Sarah Van Leuven

Towards more balanced news access? A study on the impact of cost-cutting and Web 2.0 on the mediated public sphere

In order to assess the impact of cost-cutting and digitalization on the expansion or contraction of the mediated public sphere, we developed a quantitative and longitudinal content analysis focused on sourcing practices for foreign news reporting in four Belgian newspapers (1995–2010). The results show little to no shift in the news access of different types of sources. Political sources dominate foreign news output, but ordinary citizens also play a significant role. Although it becomes clear that Belgian journalists often do not explicitly mention their use of news agency copy, recycled news articles or PR material, our findings indicate that concerns about cost-cutting in newsrooms or sanguinity about the democratic potential of Web 2.0 seem exaggerated, at least in the Belgian context.

Foreign reporting and sourcing practices in the network sphere: A quantitative content analysis of the Arab Spring in Belgian news media:

This article analyzes foreign news coverage and sourcing practices in contemporary newsrooms. It builds on theories concerned with the interplay between digital technologies and journalistic practice to explore the use of social media sources at professional journalistic outlets. The central research question deals with the diversity of sources in Belgian newspaper and TV news coverage of the grass roots uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria in 2011. The quantitative content analysis shows how journalists under normal circumstances in their coverage of the street protests in Egypt and Tunisia still value traditional sourcing practices. In contrast, coverage of the Syrian uprising displays more characteristics of network journalism practices, which can be related to factors of proximity regarding news values. Moreover, we found that when covering Syria, Belgian journalists relied more on on-the-ground, non-mainstream sources that circumvented the restricted information access by means of digital networks and social media platforms.

Civil society organizations at the gates? A gatekeeping study of news making efforts by NGOs and government institutions

This article applies a combination of an input–output content analysis and in-depth interviews with nongovernmental organization (NGO) communication professionals to determine whether the growing incorporation of press releases in editorial print content could be a new public forum through which international political actors, such as NGOs, could gain wider news access by serving as emerging key players in global civil society. The study indicates that Belgian news coverage of international aid issues is more often based on NGO press releases than government press releases. We also found that the agenda-building capacities of NGOs and government institutions are enhanced as journalists present information subsidies as original journalistic work in most cases. Nonetheless, we must tone down prevailing one-sided conclusions, as most press releases are not just copy-pasted. Instead, most are supplemented with additional sources and information. The data, moreover, identify different journalistic roles of NGOs according to their objectives. While some issue press releases to raise short-term public awareness and donations for humanitarian crises (mobilization), others have developed into established expert news source organizations that provide background information and reliable eyewitness accounts to journalists.

Increased news access for international NGOs? How Médecins Sans Frontières' press releases built the agenda of Flemish newspapers (1995-2010)

The combined interplay of commercialisation, digitalisation and globalisation offers opportunities for international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to gain more news access. We set up a quantitative content analysis to study how and to what extent press releases from the international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were adopted in foreign coverage by four Flemish newspapers (1995–2010). First, the analysis shows that fewer articles were based on MSF press releases in 2010 than in 1995. Furthermore, we found that Flemish journalists generally supplemented the MSF press releases with additional information. The decreased agenda-building capacity of MSF can be explained by the nature of events (violent conflicts in 1995 versus natural disasters in 2010) and by the increased competition between NGOs in 2010. The fact that MSF press releases and articles increasingly discuss global issues nonetheless indicates that globalisation offers opportunities for international NGOs to enhance their agenda-building capacities. Second, our research found less evidence to support often heard complaints about “churnalism” in newsrooms and showed that public relations can also be a positive factor in the news production process; specifically, we found that MSF press releases are often used to counterbalance the “official” message coming from political representatives or contending parties.

GLOBAL JOURNALISM BETWEEN DREAM AND REALITY A comparative study of The Times, Le Monde and De Standaard

Global journalism is a practice that differs from traditional foreign correspondence. Instead of only covering distant events, it actively interconnects the local with the global. However, while some researchers claim that its practice has been incorporated into everyday news production as a natural response to the increasing interconnectedness of our globalized society, others see few empirical signs of its presence, and instead consider it to be a utopian vision for less “national provincialism” among the worlds media. These contrasting views on the evidence for global journalism in the news call for more empirical research. The purpose of this study is thus to examine the prevalence of global journalism in mainstream news media. The article provides, first, an operationalization of global journalism and, second, a quantification of its presence or absence in the news output of three national newspapers, The Times, Le Monde and De Standaard, by means of a quantitative content analysis covering the period January to June 2013 (N = 850). According to our main results, a quarter of all articles include at least one building block of global journalism, and a fifth of all articles are centered on a global event and/or present a global outlook on the reported matter. Le Monde is the most “global” newspaper, as it exhibits the most examples of global journalism. However, the other two newspapers to a greater extent embed global outlooks in their domestic news sections, which might be viewed as an emerging way of producing globalized news discourse in a social reality with ever-more blurred distinctions between domestic and global reality.

