Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2020 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152 |
Resumo: | The current media environment is primarily characterised by a large amount of information and, in contrast, rather fragmented audience attention. This is especially true for social media, particularly Facebook, which have become important news sources for many people. Journalists cannot help but publish content on Facebook if they want to reach the part of their audience that mainly—or even only—consumes news there. On Facebook, journalists are at the mercy of the algorithm that determines the visibility of their content. Because user engagement is a crucial factor in the algorithm, concerns have been raised that journalists are abandoning their normative quality standards to make the news as attractive as possible to the audience—at the expense of media performance. A softened presentation of the news, particularly in Facebook posts, may help achieve this aim, but research on this subject is lacking. The present study analyses this practice of softening the news in four German media outlets’ (BILD, FAZ, Der Spiegel, Tagesschau) political Facebook posts. The results show that the overall level of news softening is low to medium. Furthermore, comparing them to website teasers reveals that news softening is only slightly higher on Facebook (mainly BILD and Der Spiegel), and that there are no converging trends between quality or public service media and tabloid media. Exaggerated fears about news softening are therefore unnecessary. Continued analysis of news softening, as well as ongoing adaption of the concept according to dynamic developments, is nevertheless important. |
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Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook PostsFacebook; Germany; journalism; political news; quantitative content analysis; social media logic; soft newsThe current media environment is primarily characterised by a large amount of information and, in contrast, rather fragmented audience attention. This is especially true for social media, particularly Facebook, which have become important news sources for many people. Journalists cannot help but publish content on Facebook if they want to reach the part of their audience that mainly—or even only—consumes news there. On Facebook, journalists are at the mercy of the algorithm that determines the visibility of their content. Because user engagement is a crucial factor in the algorithm, concerns have been raised that journalists are abandoning their normative quality standards to make the news as attractive as possible to the audience—at the expense of media performance. A softened presentation of the news, particularly in Facebook posts, may help achieve this aim, but research on this subject is lacking. The present study analyses this practice of softening the news in four German media outlets’ (BILD, FAZ, Der Spiegel, Tagesschau) political Facebook posts. The results show that the overall level of news softening is low to medium. Furthermore, comparing them to website teasers reveals that news softening is only slightly higher on Facebook (mainly BILD and Der Spiegel), and that there are no converging trends between quality or public service media and tabloid media. Exaggerated fears about news softening are therefore unnecessary. Continued analysis of news softening, as well as ongoing adaption of the concept according to dynamic developments, is nevertheless important.Cogitatio2020-08-24info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/3152Media and Communication; Vol 8, No 3 (2020): Media Performance in Times of Media Change; 244-2572183-2439reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAPenghttps://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3152https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3152/3152Copyright (c) 2020 Miriam Steinerhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessSteiner, Miriam2022-12-20T10:59:00Zoai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/3152Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T16:21:12.908912Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
title |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
spellingShingle |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts Steiner, Miriam Facebook; Germany; journalism; political news; quantitative content analysis; social media logic; soft news |
title_short |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
title_full |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
title_fullStr |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
title_sort |
Soft Presentation of Hard News? A Content Analysis of Political Facebook Posts |
author |
Steiner, Miriam |
author_facet |
Steiner, Miriam |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Steiner, Miriam |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Facebook; Germany; journalism; political news; quantitative content analysis; social media logic; soft news |
topic |
Facebook; Germany; journalism; political news; quantitative content analysis; social media logic; soft news |
description |
The current media environment is primarily characterised by a large amount of information and, in contrast, rather fragmented audience attention. This is especially true for social media, particularly Facebook, which have become important news sources for many people. Journalists cannot help but publish content on Facebook if they want to reach the part of their audience that mainly—or even only—consumes news there. On Facebook, journalists are at the mercy of the algorithm that determines the visibility of their content. Because user engagement is a crucial factor in the algorithm, concerns have been raised that journalists are abandoning their normative quality standards to make the news as attractive as possible to the audience—at the expense of media performance. A softened presentation of the news, particularly in Facebook posts, may help achieve this aim, but research on this subject is lacking. The present study analyses this practice of softening the news in four German media outlets’ (BILD, FAZ, Der Spiegel, Tagesschau) political Facebook posts. The results show that the overall level of news softening is low to medium. Furthermore, comparing them to website teasers reveals that news softening is only slightly higher on Facebook (mainly BILD and Der Spiegel), and that there are no converging trends between quality or public service media and tabloid media. Exaggerated fears about news softening are therefore unnecessary. Continued analysis of news softening, as well as ongoing adaption of the concept according to dynamic developments, is nevertheless important. |
publishDate |
2020 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2020-08-24 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152 oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/3152 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152 |
identifier_str_mv |
oai:ojs.cogitatiopress.com:article/3152 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3152 https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v8i3.3152 https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3152/3152 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2020 Miriam Steiner http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
rights_invalid_str_mv |
Copyright (c) 2020 Miriam Steiner http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
Cogitatio |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Media and Communication; Vol 8, No 3 (2020): Media Performance in Times of Media Change; 244-257 2183-2439 reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
instname_str |
Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
instacron_str |
RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
collection |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
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1799130658859122688 |