Iamcr masip etal_definitiu

Journalists hegemonies in the age of journalism participation:

the audience's perspective

Pere Masip, Jaume Suau, Carles Ruiz, Javier Guallar, M. Peralta (Universitat Ramon Llull)

Montreal 16/07/2015

Journalists hegemonies in the age of journalism participation

• Ambivalence towards fostering audience participation (Singer et al., 2011)

• Economic motivations lead participatory journalism (Vujnovic et al., 2010)

• Normative perspective in research: assumption that participation in and through the media is good for democracy (Carpentier, 2011; Borger et al, 2013).

Journalism perspective


• A holistic perspective on audience participation

• From the perspective of the journalists to the one of citizens

• Motivations, practices and expectations• The role of audience participation in

journalism and democracy

The Research Project


• To find out which motivations have citizens to participate

• To research citizens’ self-perception about their role in news production

• To determine which news sources citizens consider to better embody the democratic function of media, and whether citizens’ participation enhances that function

Objectives


• Quantitative survey representative of the Spanish online population in collaboration with AIMC (N=591). Questionnaire: 67 questions.

• 12 focus groups with 5 to 9 citizens each• Survey of active participants in partner news

websites (in progress)

Methodology


Importance of Internet as a source of news

47.8

44.2

4.73.3

Main source Secondary source but importantSecondary source but unimportant Don't use internet as a source of news


Most popular activities on social networks

Interacti

ng with

friends

Family

relationsh

ips

Professi

onal relationsh

ips

Search

for a

partner

Hobbies

Access

to newsOther

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

9088.1

43.8

32.3

2.0

37.6

48.1

5.8


Source of the news received through social networks

Media Associations, NGOs...

Companies Friends Journalists Celebrities0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

47.4

30

16

81.2

20.8

14.6


• In social networks:– Receive news from media they usually read: 77,4%– From media with opposite ideological views: 7.2%

• Outside social networks:– Prefer media with the same point of view: 30%– With a neutral point of view: 63%– With a different point of view: 7%

Ideological bubbles?


75.2% say “Most media are biased” but also 74.3% say that media help them find the information they are interested

• “I think that news media inform according their ideology”

• “Some of them [news media] hide the facts… but you can now find out the facts through social networks”

Distrust


To what extent do you think the news produced by professional journalists or by non-professional citizen journalists is reliable?

Professional journalists

Very

Quite

Not very

Not at all

Non professional citizen journalists

Very

Quite

Not very

Not at all

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

9.9

53.9

32.9

3.3

3.3

36.5

52.4

7.8


• “… at least there is a person who signs the news story, but in social networks no one signs them”

• “… when I receive one [a news story through social networks] which is not signed I don’t trust it”

• “rumours are very dangerous”


Use of participatory interactivity toolsSeveral times per dayAlmost all days/week

Several times per weekSeveral times per month

Less often /Never

Several times per dayAlmost all days/week


Less often /Never



Less often /Never



Less often /Never

Voti

ng /

ratin

g ne

ws

Reco

mm

end

new

s on

Fac

eboo

k

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0

4.17.3

11.318.2

59.1

2.44.3

6.517.1

69.8

3.33.8

5.69.4

77.9

3.37.1

10.121.8

57.6


Use of productive interactivity toolsSeveral times per dayAlmost all days/week


Less often /Never



Less often /Never



Less often /Never



Less often /Never



Less often /Never

Send

a co

rrec

tion

Prov

ide

stor

ies

Prov

ide

pict

ures

Prov

ide

vide

osPr

ovid

e au

dios

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

0.60.00.4

2.996.2

0.41.01.7

4.092.9

0.41.0

2.13.9

92.6

0.40.60.7

1.796.7

0.40.60.7

1.796.7


About the possibility to participate...

• “I’ve never done it, but I think it is interesting”

• “They don’t help [contents provided by users], because news media are looking for morbidity and most of the news [provided by users] are related to deaths and disasters”

• I‘ve never done it… for laziness


The audience’s reasons for participating25.3

9.5

15.611.0

54.4

To improve the news For fun To defend my ideology

To contest the wiew of others Have never participate


Formats adopted by news media websites are not

attracting citizens’ online participation.

– Debates are too aggressive and uncivilised

– There exist no relation between users

– Participation is not a source for new information

– Lack of agency

– Journalists and media are not being involved

Why are citizens not interested to participate?


• Audiences are critical with professional journalism…

• …but still relying on it to inform themselves

• Participation: mainly disseminating traditional news rather than creating their own

First conclusions


Citizens show a lack of interest in being news’ producers…

…and still respect the central position of the professional journalist


• Dual role of social networks users: consumers and recommenders

• The journalist is no longer the sole gatekeeper

• Friends are the new gatekeepers

• ... But journalists continue to maintain their hegemony

Merci Thanks Gràcies

Montreal16/07/2015

Pere Masip and Jaume Suau

Social Media

Iamcr masip etal_definitiu