Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

News Paywalls – Should They Cost Less in Poorer Countries?

March 16, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

From Columbia Journalism Review on March 16 – Consumers have made peace with the fact that some things cost more in certain places. A cup of black coffee at a Cairo McDonald’s costs less than the same stimulant at a McDonald’s in Manhattan. A night at the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus costs $445, while in Maui it’ll set you back nearly $1,000.

I wonder, then, whether online news organizations must charge the same amount for their product in every nook of the earth, and whether globally scattered news audiences would tolerate variable pricing. It seems unreasonable that someone in Burundi be asked to pay the same price for a product as a consumer in Singapore. Shouldn’t the cost of online news also vary in these countries? Read More

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Content and Distribution, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Media Ethics, New Media

Should News Organizations Be in the “Reunion” Business?

March 16, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

From TVNEWSER on March 16 - The disaster in Japan has meant that thousands of people are unaccounted for, particularly in parts of the country that were hit hard by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

With so many people unable to reach loved ones, many TV news organizations rushed to try and connect them. We linked to a few already, when Ann Curry connected an American teacher visiting Japan to her family in San Francisco, and CBS’ own Lucy Craft reuniting with her son.

In both cases, TV cameras were present as the families got the news. It was emotional, gripping television, but it was also quite manipulative, according to AOL News contributor Lauren Frayer. Read More

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Journalism, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Media Ethics

The push for paywalls mischaracterizes the nature of online newspaper readership

July 20, 2010 By AEJMC 1 Comment

As U.S. newspaper publishers increasingly talk of building paywalls around their online content to ward off free-riders cannibalizing their print product, new research suggests that such efforts may backfire because most local users of local newspaper sites already are paying customers—by paying for the print edition.

A study published in the latest issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly found that two-thirds of visitors to local newspaper websites are “hybrid” readers—that is, they regularly read the print edition (and most of them pay for it) as well as the online version—in contrast to the remaining one-third of “online-only” readers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Content and Distribution, Hisang Iris Chyi, International Journal on Media Management, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Media Economics, Mengchieh Jacie Yang, Nan Zheng, Newspaper, Paywalls, Print, Seth C. Lewis, Traditional Media, University of Texas at Austin, Web

Dimensions of News Media Brand Personality

June 22, 2010 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

A new research study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly examines general and robust constructs of news media brand personality that are applicable across multiple news media outlets, including broadcast and cable news networks, national and local newspaper, and news magazines.

Through a series of rigorous exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis procedures with the final set of 48 personality traits, the authors show that that news media brand personality is composed of five dimensions: Trustworthiness, Dynamism, Sincerity, Sophistication, and Toughness.

One of the significant contributions of this study is to provide news media companies a reliable and valid method to assess their brand personality. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Cable News, Jooyoung Kim, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Magazine, Media Ethics, News Media, Newspaper, Tae Hyun Baek, Trust, University of Georgia

Users say participation in news sites’ online forums helps them understand their communities better

June 16, 2010 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Joining in online newspapers’ message forums increases participants’ perception that they understand their local communities better, according to a new research study in the Spring 2010 edition of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. However, that participation and accompanying sense of community understanding is not related to their getting out and taking part in real-world community activities.

These findings are based on a survey of 538 participants in message forums at the online sites associated with 80 U.S. newspapers. Such forums generally consist of a portion of the website where visitors can post comments organized into common message “threads,” and can be found at about a third of all U.S. online newspapers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Civic Engagement, Jack Rosenberry, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Message Forums, Newspaper, Online Communities, Virtual Worlds

Climate Change and the Belief Gap Hypothesis

April 13, 2010 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

A recent study shows that ideology is a better predictor of beliefs about climate change than is educational attainment, and that the resulting “belief gaps” between liberals and conservatives grow over time.

This study marks a departure from previous work which showed that heavy media coverage of science news contributed to “knowledge gaps,” or growing disparities in knowledge between those with different levels of educational attainment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Climate Change, Doug Hindman, Education, Ideology, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Washington State University

Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge Threatened By New Media

April 12, 2010 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

As new digital media replace traditional sources of news, the public’s knowledge of local affairs may be undermined.

This result headlines a new study by Lee Shaker, a researcher at Princeton University, that examines the effect of increased media choice upon citizens’ local and national political knowledge. The article, “Citizens’ Local Political Knowledge and the Role of Media Access”, is available in the current issue of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (winter 2009). Based on data from a 2007 survey of 1000 Philadelphia residents, a clear, negative relationship between having access to cable TV or satellite radio and citizens’ local political knowledge is depicted in the piece. A similar relationship does not materialize between new media access and national political knowledge. These results reinforce the fears voiced by many regarding the decline of local media – especially newspapers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Lee Shaker, New Media, Political Communication, Princeton University, Traditional Media

Viewing Media Coverage of Terrorism Related to Posttraumatic Stress Reactions; Youth Particularly Susceptible

April 12, 2010 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

A meta-analysis of 23 existing terrorism studies found that exposure to media coverage of terrorism is related to posttraumatic stress reactions.

The meta-analysis also found that the relationship between exposure to media coverage of terrorism and posttraumatic stress was greater for studies involving youth and for studies including people who were farther away from the terrorist event.

These results mean that youth who are further away from the terrorism event are at increased risk for developing posttraumatic stress reactions resulting from exposure to media coverage of a terrorist event. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: J. Brian Houston, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Media Credibility, News Coverage, Posttraumatic Stress, Terrorism, University of Oklahoma

Science and media disconnect? Maybe not, says a new study

September 9, 2009 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The prevailing wisdom among many scientists and scientific organizations is that, as a rule, scientists are press shy, and those who aren’t are mavericks.

However, a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, published in the current issue (summer 2009) of Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, suggests otherwise. The study, conducted by journalism professor Sharon Dunwoody, life sciences communication professor Dominique Brossard and graduate student Anthony Dudo, provides evidence that many mainstream scientists occasionally work with journalists and some do so routinely. And the interplay between scientists and journalists, say Brossard and Dunwoody, has been remarkably stable since the 1980s. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: Anthony Dudo, Dominique Brossard, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Science Journalism, Sharon Dunwoody