; Ward, 2018). 

Second, it offers to relinquish this outdating approach, joining the “generalist turn” in numerous disciplines (e.g. hi-tech, science, arts, sports and HR) that rediscover recently the merits of generalism (Burke, 2021; Epstein, 2019, Gombrich, 2016; Martin & Mikkelsen, 2019; Tett, 2015) and generalists’ capacity to outperform specialists at least under certain conditions (ibid, see also Tetlock, 2005). 

Third, the suggested framework can help journalism leverage its rare position as one of the last generalists in hyper-specializing domains of coverage (Epstein, 2019, Martin & Mikkelsen, 2019, Gombrich, 2016). Finally, journalism can be inspired by the epistemic vantage points of other generalists and their division of epistemic labor with specialists.

The paper discusses six types of generalists and their relevance to journalism. Five were described by Martin & Mikkelsen (2019): the Neo-generalist, who combines specialism and generalism; the Fox that epitomizes the prototypical generalist; the T-shaped person who combines specialism and managerial skills; the Generalist-polymath that combines generalism and several areas of specialism; and the Polymath, who contributes to several disciplines. The sixth is the General Practitioner (GP, or family doctor). 

Both journalists and GPs are wide-ranging generalists that – contrary to the other types – cannot restrict the breadth and the contingency of their knowledge, being highly dependent on the “centrifuge” of generalism (Berlin, 1953): the erratic streams of events and patients that will knock on their door tomorrow.

Medicine offers a uniquely deep understanding of the tradeoffs between breadth and depth of knowledge, as an employer of both generalists and specialists, who battle for centuries over knowledge, prestige and remuneration (Howe, 2012). And yet, embodying both specialists and generalists in one person, specialized journalists cannot develop the elaborate and formal epistemic division of labor like GPs and expert doctors. Yet, they can use the medical inspiration to develop informally a parallel division of epistemic labor with expert news sources. 

Following the strengths and vantage points of other generalists, and their division of labor with specialists, journalism may consider developing the following directions: 

1. A wholistic vision. Capacity to see the bigger picture and the broader context of phenomena and integrate details into a large and coherent pictures. 
2. Complexity. Ability to operate successfully in “wicked learning environments” (Hogarth et al, 2001, see also Epstein, 2019) that are not governed by fixed rules, where decisions and actions are not followed by an immediate and reliable feedback.  
3. Knowledge transfer. Skilled transfer of knowledge from one silo to another, while transforming it, cross-pollinating different fields. 
4. Cognitive flexibility. Generalists can not only avoid the myopia and over confidence of experts (Tetlock, 2005) but also feel comfortable with uncertainty, ready to readjust accounts according to unfolding data, and regarding their knowledge as “perpetual beta”. 
5. Occupational empathy. Drawing encouragement from neo-generalists and polymaths who – despite their robust knowledge – are attacked by zealots of expertise as an exclusive mode of legitimate knowledge (see also Burke, 2021).  
6. Self-heaven. Restoring the genralist-friendly news environments, that used to serve as safe heavens for polymaths who once worked as critics, public intellectuals, and sometimes as editors and reporters (Burke, 2021; Waqas 2019).

To conclude, a generalist epistemology fits the consensus on the nature of journalists’ knowledge inviting journalism to join the “generalist turn” in other fields. It can also help augment journalists’ knowledge by leveraging their position as the last generalists in their domains; by developing epistemic strengths that characterize other generalists, and by adding new directions for strengthening journalists’ knowledge. 

Phoebe Maares, Kim Löhmann, Daniel Nölleke, Folker Hanusch: Autonomy, objectivity and transparency: The meaning and negotiation of journalistic norms and values across different genres of journalism

15:45

Autonomy from external influences is typically considered one of journalism's core values. In particular, political independence has contributed to the genesis of journalism as a social field and to the legitimacy and authority of journalistic truth and knowledge claims (Karlsson & Örnebring, 2022). In the 20^th century, autonomy from commercial influences became an additional concern in journalism practice and research (Hanitzsch et al., 2010). Key norms such as objectivity emerged during the professionalization of journalism to mitigate external influences and maintain journalistic authority (Karlsson & Örnebring, 2022; Tuchman, 1978). More recently, transparency, which can acknowledge outside influences, has emerged as another norm in the hope of regaining audience trust in the media and thus strengthen journalistic authority (Karlsson, 2010).

Neither norm can be understood as universally applicable to all forms of journalism (Waisbord, 2013; Karlsson & Örnebring, 2022), yet much of the research on journalistic autonomy and perceptions of influences, journalistic objectivity, and the relevance of transparency has focused on political journalism. Some research points to possible differences between journalistic specializations, however. For instance, studies indicate that lifestyle journalists experience covert influences on their reporting through commercial influences like free samples and sponsored reporting trips (Hanusch et al., 2017, Rosenkranz, 2016). Similarly, sports journalists report that objective reporting is complicated by close relations to athletes, with some journalists behaving more as fans than reporters (Rowe, 2005). Likewise, research on economic journalism indicates that journalists struggle to find truly neutral experts, which they would need for objective reporting (Harjuniemi, 2022). Moreover, we currently lack comparative approaches to understanding the perceived relevance and meaning of autonomy, objectivity, and transparency across different journalistic specializations. We also have an incomplete understanding of whether the distinction of these concepts is experienced as such by journalists in their everyday work. Therefore, we ask the following questions: 

RQ1: What role do journalists across specializations ascribe to autonomy, objectivity, and transparency in their work? 

RQ2: What differences, if any, can be found in journalists’ understanding of autonomy, objectivity, and transparency across different journalistic specializations?

We address these questions by drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 Austrian journalists across four specializations (political, lifestyle, sport, and economic journalism) and several media types. We asked journalists about their editorial freedom, their everyday work as well as their evaluation of competitors based on aspects of autonomy, objectivity, and transparency, prompting meta-narratives on these norms. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and subsequently examined using thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006).

Austrian journalistic culture is typical for Western European countries as journalists have a strong orientation towards being a detached observer and highly value autonomy (Hanitzsch et al., 2019). However, the media system is highly concentrated and competitive and both state institutions and tycoons increasingly exert political influence through covert media subsidies in the form of advertising or ownership of media organizations (Grünangerl et al., 2021). 

