Papers by Marcel Broersma
Digital Journalism
Social media platforms are an increasingly dominant medium through which people encounter news in... more Social media platforms are an increasingly dominant medium through which people encounter news in everyday life. Yet while we know more-and-more about frequency of use and sharing, content preferences and network configurations around news use on social media, the social experiences associated with such practices remain relatively unexplored. This paper addresses this gap to consider if and how news facilitates conversations in everyday contexts where social media play a communicative role. It investigates how people engage with current affairs collectively in different social formations and their associated following, sharing and discussion practices. Specifically, it studies the role of news in six focus groups consisting of people who know each other offline and simultaneously communicate regularly through private Facebook or WhatsApp groups, and who interact primarily in relation to their membership in a particular (1) location-based (2) work-related or (3) leisure-oriented community. It finds that communication within social media communities whose members consider their ties as weak generally tended to be more news-centred. Even more significant was perceived control over privacy and presence of clear norms and community boundaries, which alongside the communicative aims of the group proved important considerations when it came to deciding whether to share news within the community.
Media and Communication, 2019
This thematic issue sets out to explore the power relationships between journalism and social med... more This thematic issue sets out to explore the power relationships between journalism and social media. The articles here examine these relationships as intersections between journalistic actors and their audiences, and between news media, their content, and the functions of social media platforms. As the articles in this issue show, the emergence of social media and their adoption by news media and other social actors have brought about a series of changes which have had an impact on how news is produced, how information is shared, how audiences consume news, and how publics are formed. In this introduction, we highlight the work in this issue in order to reflect on the emergence of social media as one which has been accompanied by shifts in power in journalism and its ancillary fields, shifts which have in turn surfaced new questions for scholars to confront.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Language, Signal and Speech Processing (2017), 2017
We examine methods for improving models for automatically labeling social media data. In particul... more We examine methods for improving models for automatically labeling social media data. In particular we evaluate active learning: a method for selecting candidate training data whose labeling the classification model would benefit most of. We show that this approach requires careful experiment design, when it is combined with language modeling.
This paper analyses the Facebook page Justice for Mike Brown—set up during the 2014 Ferguson prot... more This paper analyses the Facebook page Justice for Mike Brown—set up during the 2014 Ferguson protests—in order to rethink the role of memory work within contemporary digital activism. We argue that, as a particular type of discursive practice, memory work on the page bridged personal and collective action frames. This occurred in four overlapping ways. First, the page allowed for affective commemorative engagement that helped shape Brown's public image. Second, Brown's death was contextualized as part of systematic injustice against African-Americans. Third, the past was used to legitimize present action, wherein the present was continually connected to the past and future. And fourth, particular discursive units became recognizable symbolic markers during the protests and for future recall. Based on this typology, we show that memory work, although multidirectional and in flux, is stabilized by the interactions between the page administrator, users and Facebook's operational logic.
We study the discursive practices of politicians and journalists on social media. For this we nee... more We study the discursive practices of politicians and journalists on social media. For this we need annotated data but the annotation process is time-consuming and costly. In this paper we examine machine learning methods for automatically annotating unseen tweets based on previously processed tweets. For improving the performance of the learner, we focus on methods related to training data expansion, like artificial training data, active learning and incorporating language models developed from unannotated text.
Imagine for a moment – a thought experiment if you will – that journalism as we have come to know... more Imagine for a moment – a thought experiment if you will – that journalism as we have come to know it would disappear overnight. What would happen in terms of the informational flows in society? What would we miss and what would be the risk, if any? Instinctively, the answers likely proffered to such a hypothetical scenario are predictable: people would lose crucial information for engaging civically; unfettered from investigative oversight, governments, businesses and other powerful institutions would become less accountable; the fodder for public discussion on prominent issues of the day would be lost; and so on and so forth. In sum: the conditioned reaction on questions about ‘what journalism is good for’ tends to lead back toward familiar rhetorics and rationales.
This chapter accordingly explores the possible disparities between journalism’s claim of being essential to democracy and the actual news and informational preferences of (digital) news consumers. Through the lens of the informational habits of citizens, we set out to critically investigate journalism’s democratic worth anew, something the industry and many observers leave largely unquestioned. This dogmatism, we argue, potentially stifles the reflexivity needed for transformations ranging from possible adaptation to disruptive change. In this regard, this chapter argues that a bottom-up approach to begin rethinking (digital) journalisms’ possible futures is more fruitful than to depart from grand normative theories; it is more constructive to start with, in Jay Rosen’s (2006) well-known phrase, ‘the people formerly known as the audience’.
