International News Reporting in the Multidimensional Network: The socio-demographics, professional culture and newswork of foreign correspondents working across Sub-Saharan Africa

Tese apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Media DigitaisUma porção significativa do nosso conhecimento quotidiano sobre a África Subsaariana provém do trabalho dos repórteres internacionais. Contudo, e ainda que estes actores desempenhem um papel crítico na comunicação do Outro distante, frequentemente criticado pelos seus défices representacionais, a investigação académica sobre o trabalho dos correspondentes internacionais tem sido consideravelmente negligenciada: encontra-se desactualizada em décadas, carecendo de um exame sistemático das realidades efectivas do jornalismo em África e da evolução do trabalho de Pro-Ams e organizações de media dos cidadãos, suportados por meios digitais ligados em rede. Esta tese tem como objecto a caracterização e análise sociodemográfica destes indivíduos, das suas culturas profissionais e trabalho noticioso. Inspecciona trajectórias de longo curso no jornalismo internacional, combinando-as com desenvolvimentos de curto prazo baseados nas transformações na microelectrónica e digitalização. São delineadas três linhas de inquérito: quem está realmente a reportar em todo o continente, quais são as principais características das culturas ocupacionais e os constrangimentos que impendem sobre as rotinas de produção dos trabalhadores noticiosos. Avaliamos como estão os repórteres internacionais a reposicionar-se num ambiente comunicacional em transformação, como interpretam a sua própria ocupação e o papel dos actores emergentes na esfera mediática transnacional. Simultaneamente, contribuímos com uma investigação exploratória sobre as actividades das organizações de media dos cidadãos. Para cumprir estes objectivos, conduzimos o primeiro questionário online Pan-Africano de que há registo sobre o trabalho dos repórteres internacionais, recolhendo respostas de 124 participantes em 41 países. Estes resultados são complementados através de entrevistas semiestruturadas com 43 jornalistas profissionais, em Nairobi, Dakar e Joanesburgo. Os resultados obtidos desafiam a narrativa que apresenta a reportagem internacional como uma espécie em extinção. Ao invés, suportam uma visão diferenciada entre continuidades localizadas e rupturas localizadas na contemporânea e pós-industrial esfera mediática: a sua sociodemografia expressa uma nova economia da correspondência internacional caracterizada por uma considerável precariedade, particularmente no caso dos trabalhadores independentes (freelance), enquanto a utilização de media digitais ligados em rede conduz o campo a uma confederação de correspondências com múltiplas camadas. O campo não é já um território exclusivo de profissionais e estes têm agora de lidar com a escala sem precedentes de conteúdos gerados pelos utilizadores e reacções directas. Os profissionais despendem uma muito considerável porção de tempo diário na Internet, o que sugere uma mudança de paradigma nas práticas de recolha informativa e, em última análise, na sua cultura epistemológica

The Dynamics of Peer-Produced Political Information During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign

Wikipedia plays a crucial role for online information seeking and its editors have a remarkable capacity to rapidly revise its content in response to current events. How did the production and consumption of political information on Wikipedia mirror the dynamics of the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign? Drawing on systems justification theory and methods for measuring the enthusiasm gap among voters, this paper quantitatively analyzes the candidates’ biographical and related articles and their editors. Information production and consumption patterns match major events over the course of the campaign, but Trump-related articles show consistently higher levels of engagement than Clinton-related articles. Analysis of the editors’ participation and backgrounds show analogous shifts in the composition and durability of the collaborations around each candidate. The implications for using Wikipedia to monitor political engagement are discussed

Training or Improvisation? Citizen journalists and their educational backgrounds-a comparative view

While citizen journalists hope to bring new impulses to mass media performance, it is often asked whether they are adequately trained for the production of “newsworthy” stories. This paper focuses on educational aspects of citizen journalism, which, to date, have largely been disregarded by empirical research. A comparative analytical design illustrates the different ways in which citizen journalists acquire and develop the skills that are necessary to undertake journalistic activities in the different journalism cultures throughout Europe. The authors carried out a multi-national analysis in six European countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland). In each country, an extensive desk study helped to map the field of citizen journalism and highlight the most relevant examples. Semi-structured interviews with 54 practitioners in the field (representing different types of citizen journalism) made it possible to identify the alternative strategies that citizen journalists employ to prepare themselves for news production initiatives. The research demonstrates that the educational backgrounds of citizen journalists display differences as well as similarities—both within and across journalism cultures. While some of the actors in the field have a clear idea of what constitutes good journalism (and sometimes even aspire to work in a mainstream media organization), others seem to care little about journalistic standards and have only a vague idea about the identity of the profession. On the basis of these insights, the paper develops a typology of citizen journalists that takes into account both their education and their journalistic scope

