Toni G.L.A. van der Meer

Public Frame Building The Role of Source Usage in Times of Crisis

New media have markedly enhanced the public’s capacity to influence the framing of an issue, especially within crisis situations. By relying on research triangulation, this study aims to map the comprehensive frame-building process of the public as an understudied domain within framing and crisis research. Study 1 uses advanced automated content analyses of crisis-related tweets (N = 252,711) to examine how the public built frames online with the use of information sources. Study 2 applies an innovative vignette study (N = 772) to investigate the conditions that influence the public’s source selection during crises. The findings illustrate how the public uses sources to address certain frame functions and show that source usage is subject to external factors (i.e., crisis origin and magnitude) as well as internal factors (i.e., crisis involvement and habitual source use).New media have markedly enhanced the public’s capacity to influence the framing of an issue, especially within crisis situations. By relying on research triangulation, this study aims to map the comprehensive frame-building process of the public as an understudied domain within framing and crisis research. Study 1 uses advanced automated content analyses of crisis-related tweets (N = 252,711) to examine how the public built frames online with the use of information sources. Study 2 applies an innovative vignette study (N = 772) to investigate the conditions that influence the public’s source selection during crises. The findings illustrate how the public uses sources to address certain frame functions and show that source usage is subject to external factors (i.e., crisis origin and magnitude) as well as internal factors (i.e., crisis involvement and habitual source use).

Mediatization and the Disproportionate Attention to Negative News

Do news media increasingly portray a distorted world image when reporting menace? The purpose of this study is to investigate how media attention for negative incidents evolves over time and how this relates to real-world trends and public responses. A longitudinal content analysis (1991–2015) of media coverage of aviation incidents is used to provide a systematic investigation into the trends of media attention related to real-world data. Results show that while the total number of aviation incidents declined across time, relative media attention increased. Time series analysis revealed that media attention for these negative incidents was negatively associated with shifts in public responses—i.e. air travel behavior—whereas real-world statistics on aviation incidents did not seem to explain variation in public behavior. Moreover, when exploring the variation in the coverage of media attention, increasing presence of mediatization facets was observed as a potential explanation for the over-time rise in disproportional attention to negative news. In conclusion, news media may have a blind spot for progression and a distorted media reality can be a predictor of public responses instead of reality itself.

Who Takes the Lead? Investigating the Reciprocal Relationship Between Organizational and News Agendas:

This study introduces the element of time to investigate the causal relation between organizational and news media agendas. Reciprocal time-series analyses were applied to daily-level aggregated press releases (n = 17,221) and news articles (n = 74,067). Results indicate that on the first level of agenda building, organizational and news agendas are intertwined in an intimate relation of reciprocal influence, in which organizations more often take the lead. Conversely, results suggest that on the second level of agenda building, organizational and news agendas influence each other less often. Organizational and newspaper characteristics proved useful to map the contingency of agenda-building effects. The findings suggest that organizational sources are more influential in the news discovery phase compared with the news-gathering phase, and imply that the unidirectional conceptualization of news media as a channel to vent organizational messages is too narrow.

Disrupting gatekeeping practices: Journalists’ source selection in times of crisis

As gatekeepers, journalists have the power to select the sources that get a voice in crisis coverage. The aim of this study is to find out how journalists select sources during a crisis. In a survey, journalists were asked how they assess the following sources during an organizational crisis: news agencies, an organization undergoing a crisis, and the general public. The sample consisted of 214 Dutch experienced journalists who at least once covered a crisis. Using structural equation modeling, sources’ likelihood of being included in the news was predicted using five source characteristics: credibility, knowledge, willingness, timeliness, and the relationship with the journalist. Findings indicated that during a crisis, news agencies are most likely to be included in the news, followed by the public, and finally the organization. The significance of the five source characteristics is dependent on source type. For example, to be used in the news, news agencies and organizations should be mainly evaluated as knowledgeable, whereas information from the public should be both credible and timely. In addition, organizations should not be seen as too willing or too eager to communicate. The findings imply that, during a crisis, journalists remain critical gatekeepers; however, they rely mainly on familiar sources.

News media coverage and initial public offerings in Germany: explaining flotation performance

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of news media coverage and the performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) in Germany. The aim is to find out how media attention, media sentiment, corporate information, and recency of news are related to the flotation performance of firms that go public.,50 IPOs that went public in Germany between January 2011 and December 2015 were investigated. In total, 3,644 German speaking articles dealing with the IPOs were manually analyzed. Hierarchical OLS regressions were performed to find out how news media variables relate with the flotation performance of German IPOs (cf. underpricing, share price percentage gain after second day of trading). It was furthermore distinguished between news media coverage six days prior to the IPO and coverage on the day of the IPO itself.,While more media attention devoted to the IPOs on the day of their flotation might lead to a share price percentage gain after the second day of trading, negativity in the news media and information about new products and products of the IPO firm might be negatively related with their flotation performance. However, information about the strategy change of the IPO firms seems to be positively related with the underpricing of IPOs. Furthermore, news media coverage on the day of the IPO itself seems to be more influential for the flotation performance with regard to negative sentiment and information about new products.,Financial communication professionals should manage media representations of IPO firms before and on the day of the IPO itself. In this vein, negative media coverage should be prevented and information about new products and products of the IPO firm should be considered with caution. Instead, talking about the strategy of the IPO firm might be advantageous for the flotation performance.,This study evolved from a lack of empirical research on the interrelationships between news media and stock market prices in communication science, particularly with regard to IPOs. The study contributes to previous research in paying attention to corporate information and the recency of news when trying to explain IPO performances. The findings of this study provide implications for strategic financial communication and the role of managing news media of firms that go public.

The consequences of being on the agenda: The effect of media and public attention on firms’ stock market performance

Abstract This study applies agenda setting theory to understand how firms’ financial performance is affected by both the news media and the public agenda. Using content and time-series analysis for the data of five Dutch firms (period 2009−2013), we demonstrate that media attention (newspaper coverage) and public attention (GoogleTrends search) for a firm affect stock market ratings. As hypothesized, the effect of media attention was found to be negative whereas the effect of public attention was positive.