Journal. Media, Volume 7, Issue 1 (March 2026) – 70 articles

Social media has become a key space for health communication, fostering the emergence of the e-patient influencer, a figure capable of generating a support community around themselves. In the case of multiple sclerosis (MS), a complex disease with an uncertain prognosis, these profiles can influence the perception and management of the disease. Therefore, credibility and authenticity are identified as key constructs for truly understanding the effectiveness of their communication. Through content analysis, the main active profiles on Instagram and TikTok are examined to recognise narrative patterns, communication strategies and different levels of credibility and authenticity, as well as potential differences between those platforms involved. The results show, on both networks, a predominance of empathetic content focused on the daily management of this disease. Furthermore, a positive, albeit moderate, relationship between credibility and authenticity is found, confirming the importance of these two concepts in social media. Instagram shows slightly higher degrees of credibility, while authenticity is more predominant on TikTok, fostered by the spontaneity and transparency of its creators. Full article

In the social media era, “trial by media” has evolved into widespread public participation in “trial by public opinion,” posing complex challenges to procedural justice. Existing research often focuses on macro-theory or linear effects, lacking exploration into the meso-level mechanisms of how multiple conditions combine. To address this gap, this study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to systematically examine how nine antecedent conditions—including case attributes, dissemination features, and socio-emotional structures—combine to trigger trial by public opinion, based on 22 high-profile Chinese judicial cases from 2014 to 2025. The findings reveal no single necessary condition but five sufficient causal paths, which converge into three core configurations: the “Collective Moral Outrage” configuration (triggered by heinous crimes), the “Reactive Confrontation” configuration (arising from public power disputes), and the “Collective Speculation” configuration (catalyzed by factual ambiguity). Moving beyond the binary debate of “whether influence occurs,” this study constructs a configurational theoretical framework that elucidates the heterogeneous pathways and underlying socio-psychological dynamics behind the formation of public opinion trials. The conclusions provide empirical and theoretical insights for developing precise judicial communication, public guidance, and governance strategies tailored to different risk types in the digital age. Full article

The circulation of non-true stories in digital media environments presents ongoing challenges for journalism and fact-checking. The development of artificial intelligence has led to the use of AI chatbots in content verification processes. This study evaluates the performance of AI chatbot systems in identifying non-true stories within the Greek media context. A quantitative comparative research design was applied, using claims previously assessed by professional fact-checking organizations. Chatbot responses were compared with established verification verdicts to examine detection accuracy, variation across categories of non-true stories, and differences related to source characteristics. The results indicate that AI chatbots demonstrate measurable capability in identifying non-true stories, while also exhibiting limitations in specific content categories, particularly those involving complex or AI-generated material. Performance differences between chatbot systems suggest that design characteristics and task orientation influence verification outcomes. The findings support the view that AI-based tools function most effectively as components of broader verification processes in which human judgment remains essential. Full article

Research on digital protest often treats visibility and engagement as temporally uniform by aggregating social media activity across extended periods. This approach obscures how political moments shape which messages become widely amplified. Addressing this event-contingent visibility problem, this study examines how event context structures patterns of visibility in protest communication on Twitter within a semi-authoritarian media environment. Using a high-visibility corpus of the most-retweeted tweets from 21 major political protest events in Thailand during 2021, the study combines thematic content analysis with a four-way ANOVA to analyze how event context, content themes, media formats, and posting time interact to shape retweet visibility. Visibility is conceptualized not as a stable behavioral tendency but as a contingent outcome shaped by political salience, affective alignment, and platform affordances. The findings show that event context accounts for the largest share of variance in retweet visibility, while the effects of content themes and media formats are conditional and event-dependent. These results indicate that visible connective action is episodic and that affective amplification operates in context-sensitive ways. The study refines theories of digital protest by conceptualizing visibility as an event-contingent process and highlights the analytical value and limits of high-visibility sampling. Full article

This article examines how newsroom routines shape the health, safety, and professional experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) journalists in U.S. broadcast news. While journalistic norms of objectivity and neutrality often frame risk as evenly shared, this study situates safety within routine newsroom practices to show how risk and institutional support are unevenly distributed, particularly during high-stakes coverage such as protests, door-knocks, and politically charged events. The analysis draws on qualitative, in-depth interviews conducted as part of a larger study on journalists’ identities and definitions of fairness and applies a critical framework attentive to power and postcolonial influences in newsroom organizations. Findings indicate that BIPOC journalists routinely navigate tensions between production demands and personal safety, with their lived experiences in the field frequently diverging from the assumptions of white colleagues and newsroom leadership. Participants describe adapting newsroom routines by setting boundaries, asserting professional judgment, and challenging unsafe expectations. These practices illuminate how newsroom routines are both sites of constraint and negotiation. This article concludes that attention to identity and power within newsroom routines is essential for understanding how fairness, safety, and ethical practice are enacted in contemporary broadcast journalism. Full article