It’s easy to make a rhetorical case for the value of journalism. Because, it is a necessary preco... more It’s easy to make a rhetorical case for the value of journalism. Because, it is a necessary precondition for democracy; it speaks to the people and for the people; it informs citizens and enables them to make rational decisions; it functions as their watchdog on government and other powers that be…
But does rehashing such familiar rationales bring journalism studies forward? Does it contribute to ongoing discussions surrounding journalism’s viability going forth? For all their seeming self-evidence, this book considers what bearing these old platitudes have in the new digital era. It asks whether such hopeful talk really reflects the concrete roles journalism now performs for people in their everyday lives. In essence, it poses questions that strike at the core of the idea of journalism itself. Is there a singular journalism that has one well-defined role in society? Is its public mandate as strong as we think?
The internationally renowned scholars comprising the collection address these recurring concerns that have long defined the profession and which journalism faces even more acutely today. By discussing what journalism was, is and (possibly) will be, this book highlights key contemporary areas of debate and tackles ongoing anxieties about journalism’s future.
This article argues that French journalism, which historical development has often characterized ... more This article argues that French journalism, which historical development has often characterized as backward in comparison to its Anglo-American counterpart, changed more profoundly in the interwar years than is often acknowledged in scholarship into journalism history. Based on a textual analysis of the reportages Andrée Viollis wrote about her 1931 trip to French Indochina and China, situated against the background of French journalism history, we challenge the dominance of the Anglo-American conception of the objectivity regime as a factual, impartial and depersonalized standard for professional journalism. Viollis’ work illustrates how in France the reflective reporting – in the sense of mixing factual description with argumentation and opinions – of engaged intellectual writers lost ground to their particular version of fact-centred reporting by so-called grand reporters, who interpreted objectivity as impartial reporting that was nevertheless structured by the mediating subjectivity of the reporter. These were, contrary to the rhetorically gifted écrivain engagé, expected to convey social reality in a descriptive manner, avoiding explicit political and ideological views. Yet reporters’ personal experiences played a pivotal role, expressed in an evocative, literary style that was inspired by literary naturalism.
Journalism Practice, 2012
While the newspaper industry is in crisis and less time and resources are available for newsgathe... more While the newspaper industry is in crisis and less time and resources are available for newsgathering, social media turn out to be a convenient and cheap beat for (political) journalism. This article investigates the use of Twitter as a source for newspaper coverage of the 2010 British and Dutch elections. Almost a quarter of the British and nearly half of the Dutch candidates shared their thoughts, visions, and experiences on Twitter. Subsequently, these tweets were increasingly quoted in newspaper coverage. We present a typology of the functions tweets have in news reports: they were either considered newsworthy as such, were a reason for further reporting, or were used to illustrate a broader news story. Consequently, we will show why politicians were successful in producing quotable tweets. While this paper, which is part of a broader project on how journalists (and politicians) use Twitter, focuses upon the coverage of election campaigns, our results indicate a broader trend in journalism. In the future, the reporter who attends events, gathers information face-to-face, and asks critical questions might instead aggregate information online and reproduce it in journalism discourse thereby altering the balance of power between journalists and sources.
Twitter has become a convenient, cheap and effective beat for journalists in search of news and i... more Twitter has become a convenient, cheap and effective beat for journalists in search of news and information. Reporters today increasingly aggregate information online and embed it in journalism discourse. In this paper, we analyse how tweets have increasingly been included as quotes in newspaper reporting during the rise of Twitter from 2007 to 2011. The paper compares four Dutch and four British national tabloids and broadsheets, asking if tabloid journalists are relying more on this second-hand coverage than their colleagues from quality papers. Moreover,
we investigate in which sections of the paper tweets are included and what kinds of sources are quoted. Consequently, we present a typology of the functions tweets have in news reports. Reporters do include these utterances as either newsworthy or to support or illustrate a story. In some cases, individual tweets or interaction between various agents on Twitter even triggers news coverage. We argue that this new discursive practice alters the balance of power between journalists and sources.
International Communication Gazette, 2010
Form and style matter in journalism. To a large extent a newspaper's identity is determined by it... more Form and style matter in journalism. To a large extent a newspaper's identity is determined by its appearance and its tone. Readers want to feel comfortable with a paper's design, its departmentalization and its use of illustrations, colour and headlines. The style of writing and the form of stories should please them. 'Reading someone else's newspaper is like sleeping with someone else's wife', Malcolm Bradbury observed in his novel Stepping Westward. 'Nothing seems to be precisely in the right place, and when you find what you are looking for, it is not clear then how to respond to it'. 1 People need to be at ease with their newspapers or they risk alienation.