About Pseudo Quarrels and Trustworthiness

Digital technology, the internet and mobile media are transforming the journalism and media landscape by influencing the sourcing process. We combined in-depth interviews and a content analysis of the 1424 Twitter “followings” of eight Belgian health journalists to clarify how they use the platform to monitor and use sources. The findings show that top-down actors are overrepresented in the journalists’ sourcing practices and that Twitter is not used to reach out to bottom-up actors, especially ordinary citizens. We found that health journalists mainly use Twitter to monitor other media actors, indicating a process of inter-media agenda setting. In line with previous studies, health experts are the second most important group of sources as they play an important role in translating complex health matters. Overall, the interviews suggest that Twitter is used in a basic fashion for news sourcing, mainly to stay up to date and search for story ideas.

The human face of health news : a multi-method analysis of sourcing practices in health-related news in Belgian magazines

ABSTRACT Health journalists are central gatekeepers who select, frame, and communicate health news to a broad audience, but the selection and content of health news are also influenced by the sources journalists, rely on (Hinnant, Len-Rios, & Oh, 2012). In this paper, we examine whether the traditional elitist sourcing practices (e.g., research institutions, government) are still important in a digitalized news environment where bottom-up non-elite actors (e.g., patients, civil society organizations) can act as producers (Bruns, 2003). Our main goal, therefore, is to detect whether sourcing practices in health journalism can be linked with strategies of empowerment. We use a multi-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. First, two content analyses are developed to examine health-related news in Belgian magazines (popular weeklies, health magazines, general interest magazines, and women’s magazines). The analyses highlight sourcing practices as visible in the texts and give an overview of the different stakeholders represented as sources. In the first wave, the content analysis includes 1047 health-related news items in 19 different Belgian magazines (March–June 2013). In the second wave, a smaller sample of 202 health-related items in 10 magazines was studied for follow-up reasons (February 2015). Second, to contextualize the findings of the quantitative analysis, we interviewed 16 health journalists and editors-in-chief. The results illustrate that journalists consider patients and blogs as relevant sources for health news; nonetheless, elitist sourcing practices still prevail at the cost of bottom-up communication. However, the in-depth interviews demonstrate that journalists increasingly consult patients and civil society actors to give health issues a more “human” face. Importantly, the study reveals that this strategy is differently applied by the various types of magazines. While popular weeklies and women’s magazines give a voice to ordinary citizens to translate complex issues and connect with their audiences, general interest magazines and health magazines prefer elite sources and use ordinary citizen stories as a way of “window dressing.”

The produsing expert consumer: Co-constructing, resisting and accepting health-related claims on social media in response to an infotainment show about food:

This article examines the Twitter and Facebook uptake of health messages from an infotainment TV show on food, as broadcasted on Belgium’s Dutch-language public broadcaster. The interest in and amount of health-related media coverage is rising, and this media coverage is an important source of information for laypeople, and impacts their health behaviours and therapy compliance. However, the role of the audience has also changed; consumers of media content increasingly are produsers, and, in the case of health, expert consumers. To explore how current audiences react to health claims, we have conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of Twitter and Facebook reactions to an infotainment show about food and nutrition. We examine (1) to which elements in the show the audience reacts, to gain insight in the traction the nutrition-related content generates and (2) whether audience members are accepting or resisting the health information in the show. Our findings show that the information on health and production elicit the most reactions, and that health information incites a lot of refutation, low acceptance and a lot of suggestions on new information or new angles to complement the show’s information.

Online And Newsworthy: Have online sources changed journalism?

This special issue takes up the issue of online journalistic news sourcing techniques, which are defined as the use of the internet for gathering information for news stories. Online platforms, such as websites, Wikipedia, search engines, and social media can be consulted by journalists to gather or check information from both elite and non-elite actors. The papers in this special issue advance our understanding of (1) how online sources are used in the news production process and how they change the relationship between journalists and different groups of actors; and (2) why and how journalists use online sources during their daily work, and how they verify these sources. Together, the different contributions within this issue illustrate that the increasing use of online sources has impacted, yet perhaps not drastically changed, all aspects of journalistic news production.