Referendum Campaigns in the Digital Age: Towards (More) Comparative Analyses in Hybrid Media Systems

Referendum campaigns, which happen in many countries on the national or sub-national level, are highly important and special periods of political communication. Unlike elections, however, referendum campaigns are understudied phenomena. This thematic issue addresses patterns of referendum campaigns, which increasingly take place in digital and hybrid media environments, where political actors conduct campaigns through various channels, news media react to and shape debates on social media, and citizens receive a large share of political information from traditional and digital media. In this editorial, we provide a short overview of how research on referendum campaigns has evolved and how it has started to shift its attention away from news coverage and toward the role of campaign actors and the citizens who use (or engage with) search engines and social media platforms. The articles in this thematic issue reflect this shift but also show that news media remain important actors in referendum campaigns. Finally, we outline further research steps, which should include even more holistic analyses of the hybridity of referendum campaigns and hopefully more comparisons across cases

Editorial: Reconceptualizing public sphere(s) in the digital age? On the role and future of public sphere theory

Theories of the public sphere—or more recently, of plural public spheres—are core elements of communication and media research. A lively and dynamic debate exists about the respective theories, and the approaches employed to do so have diversified in recent years. This special issue of Communication Theory aims to assess the role and future of public sphere(s) theory in digital societies: if, and where, are concepts of the public sphere(s) still useful and needed, which criticisms are (still) valid, which not, which new ones might be necessary, and which concepts need to be developed or elaborated to respond meaningfully to the digital transformation? This editorial introduces the topic of and contributions to the special issue as well as nine theses on the development of public sphere(s) theorizing

Change in News Access, Change in Expectations? How Young Social Media Users in Switzerland Evaluate the Functions and Quality of News

Online media environments have changed the way young people access news. Despite much research on the topic, the expectations of journalistic news by young adults who have turned their back on traditional news media remain unclear. We use a novel multimethod qualitative online study design to investigate the perceived quality, functions, and expectations toward journalistic news of young adults in Switzerland who use social media as their main source for news and rarely consume traditional media. Nineteen young adults between 20 and 25 years of age with different educational levels participated in our study in May 2020. Our results show that even though the participants only occasionally use traditional news media channels, they still consider journalistic news relevant and appreciate quality standards of professional journalism such as actuality and veracity (Swart 2021b). Among the functions of news, the participants highlighted sociability and identification. Exchange and discussion of news are, thus, of high relevance online but also offline. Also, the participants show a high affinity toward news on mobilizing topics, which are of interest to themselves and their peers, and motivate them to engage with news more intensely. According to the participants, news should be attractively prepared, such as with audiovisual formats and easy to understand and integrate into everyday life. The participants also expressed a preference to consume news articles from different media brands within a single platform. Our study outlines a fruitful path for comprehensive qualitative research with innovative online tools

The effect of democratic media quality on user engagement on Social Media: An Analysis of the contents of five Swiss news media outlets on Facebook

Die demokratietheoretische Qualität von Newsinhalten auf sozialen Medien ist vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung der Öffentlichkeit von gesellschaftlicher Relevanz. Können jedoch Newsinhalte von hoher Qualität genügend Engagement erzielen, um in den Social Media Strategien aufgenommen zu werden? Dieser Beitrag analysiert die Publikationen von fünf Schweizer Online-Newsmedien auf Facebook und verbindet demokratietheoretische Qualität mit der Intensität der Nutzerreaktionen (Engagement), gemessen als die Summe von reactions, shares und comments. Die Analyse zeigt eine positive Korrelation zwischen niedriger Qualität und hohem Engagement: Je geringer die Themenrelevanz und je weniger professionell die Artikel, umso höher das erzielte Engagement. Leitmedien können jedoch mit qualitativ hochstehenden Inhalten hohes Engagement auslösen, was auf die Relevanz der Medientypen verweist: Einordnungsleistung, d.h. die informative Tiefe eines Artikels, hat einen signifikant positiven Effekt auf Engagement im Fall des qualitativ hochstehenden Medientitels NZZ

Lessons learned? The quality of media coverage in the first and second waves of the coronavirus pandemic

