Unpacking Attitudes on Immigrants and Refugees: A Focus on Household Composition and News Media Consumption

This study examines how household composition and news media consumption and trust are related to attitudes towards two minority groups—immigrants and refugees—in a representative sample of the adult population (n = 6000) in Belgium, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands. We find that Swedes hold the most positive attitudes towards both groups, while the French are found to be most negative. The Belgians and Dutch hold moderate attitudes. There is also evidence that attitudes on refugees are more negative than attitudes on immigrants in Sweden and France, but not in Belgium and the Netherlands. Using structural equation modeling, we find that household composition is not directly related to attitudes, but indirect effects through socio-economic status and media consumption indicate that singles hold more negative attitudes than couples. Public television consumption, popular online news consumption, and trust in media are positively related to attitudes, whereas commercial television consumption is negatively associated with them

Mag het iets meer zijn? Verslaggeving over het proces Van Themsche

status: publishe

Twitter as a journalistic or (self - ) promotional tool for news rooms : Case studies from Flanders, the Netherlands, the UK and USA

Twitter as a journalistic or (self-)promotional tool for news rooms Case studies from Flanders, the Netherlands, the UK and USA In a journalistic world in which competition is fierce, market shares are increasingly important for commercial and public broadcasting companies as well, while operating in a rapidly changing digital environment that demands constant alertness, social media in general and Twitter in particular can fulfill multiple roles within the communication process of news makers and their online news consumers. Next to using Twitter as 1) a news gathering tool in answer to the ‘what’s happening’ question (Bruns, 2008; Palser, 2009) and as reflected in the concept of ambient news (Hermida, 2010), Twitter operates as 2) a news diffusion tool (news channel, Bruns, 2012; Farhi, 2009), but the medium may simultaneously serve as a 3) promotional tool for a news channel, news brand, news program or its journalists as well (Emmett, 2008; Moylan, 2013; Standley, 2013). Seen from this perspective, the line between journalistic content and (self-)promotion becomes blurred. In combination with an attempt to interact more intensely with news users/consumers, specific call-to-actions are used in news tweets in order to turn the relationship into a reciprocal one instead of the pre-web 2.0 one-way communication direction. In our exploratory research on the journalistic and promotional use of Twitter, we studied 6 cases and analysed 1477 tweets from Flanders (content from the twitter accounts of VRT and VTM news and Reyers laat), UK (BBC), USA (Fox News) and the Netherlands (DWDD). Intercoder reliability was measured (alpha’s) for 10% of the material. Our results show that interactivity is quite low on all these accounts, the level of promotional content varies between 1/6th to 2/5th of the twitter content. Calls-to action, finally, are widely used (call for material, sharing, polling etc.).status: publishe

Children’s news online: content analysis and usability study results

In this study, we combine a content analysis of the toolsets of children’s online news sites in three countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom) with a usability study of two of these news sites for children aged 9 to 12 years old. Results show that especially 9-year-olds find it difficult to navigate through the sites and are faced with reading and comprehension difficulties. To our surprise, also 12-year-olds run into a lot of difficulties during the completion of the tasks. According to the Flesch and Flesch-Douma reading ease calculations, the text material on the site is too difficult for the age group.status: publishe

Children's News Online. Website Analysis and Usability Study Results (the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands)

In this study, we combine an analysis of the toolsets of children’s online news sites in three countries (the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands) with a usability study of two of these news sites for children aged nine to 12 years old. Results show that especially nine-year-olds find it difficult to navigate through the sites and are faced with reading and comprehension difficulties. Not only nine-year-olds but also 12-year-olds with a higher reading proficiency level run into a lot of difficulties during the usability test. According to the Flesch and Flesch-Douma reading ease calculations, the text material on the sites is too difficult for the age group.status: publishe

Receptie van dramatische nieuwsfoto’s: de rol van empathie, need for arousal en attitude tov journalistieke ethiek in de evaluatie van publiceerbaarheid

status: publishe