Our preliminary results point to different meanings of autonomy, objectivity, and transparency across specializations. Whereas more hard news journalists (covering politics and economics) discussed autonomy as a necessary but generally given value, journalists reporting on soft news (sports and lifestyle) more freely discussed the constraints they experienced in their everyday work. This is especially prevalent in sports journalism where distribution rights and sponsorship deals often shape journalists’ reporting. As such, soft news journalists understood autonomy primarily through the lens of commercial influences. Similarly, economic journalists think of autonomy as being independent of commercial influences more so than political journalists. 

When it comes to discussions of objectivity, many respondents conflate this term with autonomy, indicating that both are equally difficult to achieve. Further, while for some, true objectivity is unachievable, for others it is more an issue of balanced sourcing. Sports journalists think it is particularly important to maintain objectivity to distinguish themselves from fans. 

Lastly, across beats, transparency is often an afterthought, and journalists were surprised to be asked about it, indicating that it is not (yet) institutionalized as a journalistic norm in Austria. Quite the opposite, for some journalists – most often in hard news specializations – transparency is seen in conflict with the protection of sources. For soft news journalists, transparency was closely linked to aspects of commercial autonomy and whether influences could or must be disclosed in their reporting.

Our results therefore call into question the universality of some journalistic values and norms, emphasizing the heterogeneity of the journalistic field. The analysis contributes to a more nuanced understanding of different dimensions of journalistic authority, and calls for scholarship to be cognizant of these differences in future studies.

Klára Smejkal and Iveta Jansová: Conceptualizations and Constructions of Values, Identities, and Roles of Public Service Media Through the Lenses of the Czech PSM Journalists and Managers

16:00

The role of public service media in modern societies is to provide independent, pluralistic, and universally accessible information to the people of a country (Donders, 2012; Holtz-Bacha, 2015; (Just et al., 2017; Price & Raboy, 2011; Scanell, 1989), emphasizing social cohesion and promoting national culture. This role is explicitly defined either by legislation or within the operating codes of these media and has been extensively studied in a number of academic studies (e.g. Curran, 1991; Detoni, 2016; Donders, 2012; Garnham, 1990; Keane, 1995; Rodríguez-Castro et al., 2021; Scanell, 1989; Syvertsen, 2003). However, significantly fewer studies address how the role of public service media is perceived by journalists (Ibarra & Nord, 2013; Urbániková, 2023) and managers (Larsen, 2010; Larsen, 2014; Lowe & Maijanen, 2019; Maijanen, 2015) who work in them and who have the primary responsibility for carrying out their mission.

This paper addresses the question of normativity vs. reality clash through a study conducted in the Czech Republic, drawing on at least twenty semi-structured interviews with journalists and managers working for Czech public service media (i.e. Czech Television or Czech Radio). The aim of the research was to find out how journalists and managers themselves see the value of PSM in today's world, what are their opinions of the PSM's current performance in the context of normative ideals, and what they see as the main opportunities and threats in the near future.. In our paper, we focus on how our communication partners described and explained their own conceptualizations and perceptions of identities (PSM but also audiences), values, and roles that emerge in the context of public service media. All that to explore how their perceptions (personal experiences, biases, etc.) differ from normative expectations defined by existing legal and academic frameworks.

Investigating how journalists and managers perceive the role of public service media is deemed relevant, notably due to the significant pressures public service media faces nowadays. This includes challenges from populist politicians, who accuse them of bias and seek to reduce their funding (Sehl et al., 2020; Holtz-Bacha, 2021), as well as changing audience preferences, with an increasing shift toward online journalism and audio-visual content (Donders, 2019). Furthermore, it has become clear that a part of the public has expectations from public service media that do not align with their core mission (Urbániková & Smejkal, 2023). A comparison of the normatively defined mission of public service media with the perceptions of journalists and managers working in these organizations (and transforming the ideals into real conduct) could then help identify potential areas of misunderstanding and misconceptions between the public, PSM workers, and politicians Such identification can further help to rearrange problematic areas and strengthen the position of PSM in the face of polarization, fake news, etc.

The semi-structured interviews were collected by three experienced researchers during the fall of 2023. The interviews were realized in the Czech language, lasted from 60 to 90 minutes, were first recorded, and then anonymized, transcribed, and analyzed (by using thematic analysis, Braun & Clarke, 2006) with the help of Atlas.ti software. A repeated revision of codes ensured intercoder reliability. 

Sarah Van Leuven: Beyond the bylines: A structural analysis comparing beat composition across 14 countries

16:15

News beats, referring to thematic specialization and work division in newsrooms, are considered powerful predictors of news content (Magin and Maurer, 2019; Marchetti, 2005; Reich et al., 2022). Despite their crucial role as “epistemic infrastructures” (Schaetz et al., 2023), and the substantial changes they underwent following series of layoffs during recent decades, the composition of news beats in newsrooms was hardly studied, let alone on a systematic and comparative basis. This comparative study explores for the first time the composition of news beats in leading quality news outlets in 14 democratic countries, one outlet per country: Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. The studied newsrooms are all leading elite outlets, and except for one, merge both print and online, managing the most elaborate and sophisticated beat systems compared to broadcast and popular media (f.e. Becker et al., 2000). 

