“Journalism ideology” and its influence on the producers of Radio Sonder Grense radio current affairs

In the same way that people can have a political or a personal ideology, their professional identities and how they practise a craft or an occupation may be influenced by what can be labelled as a “professional ideology”. Through conducting interviews with the producers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Afrikaans radio programmes Monitor, Spektrum and Naweek-Aktueel, this article reports on research which showed that there is indeed such a thing as a “journalism ideology”. The interviews focused on how “internal influences” – such as a journalist's background and training, newsroom routines – and “external influences” – such as the audience – influenced the decisions they made in choosing news stories and producing content. This “journalism ideology” influences the producers and in turn the news content of these current affairs programmes that are listened to daily by almost two million listeners. The conclusion drawn from the study is that, although the participants’ “journalism ideology” largely determines the news stories for their programmes, structural forces, newsroom routines and organisational constraints often dictate their actions. Finally, although all the participants saw themselves as “watchdogs of democracy”, internal pressures within the SABC could endanger that role.     

Exposure to Political Disagreement in Social Media Versus Face-to-Face and Anonymous Online Settings

This article investigates political disagreement on social media in comparison to face-to-face and anonymous online settings. Because of the structure of social relationships and the social norms that influence expression, it is hypothesized that people perceive more political disagreement in social media settings versus face-to-face and anonymous online settings. Analyses of an online survey of adults in the United States show that (a) social media users perceive more political disagreement than non-users, (b) they perceive more of it on social media than in other communication settings, and (c) news use on social media is positively related to perceived disagreement on social media. Results are discussed in light of their implications for current debates about the contemporary public sphere and directions for future research.     

Priming Issues,Party Visibility,and Party Evaluations: The Impact on Vote Switching

Voter volatility has become a hallmark of Western democracies in the past three decades. At the same time short-term factors—such as the media’s coverage of issues, parties, and candidates during an election campaign—have become more important for voters’ decisions. While previous research did look at how campaign news in general affects electoral volatility in general, it has omitted to explicitly test the mechanisms underlying these effects. Building on theories of agenda setting, (affective) priming, and issue ownership, the current study aims to explain why certain news aspects lead voters to switch their vote choice. We theorize it is the visibility of a party, the evaluation of a party, and the attention for issues owned by a party that primes voters to switch to a certain party. We use national panel survey data (N = 765) and link this to an extensive content analysis of campaign news on television and in newspapers in the run up to the 2012 Dutch national elections. The results show that issue news leads to vote change in the direction of the party that owns the issue. Even stronger is the effect of party visibility on vote switching. Our results, however, find the strongest support for the effect of party evaluations on vote change: More favorable news about a party increases switching to that party.     

Does the Political System Determine Media Visibility of Politicians? A Comparative Analysis of Political Functions in the News in Sixteen Countries

News coverage of politicians is very unequally distributed: a few powerful politicians receive the bulk of media attention, while the large majority hardly gets into the news. However, case studies show that news outlets in some countries give more attention to ordinary politicians compared to other democracies. This study examines and explains the variation in media visibility of politicians with different institutional functions across Western democracies. We employ a large-scale content analysis of television news, newspapers and online news in sixteen countries to analyze whether a political system logic determines the distribution of political functions appearing in the news. This logic suggests that journalists follow the political hierarchy of the country when covering politicians. We also check for an additional media logic that would push journalists to focus on a limited number of high-standing politicians. The results confirm that both logics matter, but that mainly the structural characteristics of the political system have an impact on the distribution of news coverage of politicians. In countries where political power is more equally distributed across politicians, a broader range of (elite) politicians makes it into the news. Our results suggest that the media logic is nested in the broader political context and in some cases even strengthens the logic of the political system.     

论新闻媒体隐私权侵权指控的抗辩事由

一般而言,舆论监督不得侵害隐私权,但公共利益需要、当事人同意、合理公众兴趣、监督对象是公众人物、使不可辨认等,可以成为新闻媒体应对隐私权侵权指控的主要抗辩事由。     

谈新闻写作

如何能在众多的新闻事件中,让你的新闻报道脱颖而出,本文首先以独特的视角和操作技巧论述了如何通过及时性、冲击性、显赫性、接近性、冲突性、异常性、当下性、必要性几个方面去判断选取具有新闻价值的事件;其次笔者以多年的新闻从业经验,通过理解事件,想说什么,着重展现等方面的论述,将新闻写作的可操作性变得简单易学。总之,敏锐的观察、不懈的笔耕,加上正确的方法一定能写出好的报道,对步入新闻行业的新人具有指导作用。     

析政治传播视角下的早间电视新闻节目

随道我国政治文化的逐渐发展,对于政治传播学的研究已越来越广泛,政治传播也已成为了我党宣传大政治方针,获取民意的一项重要手段。政治传播是与大众传播相依相伴的,不论是电视、报纸、广播、网络还是新媒体,都是政治传播的有效渠道,这里,我们主要探讨一下早间电视新闻节目的政治传播功能。     

Re-imagining News Values and Labels of Controversies with Reference to Political Scandals

Abstract

Scandals involving heads of state are generally the staple diet of news media. Internationally, the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” sex escapades are some of the most memorable. In South Africa, scandals that marred former president Jacob Zuma’s term of office have continued to be the centre of attention long after he resigned as president. During his presidency, Zuma became one of the most covered (reported in the news) leaders across media platforms, in South Africa and beyond. This was largely due to allegations including corruption, his relationship with the Gupta family, and misuse of government funds to renovate his private property. Evoked in the media by various labels of controversy, the media frenzy dominated headlines in South Africa at the time. This article presents an account of how journalists actively construct labels for controversy associated with newsworthiness. The article makes a theoretical link between labels of controversies and news values, and argues that these labels are, in spite of their significance, the most understudied phenomena in mainstream journalism literature today. Fifty-eight news articles were examined by means of content analysis for the labels that journalists constructed.     

论对新闻的立体策划

随着科技的发展,报纸、广播、电视、互联网四大媒体的互相渗透,决定了独家新闻时代的基本终结.那么在新闻竞争如此激烈的今天,作为一个媒体如何才能在竞争中立于不败之地呢?该文较详细剖析了独家新闻时代基本终结的原因,列举了当今中国各媒体的立体化报道的态势,同时分析了什么样的立体策划才能高人一筹.     

Under the skin of probation: A statewide analysis

This analysis examines the inter- and intra-racial/ethnicity effects of skin tone variations in a sample of probationers across three dependent variables: probation length, successful completion, and revocation due to technical violations. Darker tones were linked to shorter probation terms with the exception of African Americans, among whom no effect was found. Darker tones were also associated with a decreased likelihood of successful probation completion. Conversely, probation success likelihood was higher among light skinned Hispanics. Finally, lighter tones were also associated with increased risks of probation revocation. Importantly, across the analysis any significant effects for Whites dissipated once Hispanics were removed from the analysis. Explanations of the contrary findings are offered drawing from scholarship on normal crimes and racial threat.