Leaving it up to professionals (and the market)

Transparency and media accountability have gained more prominence in Finland recently with regard to two main factors: Firstly, the news media have become whistle-blowers with regard to a few political scandals over recent years, which have triggered public debate over the power of media and ethical conduct of journalism. Secondly, controversies have risen with regard to the ‘ownership’ of opinions published on online discussion boards and whether or not these should be submitted to the responsibility of journalists. Even though these themes have captured a lot of public attention, in the context of surveys, the future of journalism and public trust in the news media are not seriously in peril. While citizens in general do not merely use the media but also tend to discuss the news, their role in shaping media accountability practices on the Internet seems limited. Despite the majority of Finns using the Internet on a daily basis, the volume and prominence of media watch-blogs and also attempts to create participatory forms of journalism online have remained scarce. In the absence of a ‘bottom-up’ movement, issues related to media accountability have been taken by traditional institutions of self-regulation: the press council (CMM) and professional organizations supporting the CMM. As a result of their actions, the guidelines of journalists and institutional procedures of the CMM have been updated in order to meet with new challenges. While these attempts tend to draw support from most journalists and citizens in general, there are some signs of differences of opinion about how the Internet is expected to shape journalism and public communication. There is, on the one hand, a strong line of thought that seeks to incorporate online news to the domain of professionalism and self-regulation. On the other hand, the interviews conducted among the Finnish experts signal that the consensus over forms and norms of journalism is not completely harmonious. Rendering news organizations transparent, and enhancing dialogue between producers and users, is endorsed as a principle but the enactment of such practices is not among the primary priorities for media organizations. Nonetheless, relative optimism prevails in that as online journalism is on its way to redeem its status economically as well culturally, this would enable media organizations to launch new practices, including those related to media accountability. This optimism may not be warranted on the basis that online news practices are developed in a strongly competitive market. In this environment, ethical values such as accountability and trust may appear incompatible with short-term economic goals

#Journalism: Twitter’s impact on 21st century journalism practice

This thesis explores the impact of the hybrid media system on journalism practice in the West. To do this I use a conceptual framework which discusses the normalisation hypothesis in the context of the hybrid media system and considers both homophily =and institutional logics in an analysis of journalism-audience interactions on the social media platform Twitter. The study explores the question of normalisation through a quantitative analysis of political journalists’ Twitter interactions and two qualitative textual analyses of social media policies from mainstream news organisations in the US, UK, Ireland, and Canada. This thesis finds that homophily influences journalists’ interactions as they largely use Twitter to focus on each other, a type of practice that typifies “pack journalism” and is known to contribute to groupthink. News organizations are seen to reinforce traditional ideas of professional practice in their guidance which conceptualise the audience as passive, albeit potentially hostile, consumers rather than participants or collaborators and that while they neglect the potential for contributions from their news audiences they also lay down very prescriptive ideas about their employees can and cannot do on social media. These findings suggest that both practitioners and organizations are not only neglecting historic opportunities to create a renewed relationship with their audiences, but that they are also failing to develop proficiency in a system where power resides not just with those who held power in the older media system but also with those who best understand how to work with information in the newer system (Chadwick, 2017). The findings inform the concluding discussion which argues that journalism education needs to consider a hybrid curriculum rooted in academic research and industry practice to better prepare students for a media world of the futur

Breaking news and Wikipedia: Writing an encyclopaedia from the journalistic point of view

How current news impacts the creation of articles in the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia is studied. Unlike the traditional editorial model, Wikipedia articles on news events are produced at the same time as they happen, and, as a result, conflicts between journalism and encyclopedic criteria arise. The editorial policies and practices that the Wikipedia community of editors have been applying to the encyclopedic coverage of present facts, people, and breaking news are analyzed