Findings are based on a series of interviews with senior editors and section editors, lists of reporters and beats supplied by the news organizations, and when unavailable, byline monitoring of publications. All data were collected between January and October 2023 and gathered in a database presenting for each news outlet an overview of beats and reporters (including background information if available: gender, type of employment, educational background or other relevant expertise on the beat). Our initial findings, that are part of an ongoing research, show significant gaps between relatively small newsrooms with circa 200 reporters and organizations that are 4-5 times larger like Washington Post, Guardian and Süddeutsche Zeitung. During the in-depth interviews, we also gathered additional findings concerning trends, structures, alternative structures, policies, strategies, and management style. In sum, the main findings of our project so far are:

• Trends. The paper maps major trends in beat composition across recent two decades, including beats that were closed and opened as well as rising and declining beats in terms of prominence and importance. Furthermore, findings indicate a growing shift away from the institutional logic, that characterized beat structures historically (i.e. assigning journalists to government agencies), to a more topical logic, that cuts across institutions, while the share of attention to governmental issues is sharply declining. Finally, while the segregation into “female” and “male” beats is dramatically shrinking, class differences are growingly sectional with an elite of full-time staff reporters covering national news whereas the freelance “proletariat” is concentrated in soft news, culture sections and lifestyle beats. Class differences were also observed between print and online desks, especially in smaller newsrooms. Despite newsroom convergence, some of these news outlets still had a separate desk of reporters maintaining the website, often consisting of more junior and generalist profiles. 
• Structures: Findings indicate that there is a generic international paradigm of newsroom structures. The allocation of reporters is typically manifested in seven major beat clusters: politics, economics, science-based beats (science, health, environment and climate), foreign reporting, national thematic and regional beats, as well as culture and lifestyle sections. However, there are broad national deviations according to news outlet DNA, country size, national culture, audience size and federal versus nonfederal regimes.
• Alternatives: Even when asked to imagine which beats they would like to cover, if there were no financial limitations, senior editors’ selections were more concerned with augmenting the current beat structure, than imagining an alternative one. This may indicate that despite the series of layoffs, and the shrinking news budgets, editors tend to see their current beat system as a satisficing “epistemic infrastructure” for covering current news environments, that earns its stability, among others, thanks to constant adjustments. 
• Policies: In most organizations and for most beats outside those that are science oriented, there are no demands for prior academic background. Priorities of hiring are shifting from external hires to internal ones. Instead of developing quality measures, editors are evaluating topical beat expertise, either based on their “gut feeling” or on previous experience of journalists in other outlets.  
• Strategies: Outlets developed strategies for maximizing coverage with minimal pay-roll positions, using aggregation, syndication and other methods for covering beats and territories without reporters on the ground. 
• Management: Although the structure of newsrooms tends to be predominantly divisional, they use a cross-sectional matrix management style, in which each journalist reports to several section heads, contributing to their sections and supplements. A combination that may increase not only efficiency but also journalists’ workload. Newsrooms are managed on a daily basis using a combination of midlevel editorial teams and technological apps like WhatsApp that combines multimedia content, group participation and quick updates. 

Marília Gehrke and David Cheruiyot: Exposing journalism’s skeletons: Targeted transparency through The Guardian’s Cotton Capital Project

16:30

Following a global wave of cultural reckoning, legacy news media have recently joined a growing list of institutions that have acknowledged their dark history in relation to colonialization, indigeneity, gender, or race (Callison & Young, 2020). Thus, news organizations have published public apologies admitting links to slavery or history of negative stereotyping and racial misrepresentation. They have also initiated editorial productions, whose goal is to recast their historical coverage of minority communities, for example the 1619 Project by the New York Times and the Cotton Capital Project of The Guardian. Such re-examination of historical harms reorients traditional repair work in journalism and revives a ‘discursive consciousness’ on reparative justice, especially following public remonstration ignited by the Black Lives Matter Movement (Clark, 2021; Sridharan & Taylor, 2023; Usher & Carlson, 2022). 

Scholars have suggested that the discourses surrounding disclosure of historical harms and the concomitant remedial actions by legacy media (e.g., the setting up of a reparation fund) have ushered in an era or ‘radical newsrooms’ transparency’ and broad institutional change, for example through diversity hiring (Callison & Young, 2020; Author, 2022; Headlee, 2021; Usher, 2021). This approach to transparency falls into what Karlsson (2022, p. 87) calls “strategically managed visibility”, meaning that, in the end, news organizations decide what will be disclosed.

This paper explores the implications of the growing institutional disclosure and acknowledgement of historical harms by news organizations in the wake of cultural reckoning. The specific focus is to interrogate how The Guardian, through its Cotton Capital project, discursively construct what we refer to as reparative disclosure in response to public discourses over reparative justice. To give a brief context: In 2020, the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian, initiated a research project into the newspaper’s historical ties to transatlantic slave trade. Three years later, its commissioned historians concluded that the founder of the newspaper had links to slave trade and that The Guardian reaped from investments made by enslavers. What followed was a prominent public apology and a declaration that it would set up a £10 million reparation fund. In addition, based on the findings of its researchers, the newspaper initiated a special editorial series titled, the Cotton Capital, which entailed a multimedia production composed of essays and podcasts reflecting on the history of slavery and institutional commissions and omissions. 

Theoretically, we argue that The Guardian’s second-draft-of-history approach (Usher & Carlson, 2022) to its editorial production deploys ‘targeted transparency’ as the project is situated within the notions of active disclosure at the institutional level – which means the public is indulged in the quest to seek the truth (Karlsson, 2010, 2022; Oliver, 2004). However, we also consider that current journalistic transparency theory falls short in fully encapsulating the deliberate practices of acknowledgement and redress over historical harms, along with consistent coverage of attestations of atonement and public apologies (Sridharan & Taylor, 2023). We, therefore, additionally engage Carlson’s (2016) metajournalistic theory to explain how the newspaper discursively constructs a reparatory transparency practices which are deployed through retelling stories of the past in order to connect with the public’s imaginary of reparations. Effectively, we ask, how does The Guardian, through its Cotton Capital Project, enact targeted transparency?

Methodologically, we employ textual analysis of a series of essays published in the Cotton Capital’s launch magazine and subsequent newsletter. These publications are composed of essays written by The Guardian’s writers, historians and artists and details experiences with the history of slavery of the newspaper and UK cities. Our data analysis is guided by Karlsson’s (2022, pp. 102-108) Performative Transparency Model (PTM) composed of five discursive dimensions: stage (platforms where transparency is enacted, the actors (the publics addressed and their perspective), the script (how transparency is deployed), the aesthetics (performative component), and the effect (intended outcome). 

