Henrik Örnebring

USER-GENERATED CONTENT AND THE NEWS: Empowerment of citizens or interactive illusion?

The involvement of citizens in public life through the Internet, variously described by terms such as interactivity and user-generated content, is frequently held up as a democracy-enhancing development. However, these concepts say little about the exact nature and character of media–audience relations. We wish to introduce a more detailed taxonomy of user-generated content (UGC) that takes issues of power and influence into account. We examine the media–reader relationship (in online newspapers) by looking at (1) degree of participation and (2) type of content. We also suggest that it might be fruitful to think in terms of a political economy of UGC. Our results show that users are mostly empowered to create popular culture-oriented content and personal/everyday life-oriented content rather than news/informational content. Direct user involvement in news production is minimal. There is a clear political economy of UGC: UGC provision in mainstream media to a great extent addresses users-as-consumers and is part of a context of consumption.

The producer as consumer – of what? : User-generated tabloid content in The Sun (UK) and Aftonbladet (Sweden)

The rise of user-generated content (UGC) is often thought to blur further the distinction between (media) producers and (media) consumers. Many media organizations, in particular newspapers, have developed extensive sections of their Web pages based on UGC. But there is still relatively little discussion of the exact relationship between producing and consuming in these sections. What is being produced and what is being consumed? Does the blurring of the producer–consumer represent a real shift in power away from traditional media/news organizations, or is the rise of UGC just a way for newspapers to get content produced “for free”? This article analyses UGC provision in two tabloid newspapers, The Sun (UK) and Aftonbladet (Sweden)—both newspapers generally considered to be very successful in terms of their online presence—by comparing (1) the levels of involvement required by users, (2) the types of content produced, and (3) the modes of production used. The results show that both tabloids are similar in that they provide users with the opportunity to generate mostly popular culture-oriented content and personal/everyday life-oriented content, but little or no opportunity to generate news/information-oriented content.The rise of user-generated content (UGC) is often thought to blur further the distinction between (media) producers and (media) consumers. Many media organizations, in particular newspapers, have d ...

Technology and journalism-as-labour: Historical perspectives

Technological determinism is common among journalists when reflecting on changes in their profession; several studies show that journalists ascribe great power and independent agency to technology. There are at least two reasons for the persistence of technological determinism as an explanatory factor among journalists vis-a-vis their own work: first, technology is a highly integrated and therefore very tangible part of the everyday working life of journalists; and second, the technological paradigm for explaining change in journalism has deep historical roots. It is argued that analysing journalism as labour presents a way to address both the integration of technology in the everyday working practices of journalists, and the history of the inter-relations between journalism and technology. It is further argued that journalism studies as a field has not paid much attention to journalism as labour. This article is concerned with the second part of this programme for research, i.e. the historical analysis of journalism as labour. The framework of analysis is based on labour process theory, focusing on four themes in the history of journalism: (1) the importance of the separation of conception and execution of labour; (2) the increased differentiation of the labour process; (3) the use of technology to increase productivity; and (4) the deskilling of labour.

Anything you can do, I can do better? Professional journalists on citizen journalism in six European countries

This article is based on 63 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with professional journalists across career stages and across media in six European countries (UK, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden), and is concerned with how journalists answer the question: How is what you do different from what citizen journalists do? Based on existing literature on journalistic authority and the professional project, three areas where claims to professional legitimacy and distinction from amateurs are identified: expertise, duty and autonomy. The interview data show that while claims based on expertise and duty are common when professional journalists want to demarcate the boundary between them and citizen journalism, claims based on direct reference to autonomy are non-existent. However, claims based indirectly on reference to autonomy, but institutional or collective rather than individual autonomy, are common. Indeed the key result of this study is that legitimacy claims based on the collective nature of the journalistic endeavour are very common, in contrast to earlier constructions of journalistic professionalism, which emphasized individualism and individual autonomy.

Clientelism, Elites, and the Media in Central and Eastern Europe:

This article argues that the traditional political science definition of clientelism is insufficient for explaining how the media fit in with clientelistic systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It is suggested that a broader understanding of clientelism, looking in particular at how media are used as elite-to-elite communication tools as well as elite-to-mass communication tools, better explains the place of the media in the clientelistic systems of the CEE nations. Empirically, it is based on a set of 272 elite and expert interviews conducted across ten CEE countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) in 2010 and 2011. The article presents some general findings on the nature and character of the linkages between political elites and the media, and the extent to which such linkages can be considered clientelistic. Then follows a discussion of specific practices of media instrumentalization, charting the many ways in which the media can function as a resource in conflicts and negotiations between clientelistic elite networks, directly as well as indirectly. Particular attention is given to the phenomena of advertorials and kompromat.