The current news media landscape is characterized by an abundance of digital outlets and increase... more The current news media landscape is characterized by an abundance of digital outlets and increased opportunities for users to navigate news themselves. Yet, it is still unclear how people negotiate this fluctuating environment to decide which news media to select or ignore, how they assemble distinctive cross-media repertoires, and what makes these compositions meaningful. This article analyzes the value of different platforms, genres and practices in everyday life by mapping patterns of cross-media news use. Combining Q methodology with think-aloud protocols and day-in-the-life-interviews, five distinct news media repertoires are identified: 1) regionally-oriented 2) background-oriented 3) digital 4) laid-back and 5) nationally-oriented news use. Our findings indicate that users do not always use what they prefer, nor do they prefer what they use. Moreover, the boundaries they draw between news and other information are clearly shifting. Finally, our results show that in a world with a wide range of possibilities to consume news for free, paying for news can be considered an act of civic engagement. We argue that perceived news use and users’ appreciation of news should be studied in relation to each other to gain a fuller understanding of what news consumption entails in this rapidly changing media landscape.
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Papers by Marcel Broersma
This chapter accordingly explores the possible disparities between journalism’s claim of being essential to democracy and the actual news and informational preferences of (digital) news consumers. Through the lens of the informational habits of citizens, we set out to critically investigate journalism’s democratic worth anew, something the industry and many observers leave largely unquestioned. This dogmatism, we argue, potentially stifles the reflexivity needed for transformations ranging from possible adaptation to disruptive change. In this regard, this chapter argues that a bottom-up approach to begin rethinking (digital) journalisms’ possible futures is more fruitful than to depart from grand normative theories; it is more constructive to start with, in Jay Rosen’s (2006) well-known phrase, ‘the people formerly known as the audience’.
But does rehashing such familiar rationales bring journalism studies forward? Does it contribute to ongoing discussions surrounding journalism’s viability going forth? For all their seeming self-evidence, this book considers what bearing these old platitudes have in the new digital era. It asks whether such hopeful talk really reflects the concrete roles journalism now performs for people in their everyday lives. In essence, it poses questions that strike at the core of the idea of journalism itself. Is there a singular journalism that has one well-defined role in society? Is its public mandate as strong as we think?
The internationally renowned scholars comprising the collection address these recurring concerns that have long defined the profession and which journalism faces even more acutely today. By discussing what journalism was, is and (possibly) will be, this book highlights key contemporary areas of debate and tackles ongoing anxieties about journalism’s future.
we investigate in which sections of the paper tweets are included and what kinds of sources are quoted. Consequently, we present a typology of the functions tweets have in news reports. Reporters do include these utterances as either newsworthy or to support or illustrate a story. In some cases, individual tweets or interaction between various agents on Twitter even triggers news coverage. We argue that this new discursive practice alters the balance of power between journalists and sources.
This chapter accordingly explores the possible disparities between journalism’s claim of being essential to democracy and the actual news and informational preferences of (digital) news consumers. Through the lens of the informational habits of citizens, we set out to critically investigate journalism’s democratic worth anew, something the industry and many observers leave largely unquestioned. This dogmatism, we argue, potentially stifles the reflexivity needed for transformations ranging from possible adaptation to disruptive change. In this regard, this chapter argues that a bottom-up approach to begin rethinking (digital) journalisms’ possible futures is more fruitful than to depart from grand normative theories; it is more constructive to start with, in Jay Rosen’s (2006) well-known phrase, ‘the people formerly known as the audience’.
But does rehashing such familiar rationales bring journalism studies forward? Does it contribute to ongoing discussions surrounding journalism’s viability going forth? For all their seeming self-evidence, this book considers what bearing these old platitudes have in the new digital era. It asks whether such hopeful talk really reflects the concrete roles journalism now performs for people in their everyday lives. In essence, it poses questions that strike at the core of the idea of journalism itself. Is there a singular journalism that has one well-defined role in society? Is its public mandate as strong as we think?
The internationally renowned scholars comprising the collection address these recurring concerns that have long defined the profession and which journalism faces even more acutely today. By discussing what journalism was, is and (possibly) will be, this book highlights key contemporary areas of debate and tackles ongoing anxieties about journalism’s future.
we investigate in which sections of the paper tweets are included and what kinds of sources are quoted. Consequently, we present a typology of the functions tweets have in news reports. Reporters do include these utterances as either newsworthy or to support or illustrate a story. In some cases, individual tweets or interaction between various agents on Twitter even triggers news coverage. We argue that this new discursive practice alters the balance of power between journalists and sources.
Journalism’s normative claims rely heavily upon these established modernist discourses which serve to affirm its essential role within a democracy and assert its relevance to the public (see McNair, 2012; Schudson, 2008). However, the reality is that most journalism is not a public good, at least not in the traditional economic sense. Publishers in print and online as well as commercial broadcasters are typically companies with all the drawbacks and market susceptibilities this implies no matter how much journalists, journalism studies scholars, and audiences alike frequently place expectations of public service upon journalism tout court. Even public broadcasting, for that matter, is obliged by law to cater for and reach certain audiences. Given this context, it is intriguing to consider the possible disconnect between journalism’s normative assertions, its day-to-day activities, and its actual resonance.