Our preliminary analysis shows the Cotton Capital project, corresponds to a ‘demand-driven transparency’ particularly through how the stories are packaged to gaze to a public immersed in a discourse of cultural reckoning. Reparative disclosure is discursively constructed through the stories that retell the past, but also connecting with the public perspective of re-examination of history and restitution for communities historically marginalized over race or gender. We also surmise that the retelling of stories of the past as the ‘second-draft of history’ (Usher & Carlson, 2022) has the effect of actioning acknowledgement but also a willingness to provide redress. In conclusion, while the Cotton Capital project reveals how targeted transparency is deployed in situations of crisis (such as periods of racial reckoning), there is also the risk that the rituals could be merely performative (Spencer, 2021). This paper contributes to further conceptualization of targeted transparency in journalism amid the growing concern over the impact of cultural reckoning to journalism.

Panel 11

Mette Stentoft and Mette Mørk: Evaluating the Impact of Diversity Awareness on Source Selection in Danish Journalism Education: A Comparative Analysis of Exam Papers.

15:30

Despite the recent focus on source diversity among both scholars and practitioners, recent findings suggest that Danish media still exhibit a high degree of stereotyping and profiling (Schmeltz & Kjeldsen 2023, Jørndrup 2022). And this is both with regards to gender, ethnicity, and sexuality (Nielsen 2023, Jørndrup 2022). For instance, among the 50 most cited expert in Danish news coverage in 2022, only three were female – and all were white, ethnic Danes (Siegumfeldt 2022). Moreover, it’s evident that female sources are represented differently than male (Schmeltz & Kjeldsen 2023, Jørndrup 2021), and minority cases – eg. Muslims – are mostly cited as minority representatives in an extensive ‘public whiteness’ (Hunter 2023, Sinclair 2022, Nielsen 2019). 

All Danish journalism schools do in theory promote multi-dimensional representation and reflexive, bias conscious methods to find the best possible sources, and all schools have shown a growing awareness of (lacking) diversity among admitted students (see e.g. Lindhardt 2022). At the same time, abundant anecdotic evidence points to a much larger awareness of gender and ethnicity issues within the student 

body, e.g. through students’ boycott of certain teaching materials and student media content (see examples by Thorlund Jepsen 2021 and Falck Barfod 2020). On the other hand, though, the most recent curricula do not reflect this growing awareness (Danish School of Media and Journalism 2022, University of Roskilde 2022, University of Southern Denmark 2020), and there are indications that not much has changed in the way journalism and source selection is being taught (Kjeldsen & Schmeltz 2024/forthcoming). 

This leads to this research question: Has the growing awareness of diversity and stereotyping among faculty, students, and in the media industry affected students’ source selection? To measure this, we use our 2019 analysis of (Mørk & Stentoft 2020, Stentoft & Mørk 2019) source selection in 70 investigative exam papers as a comparison, when we perform the same analysis on 2023 exam papers. All papers are from the Danish School of Media and Journalism and are a rich source of information as they contain not only the publishable journalism but also the full list of sources contacted by students. 

Moreover, we expand our 2019 analytical framework to include two different cohorts of which we will perform a systematic comparison: Cohort 1 (approx. 50 students/25 exam papers) has followed the existing curriculum with no special emphasis on diversity. Cohort 2 (approx. 25 students/13 papers) has been subjected to two small interventions regarding source selection during their first year as journalism students. 

Our hypothesis is that the general growing awareness has not significantly affected students’ source selection – meaning that this still reflects the same bias and an overall ‘whiteness’ that we see in publications by professional journalists (cf. Nielsen 2019). We hypothesize too that a limited, focused intervention can to some extent counter this skewed selection. This paper describes how we test the hypothesis, and, within the framework of Reflective Practice-based Learning, it discusses which interventions are suitable when aiming for a more multi-dimensionally representative selection of sources (Schön 1983, Andersen & Krathwohl 2001, Mezirow & Taylor 2009). Our overall findings are discussed using key concepts from Postcolonial Theory (Said 1978, Mohanty 2003).

Helen Johnston: The Discursive Construction of ‘News’: An Analysis of Journalism Educators’ Discourse.

15:45

Determining what constitutes ‘news’ is a subjective process and therefore one of the most challenging aspects of the job of journalism educators. They play a key role in responding to the ever-changing news industry and shaping the next generation of journalists, which is why their understanding and construction of ‘news’ is worthy of exploration. And yet the voice of journalism educators is largely absent from the literature. This paper argues that by analysing such discourses in educational settings, it would help to identify how the term ‘news’ is constructed by those teaching the craft of journalism, and how subjective the language and process is. With regard to news discourse, one form of action that is particularly salient is the construction of fact and objectivity. There is a sorting and selecting of which topics and events to cover, from which ‘news’ emerges as an end product based on a socially constructed set of principles. This paper examines how the use of the term ‘news’ is used to negotiate whether an event is indeed ‘news’. A key part of this discourse is the consideration of news values, which are embedded in newsroom culture. Journalists often discuss news values when they use the term ‘news’ to justify and defend the newsworthiness of a particular story. Therefore, it is important to consider how news values are arrived at to help better understand what journalism educators are constructing when they talk about ‘news’ within their pedagogy in the classroom, especially because those discourses contribute to establishing definitions in the wider journalism community. The subjective process of selecting which events to cover and who to interview is an important element of news values and talking about this in a newsroom is a significant part of the socialisation process for trainee journalists. The newsworthiness of actors or events is often based on what journalists judge their audience will find newsworthy, and is therefore subjective, often based on preference and context. Much ‘news’ is so defined by prioritising events according to a range of socially organised categories based on assumptions about the world, who is important, and if they will be of interest to an imagined audience. In this way, professional journalists and, by extension those involved in professional journalism education, engage in the business of socially constructing news. Metajournalistic discourse allows journalism educators to restate, construct, and challenge the status quo as they grapple with a continually-evolving industry and the concept of what constitutes ‘news’; and create a curriculum to reflect professional, social and cultural frames for ‘news’. The lens of discursive psychology (DP) is applied, challenging the realist approach to the study of news. DP enables an analytical approach to the discourses about ‘news’ among journalism educators by treating talk as a way of doing social business, and therefore an object of study in its own right. Discourse analysis has been applied extensively to the subjective output of ‘news’, but little has been applied to the subjective discourses which ultimately bring that output into being. Currently, there is little DP / Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) analysis of ‘news’ within the journalism community, and nothing relating specifically to journalism educators. Research relating to journalism educators is primarily focused on pragmatic topics, predominantly digital competence and regulation. CDS assumes that the prevailing social order is sustained by constructions or versions of reality, often referred to as discourses. It views power as an inevitable effect of particular discursive configurations that privilege some people over others; and that human subjectivity is in part constructed by discourse. A primary focus of CDS concerns the discursive aspects of power relations and social inequalities, including questions of ideology and ways of representing the world. This paper is based on PhD research in progress, presenting preliminary findings from a number of interviews with journalism educators from the UK. The interviews enable journalism educators to reflect on their own use of the term ‘news’, and the subjective nature of it, within their pedagogy in the classroom. 

