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2008 Research Papers

Below are papers that were presented during the symposium event by some of the panelists. Listed in alphabetic order.

The Image of the United States Portrayed in Arab World Online Journalism (*)
by Phil Auter, Ashraf Galal, & Mahmoud Galander
The Arab media describes the West as a great enemy. Previous research dealing with the images and 'stereotypes' of Arabs and Muslims in Western media has largely verified "that lurid and insidious depictions of Arabs as alien, violent strangers, intent upon battling non-believers throughout the world, are staple fare. Such erroneous characterizations more accurately reflect the bias of Western reporters and image-makers than they do the realities of Muslim people in the modern world." No doubts that 9-11 events revealed that: there are many waves of bad attitudes between Arab and West people. It emphasized also that the media need too much efforts to rebuild the confidence and credibility in changing this image. The importance of media coverage and stereotypes not only affect the people but also extend to affect the policy and decision makers by adopting the media point of views especially in the critical time. This study is trying to examine to what extent the online journalism in the Arab World has adopted biased coverage of the United States. The study hopes to provide a current assessment of how the U.S. is portrayed in Arab World online journalism. This valid, updated information will enable researchers and communicators alike to better understand not only what is being done, but may lead to ways of providing a solid basis for better dealing with American issues and images in the future. The total sample of the study was 1624 had been selected based on the artificial week from March 2007-February 2008. . Eight on line news web sites had been selected among 14 are considered the most important news web sites at the Arab world based on the nomination of some experts in this field. News and editorial materials at the first page (whether complete or none complete materials. Internal topics which had any signs at the front pages had been analyzed also.
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Hypertext Newswriting Effects on Satisfaction, Comprehension and Attitudes (*)
by João Canavilhas
More than a decade after the beginning of online journalism, the great expectations of this field of expertise remain unfulfilled. Hypertextuality, multimediality, and interactivity remain original marks as yet unexplored by journalism made on the web (though not for the web).  In the specific case of hypertextuality, the subject of this study, its little use is linked with journalists’ time constraints, the absence of an organizational model not limited to copying printed papers, and the fear that readers may reject non-linear reading (Paul, 2005). The latter reason is likely what is most hindering the evolution of web journalism, despite the great potential of online news formed by networks of linked texts. To begin with, it frees the reader, giving them the option to create their own path of reading. Additionally, it offers extra contextual information about the subject, allowing readers to increase their knowledge on the subject according to their own interests. Despite the apparent advantages, such textual networks demand an additional effort of readers to interact with the theme. They must follow links, and skip from text to text, which may be perceived as obstructive to their reading. The passivity imposed by the most powerful medium, television, and the recipients’ deeply-rooted habit of linear readings raise an important question: Will readers value the hypertext contexts to such an extent that they will make that additional effort, or are the newspapers right in their fears of the readers’s reaction?  In an attempt to answer this question, an experimental study was carried out assessing the effects of hypertext on levels satisfaction, perception, comprehension, and attitudes of online news readers. Two news articles with the same contents were created; however, they were presented in different formats: one with the traditional layout - printed news (single text), and the other an assemblage of different texts connected through web links. Two test groups, formed by students, read each of the online news and answered the same survey immediately after the test. The data, statistically treated using SPSS, allow the conclusion that there is a significant difference between groups in some of the surveyed items, and favor the hypertextual online news.
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U.S. Online Citizen Journalism and Online Newspaper Articles: A Content Analysis of Source Diversity (*)
by Serena Carpenter
This research examines the diversity of sources used in online citizen journalism and online newspaper articles to identify differences via a quantitative content analysis. Shoemaker and Reese’s Hierarchy of Influences was used to explain why differences were expected in this national sample. Overall, online newspaper journalists were more likely to incorporate a greater number of sources and diversity of viewpoints, while online citizen journalists were more likely to balance the inclusion of female and male sources. Newspaper journalists were more likely to include official sources, while citizen journalists were more like to balance their use of official and unofficial sources.
