{"title":"Media and Natural Disasters: Organising Storytelling in the Age of Climate Change","authors":"G. Buoncompagni","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020041","url":null,"abstract":"Starting on 2 November 2023, some territories in the Region of Tuscany in Italy were hit by exceptionally intense meteorological and calamitous events. The Region of Tuscany’s government was immediately at the forefront of relief, assisting the population, and aiding restoration. On 3 November, a national state of emergency was declared due to flooding. Journalistic communication is an essential aspect of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In terms of protecting people and reducing damage, journalists and the media have an important role to play. This article reports an Italian case study analysing the behaviour of local media in cases of natural disaster. Nine focus groups were conducted with local journalists covering the flood emergency. The results highlight the role of social and institutional mediation, rather than mere dissemination, played by the local press in emergency situations, a central element in the construction of a community bond, precisely in moments of insecurity and disorientation. The narration of a disaster from the inside seems to have allowed the emergence and representation of hitherto unknown social realities in Tuscany. The goal of the news coverage was widened, making it possible to respond better to the diverse interests of the reading public and to satisfy in a short time and exhaustively the information needs of individual communities in difficulty.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"126 14","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140977341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Climate Change Misinformation in the United States: An Actor–Network Analysis","authors":"Neelam Thapa Magar, Binay Jung Thapa, Yanan Li","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020040","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change misinformation refers to inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading climate change-related information created and spread in the public domain. Despite substantial consensus among the scientific community on the reality of anthropogenic climate change, public opinion still remains divided. Combating the climate crisis requires immediate and meaningful actions; however, various actors generate and propagate climate change misinformation, with vested interests in sowing doubts in the public sphere about the reality and urgency of climate impacts. The United States of America, where public opinion holds a strong sway in many social and political spheres, acts as a pertinent case in point, where the prevalence of climate denial fueled by persistent climate change misinformation contributes to this divided public perspective. For this reason, it is imperative to enhance the understanding of the subtle ways climate change misinformation exists and functions. This article employs actor–network theory and the concept of black-boxing to explore a case of climate change misinformation in the United States, with the aim of comprehending the workings of climate change misinformation within its network.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"42 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140981342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Generative AI Is Transforming Journalism: Development, Application and Ethics","authors":"Yi Shi, Lin Sun","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020039","url":null,"abstract":"Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is a technology based on algorithms, models, etc., that creates content such as text, audio, images, videos, and code. GAI is deeply integrated into journalism as tools, platforms and systems. However, GAI’s role in journalism dilutes the power of media professionals, changes traditional news production and poses ethical questions. This study attempts to systematically answer these ethical questions in specific journalistic practices from the perspectives of journalistic professionalism and epistemology. Building on the review of GAI’s development and application, this study identifies the responsibilities of news organizations, journalists and audiences, ensuring that they realize the potential of GAI while adhering to journalism professionalism and universal human values to avoid negative technological effects.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":" 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140991967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Á. Torres-Toukoumidis, Mónica Hinojosa Becerra, I. Marín-Gutiérrez, Moisés Pallo-Chiguano
{"title":"Exploratory Analysis of Local Media across the Post-Pandemic Era: Between Glocality and Closeness","authors":"Á. Torres-Toukoumidis, Mónica Hinojosa Becerra, I. Marín-Gutiérrez, Moisés Pallo-Chiguano","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020037","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the role of local media in fostering a sense of community belonging among readers in the Ecuadorian context, focusing on how geographical coverage, news sources, and covered themes reinforce community identity. Through content analysis of 17 local media outlets and 6356 news pieces, we investigate how these elements cohesively contribute to the construction of an interconnected community. The findings indicate that predominantly local and regional coverage, along with reliance on primary sources within the community and the prevalence of topics related to politics, sports, and culture, play pivotal roles in creating a shared community fabric. By contextualizing the importance of “glocalization” in journalism, the study demonstrates how local media act as a mirror to community realities and aspirations, promoting a sense of intersubjectivity, adaptability, and civic engagement. This work underscores the critical importance of local media in representing the diversity of reality, facilitating civic participation, and strengthening the social fabric within the local context.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":" 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140996969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Expanding the Victory of Prohibition: Richmond P. Hobson’s Freelance Public Relations Crusade against Narcotics","authors":"Stephen Siff","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020038","url":null,"abstract":"Inflaming public opinion about narcotics was the collective goal of anti-narcotics organizers who emerged from the battlefields of the war on alcohol. The most famous was Richmond P. Hobson, who used newspapers, radio, pamphlets, speaking tours, and networking with civic organizations to agitate for reform. This article draws on archival and newly accessible electronic sources to draw a picture of Hobson’s anti-narcotics propagandizing and put it in historical context.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":" 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140997193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Panagiota (Naya) Kalfeli, Christina Angeli, Christos Frangonikolopoulos