Rana Arafat and Hannes Cools: Towards Algorithmic Gatekeeping and Agenda Setting: Re-conceptualising Key Media Theories in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

16:00

For decades, news workers were the primary gatekeepers who decided what was newsworthy to be published or broadcasted (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009). Back then, the classic gatekeeping theory referred to “how different elements get turned into news and how that news is framed, emphasized, placed, and promoted” (Vos, 2015, p. 4). In doing so, journalists used to “selectively gather, sort, write, edit, position, schedule, repeat, and otherwise massage information to become news” (Vos, 2019, p. 90). However, the recent proliferation of new media and digital technologies, especially the rise of algorithmic news recommenders and personalized news media, have disrupted this traditional model by empowering other actors to contribute to the collective gatekeeping decisions (Russell, 2019, p. 631). Digital media empowered news audiences to produce citizen-generated content, share, and distribute news acting as secondary gatekeepers while algorithms and platforms produced by ‘Silicon Valley entrepreneurs’ were further controlling the circulation of news content performing algorithmic gatekeeping (Singer, 2014; Russell, 2019). As algorithms serve as gatekeepers in selecting and disseminating news and information, news workers reported concerns that “extended algorithmic curation will undermine editorial control and erode the shared news sphere” (Møller, 2022, p. 812). 

Apart from the alteration of news workers’ gatekeeping role, they also realized because of the emergence of digital media, that they were not solely responsible for what was set on the agenda, here referring to as “public opinion that is shaped by the salience of issues in the media” (Trielli & Diakopoulos, 2022, p.45). Classic agenda setting scholars argued how media could shape audience’s perceptions about what issues are important to tell audiences about (Cohen, 1963; Wok et. al., 2010). However, research demonstrated how algorithmic bias in news recommenders and search engines can “drive, shape, or counteract choices made by news and the users” (Trielli & Diakopoulos, 2022) making it much harder to determine “whether a general news agenda still exists and who sets that news agenda” (Cools et al., 2021). This requires rethinking our traditional understanding of media theories and considering the different factors that impact news gathering, production, distribution, and consumption in the midst of growing reliance on algorithms fuelled by artificial intelligence.

To this end, this conceptual paper strives to delve deeper into re-conceptualizing two of the key classic media theories aiming to offer a comprehensive framework for understanding gatekeeping and agenda setting in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence. In particular, the paper contributes to what algorithmic gatekeeping and agenda setting mean for journalistic roles, editorial control and autonomy, platform agency, audience reception, and news consumption. The conceptual contribution builds on the ‘shared decision-making’ framework that holistically evaluates the role of the news worker vis-à-vis the algorithm in relation to already-existing gatekeeping and agenda-setting models. Namely, an extra filter is added, namely the algorithm, that influences how news is selected (gatekeeping) and how is being put on the agenda (agenda-setting). Linked to this extra filter, a five-step shared decision-making model is added where algorithms are not considered as autonomous agents but as tools that are guided by and integrated with the human judgment of news workers. The paper further reflects on how algorithmic selections influence the unequal visibility of journalistic voices from different parts of the world resulting in the online hegemony of news content from specific media outlets located in certain geographical territories, normally in the Global North. 

In conclusion, this paper will further contribute to offering a novel framework to better connect and map out the different (f)actors shaping journalistic gatekeeping-related editorial decisions and autonomy in agenda setting in the age of artificial intelligence. 

Beth Wood: Keeping up with the Kids: The role of Generation Z in today’s News Media Landscape

16:30

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a change in the way social media was used by audiences, with young people spending more hours on the platform due to lockdown (Arens, 2020; Goodyear, 2020). Reports by Ofcom have demonstrated that the internet is the second most popular platform for accessing news after television in the UK (Jigsaw Research, 2022) with social media and the internet ranked as the most popular platform to access news for those aged between 16-24 (Statista, 2022). These statistics are unsurprising considering that at the time of writing, 98 percent of Generation Z (Gen Z) owned a smartphone (O’Dea, 2022) and the subsequent ease and accessibility of social media.

Using a sample of 800 18-20 year olds whilst utilising Generational theory and Actor Network Theory, this paper discusses research which offers a critical analyse regarding how Gen Z’s news consumption and engagement habits are developing along with technology to sculpture the future format of news and its distribution. This paper addresses the conference theme regarding audiences and exploration into the news engagement of those born in an era where the world wide web was readily available. As well as identifying the role of Generation Z in the production of news, this paper also analyses the engagement and attitudes they have towards news content. 

Technology is constantly developing and with this, its importance is becoming more prevalent with each generation: the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) consider it something useful whereas millennials (1981-1997) believe it a necessity for day to day living (Bucuta, 2015). ‘Gen Z’, otherwise known as the digital native, have grown up with this technology at their fingertips and social media is a ‘norm’. It helps form their identity, their affiliations and opens gateways for them to engage with news in a new way. It is a common misconception that ‘Gen Z’ do not consume news, they are simply doing so in a different way to their predecessors (Wood and Ebel, 2021).

The findings in this paper demonstrate that ‘Gen Z’ are actuants in the news process, however their role is dependent on factors such as socio-economic background and education. Furthermore, parental influence was prevalent in this study demonstrating an inheritance of characteristics in terms of engagement and attitudes from previous generations.

