News Quality In The Digital Age

This book brings together a diverse, international array of contributors to explore the topics of news “quality” in the online age and the relationships between news organizations and enormously influential digital platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Covering topics ranging from internet incivility, crowdsourcing, and YouTube politics to regulations, algorithms, and AI, this book draws the key distinction between the news that facilitates democracy and news that undermines it. For students and scholars as well as journalists, policymakers, and media commentators, this important work engages a wide range of methodological and theoretical perspectives to define the key concept of “quality” in the news media.

The new research presented in this volume suggests that general perceptions (cultural, psychological, geographical), allied to the customs and values of journalism, and underpinned by the uses of technology, significantly shape international news. This gives rise to a blend of the old and the new; traditions of cultural centredness and innovative practices; anchorages of place and the rootlessness of globalization. Technology per se has not swept all before it. On the other hand, its uses have altered the means and methods of international news sourcing, construction and dissemination. Consequently, the uptake of technology has contributed to fundamental changes in style and form, and has greatly facilitated cross-cultural exchanges. The category ‘international news’ is now more of a hybrid, as recognized by the BBC and others. The chapters in this book demonstrate that this hybridity is unevenly distributed across geo-political domains, and often across time. Nevertheless, as the contributors to this volume show, the concept of ‘international news’ relies on tightly interwoven elements of orthodox journalism, social media, civic expression and public assembly.

Have new communications technologies revitalised the public sphere, or become the commercial tool for an increasingly un-public, undemocratic news media? Are changing journalistic practices damaging the nature of news, or are new media allowing journalists to do more journalism and to engage the public more effectively? With massive changes in the media environment and its technologies, interrogating the nature of news journalism is one of the most urgent tasks we face in defining the public interest today. The implications are serious, not just for the future of the news, but also for the practice of democracy. In a thorough empirical investigation of journalistic practices in different news contexts, New Media, Old News explores how technological, economic and social changes have reconfigured news journalism, and the consequences of these transformations for a vibrant democracy in our digital age. The result is a piercing examination of why understanding news journalism matters now more than ever. It is essential reading for students and scholars of journalism and new media.

In the face of the continuously changing challenges of the digital age, it is difficult for quality news journalism to survive on any significant scale if a means for adequately funding it is not available. This new study, a follow-up to 2007’s The Future of Journalism in the Advanced Democracies, includes a comparative analysis of possible alternative business models that may save the future of the quality news business across the developed, intermediate, and developing worlds. Its detailed evaluation encompasses also the different ways in which wider key issues are affecting the prospects for quality news as a core ingredient of effectively working democracies. It focuses on the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India, Kenya, and selected parts of the Arab World, providing a comprehensive cross-cultural survey of different approaches to addressing these various issues. To keep the study firmly rooted in the "real world" the contributors include distinguished practitioners as well as experienced academics.

This book will contemplate the nature of our participatory digital media culture, the diversity of actors involved, and how the role of the news librarian has evolved—from information gatekeeper to knowledge networker, collaborating and facilitating content creation with print and broadcast media professionals. It will explore how information professionals assist in the newsroom, drawing on the author's experiential knowledge as an embedded research librarian in the media industry. The past decade has seen significant changes in the media landscape. Large media outlets have traditionally controlled news and information flows, with everyone obtaining news via these dominant channels. In the digital world, the nature of what constitutes news has changed in fundamental ways. Social media and technologies such as crowdsourcing now play a pivotal role in how broadcast media connects and engages with their audiences. The book will focus on news reporting in the age of social media, examining the significance of verification and evaluating social media content from a journalistic and Information Science (IS) perspective. With such an emphasis on using social media for research, it is imperative to have mechanisms in place to make sure that information is authoritative before passing it on to a client as correct and accurate. Technology innovation and the 24/7 news cycle are driving forces compelling information professionals and journalists alike to adapt and learn new skills. The shift to tablets and smartphones for communication, news, and entertainment has dramatically changed the library and media landscape. Finally, we will consider automated journalism and examine future roles for news library professionals in the age of digital social media.

This report presents a quantitative assessment of how the presentation of news has changed over the past 30 years and how it varies across platforms. Over time, and as society moved from “old” to “new” media, news content has generally shifted from more-objective event- and context-based reporting to reporting that is more subjective, relies more heavily on argumentation and advocacy, and includes more emotional appeals.