News and the Overloaded Consumer: Factors Influencing Information Overload Among News Consumers

News producers continue to increase their volume of production and delivery platforms in an effort to reach and maintain news consumers. However, consumers may not necessarily find more news desirable. Previous studies have suggested that information surplus can lead to negative outcomes for consumers, but research of outcomes related to news production and consumption has been scant. This study explores novel areas of news surplus and overload, empirically examining factors associated with the degree of perceived overload across a broad spectrum of news delivery platforms. The findings reveal that the majority of today's news consumers feel overloaded with the amount of news they are confronted with. Gender, news interest, and the use of specific news platforms and outlets predict the degree of that overload. News access through platforms and outlets such as computers, e-readers, and Facebook is positively associated with overload, whereas other platforms such as television and the iPhone are negatively associated with overload. Implications for media psychology and news consumption are discussed.Journalis

Resistance of channels: television distribution in the multiplatform era

This article focuses on distribution of television and, using BBC Three as a case study, provides an in-depth examination of how broadcasters’ strategies for packaging and distributing content are being re-considered in response to newly emerging patterns of audience behaviour and demand. It considers the extent to which the role of the broadcast channel – traditionally the main vector via which audiences have enjoyed television content - may now be threatened by the rise of online rivals and accompanying pressures to adjust to a digital multiplatform environment. Drawing on the experience of BBC Three, the research question it asks is: to what extent is there an economic justification for switching from ‘the channel’ as the distribution format to an online-only service? The original findings presented are based on analysis of the finances of BBC Three, on evidence gathered through a series of in-depth interviews carried out with senior executives at the BBC, and on analysis of secondary source data and public policy statements and performance reviews. They provide an empirically based contribution to knowledge about how growth of the internet is prompting public service suppliers of media to reconsider and adjust their strategies for distribution of television content and, more generally, to understanding of contemporary strategies for re-invention and survival in the television industry

Intellectual property enclosure and economic discourse in the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Special legislation associated with mega sporting events has enabled new forms of cultural enclosure, effectively commoditising aspects of cultural expression that previously remained in the public domain. In this article, the authors examine the tension between economic and political justifications for hosting the Olympics and the intellectual property enclosures that are imposed upon host nations. These enclosures extend beyond what is traditionally protected under trade mark law, to include ‘generic’ terms. Enabling market competitors to freely use generic, descriptive language is a core doctrine of trade mark law, seeking to balance monopoly IP rights with free market competition. The authors evaluate the impact of special legislative enclosures on the public interest, and argue that collective access to expression should be more carefully considered in political and economic calculations of the value of the Olympics

Creative economy and policy

The challenges currently facing systems of media provision across Europe require critical, multi-disciplinary research informed by creative economy and policy perspectives. Creative economy themes of relevance to media include the exceptional economic characteristics of cultural and creative content, production activities and markets. The use and efficacy of copyright and alternative policy interventions to support creativity represent important emerging areas for media-related research. The effects of changing technology are another priority. More research is needed that builds our critical understanding of the implications of contemporary changes in audience behaviour, of converged multi-platform strategies for supplying content and of globalised distribution for creative outputs

The image choices of social television audiences : the narrative of The Voice UK and La Voz (Spain) viewers on Twitter

Content shared on social media platforms is increasingly centred on images and conversations discussing television on digital platforms are also influenced by this trend. This article examines the visual data posted by viewers while watching the 2019 edition of the Spanish and British adaptations of the international Reality Show 'The Voice'. With the sample including images posted by viewers on Twitter during the broadcast of the episodes, the production formats, the type of content, the purpose of the images and the connection between the visual data and the text in the tweet have been analysed. The results highlight three different trends: the parallel visual narrative created by viewers on Twitter through the use of digital culture, the showcasing of their private sphere and the appropriation of images from the television episodes altering the discourse presented by the broadcasters.El contenido compartido en las redes sociales se focalizacada vez más en las imágenes y las conversaciones sobre televisión en las plataformas digitales también se han vistoinfluenciadas por esta tendencia. Este artículo examina los datos visuales publicados por los espectadores mientras ven la edición de 2019 de las adaptaciones española y británica del reality show internacional 'The Voice'. Con la muestra de imágenes publicadas por los espectadores en Twitter durante la emisión de los episodios, se han analizado los formatos de producción, el tipo de contenido, la finalidad de las imágenes y la conexión entre los datos visuales y el texto del tuit. Los resultados destacan tres tendencias diferentes: la narrativa visual paralela creada por los espectadores en Twitter a través del uso de la cultura digital, la exhibición de su esfera privada y laapropiación de imágenes de los episodios televisivos alterando el discurso presentado por los canales de televisió

