WORLD OF MEDIA-2022. ISSUE №3
World of Media-2022. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies. Issue №3.
The issue was published in 2022 by the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University.
LEAD ARTICLE
The paper presents the results of using eye-tracking technologies to study news materials on environmental topics collected as stimulus material and classified according to their impact on audience perception. The empirical material of the study came from news websites covering environmental issues. For objectivity, we compared two regional media resources – 74.ru (Chelyabinsk) and Aktobe Times2. We present our analysis of participants’ response to the studied materials and the degree of their influence on the participants’ emotional state and behavioral reactions. The paper also supplements the data obtained from content analysis in previous studies and expands the understanding of this issue. The chosen quantitative and qualitative approach to content research allowed us to determine the semantic and stylistic features of constructing ecotexts, determine their connotative characteristics, and classify them by groups, topics, and categories. The paper also contains survey data contributing to a deeper study of the stated problem and focusing on a detailed study of the audience’s behavioral responses. The survey data allowed us to confirm the expressed hypotheses and highlight the active areas of interest of the youth readership. Alongside the presented conclusions and points of discussion, we expressed the main assumptions highlighting the features of the formation of environmental texts in the news media.
Key words: Internet media, environmental issues, headline, eye tracker, youth audience
Received: 12.06.22
Accepted: 05.09.22
ARTICLES
The increase in media proliferation as a result of the emergence of social media as alternative sources of news dissemination and consumption has led to many changes in journalism, such as declining gatekeeping and content scrutiny. Thus, headline construction and structuring play a crucial role in this new era of news. Like their counterparts all over the world, Nigeria’s mainstream media are not left out of this raging redefinition of news construction and distribution in a hyperbolic and propagandistic format, despite their significant contributions to democracy since its return in 1999. The rise of insecurity and the attendance of political uproars, buoyed by online misinformation through pluralistic digital media, triggers intentional or inadvertent mistakes among the hitherto respected and credible mainstream media causing the need to respond to the salient issues in the media spaces without being out of the mainstream. Using the content analysis and process tracing methods, this paper explores the influence of the current media agenda on the gatekeeping of news that is increasingly spreading misinformation via clickbait on the headlines of the mainstream media.
Key words: Headlines, mainstream media, misinformation, clickbait, framing
Received: 25.04.22
Accepted: 30.08.22
This qualitative study examines coverage by Zimbabwe’s media of the events surrounding the military coup of November 2017. The study investigates 38 selected stories; 16 from the state controlled The Herald and 22 from the private owned Newsday newspapers. The sampled articles were considered relevant to the ‘military assisted political transition’ that took place in the period under study. Critically, the study is aimed to understand how events that transpired during the transitional period leading to President Robert Mugabe ouster, after three decades in power, have shaped journalism practice in Zimbabwe. Considering that the transitional period marked a major turning point in Zimbabwe’s political life, this study seeks to understand the role played by the country’s private and public media. In this paper, the authors try to find out who the two newspapers wrote about during the coup period, why the two normally opposite newspapers converged against Mugabe and how they framed his demise. Framing theory is used as an analytic lens of the study. The theory analyses meanings of statements, language and words used by the two newspapers. The study found out that, in an unusual situation, the newspapers reported a similar language and tone, demonstrating media convergence between a state-controlled newspaper and a private and oppositional publication that never existed since the country had gained independence in 1980. The study also observed that these media outlets violated journalistic ethics of fairness and right to reply as they saw the toppling of President Mugabe as crucial to the progress of the country.
Key words: Public media, private media, Newsday, The Herald, military coup, Robert Mugabe
Received: 10.04.22
Accepted: 23.07.22
This study examines how Bangladeshi media frame the economic uncertainty of coronavirus (COVID-19) to understand the absolute scenario of an economic crisis or a disaster through the dominant frames. When keeping people constantly informed through the message of the media, the most important matter is not what is portrayed, but how it is portrayed. Using the content analysis approach, the author intends to analyze a total of 296 editorials and op-ed items in The Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, and The Financial Express from March 26 to August 3, 2020. Using the ‘Media framing theory’, six major frames are used to analyze the data. This article finds out that ‘crisis’ and ‘fear’ frames dominated the media coverage of the pandemic. Based on the linguistic analysis, this paper also finds that the economic issues of COVID-19 have been over-focused, in some cases the newspapers sidelined the focus from ‘health crisis’ to ‘national economic crisis’. The language of the coverage of economic contents combines hope, human issues, frustration, and social responsibility at varied proportions. The article suggests that the media could mitigate the crisis by not politicizing the economic issues; rather the journalists should focus on highlighting the solution to surpass the economic crisis and help the authority to implement proper policies for keeping the country’s economic conditions safe.
Key words: COVID-19, economic crisis, media framing theory, newspaper coverage, Bangladesh
Received: 12.05.22
Accepted: 28.08.22