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

The validity of using ICD-9 codes and pharmacy records to identify patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Background: Administrative data is often used to identify patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), yet the validity of this approach is unclear. We sought to develop a predictive model utilizing administrative data to accurately identify patients with COPD. Methods: Sequential logistic regression models were constructed using 9573 patients with postbronchodilator spirometry at two Veterans Affairs medical centers (2003-2007). COPD was defined as: 1) FEV1/FVC <0.70, and 2) FEV1/FVC < lower limits of normal. Model inputs included age, outpatient or inpatient COPD-related ICD-9 codes, and the number of metered does inhalers (MDI) prescribed over the one year prior to and one year post spirometry. Model performance was assessed using standard criteria. Results: 4564 of 9573 patients (47.7%) had an FEV1/FVC < 0.70. The presence of ≥1 outpatient COPD visit had a sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 67%; the AUC was 0.75 (95% CI 0.74-0.76). Adding the use of albuterol MDI increased the AUC of this model to 0.76 (95% CI 0.75-0.77) while the addition of ipratropium bromide MDI increased the AUC to 0.77 (95% CI 0.76-0.78). The best performing model included: ≥6 albuterol MDI, ≥3 ipratropium MDI, ≥1 outpatient ICD-9 code, ≥1 inpatient ICD-9 code, and age, achieving an AUC of 0.79 (95% CI 0.78-0.80). Conclusion: Commonly used definitions of COPD in observational studies misclassify the majority of patients as having COPD. Using multiple diagnostic codes in combination with pharmacy data improves the ability to accurately identify patients with COPD.Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development (DHA), American Lung Association (CI- 51755-N) awarded to DHA, the American Thoracic Society Fellow Career Development AwardPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84155/1/Cooke - ICD9 validity in COPD.pd

From News Softening to Social News Softening: Comparing Patterns of Political News Coverage on Different (Social) Media Channels in Germany and Switzerland

Many news media publish content on social media where it must meet the success factors of algorithmic selection in order to attract attention. One possible strategy for that is news softening. However, it is not clear which characteristics are decisive for news softening on social platforms. To help overcome this research gap, our paper adds a new concept called “social news softening” to the rather traditional news softening concept. We test it empirically, taking the example of the political coverage of German and Swiss (elite, popular) news media on Facebook, still the most important social media platform for news consumption overall, also in these countries. Our results point to platform dependent strategies. Linked/embedded website content (on-site perspective) shows (hardly) any differences to website articles overall, but the softening patterns within Facebook posts (off-site perspective) differ by country. While the German tabloid in particular still increasingly uses traditional news softening characteristics, Swiss popular media more strongly apply social media-specific ones. This illustrates the importance of our concept, which is flexible enough to allow continuous adjustments to the highly dynamic platformization processes

From News Softening to Social News Softening: Comparing Patterns of Political News Coverage on Different (Social) Media Channels in Germany and Switzerland

Many news media publish content on social media where it must meet the success factors of algorithmic selection in order to attract attention. One possible strategy for that is news softening. However, it is not clear which characteristics are decisive for news softening on social platforms. To help overcome this research gap, our paper adds a new concept called “social news softening” to the rather traditional news softening concept. We test it empirically, taking the example of the political coverage of German and Swiss (elite, popular) news media on Facebook, still the most important social media platform for news consumption overall, also in these countries. Our results point to platform dependent strategies. Linked/embedded website content (on-site perspective) shows (hardly) any differences to website articles overall, but the softening patterns within Facebook posts (off-site perspective) differ by country. While the German tabloid in particular still increasingly uses traditional news softening characteristics, Swiss popular media more strongly apply social media-specific ones. This illustrates the importance of our concept, which is flexible enough to allow continuous adjustments to the highly dynamic platformization processes.</p