Panel 12 

Camilla Dindler and Bolette Blaagaard: Views for All the People: Mapping debate section contributors, topics, and qualifications in Danish letters to the editors

15:30

This paper asks the research question: who are enabled to express themselves in the news papers’ debate sections and how; on what topics do they speak; and with what implications for the democratic and social sustainability of the public sphere? 

Newspapers and news institutions struggle to reinvent their former claim to the public sphere as social media platforms have taken over public debate in recent years. With the “letters institution” (Nielsen 2010), which encompasses debate sections in newspapers off- and online as well as commentary and letters to the editor, the press continues to strive to maintain and develop its role in citizen participation alongside the digital and commercialized social media. For some time now, media and journalism scholars have focused on public debate as it is practiced using social and citizen media rather than on the letters institution. However, as contentiousness and fragmentation online rise and the market forces shift to favour few but powerful corporations that govern the public debate (Lorenzen 2023, 5; Zuboff 2015), the role of democracy as a framework within which deliberative and agonistic dialogue and debate occur among political subjects warrants a revisit. 

Previously, scholars have dealt with the journalistic standards of publishing and how they affect the editing and gatekeeping of readers’ expressions (Nielsen 2010; Wahl-Jorgensen 2002a; Torres da Silva 2012; Perrin and Vaisey 2008). Others have explored the writers and their possibilities of expressions (Cooper, Knotts, and Haspel 2009; Wahl-Jorgensen 2001; 2002b; Raeymaeckers 2005). This paper analyses and discusses how the relationship between these two points of entry into the scholarship – the journalistic institution and the citizens’ abilities – produce public spaces as exhibitionist, dialogist, or activist publicity (Wahl-Jorgensen 2001). 

Diverse, equal, and inclusive representation in letters to the editor is important to secure inclusive engagement in the public sphere, whether deliberative and/or agonistic. Previous scholarship shows that women are under-represented as letter writers, as are African Americans in the US (Cooper, Knotts, and Haspel 2009; Wahl-Jorgensen 2001) and people of non-Danish ethnic origin in Denmark (Nielsen 2010, 24). In Denmark, 84% of the contributions are written

by “ordinary citizens”, while in Belgium debate sections are dominated by policymakers and key political figures (Raeymaeckers 2005). The editors aspire to select the “average citizen” to write letters (Wahl-Jorgensen 2001, 311). These are individuals, readers, and buyers or subscribers of 

the newspaper. However, if asked to imagine the average letter writer, Wahl-Jorgensen’s respondents in the US context give a rather narrower definition: “an elderly, well-educated white male” (ibid.). There is no similar data on the Danish region, although there is little to suggest that Danish respondents would differ markedly from their American counterparts. Younger writers are missing from the pages too (Cooper, Knotts, and Haspel 2009), while knowledge about representation of sexual, religious, and social or neural diversities and minorities is non-existent. The lack of representation of minorities may be due to the temporal gap in scholarship – the most recent study is from 2010. Attention to minorities, critical race studies and postcolonial critiques has grown significantly within journalism since the noughties. However, it is by no means certain that this development is reflected in the editors’ selection criteria. This paper thus seeks to bridge the temporal and epistemological gap in the scholarship. 

Methodology: 

We conduct a quantitative analysis of 376 letters collected through the news database Infomedia. The articles are retrieved using a systematic search process using a variety of keywords and terms connoting and including the word “debate” in the articles’ headings and sub-headings. We search for articles of all lengths and in all Danish national newspapers published on the dates from 20. to 27. of March 2023 (N=376). The data is coded in terms of the categories: headline, media, author type (i.e., expert, politician, academic, student etc.), gender, whether an illustration accompany the letter, profession or title, capacity (i.e., experience, professional, special interest etc.), main argument, and topic of the letter (i.e., politics, science, technology, crime, economy etc.). 

Besides the quantitative findings, qualitative and discursive analyses (Hall 1997/2002) are conducted to supplement the discussion of the implications of the representation for the democratic and social sustainability of the public sphere. Drawing on postcolonial critique and theories of citizen media (Baker & Blaagaard 2016; Blaagaard et al. 2023), we argue that the letters institution is at a crossroad defined through technological, political, and social processes warranting a reconsideration of diversity, equality and inclusion in the institution. 

Stela Lechpammer: Death of Authorship in Online Journalism

15:45

Media credibility has been recognized as fundamental media capital (Van Dalen, 2020), but considering today's relations in the public sphere, decline of trust in the news media all over the world, including Croatia, has been noted (Digital News Report, 2023). Studies try to define the reasons that led to this point, and at the same time authorship is recognized as one of the main prerequisites for credibility. This paper investigates authorship on the digital platforms of daily newspapers in order to determine whether there are differences in approach to authorship in traditional and online journalism. To answer that research question, the author analyses the content of three Croatian daily newspapers with the highest circulation – Jutarnji list, Večernji list and 24sata – as well as their web portals. The aim is to explore the specifics of the selected daily newspapers content and the content of their online editions.

Total of 3312 articles published in period of two weeks were analysed but they were first divided into two categories - the first category consists of those who were published only on the portal, and the second group is those who were published both in the newspaper and on the portal. In this way, author wanted to answer the question of whether there are differences in the editorial policy of newspapers and their web portals. 

Then, five categories were defined, considering authorship. First category includes all articles with journalists clearly stated as authors. Second category includes editorial articles, that is, those in which the name of the newspaper is stated as the author. The third category consists of articles from news agencies and the fourth of articles from other media. The last category consists of articles without authors. 

Results show that when it comes to the articles published on both platforms, in almost all cases they were clearly signed. It was different in only a few exceptions, most of them related to articles from other media. 

On the other hand, the situation is completely different when it comes to articles that were published only on the web portals of the analysed media. Only a quarter of the articles were written by journalists, and the same number were taken over from other media. For the largest number of articles, the news agency is listed as the author. In less than 10 percent of cases, it is about editorial articles, and there is only a few articles without an author.

Further analysis is focused on the differences between media outlets and the way in which authorship is stated. Also, articles were analysed according to type and topic with regard to authorship, and these results are analysed in detail in the paper considering the literature on authorship, online journalism and news agencies (Malović, 2007; Bradshaw, 2011; Brautović, 2011; Van Dalen, 2020; Tandoc et al., 2020; Nelissen & Hendrickx, 2023).

