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What cutting-edge topics are global media scholars paying attention to?

This article is reproduced from NetEase Journalism School with authorization

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Editor: Wang Rong Li Qin

Press: Recent In the past two years, there have been endless studies on digital media and social media in the press, but what are the high-quality studies? Journalist's Resource, an organization affiliated with Harvard University, has selected ten top papers or reports on digital media and social media in the past year. The research topics cover online news payment, artificial intelligence, emerging media companies, etc. It can be said that it is a must-read for media professionals. Annual summary.

Paying for Online News: A comparative analysis of six countries

Author: Richard Fletcher; Rasmus Kleis Nielsen ( Oxford University) Published in "Data News"

Media in many countries around the world have been working hard to explore payment models. However, our understanding of the factors that affect user payment and users' views on online news is limited. Therefore, this study conducted a survey in six countries (France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) to analyze "who is paying for online news" and "who is willing to pay for online news in the future."

(Proportion of people in each country who have paid for online news)

(Proportion of people in each country who are willing to pay for online news in the future)

The research conclusion makes the media They have mixed feelings: users who originally paid for print news are more likely to pay for online news; users who are accustomed to public media are less willing to pay now and in the future, partly because they have access to free news. But contrary to the research hypothesis, young people do not have a stronger willingness to pay for online news.

Overall, there are still only a few people in these six countries who pay for online news, and the future situation is not very optimistic, but the attempt to pay for news is still in its infancy, and it may be possible to predict its prospects now premature.

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News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017

Author: Elisa Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried (Pew Research Center)

The Pew Research Center surveyed 4,971 U.S. adults on how they obtained news through social media in 2017. The results found that 67% of the survey respondents obtain news through social media, and social platforms are increasingly focusing on their news functions.

The increase in people who like to read news on social media is mainly driven by non-white users who are older and less educated. If divided according to educational background, the proportion of users with non-bachelor’s degrees using social platforms to read news has increased. On the contrary, the proportion of users with bachelor’s degrees and above has begun to decline.

Generally speaking, the proportion of users of Twitter, Youtube and Snapchat who watch news is increasing the fastest. Since 2013, half of Twitter users have read news on Twitter. In 2017, due to the emergence of President Trump who loves to tweet, the proportion of Twitter users watching news quickly increased to 74%, an increase of 15% from last year.

Users who watch news on different social platforms have different characteristics. Users of Instagram and Snapchat are generally younger and more non-white; news users of Twitter and LinkedIn are more highly educated, with 59% and 45% having a bachelor's degree or above respectively.

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Research on emerging media companies and media fields that have received investment

Venture-Backed News Startups and the Field of Journalism: Challenges, changes, and consistencies

Author: By Nikki Usher (George Washington University) Published in "Data News"

This research area investigated including BuzzFeed, GeekWire 18 emerging media companies in the United States and Europe, including Vox, to understand how emerging digital media is changing the landscape of the news industry. The research also focuses on the role algorithms play in predicting user behavior and scaling product creation.

Usher, the author of the paper, interviewed senior managers, founders and other employees of these companies to learn about the company’s founding background, development vision, technology research and development, revenue methods and other details.

These emerging media companies are committed to developing technology, creating algorithms, innovating culture and personalizing news. They also analyze the behavioral habits of journalists to make technicians become more like journalists. These are great challenges for traditional media.

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Technology companies’ participation in political communication: The performance of Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google during the 2016 US election

Technology Firms Shape Political Communication: The Work of Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and Google With Campaigns During the 2016 U.S. Presidential Cycle

Author: Daniel Kreiss (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Shannon C. McGregor (University of Utah) published in "Political Communication"

This article takes a behind-the-scenes look at how Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter cooperated with political campaigns during the 2016 US election. of. This article focuses on their role at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and their consulting services to candidates, including Trump, during the campaign.

Researchers found that these technology companies have increasingly improved their political knowledge in data-related campaigns and even formed organizational structures and staffing suitable for American party elections.

At the same time, representatives from various companies said that providing candidates with corresponding products and services is their main job during the election. They hope candidates will give their services and platforms greater public visibility and build more connections with lawmakers.

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When reporters experience robot writing, what do they think about automated news

When Reporters Get Hands-On With Robo-Writing: Professionals consider automated journalism's capabilities and consequences

Authors: Neil Thurman, Konstantin Drr, and Jessica Kunert (University of Munich and University of Zurich) Published in "Data Journalism"

Media Changes are integrating artificial intelligence into newsrooms, such as using crime statistics and structured data on sports games to generate news reports. While many journalists understand the importance of this trend, most have no direct experience using machines to write stories.