The Implementation of Mass Media Digital Platform in Indonesia

Communication technology in mass media has experienced rapid development. The implementation of digital platforms is carried out by mass media groups in facing competition between media in welcoming society 5.0. This study aims to find out the implementation of digital platforms is carried out by mass media groups in Indonesia through an umbrella perspective. The research method used qualitative approach applying data collection techniques of observation, interviews, and documentation. Interviews were conducted with the person in charge of the digital platform in the media groups. Observations were also taken in the digital platform in the media groups: TransMedia Group, MNC Group, Media Group, Viva Group, Kompas Group, Emtek Group, Jawa Post Group, Netmediatama group, and Mahaka Group. The results of this study show that the forms of the current mass media digital platforms used are websites, online media, applications, and social media. In the infrastructure of media organizations, digital platforms are a form of media group policy in converting technology, content convergence, and economic convergence. Digital platforms have also provided new low-cost income for the media as an industry as well as a two-way form of communication in forming and maintaining relationships with audiences

Interakcija, sukreacija i participacija u literaturi o javnim medijskim servisima, politici i strategiji: komparativna analiza slučajeva flamanskog dijela Belgije, Nizozemske, Francuske i Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva

The article critically evaluates whether there is a (mis)match between ideas on audience involvement in public service media (PSM) theory and the translation thereof in public broadcasters’ policy and strategy documents. The literature section theoretically frames this discussion, first, discussing five objectives of PSM and audience involvement. Subsequently, it studies how the BBC (UK), France Télévisions (France), VRT (Flanders), and NPO (the Netherlands) have to (policy) and intend to (strategy) involve their audiences. These cases have been selected with an eye on including both better-funded (BBC, FTV) and smaller public broadcasters (VRT, NPO), as well as different media systems. For the analysis, the method of goal-means tree analysis is adopted, a type of qualitative document analysis that can be deployed to uncover goal-means relationships in policy and strategy texts. The main argument is that, rather than a mismatch, some of the questionable, normative assumptions made in theories concerning audience involvement and PSM are also present in the PSM policy and strategy texts.Rad kritički evaluira postoji li (ne)podudaranje između teorije javnog medijskog servisa i njegove politike i strateških dokumenata kada je riječ o idejama uključivanja medijskih publika u javni medijski servis. Najprije se teorijski nastoji uokviriti ova rasprava, tako da se razmatra pet zadaća uključivanja medijskih publika u javni medijski servis. Potom se istražuje kako BBC (Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo), France Télévisions (Francuska), VRT (Flandrija, Belgija) i NPO (Nizozemska) trebaju (politika) i namjeravaju (strategija) uključiti svoje medijske publike. Odabrani slučajevi daju uvid u bolje financirane (BBC, FTV) i manje javne medijske servise (VRT, NPO), kao i u različite medijske sustave. Upotrijebljena je metoda goal-means tree analiza, tip kvalitativne analize dokumenata kojoj je svrha otkrivanje odnosa između cilja i sredstava u politici i strateškim tekstovima. Glavni je argument da je ovdje prije riječ o nekim upitnim, normativnim pretpostavkama iz teorije o javnom medijskom servisu i uključenosti publike, koje su prenesene i u tekstove o politici i strategiji javnog medijskog servisa, a ne o nepodudaranju između teorije, politike i strategije javnog medijskog servisa

Social Media and Journalism: 10 Years Later, Untangling Key Assumptions

Amid a broader reckoning about the role of social media in public life, this article argues that the same scrutiny can be applied to the journalism studies field and its approaches to examining social media. A decade later, what hath such research wrought? We need a more particular accounting of the assumptions, biases, and blind spots that have crept into this line of research as well as the study of mediated conversations broadly. Our purpose is to provoke reflection and chart a path for future research by critiquing themes of what has come before. In particular, we seek to untangle three faulty assumptions—often implicit but no less influential—that have been overlooked in the rapid take-up of social media as a key phenomenon for journalism studies particularly and digital media studies generally: (1) that social media would be a net positive; (2) that social media reflects reality; and (3) that social media matters over and above other factors

Absentmindedly scrolling through nothing: liveness and compulsory continuous connectedness in social media

Social media fuel a sense of unsettledness to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This article is concerned with the habitual, naturalized character acquired by these platforms and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim here is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from the perspective of the people who use these technologies in the context of everyday life – that is, the ‘users’. Theoretically, the entry point is to revisit the claim of liveness – and its shifting relations with issues of sequential flow and eventfulness – and to position it as a central resource in this process, in which users are deliberately encouraged to expect the unexpected even in ‘non-eventful’ situations. Drawing from the thematic analysis of data collected through the diary-interview method with people who live in London and use a range of social media, I examine both how this urge of continuous connectedness operates and the ambivalent experiences it generates. The findings were categorized into five themes: excitement, anxiety, reassurance, fatigue, and responsibility