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Editor: Qin
Reporter: In the past two years, there have been endless researches on digital media and social media, but what high-quality researches are there? Journalist's Resource, a subsidiary of Harvard University, has selected ten top papers or reports on digital media and social media in the past year. Research topics cover online news payment, artificial intelligence, rookie media companies and so on. It can be said that it is an annual summary that media people must read.
Online News Payment: A Comparative Analysis of Six Countries
Paying for Online News: A Comparative Analysis of Six Countries
Author: richard fleischer; Rasmus Chris Nelson (Oxford University) published in Data News.
Media in many countries around the world are trying to explore the payment model. However, we have limited knowledge about the factors that affect users' payment and users' views on online news. Therefore, this study investigated six countries (France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Britain and the United States) and analyzed "Who is paying for online news" and "Who is willing to pay for online news in the future".
(Proportion of people who pay for online news in each country)
(Proportion of countries willing to pay for online news in the future)
The conclusion of this study is mixed for the media: users who used to pay for printed news are more likely to pay for online news; Users who are used to public media are unwilling to pay now and in the future, partly because they can get free news. But contrary to the research hypothesis, young people are not more willing to pay for online news.
Generally speaking, only a few people in these six countries are still paying for online news, and the future situation is not very optimistic, but the attempt to pay for news is still in its infancy, and it may be too early to predict its future.
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20 17 news usage on social platforms
News usage on social media platforms 20 17
Authors: ELISA Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried (Pew Research Center)
Pew Research Center investigated how 497 1 American adults got news through social media in 20 17. The results show that 67% of the respondents get news through social media, and social platforms pay more and more attention to its news function.
The increase of people who like to watch news on social media is mainly driven by non-white users who are older and less educated. From the perspective of education, the proportion of users with non-undergraduate education who use social platforms to watch news has increased. On the contrary, the proportion of users with bachelor degree or above began to decline.
Overall, the proportion of users watching news on Twitter, Youtube and Snapchat is the fastest growing. Starting from 20 13, half of Twitter users began to watch news on it. In 20 17, due to the emergence of a Twitter-loving President Trump, the proportion of Twitter users watching news increased rapidly to 74%, an increase of 15% over last year.
Users who watch news on different social platforms have different characteristics. Users of Instagram and Snapchat are generally younger and more non-whites; Twitter and LinkedIn news users have higher academic qualifications, with 59% and 45% users having bachelor degree or above respectively.
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Research on the Invested Emerging Media Companies and Media Fields
News Entrepreneurship and News Field Supported by Venture Capital: Challenges, Changes and Consistency
Author: Nicky Arthur (George Washington University) published in Data News.
This research field surveyed 18 American and European emerging media companies, including BuzzFeed, GeekWire and Vox, to understand how emerging digital media changed the news industry. The research also focuses on the role of the algorithm in predicting user behavior and expanding product creation.
The author of the paper, Usher, interviewed the top managers, founders and other employees of these companies and learned about the establishment background, development vision, technology research and development, revenue methods and other details of the company.
These rookie media companies are committed to developing technology, creating algorithms, innovating culture and personalized news, and also analyzing journalists' behavior habits to make technicians more like journalists. These are great challenges to traditional media.
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The participation of technology companies in political communication: the performance of Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google during the 20 16 US election.
Technology companies shape political communication: the work of Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google in the 20 16 US presidential election cycle.
Author: Daniel Chris (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Shannon C. McGregor (University of Utah) published in Political Newsletter.
This paper observes how Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter cooperated with political activities during the 20 16 American election from a behind-the-scenes perspective. This paper focuses on their roles in the 20 16 Democratic National Congress and the consulting services they provided to candidates including Trump during the campaign.
The researchers found that these technology companies have increasingly improved their political knowledge in data-related campaigns, and even formed an organizational structure and staffing suitable for American political party elections.
At the same time, representatives of various companies said that providing corresponding products and services to candidates was their main job during the election. They hope that candidates can make their services and platforms gain higher public awareness and establish more contacts with parliamentarians.
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How do journalists view automated news when they experience robot writing?
When journalists experience robot writing, professionals will consider the ability and consequences of automated news.
Authors: Neil Thurman, Konstantin ·DRR and Jessica Cunat (University of Munich and University of Zurich) published in Data News.
The media revolution has integrated artificial intelligence into newsrooms, such as using crime statistics and structured data of sports competitions to generate news reports. Although many journalists understand the importance of this trend, most of them have no experience in writing directly with machines.
In this study, the researchers discussed with a few journalists (from BBC, CNN, Reuters, etc.). ) and showed them how to use software to create data-driven news content. After gaining practical experience, the reporter was asked about the potential and limitations of this technology.