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The BBC Goes Blogging: Is 'Auntie' Finally Listening? (*)
by Alfred Hermida
This study examines how the world’s largest news organization, the BBC, has sought to incorporate blogging in its journalism, both as a format for new journalistic thinking and as a platform for greater accountability and transparency. The research covers a period of seven years, from 2001 to 2008, when the BBC came under intense scrutiny over its journalism and mechanisms for public accountability. It is based on an analysis of internal and public policy documents produced by the BBC, blog content on BBC and personal websites and the personal recollections of senior editors at the corporation. The findings suggest that the BBC is approaching blogging as a tool to enhance trust with audiences through expanded transparency and accountability, in an attempt to transform its historical elitist attitude towards its audiences. But, at the same time, the BBC is grappling with fitting this online format within its long-established journalism norms and practices, seeking to normalize blogs within existing journalistic frameworks.
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The Role Of Journalists In A Digital Age (*)
by Arne H. Krumsvik
This cross-national comparative case study of online news production analyzes the strategies of Cable News Network (CNN) and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), aiming to contribute to the understanding of the implications of organizational strategy on the role of journalists and explaining why traditional media organizations have a tendency to develop a cross platform approach (distributing content on several platforms, such as television, online, mobile, etc) rather than developing the cross media (with interplay between media types) or multimedia products anticipated by both scholars and practitioners.
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A Mediated, Interactive Call to Action: Audience Perceptions of Credibility and Authority for a Times Journalist in Print vs. Online (*)
by Sue Robinson
This web experiment, with closed-and-open-ended items, uses the columns, video and blog of New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof to examine whether journalists are achieving the enhanced credibility and authority they aim to accomplish online. The main findings indicate that people perceive Kristof as being credible whether or not they read his column, comment on his blog, or watch his video. However, those who saw Kristof in his videos found his sources to be more credible than Kristof himself – often to the detriment of Kristof’s reputation. People who read the column perceived Kristof to be more authoritative than those who watched him in the video. These people were more likely to accept and reiterate his advocacy stance – that the United States should intervene in Darfur. One sub-finding revealed that people who commented on Kristof’s blog tended to answer the open-ended questions by employing more emotive language, using the first person, and referring to their own experience -- in other words, relating this foreign news to their own worlds. These findings have significant implications for journalists (as well as any strategic communication professional) as publishers figure out where to best utilize resources in an online world if they want to preserve their message credibility and authority over information.
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What Do People Do Online? Implications For the Future of Media (*)
by Cindy Royal
The purpose of this study is to analyze the activities performed by users of social networking sites. Social networking sites rely on content created by the millions of users who develop profiles, communicate with friends, meet people, participate in communities, post comments to Web logs, and create multimedia. This project analyzes the usage of and activities performed within social networking sites to better understand their value to users. A survey was administered to users of social networking sites, and it revealed that users performed a wide variety of social networking activities. And, while some of the activities were influenced by demographic factors like gender and age, more variability was described by experience with social networking, measured by frequency of login and years using social networking.
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Usability 10 Years Later: Are We Listening? (*)
by Richard Stevens
The usability and design of Web site content has received attention in the human computer interaction literature as well as in Web-specific usability research. Usability has typically been described as a balance between art and engineering (Nielsen, 1992, 11) and has thus often taken an engineering approach to identify a set of principles and common practices that ensure usability as an outcome of system design (Nielsen, 1993; Pearrow, 2000; Shneidermann, 1998). Usability has been a focus of the software and computing field since the early 1980s (Bernard, et.al., 1981; Eason, 1984; Fried, 1982; Maquire, 1982; Moynihan, 1982; Nickerson, 1981; Paxton and Turner, 1984). As the Web became an increasingly essential interface, usability research began to focus more specifically on extending the basic usability principles into the Web environment (Nielsen, 1999; Shneidermann, 1998). Nielsen (1999) extended these design principles for Web design to include: (1) navigation, (2) response time, (3) credibility, and (4) content. Content has received a great deal of attention, producing specific guidelines, such as those that suggest that print content transferred to the Web environment should be reduced in length by 50% (Nielsen, 1999, 101) or even less (Krug, 2000, 45). This paper will focus on the implementation of content usability principles in online journalism and mobile phone news dissemination.