Marlene Strehler-Schaaf, Charlotte Löb & Oliver Quiring: Sympathy, empathy, dislike or even hate? The relationship between activists and journalists

16:00

In 2020, extinction rebellion blocked news organizations in UK and Germany drawing attention to their claims and pressuring journalism to take more responsibility in fighting climate change. While this example might appear as a kind of pointed criticism of a social movement, other examples from right wing movements such as “Pegida” in Germany illustrate how activists’ criticism can also turn into verbal and physical attacks against journalists. Both exemplify how strained the relationship between journalists and activists can be. 

In view of activists, such tensions may stem from an asymmetrical dependency that encircles both actors (Lipsky, 1968; Koopmans, 2004). The fact that “movements need the media more often than the media needs movements” (Rucht, 2004, p. 35) lead activists to different reactions towards media. One might be to attack journalists and thereby gainig attention due to generating news value. Another explanation can be found in the concept of reciprocal effects (Kepplinger, 2007). According to this, actors being part of news coverage or at least identifying with reported topics – as activists usually do – react mostly with negative emotions which can also shift their behavior towards journalists. 

From a journalists’ point of view activists are not merily part of the audience, but also PR actors trying to draw attention to their claims. Thus, journalists might have gained different experience in dealing with activists. While the relationship between journalists and PR actors has been widely explored, both theoretically and empirically (Hoffjann, 2007; Lloyd, 2019; Schweiger, 2013), research on journalists-audience-interaction has just recently attracted academic research (Ferrucci et al., 2020; Meijer, 2020). Here, the focus is on the expectations and needs of the general public (Loosen et al., 2020) and how journalists in this regard interact with their audience, fulfill their expectations, and prevent journalism from losing its audience (Uth, 2022). 

The relationship between journalists and activists cannot be clearly assigned to one of the two research fields: Activists are seldomly highly professional PR actors (Andrews & Caren, 2010; Belotti et al., 2022). At the same time, they represent a specific kind of audience, when being part of the coverage itself. In contrast to existing research we take a look on the reciprocal nature of expectations and experiences of both actor groups: We investigate (a) the perception of each other, (b) the experience with the other group, (c) their experiences in dealing with the other group, and (d) how these facets shape their relationship in general. 

To answer those questions, we rely on two distinct interview studies. First, we conducted 33 semi structured interviews with activists from different protest movements in Germany. Interviews took place between September 2021 and May 2022. Interviewees were mostly activists with an organizational role (see figure 1). Secondly, we conducted 38 semi-structured interviews with journalists reporting on those protest movements between June and August 2023. All the interviews were structured by a guideline that included questions on what the interviewees thought about journalism respectively activism and what experiences they had in dealing with each other's groups. 

Preliminary results on activists' understanding of journalism revealed a dominant idealistic perception of journalism as a watchdog and fourth power in democracies (see figure 1). Accordingly, activists hold high expectations on reporting in general (e.g., balanced, neutral) which, from the activists' point of view, the media fulfill to a greater or lesser extent. Reasoning on discrepancies between how journalists actually report and how they want them to, activists also reflected overall trends and challenges (e.g., commercialization, lack of diversity etc.). In their role as activists, they 

simultaneously expected journalists to dive deeper into their issues and shed more light on activists’ positions (which contrasted with their general expectations on balanced journalism). On a personal level activists had mixed experiences with journalists mostly depending on whether the journalists were perceived as open-minded or biased. Based on these impressions they either cooperated with 

journalists, avoided or distrusted journalism even on a general level. Analysis of journalists' interviews is work-in-progress but already revealed different experiences depending on which protest movements they had already dealt with. 

Although such interview studies naturally contain the risk of generating socially desirable answers, we are quite confident regarding the nature of both actors to be able to provide honest and meaningful insights into causes and consequences of the sometimes strained relationship between journalists and activists. We are convinced that this study sheds first light on the perceptions and expectations each group has and thus might help to reduce aversion on both sides in the future. 

Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius: What can journalism do for epistemic democracy? Democratic imagination and the coverage of minoritised activism in the liberal media in Poland

16:15

This paper addresses the conference theme by taking stock of journalism’s contribution to epistemic democracy. Epistemic democracy is a perspective on democracy that, on the one hand, anchors it in a shared perception of reality and, on the other, justifies it normatively via its capacity for improved decision-making and problem-solving. This capacity is, in turn, contingent on a democracy’s ability to ensure epistemic diversity and, subsequently, to learn from an assembled polyphony of competing perspectives and multiplicity of incongruent experiences in order to correct structural, institutional and practical oppression. As such, the epistemic view on democracy moves beyond positioning deliberation process as the sufficient condition for democracy and begins to assess its outcomes on whether they meet the democratic standards of pluralism, equality, and inclusion. 

Within the framework of epistemic democracy, this paper proposes, one potential contribution of journalism is the nurturing of ‘democratic imagination’ among the public. ‘Democratic imagination’ is an epistemic activity of perspective-taking with a view to advancing the ideals of universal inclusion, equality, and openness to diversity that improve democratic communication, decision-making, problem-solving and, ultimately, help minimise social harms. To this end, journalism can serve as a platform where the public can encounter – and possibly interact with – diverse perspectives, equally exposed to critical scrutiny and resistance. The resulting epistemic friction could then expand the horizon of democratic imagination and enable collective learning geared towards correcting our social and political practices in a democratic way. In practice, however, journalism often reproduces the existing epistemic exclusions, inequalities and insensitivities, be it due to the media companies’ own corporate agendas and economic interests or the vested interests of their political allies. 

Empirically, this paper examines the coverage of minoritised activism by Afro-Poles and the queer community in liberal journalism in Poland to see how it contributes, or not, to democratic imagination and, consequently, to epistemic democracy. Over the years, the liberal media have positioned themselves in a fierce opposition to the outgoing ultraconservative Law and Justice (PiS) party government, thereby appearing as almost natural allies for the minoritised activists in their antiracist and antihomophobic struggles against the state-sponsored oppression. Such struggles expand the horizon of democratic imagination by demanding that minoritised experiences and perspectives be recognised and included as having equal epistemic validity and democratic value to majority experiences and perspectives. On the epistemic view of democracy, the truly democratic response is to listen to minoritised voices, engage the democratic imagination, and correct oppressive institutions and practices of domination. Epistemic disengagement in the name of an elusive consensus, meanwhile, is considered undemocratic. 