This study looks at a selection of newspaper content from 1995 to 2024 that mentions the names of SSRI drugs in passing as jokes, metaphors, or cultural references. These passing mentions of SSRIs are analyzed via qualitative textual analysis, considering stigma and trivialization. The results of the study suggest that stereotypes about SSRIs have been cemented via popular discourse and media coverage and persist today despite nearly 40 years of prescriptions. Mentions of the SSRI drugs in passing suggest the illusion of a post-Prozac society where mental illness has been “fixed” and therefore can be trivialized with little consequence. This work expands upon existing theoretical concepts to propose a new theoretical model—a continuum of trivialization and stigma which may aid researchers in parsing the ways that colloquialization, trivialization and stigma interact and overlap in media texts. Full article

Online harassment is a pervasive occupational hazard for journalists, often precipitating psychological distress. However, little is known about the specific clinically significant psychological symptoms journalists may experience following online harassment and how it predicts diagnosable clinical disorders. This study examines the relationship between online harassment and (1) scores on validated clinical measures of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms and (2) probable generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder using established clinical cutoffs among 282 American women journalists. Journalists were recruited through a series of emails, Facebook advertisements, and Facebook posts. They completed an online survey that included questions about demographics, online harassment experiences, and three standardized measures of anxiety (GAD-7), depression (CES-D-10), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PCL-5). In this sample, 91.5% of journalists reported experiencing at least one instance of online harassment over the past 12 months; 41.8% reported probable generalized anxiety, 67.8% probable depression, and 15.6% probable PTSD. Cumulative online harassment burden predicted higher anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress scores and significantly predicted the odds of meeting the clinical cutoff for probable generalized anxiety disorder and probable PTSD. Interventions designed to target these specific reactions may be useful in treating journalists exposed to online harassment. Full article

Online misinformation has grown significantly with the widespread use of the internet and the ease of sharing content through social media, often without rigorous fact-checking or scientific validation. In this context, we examined the effect of trust in scientists and conspiracy beliefs on online misinformation susceptibility and fake news detection. A cross-sectional study was carried out. We used valid questionnaires to collect our data. Trust in scientists was assessed using the Trust in Scientists Scale. Conspiracy beliefs were measured using the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire. Participants’ susceptibility to online misinformation was evaluated using the Online Misinformation Susceptibility Scale. Our multivariable analysis identified that lower trust in scientists is associated with higher online misinformation susceptibility. Participants who believed in conspiracy behaviors showed also higher levels of misinformation susceptibility. Our multivariable model showed that participants who believe in conspiracy beliefs had a lower ability to detect fake news. We found a positive association between trust in sciences and fake news detection. We identified a negative association between interest in politics and fake news detection. Our findings showed associations between trust in scientists, conspiracy beliefs, online misinformation susceptibility and fake news detection. Identification of predictors of these outcomes is crucial to define high-risk groups and develop appropriate interventions to confront these issues. Full article

Extreme climate events in Australia are increasing. Since 2019, fires and floods have devastated all states and territories in Australia, leading to a reckoning via several government inquiries, including a Royal Commission, on how governments, emergency services, communities, and individuals prepare for, respond to, and recover from such catastrophic events. It also raises the question of how the media reports and reacts to these events; in Australia, the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), has taken on the role of emergency broadcaster. This paper employs a cross-sectional design to examine how media practitioners from ABC Canberra navigate their role as emergency broadcasters, how they prepare for and respond to emergencies, and how they interact with the community during those events. This examination includes reflections and memories from a series of interviews we conducted with these practitioners about the catastrophic bushfires in 2019/2020 in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region. Using this design and a Bourdieusian lens, the study examined the practices of media practitioners during a catastrophic emergency and their perceptions of preparedness for future disasters. We examined how training (cultural capital), networks (social capital), online expertise (digital capital), and experience (habitus) contribute to preparedness in emergency broadcasting. The study has both a theoretical and practical contribution: theoretically, it expands Bourdieu’s cultural production model by applying it to a form of broadcasting that has not been examined in this way; practically, it contributes to our understanding of media practitioners and how they practice during emergency broadcasting. Full article

In recent months, some media outlets have been launching artificial intelligence-based chatbots that serve as assistants to users in their search, selection and consumption of content. This research analyses two such examples: Vera, a conversational assistant launched by the Spanish newspaper El País, and the model used by the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, which operates on the WhatsApp platform. Both chatbots share the same approach: they are tools designed for users to interact with newspaper content. This interaction takes place through natural language conversations: the technology understands ‘users’ questions or requests and provides answers based on the content hosted in the newspapers. This changes the way media content is explored. We are moving from a paradigm centred on search engines and keywords to one in which conversation determines the discovery of content. The research analyses the results of these two pioneering experiences in the Spanish-language media. The aim is to understand the extent to which they are changing the relationship with content and how they are affecting the media. Full article