Since the beginning of the pandemic, coronavirus reporting has been criticised for being too alarmist (or not cautionary enough), too uncritical of government action, too lacking in context in its use of figures and too one-sided in its selection of experts. The aim of this paper is to examine to what extent the criticism of coronavirus reporting expressed during the first wave (1 January 2020 to 30 April 2020) could have provided a reason to reflect on the quality of reporting during the phases with less reporting and, if necessary, to make adjustments. The study therefore analyses Swiss media coverage of the second wave (1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021) and compares it with findings on coronavirus coverage of the first wave of the pandemic. It ties in with the study on coronavirus reporting published in the 2020 Yearbook Quality of the Media (Eisenegger et al., 2020). The comparison reveals an ambivalent picture: on the one hand, journalists present coronavirus as a clear threat less frequently in the second wave (6%) than in the first wave (16%), despite considerably higher numbers of cases. In addition, they assess government action in the second wave less affirmatively (0.3%) than during the first wave (6%), thus reporting in a way characterised by distance from public authorities. Figures and statistics are increasingly contextualised (first wave: 12%, second wave: 21%). On the other hand, hardly any positive changes can be observed in the selection of experts: diversity continues to be limited. Most of the scientists featured in the media come from the medical field. Their share in the second wave is even slightly higher (83%) than in the first wave (78%). Social science and humanities disciplines are thus largely left out of reporting on the second wave. Female academics are also significantly under-represented compared to their male colleagues. Compared to the first wave (12%), however, they appear somewhat more frequently in the second wave (21%)

Sourcing practices of online news media in Switzerland during the war in Ukraine

IntroductionIn times of war, sourcing becomes a major challenge for journalists. Information is often unavailable because access is restricted or because reporting on the ground is prohibited, too dangerous, or even simply too costly for media having to work with limited resources. Which sources actually shape the news is a highly relevant question because news media still constitute the main channel of information for many citizens, especially when it comes to wars abroad. For a long time, scholars have diagnosed a dominance of official sources in war coverage but have not analyzed whether this is still the case with the advent of social media platforms, which potentially offer journalists other sources. Moreover, the integration of social media sources, such as Twitter or Telegram, is just one of many interdependencies in hybrid media environments. We aim to provide a more holistic understanding of sourcing practices in times of war by analyzing to what extent information from government and military sources, social media, other news media, and news agencies is featured as a main source in reporting on the war in Ukraine.MethodsIn our paper, we examine how 13 online media in Switzerland cover the war in Ukraine during the first 3 months after Russia's invasion—an example of a period in which journalists must typically identify reliable sources for reporting on the events surrounding such a war. Using a manual content analysis of 1,198 news articles, we analyze the sourcing practices that are visible in the reporting.ResultsOur results clearly show that information from other news outlets and social media and, above all, from news agencies plays an important role. Structural features of media types lead to distinct sourcing practices. Heavily commercialized, advertising-based media rely on news agency reports, other news media, and social media much more than subscription media or public service media. However, in all media types, actors from the government and the military are the most important source type.DiscussionOur study reveals patterns old and new in terms of sourcing practices war coverage in a European country not participating in, but affected by, the major war in Ukraine

News Media Trust and News Consumption: Factors Related to Trust in News in 35 Countries

The changes in how people consume news and the emergence of digital and distributed news sources call for a reexamination of the relationship between news use and trust in news. Previous research had suggested that alternative news use is correlated with lower levels of trust in news, whereas mainstream news use is correlated with higher levels of trust in news. Our research, based on a survey of news users in 35 countries, shows that using either mainstream or alternative news sources is associated with higher levels of trust in news. However, we find that using social media as a main source of news is correlated with lower levels of trust in news. When looking at country effects, we find that systemic factors such as the levels of press freedom or the audience share of the public service broadcaster in a country are not significantly correlated with trust in news

Onlinenews : die Qualität von Presse- und Onlinetiteln im Direktvergleich

Diese Vertiefungsstudie analysiert die Qualität der Onlineberichterstattung auf der Basis eines systematischen Vergleichs von ausgewählten Pressetiteln und ihren Newssites. Durch die gezielte Gegenüberstellung der Printausgabe und der jeweiligen Onlineausgabe eines Medientitels* (z. B. Tages-Anzeiger und tagesanzeiger.ch) werden die Qualitätsunterschiede zwischen Presse und Online herausgearbeitet. Angesichts der grossen Veränderungen bei der Nutzung von Informationsmedien (vgl. fög 2012, I.1) ist es eine wichtige Frage der Kommunikationsforschung, ob die Berichterstattungsqualität der Pressetitel auch auf den verschiedenen Onlinekanälen (Desktopcomputer, Smartphones und Tablets) gewährleistet ist oder gar verbessert werden kann, oder ob mit dem neuesten Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit*, unter anderem der Verlagerung des Informationsjournalismus auf das Internet, ein systematischer Qualitätsverlust der Berichterstattung mit Folgen für die demokratische Auseinandersetzung einhergeht