Jeongsub Lim

THE MYTHOLOGICAL STATUS OF THE IMMEDIACY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ONLINE NEWS

Diverse types of news websites compete with one another to attract Internet users’ attention. This context raises the following questions: Do different news websites update their content on a real-time basis to attract users? What is the status of immediacy in online media? This study casts doubt on the notion that vast amounts of instantly changed news circulate among online media. This doubt asserts that the immediacy of online news is a myth because it reflects only the beliefs of researchers, journalists, and users. Further, this myth ignores the fact that institutional practices govern the news production activity of news websites. This mythological nature of immediacy has not received sufficient attention in previous research. This study tracks news websites in South Korea, a leading country in broadband penetration, to demonstrate this mythological status of immediacy.

First-level and second-level intermedia agenda-setting among major news websites

This study investigates the extent to which major news websites influence one anothers issue agendas and attribute agendas on main posting areas. To contribute to the generalization of intermedia agenda-setting effects to online media in other countries, this study chooses the South Korean major news websites, which are Joins.com, Chosun.com, Donga.com (major online newspapers) and online Yonhap News Agency. A cross-lagged panel design and partial correlations reveal that Chosun.com and Donga.com influence issue agendas of the online wire service. There is no influence over issue agendas between major online newspapers. In terms of attribute agendas, Chosun.com and Donga.com influence Joins.com, and Chosun.com affects the online wire service.

Outrage factors in government press releases of food risk and their influence on news media coverage

An appropriate level of risk perception should be a critical issue in modern “risk society.” There have been many studies on the influences on risk perception. This study investigates whether risk communication scholar Dr. Peter Sandmans outrage factors intensify journalistic attention to health risks from food consumption. A content analysis of a health institutions press releases was conducted to examine 15 outrage factors of food risks conveyed in the governmental risk communication. In addition, the news stories covering the food risks informed by the press releases were calculated to evaluate the relation between outrage factors of a risk and the number of news stories covering the risk. Results showed that controllability was the most salient outrage factor, followed by trust, voluntariness, familiarity, and human origin; the greater the outrage score of a risk, the more news stories of the risk. For individual outrage factors, a risk with an implication of catastrophic potential was associated with an increase of news stories. Food providers’ distrustful behaviors also influenced journalistic attention to the food risks. The implication of the findings to health message designers is discussed.

Effects of social media users’ attitudes on their perceptions of the attributes of news agency content and their intentions to purchase digital subscriptions

This study analyzes how social media users’ attitudes influence their perceptions regarding the attributes of news agency content and their intentions to purchase digital subscriptions. Their attitudes toward production activities influence their purchasing intentions and affect their use time of social media and news. Furthermore, their attitudes toward production activities influence their news perceptions and, subsequently, their perceptions of the attributes of news agency content. Because of these variables, their attitudes toward production activities affect their purchasing intentions. Social media users’ attitudes toward use activities influence their intentions to purchase digital subscriptions through their perceptions of the attributes of the content. The more often people use social media, the more they are likely to consume news. However, news use time does not influence purchasing intentions. Daily use of news agency content is controlled.

A model of functional rules for social media in the networked news sphere

This study examines the assumption that news websites apply their specific institutional rules to incorporating the platforms of social media into news content. This study proposes the operation of three rules: functional platforms, functional individuality, and functional prominence. As functional platforms, Singapores and South Koreas news websites embed Facebook and Twitter into news content, whereas Chinas news website provides local-based social media into the content. In terms of functional individuality, the news websites focus on such individual activities as reply and connect. For functional prominence, the news websites locate the entry point of social media predominantly at the middle of the screen. However, these specific rules vary with the nationality of each news website.

Power relations among popular news websites for posting headlines through monitoring and imitation

Online news production is guided by journalists’ institutional orientation such as monitoring and imitation, which can result from power relations among popular news websites. Bourdieu suggested that news media are positioned within a set of economic and symbolic power relations. Given this framework, this study investigates how 13 popular Korean news websites respond to headlines of top online stories on their competitor websites by tracking the headlines on an hourly basis during one consecutive week. The results indicate that the top-ranked news websites often initiate the posting of headlines, whereas others simply follow the headlines by posting similar headlines. But symbolic power relations are not straightforward, because the leading news websites imitate the headlines posted by intermediary or following news websites. Power relations for the production of online news are a complex and fast phenomenon.

Representation of data journalism practices in the South Korean and US television news

Few studies have investigated how television news is represented through data journalism. To fill this gap, this study compared data news content from South Korean and that from US television networks using the grounded theory method. The following differences were found: South Korean television networks (KBS, SBS, MBC, and JTBC) highlight social issues, politics, and lifestyle; while American television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN) cover the economy, social issues, and politics. Both television networks rely on government sources and seldom provide raw data. The South Korean networks use a static graph and an infographic most frequently, while the US networks favor a number pull quote and a static graphic. The South Korean networks prefer complex, visually appealing elements (e.g., an infographic), while the American networks prefer less complex and less visually appealing elements (e.g., a number pull quote). The South Korean networks prefer the news forms of ‘visualization,’ ‘condensity,’ and ‘typification,’ and the US networks prefer ‘visualization,’ ‘typification,’ ‘condensity,’ and ‘completeness.’ The degree of user participation is extremely low in both countries’ networks.

Institutional rules for framing healthcare policy issues in national, financial, and specialized newspapers

Abstract By considering the role of institutional rules for news making, this study examines news frames embedded in 1162 stories from national, financial, and specialized newspapers with respect to four healthcare policy issues: “the decrease in pharmaceutical prices,” “the comprehensive medical payment system,” “swine flu,” and “humidifier-related lung disease.” Conflict, economy, crisis, and policy execution are dominant frames in stories about the policy issues, and these four frames are also major frames used by the newspapers. This phenomenon is understood as “concentration of healthcare frames.” We conducted in-depth interviews with 19 news reporters to identify institutional rules that might influence the formation of news frames. In-depth interviews revealed that similar types of frames resulted from institutional rules (e.g., journalist’s autonomy, news value, newspaper’s mission statement, and characteristics of readers). The findings suggest that health journalists follow institutional rules that govern the creation of news frames. To provide diverse perspectives on healthcare policy issues, newspapers need to reconsider their institutional rules.

Competitors’ news coverage as a source within economic and symbolic power relations

News media are positioned within economic and symbolic power relations where a dominant news outlet and a secondary news outlet compete for audience’s attention. In this sense, competitors’ news coverage can be a legitimate source for providing additional news items to journalists, and this study expands this argument to online journalists. An e–mail survey of online journalists reveals that online journalists utilize their competitors’ news coverage as a source for news updates. Online journalists frequently cite competitors’ stories in their stories, and the journalists focus on the context and theme of the competitors’ stories in updating their stories. This strategic response to competitors is not related to online journalists’ personal characteristics, but online journalists working for large news Web sites use their competitors’ news coverage more frequently than ignore it.