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Developing An Online Newspaper Business Model: Long Distance Meets The Long Tail (*)
by George Sylvie
This literature review cum strategic proposal connects two concepts – Chyi and Sylvie’s notion of long-distance online newspaper audiences and Anderson’s long-tail statistical Internet economic model – into an approach that holds strong potential for the local newspaper. The author analyzes the standard online newspaper input chain via the resource-based view (RBV) to suggest a new product that’s consumer-driven in terms of its value. The author argues that the resulting “global long tail” (aka GLT) product, however, must be combined with a two-pronged marketing strategy involving mobile media and local businesses to succeed. Finally, the author lists value chain, technological, and feedback risks that newspapers will have to overcome or rethink to adapt the strategy to current operations.
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Convergence Calls: Multimedia Storytelling At British News Websites (**)
by Neil Thurman & Ben Lupton
This paper uses qualitative interviews with senior editors and managers from a selection of the UK’s national online news providers to describe and analyse their current experimentation with multimedia and video storytelling. The results show that, in a period of declining newspaper readership and TV news viewing, editors are keen to embrace new technologies, which are seen as being part of the future of news. At the same time, text is still reported to be the cornerstone for news websites, leading to changes in the grammar and function of news video when used online. The economic rationale for convergence is examined and the paper investigates the partnerships sites have entered into in order to be able to serve their audience with video content. In-house video is complimenting syndicated content, and the authors examine the resulting developments in newsroom training and recruitment practices. The paper provides journalism and interactive media scholars with case studies on the changes taking place in newsrooms as a result of the shift towards multimedia, multiplatform news consumption.
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Lessons from Facebook: The Effect of Social Network Sites on College Students' Social Capital (*)
by Sebastian Valenzuela, Namsu Park, & Kerk F. Kee
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among young adults in the U.S., fulfills the promise of civic journalism: to spark attitudes and behaviors that enhance public life and civic action. Using data from a random web survey of college students in Texas (n = 2,603), we find moderate, positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic participation and political engagement. The associations between Facebook usage and students' social capital are detectable even when taking demographic, socioeconomic and socialization variables into account. These findings highlight important lessons for journalists and media interested in reconnecting individuals, especially young adults, to society and public life.
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The Megan Meier MySpace Suicide: A case study exploring the social aspects of convergent media, citizen journalism, and online anonymity and credibility (*)
by Jacqueline Vickery
This paper examines the Megan Meier MySpace suicide "hoax" (as it has been dubbed by the media), as evidence of convergence media, and as an entry point into the unintended consequences of citizen journalism and online anonymity. I analyze the role blogs and alternative online news sources played in providing information about the case. I also examine the reactions to the blogs/news sites (particularly the "Megan Had It Coming" blog), analyze the disembodied social communities that evolved around these sites, and consider the roles of anonymity and credibility as two key factors in the hoax(es).
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A Methodological Proposal to Analyze the News Websites Use of the Potentialities of The Internet (*)
by Fernando Zamith
There is a consensus among professionals and researchers that the Internet has multiple expressive possibilities for journalism. Several authors (Fidler, 1997; Manovich, 1999; Downes & McMillan, 2000; Bardoel & Deuze, 2000; Bastos, 2000;Hall, 2001; Ward, 2002; Palomo Torres, 2004; Parra Valcarce & Álvarez Marcos, 2004; Oblak, 2005; Paul, 2005) have highlighted the importance of the three basic characteristics of the Internet - hypertextuality, multimediality and interactivity. To these three characteristics, other authors (Díaz Noci & Salaverría, 2003; Alves & Weiss, 2004) add a fourth one: immediacy. There are also authors (Pavlik, 2001; Lasica, 2002; Palacios, 2002; Daltoé, 2003; Lopéz, Gago & Pereira, 2003; Canavilhas, 2005) who separate personalization from interactivity, emphasize the importance of memory, and / or distinguish ubiquity from immediacy. However, the methodologies that have been so far proposed to study the use of the journalistic potentialities of the Internet have focused only on one or some of these potentialities. Interactivity is the characteristic that has earned more attention (Schultz, 1999; Massey & Levy, 1999; Kiousis, 2002), and, in recent years, some methodological proposals also emerged to examine other potentialities, either one only (Rost, 2003 - hypertextuality) or in group (Daltoé, 2003 - interactivity, personalization, hypertextuality, multimediality and memory). A methodology, however, was missing to cover, consistently and in depth, all journalistic potentialities of the Internet. Faced with this problem, we have created an analytical framework comprising all the potentialities, in their multiple expressions.
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