Unsurprisingly, many reporters talked about the limitations of automated news. For example, some people worry that automation will reduce the resolution of information. Some journalists also see the benefits of automation, including saving time and reducing human error. For some people, automatically generating news stories is frustrating. They find it difficult to demonstrate their abilities.
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Influence of artificial intelligence on news practice and its enlightenment
Artificial Intelligence: Practice and Its Enlightenment to Journalism
Authors: Mark Hansen, Merit Xell Roca-Sales, Jon Keegan and George King (Brown Media Innovation Institute and Digital News Center of Columbia Journalism Institute).
What problems will journalists and technicians find when brainstorming artificial intelligence in the newsroom? This report records the dry goods at the seminar held by Columbia University Digital News Center and Brown Media Innovation Center. Journalists and technical experts discussed this topic for three hours.
The knowledge and communication gap between technicians who create artificial intelligence and journalists who actually use technology may lead to improper use of technology by journalists. In addition, news media need to clearly explain to readers how artificial intelligence is used to study and report news. In addition, technicians should work with reporter Qi Xin to fight against the deviation of artificial intelligence. Because artificial intelligence programs are written by human beings, there are bound to be some mistakes, although sometimes they are not obvious.
Authors: Rob Faris, Hal Roberts, Bruce Etling, Nikki Bourassa, Ethan Zuckerman and Yochai Benkler (Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University).
In this report, researchers analyze the composition and reporting behavior of American media, and explain how Trump and Clinton get different reports. This report has *** 142 pages, which includes a lot of visual data such as bar charts and network diagrams, and even includes a case study on the Clinton Foundation report.
(May 1, 20 16, 1 1, 7,2065438 Statistics on the number of sentences of candidates and related topics).
Although the mainstream media has given negative reports to both presidential candidates, Trump obviously occupies a dominant position in news reports and has the opportunity to shape his image. According to the report, after the Democratic National Congress, people expected Hillary Clinton, the leader in the opinion polls, but the far-right media successfully pushed the negative news of the Clinton Foundation into public view, which made Hillary lose the opportunity to rebound.
The study also believes that although fake news is a big trouble, it plays a relatively small role in the 20 16 presidential election. In contrast, information and publicity from the websites of special political parties played a greater role in the election.
The news media called on journalists to use social media to promote their works and build their own professional brands. How does this affect journalists' activities on Twitter and Facebook after work?
The results show that journalists are under great pressure to authenticate their identities on social media, play the role of experts in the professional field and act as representatives of news organizations at any time. This state makes their living space very small, because they are more willing to share their family, beliefs or friendship online.
This paper studies the influence of social media on journalists' identity. The author interviewed 4 1 journalists and editors of American newspapers to discuss the challenges they face in integrating their personal and professional identities on social media.
Authors: Gary King, Benjamin Schneer and Ariel White (Harvard University, Florida State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) published in Science magazine.
In an experiment involving 48 small media organizations, this study proves that news reports have contributed to the international democratic process in a quantitative way.
Reporting a policy topic will prompt the public to express their views and positions on this topic. The researchers randomly selected topics and asked media organizations to write and publish articles based on these topics, and then evaluated the impact according to the number of views on the website and posts on social media.
Authors: NIC Newman, Richard Fletcher, Antonis Kalogeopoulos, David A.L. Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (Reuters Institute of Journalism, Oxford University).
Reuters Institute of Journalism publishes an annual digital news report every year. The report investigates the media use and consumption behavior of more than 70,000 people in 36 countries with the help of YouGov, an authoritative market research organization.
The main conclusions of the report are:
1.20 17, the growth rate of desktop advertising blocking software (plug-ins) slowed down obviously, and the current coverage rate is about 24%, while the mobile phone terminal is almost unaffected. In addition, about 43% of the respondents are willing to turn off the ad blocking plug-in when browsing specific news websites, which is an increase from the previous period.
2. Users in many countries like to use news applications more and more. For example, the proportion of respondents in Sweden is as high as 37%, South Korea is 33%, and the United States is 26%, both higher than last year. At the same time, more users choose to accept push messages from news applications.
3. Researchers in Reuters also counted the number of respondents who paid to watch news in various countries, and found that only the United States changed greatly in 20 17. In the United States, the proportion of news paying users increased from 9% in 20 16 to 16% in 20 17, and the number of users aged between 18 and 24 increased from 4% to 18%.
4. Breaking news and in-depth analysis may be the profit points of paid media content, and users are more willing to pay for these content.
Recommended reading for recent good articles:
China in Time Magazine's 20 17 Best News Agency Photographer's Lens
20 17 Global Award-winning In-depth Reports Looking back on difficult times can breed the best news reports.
20 18 Ten Trends of Content Industry
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