Hyperlinking practices in Swedish online news 2007–2013: the rise, fall, and stagnation of hyperlinking as a journalistic tool

Hyperlinks are considered vital to both the Web and to digital journalism. This study utilizes a longitudinal content analysis of hyperlinking practices in Swedish online news from 2007 to 2013 to see how hyperlinking evolves over time. It also compares if and to what extent publishing tradition shapes journalistic practice. The findings primarily show that the overall impact of hyperlinks remains largely unchanged over time but that internal links, while still being most common, decrease in relative importance while external links increase. The general conclusion is that hyperlinks, so far, are not an important aspect of online journalism practice.

Investigative Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe Autonomy, Business Models, and Democratic Roles

This article presents a comparative study of investigative journalism in nine countries in the Central and Eastern European region (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia). The purpose is descriptive and analytical. Descriptively, the article charts the presence and provision of investigative journalism across the region and inventories and assesses the various funding forms that exist against the background of the recent (2008–2009) financial crisis. Analytically, the article focuses on assessing the relative autonomy (defined as autonomy from external actors) and effects (defined as the removal from office and sentencing of political actors revealed to be engaged in legal and moral transgressions, commonly various forms of corruption). The article finds investigative journalism across the region in general to be weak in terms of autonomy and effects, but stronger in countries that have had more stable and richer media markets (notably Estonia, Poland, and the Czech Republic). The article further finds that in some countries (notably Romania and Bulgaria), alternative news online sources play an increasingly important role as providers of investigative journalism.

Metaphors of free labor: a typology of unpaid work in the media sector

Over the last decade, free labor has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding new or semi-new forms of labor in the contemporary digital economy. This article critiques and develops this concept, with specific reference to work in the media industries, by presenting a historically grounded typology of free labor that also highlights some of the analytical problems with the current use of the concept. Our typology presents seven metaphors of free labor based on historical instances of roles people have taken on when performing unpaid labor: those of The Slave, The Carer, The Apprentice, The Prospector, The Hobbyist, The Volunteer, and The Patsy. A key conclusion is that free labor is performed by different actors at either end of increasingly complex and temporally stretched out value chains. This necessitates a more fine-grained and historicized use of the concept of free labor.

Introduction : Questioning European Journalism

This article argues that previous research on European journalism (widely defined) to a large extent tells a story of failure. Journalism is characterised as having “failed Europe” in three ways: through failure of representation, failure of production and failure of participation. However, this image of media failure rests on certain descriptive and normative assumptions about Europe and about journalism—assumptions that are sometimes explicit but more often implicit. This article suggests some new ways of questioning these assumptions in order to move research on European journalism forward.This article argues that previous research on European journalism (widely defined) to a large extent tells a story of failure. Journalism is characterised as having “failed Europe” in three ways: through failure of representation, failure of production and failure of participation. However, this image of media failure rests on certain descriptive and normative assumptions about Europe and about journalism—assumptions that are sometimes explicit but more often implicit. This article suggests some new ways of questioning these assumptions in order to move research on European journalism forward.

THE MAIDEN TRIBUTE AND THE NAMING OF MONSTERS

The aim of this article is to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the critical potential of tabloid journalism. It does so through a comparison of two popular journalism campaigns: the “Maiden Tribute” campaign in the London newspaper the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885 (dealing with underage prostitution), and the “naming-and-shaming” campaign in the News of the World in 2000, concerning child abuse and paedophilia. The main research question is whether any or both of these campaigns can be viewed as contributions to an alternative public sphere, as defined using concepts from Örnebring and Jönsson (2004) and Atton (2002). Three aspects of the campaigns are compared: (1) How they discursively frame the issue at hand, (2) How they discursively frame the key actors present in the texts, and (3) What mode of address is employed. The purpose of this comparison is to examine whether the campaigns open up alternative possibilities in how they frame and present the issue and the actors, and in how they address and give space to their audiences. The main result is that the Pall Mall Gazette campaign has the greater claim to being a contribution to an alternative public sphere in terms of how it frames the issue and the actors. The article further argues that while there is a distinct potential of tabloid journalism to contribute to an alternative public sphere in certain circumstances, this potential should not be overstated.