In this study, the researchers held research discussions with a small group of journalists (from the BBC, CNN, Reuters, etc.) to show them how to use software to create data-driven news content. After gaining hands-on experience, journalists were asked about the potential and limitations of the technology.

Unsurprisingly, many journalists talked about the limitations of automated journalism. For example, some worried that automation would make information less discernible. Others see benefits from automation, including saving time and reducing human error. For some, automating news generation is frustrating and they feel it will not reflect their capabilities.

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The impact and inspiration of artificial intelligence on journalistic practice

Artificial Intelligence: Practice and Implications for Journalism

By Mark Hansen, Meritxell Roca-Sales, Jon Keegan, and George King (Brown Institute for Media Innovation and Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School)

When journalists and technologists work in news editing What problems will they find when the room brainstorms about artificial intelligence? This report captures the insights from a workshop organized by Columbia University’s Center for Digital Journalism and the Brown Center for Media Innovation, where journalists and technology experts held a three-hour discussion on the topic.

The knowledge and communication gap between the technologists creating AI and the journalists actually using the technology can lead to inappropriate use of technology by journalists. Furthermore, news outlets need to provide readers with clear explanations of how AI is used to research and report news. In addition, technicians and journalists should work together to combat the biases of artificial intelligence. Because artificial intelligence programs are written by humans, some errors are bound to occur, although sometimes they are not obvious.

Authors: Rob Faris, Hal Roberts, Bruce Etling, Nikki Bourassa, Ethan Zuckerman, and Yochai Benkler (Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University)

Here In this report, researchers analyzed the composition and reporting behavior of the U.S. media to explain how Trump and Clinton received different coverage. The 142-page report includes numerous bar charts, network maps, and other data visualizations, and even includes a case study on the Clinton Foundation's reporting.

(Statistics on the number of sentences about candidates and related topics from May 1, 2015 to November 7, 2016)

Although the mainstream media has negative opinions on both presidential candidates was given negative coverage, but Trump clearly dominated the news coverage and had the opportunity to build his image. Reports show that after the Democratic National Convention, people had high expectations for Hillary. She was originally leading in the polls, but the far-right media successfully pushed the negative news about the Clinton Foundation into the public eye, causing Hillary to lose her rebound. opportunity.

The study also concluded that although fake news was a big nuisance, it played a relatively small role in the 2016 presidential election. In contrast, information and propaganda from dedicated party websites played a greater role in elections.

News media call on journalists to use social media to promote their work and build their own professional brands. What impact will this have on reporters’ activities on Twitter and Facebook after get off work?

The results found that journalists feel a lot of pressure to authenticate themselves as journalists on social media, act as experts within their professional scope, and act as representatives of news organizations at all times. This identity leaves little room for them in their lives, as they prefer to share family, faith, or friendships online.

This paper examines the impact of social media on journalists’ identities. The authors interviewed 41 U.S. newspaper reporters and editors to explore the challenges they face blending their personal and professional identities on social media.

Authors: Gary King, Benjamin Schneer, and Ariel White (Harvard University, Florida State University, and MIT) Published in Science

The study was conducted in a study involving 48 In an experiment with a small media organization, it was quantitatively demonstrated that news reporting contributes to the international democratic process.

Reporting on a policy topic prompts the public to express their views and positions on the topic. The researchers randomly selected topics and asked media organizations to write and publish articles based on these topics, and then measured the impact based on website views and social media posts.

Authors: Nic Newman, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeropoulos, David A. L. Levy, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford)

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism launches an annual annual digital news report. In conjunction with data from YouGov, an authoritative market research organization, the report investigated the media usage and consumption behavior of more than 70,000 people in 36 countries.

The main findings in the report are:

1. The growth rate of the desktop ad blocking software (plug-in) business slowed down significantly in 2017. The current coverage rate is about 24%, while the mobile version It is almost unaffected. In addition, about 43% of respondents are willing to actively turn off ad blocking plug-ins when browsing specific news websites, an increase from before.

2. Users in many countries are increasingly using news applications. For example, the highest usage proportion among Swedish respondents is 37%, South Korea is 33%, and the United States is 26%, all of which have increased compared with last year. At the same time, more users are choosing to accept push messages from news apps.

3. Reuters researchers also counted the number of respondents from various countries who paid to watch news. In 2017, only the United States saw relatively big changes. In the United States, the proportion of paid news users increased from 9% in 2016 to 16% in 2017, and users between the ages of 18 and 24 increased from 4% to 18%.

4. Breaking news and in-depth analysis may be profitable points worth paying attention to for media paid content, and users are more willing to pay for these contents.