In the Service of Good Journalism and Audience Interests? How Audience Metrics Affect News Quality

A large and growing body of literature shows that audience metrics exert a significant influence in many newsrooms around the world. Scholars assume that this might affect the quality of news, but findings on how audience metrics influence news quality and media performance are scattered. Based on a widely used set of news quality criteria, this article is the first to focus on this question. It reviews and discusses the existing findings by considering the influence of audience metrics across four analytical dimensions: A) the allocation of resources and recognition; B) the volume, practices and rhythms of news production; C) the selection and placement of topics; and D) the formats and styles of news presentation. The analysis reveals that journalists’ use of audience metrics has a mainly negative impact on news quality. This effect is the result of both the growing economic pressures on newsrooms and a dominant rhetoric that equates measures of audience size with audience interests and good journalistic work

Flemish Media Regulator clarifies the rules on editorial and commercial content

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Metaverse. Old urban issues in new virtual cities

Recent years have seen the arise of some early attempts to build virtual cities, utopias or affective dystopias in an embodied Internet, which in some respects appear to be the ultimate expression of the neoliberal city paradigma (even if virtual). Although there is an extensive disciplinary literature on the relationship between planning and virtual or augmented reality linked mainly to the gaming industry, this often avoids design and value issues. The observation of some of these early experiences - Decentraland, Minecraft, Liberland Metaverse, to name a few - poses important questions and problems that are gradually becoming inescapable for designers and urban planners, and allows us to make some partial considerations on the risks and potentialities of these early virtual cities

Integrated media in change

Media is a concept as mobile and flexible as media themselves. Media are global, but at the same time local. They are used by individuals, but also by the masses. They are shared, as well as private. The media landscape is moving and changing. Traditional journalism is being integrated into social media. Once created merely to inform us, media today have chosen to entertain us as well. It is to illuminate this movement and diversity that Integrated Media in Change was written. The publication owes its inspiration to the project “Integrated Media”, which brought together Nordic researchers who shared a curiosity about the topic and opened up new co-operation between the media in Finland, Sweden and Norway. The work featured in the present volume embraces two aims: to present the information structures underlying design and visual communication and to outline the relationship between traditional and social media. The contributing authors are professors, lecturers and scholars in of media, visual communication, the social sciences and media technology.publishedVersio

The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto

This open access book presents the collectively authored Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto and accompanying materials. The Manifesto can be signed by visiting http://bit.ly/signPSManifesto The Internet and the media landscape are broken. The dominant commercial Internet platforms endanger democracy. They have created a communications landscape overwhelmed by surveillance, advertising, fake news, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and algorithmic politics. Commercial Internet platforms have harmed citizens, users, everyday life, and society. Democracy and digital democracy require Public Service Media. A democracy-enhancing Internet requires Public Service Media becoming Public Service Internet platforms – an Internet of the public, by the public, and for the public; an Internet that advances instead of threatens democracy and the public sphere. The Public Service Internet is based on Internet platforms operated by a variety of Public Service Media, taking the public service remit into the digital age. The Public Service Internet provides opportunities for public debate, participation, and the advancement of social cohesion. Accompanying the Manifesto are materials that informed its creation: Christian Fuchs’ report of the results of the Public Service Media/Internet Survey, the written version of Graham Murdock’s online talk on public service media today, and a summary of an ecomitee.com discussion of the Manifesto’s foundations. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Christian Fuchs and Klaus Unterberger Chapter 2: The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Manifesto Chapter 3: The Public Service Media and Public Service Internet Utopias Survey Report Christian Fuchs Chapter 4: Public Service Media for Critical Times: Connectivity, Climate, and Corona Graham Murdock Chapter 5: The Future of Public Service Media and the Internet Alessandro D’Arma, Christian Fuchs, Minna Horowitz and Klaus Unterberge

International Conference on Journalism, Media and Communication

UBT Annual International Conference is the 8th international interdisciplinary peer reviewed conference which publishes works of the scientists as well as practitioners in the area where UBT is active in Education, Research and Development. The UBT aims to implement an integrated strategy to establish itself as an internationally competitive, research-intensive university, committed to the transfer of knowledge and the provision of a world-class education to the most talented students from all background. The main perspective of the conference is to connect the scientists and practitioners from different disciplines in the same place and make them be aware of the recent advancements in different research fields, and provide them with a unique forum to share their experiences. It is also the place to support the new academic staff for doing research and publish their work in international standard level. This conference consists of sub conferences in different fields like: – Computer Science and Communication Engineering– Management, Business and Economics– Mechatronics, System Engineering and Robotics– Energy Efficiency Engineering– Information Systems and Security– Architecture – Spatial Planning– Civil Engineering , Infrastructure and Environment– Law– Political Science– Journalism , Media and Communication– Food Science and Technology– Pharmaceutical and Natural Sciences– Design– Psychology– Education and Development– Fashion– Music– Art and Digital Media– Dentistry– Applied Medicine– Nursing This conference is the major scientific event of the UBT. It is organizing annually and always in cooperation with the partner universities from the region and Europe. We have to thank all Authors, partners, sponsors and also the conference organizing team making this event a real international scientific event. Edmond Hajrizi, President of UBT UBT – Higher Education Institutio

Rethinking the practice of accountability journalism in the digital age. The inception and development of the first Portuguese university-based investigative journalism centre and whistleblowing platform

At a time of worrying change, when Western traditional media outlets appear to be engulfed by the collapse of the advertising-based business model and can hardly bear the strain brought about by new technologies, the present study identifies an increasing information deficit as regards quality accountability reporting. Taking up Duffield and Cokley’s challenge to change in response to the demands of the time, the present paper supports the development of VALQUIRIA, at https://valquiria.org, a transmedia, multiplatform investigative journalism project integrated in the Faculty for Humanities and Social Sciences of the NOVA University of Lisbon. Valquíria, adopting a new sustainable media model, represents the very first attempt in Portugal to create a completely independent space for the education of investigative journalists, the assistance to foreign and local reporters, the production and diffusion of accountability reporting, technological products and innovative practices which can aid the profession. Featuring a vibrant crowd-sourcing and collaborative policy, its ultimate aim is to reinvigorate and enhance the practice of accountability journalism in Portugal, proving its urgency for preserving and guarding a healthy democracy. To change even more the traditional paradigm of public interest journalism, the project features a whistleblowing platform called PTLeaks: built in cooperation with the HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human rights, it is the first Portuguese GlobaLeaks initiative applied to investigative journalism

Mapping Digital Media: Slovakia

The Mapping Digital Media project examines the global opportunities and risks created by the transition from traditional to digital media. Covering 60 countries, the project examines how these changes affect the core democratic service that any media system should provide: news about political, economic, and social affairs.There have been waves of change in the provision of news and information services in Slovakia in recent years. Digitization has been variously implicated as a cause, catalyst, or coincidence of such change. Some of the developments have been to the benefit of both consumers and citizens while others have come at a substantial cost to them. In this context, the most definable and singular event was the digital switch-over of television, completed in 2012.However, there remains an urgent need for reform in a number of areas. A renewed policy focus is warranted in order to meet the continuing and evolving challenges that digital media pose to the provision of accessible, sustainable, independent, diverse, and good-quality news.Media effectiveness and quality depend directly on the legislative environment, which is why this report calls on government and parliament to uphold the public interest and the rules of fair economic competition over the political and economic interests of particular stakeholders. Regulatory bodies should respect the same principle, and prioritize professional over political criteria in personnel appointments