{"title":"Victims of a Human Tragedy or “Objects” of Migrant Smuggling? Media Framing of Greece’s Deadliest Migrant Shipwreck in Pylos’ Dark Waters","authors":"Panagiota (Naya) Kalfeli, Christina Angeli, Christos Frangonikolopoulos","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020036","url":null,"abstract":"Refugee and migration crises has been an integral part of the continuous and successive crises that the world has been experiencing. Media has played a crucial role in shaping public opinion over migration and asylum-seeking. Within this context, this paper aims to discuss Greek media coverage of the migrant shipwreck off the Greek coast of Pylos, in June 2023, in which more than 600 people mostly from Syria, Egypt, and Pakistan are thought to have drowned. Based on data from a quantitative content analysis and a sample of news stories stemming from the online version of five Greek news media outlets, representing diverse political spaces, a broader set of criteria for content analysis, including the absence of refugee and migrant voice in media content, dehumanization, absence of solutions and context, among many others, was used in order to explore how the Greek media framed what has been labeled as one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Results revealed (i) frames of dehumanization, (ii) insufficient reporting of injustice and discrimination stemming from (state) structures and practices, and an (iii) overemphasis on migrant smuggling.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":" 31","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140999063","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decoding Journalism in the Digital Age: Self-Representation, News Quality, and Collaboration in Portuguese Newsrooms","authors":"João Canavilhas, Branco Di Fátima","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020034","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the self-representations of Portuguese media professionals and their work practices. Utilizing data from a broader empirical study, this paper delves into the dynamics of influence among various actors within newsrooms. Based on journalists’ perceptions of the content, the methods they use to assess the quality of the news are also identified. To address these enquiries, a survey was conducted among professionals engaged in the news production process. This sample comprised 72 individuals from various sectors of newsrooms, including photographers, designers, IT professionals, social media managers, and videographers. The main results indicate that seven out of ten respondents acknowledged their reliance on colleagues in newsrooms for success. Furthermore, the data suggest that there are no significant disparities among different professionals, with personal satisfaction emerging as the primary criterion for assessing the work quality. It is notable that almost twice as many women tend to indicate the low impact of the journalist on their work compared to male respondents. Moreover, most respondents stated that there is space for hybrid professionals in newsrooms.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"114 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140678320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Georgia Gioltzidou, Dimitra Mitka, Fotini Gioltzidou, Theodoros Chrysafis, I. Mylona, D. Amanatidis
{"title":"Adapting Traditional Media to the Social Media Culture: A Case Study of Greece","authors":"Georgia Gioltzidou, Dimitra Mitka, Fotini Gioltzidou, Theodoros Chrysafis, I. Mylona, D. Amanatidis","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020032","url":null,"abstract":"This study is situated within the ongoing scholarly discourse surrounding the role of social media in the evolving communication landscape. The main aim of this research is to examine the extent to which the Greek traditional media and journalists have adapted to the ethos of social media. In particular, this study conducts a comparative analysis to assess whether the Greek media and journalists have effectively embraced the communication challenges arising from advancements in social media, particularly during election cycles. The theoretical foundation rests on the network theory of power, a concept pioneered by the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells. The empirical component presents the findings obtained through an examination of journalists’ participation in political discourse on Twitter (now named X) throughout seven distinct election periods encompassing all electoral levels in Greece (presidential, national, European and regional/municipal elections, plus a referendum). The findings reveal low levels of adaptation, in contrast with western countries, where journalists and the media have embraced the online culture to a greater extent and appear to take on more prominent roles in debates. The findings provide valuable insights for journalists, politicians and the media in understanding the role of social media in political communication.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"5 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140695645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chukwuma Anyanwu, A. L. Imiti, Chikodi Joy Anyanwu
{"title":"Traditional News Media as Agents of Authenticity: Nigerian Audiences Weathering the Onslaught of New Media Streaming","authors":"Chukwuma Anyanwu, A. L. Imiti, Chikodi Joy Anyanwu","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5020030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5020030","url":null,"abstract":"The Nigerian media have, over the years, moved back and forth via all manners of experience of leadership, from military to democratic, until they finally settled into the present democratic governance. Experience from previous regimes exposed them to the vagaries of power and how to cope with them. These traditional news media, newspapers/magazines, radio, and television, were then the major and authentic news sources for Nigerians. The coming of the internet with its social media handles threw the journalists of these media into confusion as the citizens have taken the reigns of news/information peddling from under them, turning them into agents of confirmation and authenticity of information. Ironically, these traditional media, television, radio, and print, have adjusted to online media streaming, thus liberating themselves from the vagaries of temporal and spatial limitedness. Deploying a survey method (opinion poll, OPL) and relying on a purposive sampling technique, the authors purposively selected WhatsApp group platforms (WGP) as the most suitable of the new/social media with access to all manners of news sources. These were used to interrogate how online media/information/news streaming has taken the audience away from traditional media by being on the ‘spot’ at all hours with their avalanche of “Breaking News”. The findings revealed that audiences currently resort to traditional media to confirm the authenticity of news and information carried online in a sort-of-when-in-doubt-watch-the television manner or listen to radio or read the newspapers/magazines. It concludes that online news streaming has become the coveted bride of present-day information and news seekers, albeit an unreliable one.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"85 7","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140736231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"More Inclusive and Wider Sources: A Comparative Analysis of Data and Political Journalists on Twitter (Now X) in Germany","authors":"Benedict Witzenberger, Jurgen Pfeffer","doi":"10.3390/journalmedia5010027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia5010027","url":null,"abstract":"Women are underrepresented in many areas of journalistic newsrooms. In this paper, we examine if this established effect persists in the new forms of journalistic communication, namely social media networks. We use mentions, retweets, and hashtags as measures of journalistic amplification and legitimation. Furthermore, we compare two groups of journalists in different stages of development: political and data journalists in Germany in 2021. Our results show that journalists identified as women tend to favor other women journalists in mentions and retweets on Twitter (now called X), compared to men. While both professions are dominated by men, with a high share of tweets authored by men, women mention and retweet other women more than their male colleagues. Female data journalists also leverage different sources than men. In addition, we found data journalists to be more inclusive of non-member sources in their networks compared to political journalists.","PeriodicalId":17629,"journal":{"name":"Journalism and Media","volume":"134 S446","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140223942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}