Methodologically, the paper is based on an epistemic discourse analysis of the articles in liberal media that deal with (1) the #DontCallMeMurzyn social media campaign against racism ingrained in the Polish language, and/or (2) the activities of the Stop Bzdurom queer collective. The corpus is pulled from the websites of five key liberal media outlets: (1) a daily Gazeta Wyborcza, (2) a weekly Polityka, (3) a radio station TOK FM, (4) a TV station TVN, and (5) an online portal natemat.pl. The primary analytical prism is a ‘power/knowledge-ignorance’ nexus, derived from the Foucauldian and Foucault-inspired scholarship. This formulation acknowledges that as an epistemic institution, journalism interacts with and exercises power by shaping, and being shaped by, both knowledge and ignorance about certain aspects of social reality. 

The main finding of the analysis is that liberal journalism is interested in minoritised activism only insofar as it can be instrumentalised in the political struggle against the PiS government. In particular, liberal journalism artificially reduces epistemic diversity by cherry-picking those minoritised experiences and perspectives that fit with its power/knowledge-ignorance framework predicated on extreme polarisation and politicisation of social life, while excluding others. This approach flattens out the larger democratic causes pursued by minoritised activists, which go beyond the ousting of PiS from power, that is, pluralism, inclusion, and equality for all. In doing so, liberal journalism petrifies the horizon of democratic imagination and forgoes an opportunity to substantially contribute to the emergence of epistemic democracy now that its primary goal of removing the PiS government has been accomplished. 

Anna Mavrikou: Post-migrant journalists in DACH-newsrooms: Perspectives on inclusion and exclusion

16:30

Introduction 

While the population with a so-called migration background¹ is constantly increasing in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (DACH-region), journalists with a migration background are underrepresented in newsrooms. They are estimated between 1,2 and 5% of all journalists in Germany (Geißler et al., 2009; Pöttker, 2017; 2022). In Austria, 6% of the journalists have a non-German migration background (Kaltenbrunner & Lugschitz, 2021) and in Switzerland, research indicates that approximately 5% of all journalists have a migration background (Bonfadelli, 2010). 

Awareness of diversity in newsrooms is growing gradually in Austria and Germany (Horz et al., 2020; p. 30; Kaltenbrunner & Lugschitz, 2021, p. 2), with Black People and People of Color gaining visibility in media (Lünenborg & Medeiros, 2021, p. 96). However, non-white journalists are expected to be experts on racism-related issues (Sorce, 2023, p. 782). Journalists with ascribed migration backgrounds use books, podcasts, or social media to share aspects of their personal or professional trajectories. 

Who is a post-migrant journalist? 

This PhD project builds on the concept of post-migrant societies, where migration is a daily reality and societal transformations happen. Recognition, negotiation, ambivalence, alliance, and antagonism are central characteristics (Foroutan, 2019). Postmigrants are the people who refuse differentiation based on otherness and racialization. They rather seek “a self-confident place” within society (Alkin, 2021, p. 113). I define preliminary post-migrant journalists as professional journalists in mainstream or so-called alternative media, who have transnational or transcultural (non-German) biographies, are perceived or feel differently and face experiences of otherness and/or racialization. 

Post-migrant journalists strive for: 1) inclusion of diverse perspectives in content and participation, 2) question and challenge existing power dynamics and discourses and 3) represent minorities in newsrooms. I argue that post-migrant journalists fulfill an important role in challenging the migrant-non-migrant divide, sharing hybrid identities, and advocating for inclusion in the journalistic field while questioning their roles through different platforms. 

Research questions 

This paper raises the following questions: 

How do post-migrant journalists make inequalities visible in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland? 

RQ1: How do post-migrant journalists position themselves within the journalistic field? RQ2: Which roles do post-migrant journalists have in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland? 

Theoretical approach 

This doctoral thesis project builds on three main theoretical approaches: a) Bourdieu’s field theory with the journalistic field; b) the journalistic role and agency and c) the concept of symbolic border. 

Journalistic actors hold central or marginal positions within the field depending on the habitus and the different forms of capital (Meyen & Riesmeyer, 2012; Scheu, 2012). These relations lead to inequalities, power relations and conflicts inside the field (Bourdieu, 1998). Journalistic roles are normative, cognitive, practiced and narrated (Hanitzsch, 2018), reflecting the corresponding functions: what journalists should do, what they aim to do, what they actually do and what they claim they do (Hanitzsch & Vos, 2017, p. 118). They are changing over time and executed through journalistic work practices (Mellado, 2021). 

The symbolic border can be seen as a powerful regulatory tool in global journalism, deciding who is featured in Western news, who is considered human and who can participate in public discourses (Chouliaraki, 2017). The concept serves as a bridge between the journalistic field and the journalistic roles. Post-migrant journalists are included in the profession/journalistic field with different roles but also experience exclusion when they are underrepresented in newsrooms or face racist behaviors. 

Methods 

The empirical part of this dissertation relies on narrative interviews with 15 second generation journalists, including strong biographical elements. The sample is purposeful as the study seeks to include diverse biographies. The author employs an intersectional approach, considering both visible and invisible markers of journalists’ identity, including ascribed migration background, gender, religion (visible for example through a veil), media type, professional stage, organizational affiliation (public/private), race, and socioeconomic background. Currently, the author is in the interview phase. At the time of the conference, she will present insights into the research findings. 

Preliminary results 

Initial interviews show the interconnection of professional and personal aspects in post migrant journalists’ identities. Even though they are born or have lived in the countries for a long time, they often feel excluded, and experience inequalities and boundaries that push them to talk about them. This results in three roles: a) observer (realizing hybrid position and inequalities; b) emotional (connecting personal biography with family stories) and c) participative (taking actions, e.g., through writing books).