This paper investigates the strategies employed by local journalists to verify AI-generated and manipulated imagery during the 2026 Romagna earthquake. Drawing on a qualitative methodology, this study identifies a multi-layered process of “situated verification.” The findings reveal that verification efficacy is predicated on territorial familiarity, professional networks, and direct institutional triangulation, which collectively compensate for technological and resource constraints. Local journalists emerge as epistemic mediators who stabilize the information ecosystem, mitigate public anxiety, and curb the spread of disinformation. Furthermore, institutional interventions, such as police-led fact-checking, function as both pragmatic verification tools and symbolic signals that promote responsible information sharing. By highlighting how verification is deeply rooted in temporality, social embeddedness, and local expertise, this research underscores the critical role of proximity journalism in crisis communication. The study contributes to the fields of visual epistemology and media literacy, demonstrating that relational and context-aware practices are essential for maintaining information integrity in an era of AI-driven visual disinformation. Full article

This study examines the tension between audience interests and editorial lines in the major national and regional digital media outlets in Chile. It analyzes how editors incorporate metrics and user feedback into content selection and prioritization processes. The sample included the five websites with the largest national reach according to the 2024 ComScore ranking (El Mercurio Online, BioBioChile, La Tercera, Megamedia and Chilevisión), along with digital media outlets from the country’s five most populous cities without counting the capital (La Serena, Rancagua, Antofagasta, Valparaíso, and Temuco). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with directors or editors to assess whether the use of metrics influences journalistic judgment and editorial autonomy. Data were analyzed through a thematic analysis, combining categories drawn from the literature with emergent codes. The findings indicate that audience feedback affects editorial decision-making, although to varying degrees depending on the type of outlet. In national newspapers, a fiduciary vision is more firmly sustained due to greater financial capacity, albeit with internal tensions. In contrast, regional media outlets face greater challenges in maintaining their editorial line in the face of metrics, as lower economic stability and dependence on digital traffic tend to favor dynamics closer to a market-driven model. Although the findings are based on professional discourse and do not include direct observation of production routines, the comparison between national and regional media offers a cross-cutting perspective on editorial autonomy within the Chilean digital media ecosystem, an area that remains underexplored in the country. Overall, the study shows that metrics place pressure on both editorial policy and journalistic practices by requiring a continuous balancing of professional judgment and real-time audience behavior. Full article

This study examines how relationship cultivation strategies are interpreted and enacted by strategic communication practitioners in Kenya’s county governments and corporate sector. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews and guided by relationship management theory, the study employs a theory-informed inductive approach to explore how six key strategies—access, assurances, openness, networking, positivity, and task sharing—manifest in structurally distinct institutional contexts, extending scholarship on relationship cultivation to an underexamined sub-Saharan African setting. Findings reveal that while corporate practitioners operationalize these strategies through deliberate planning, responsiveness, and integrated stakeholder engagement, county government practitioners often face bureaucratic, political, and infrastructural constraints that undermine even basic efforts at relationship building. These sectoral contrasts highlight how the institutional context influences the cultivation of relationships and strategic communication practices. The study contributes to theory by demonstrating the need for a more context-sensitive and adaptive application of relationship management theory, and it offers practical insights for enhancing public engagement in decentralized governance systems. Beyond deepening understanding of strategic communication in Kenya, these findings carry implications for the global study and practice of relationship management across diverse institutional settings. Full article

Journalists’ use of personal social media accounts and websites to disseminate content has necessitated investigating their significance for Kenyan media professionals. Based on a qualitative research design, this study draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with Kenyan journalists (N = 22) to investigate their perceptions of migrating from traditional media outlets to digital platforms, in particular, personal social media channels and independent websites, the underlying reasons for this platform migration, and their perceptions of how legacy media are responding to such shifts. The findings highlight that economic incentives and challenging media environments are the primary drivers of platform migration and that participants perceive journalists’ independent websites (i.e., j-blogs) as valuable additions to the diversification of news sources. According to respondents, legacy media organizations have responded by restructuring their newsrooms, adopting convergence strategies, and establishing on-demand platforms to slow journalists’ migration to digital media. The implications for journalists, legacy and digital media, and media consumers are also discussed. Full article

What are the nature and characteristics of freelance journalism in the UAE media system? To answer the main research paper question, this study investigates the usage and influence of freelancers in the Emirati media ecosystem through a comparison among the national media organizations. Self-determination theory (SDT) is used to analyze four dimensions of global freelance journalism. The study uses semi-structured interviews with 15 subjects, including three accountable for dealing with freelancers and twelve freelancers who freelance in the U.A.E., and applies a thematic analysis to this data. Additionally, SDT interprets the clustered themes. This paper discovered that freelance journalism is still taking shape in the UAE; the national journalism and media industry are using freelancers who undergo strict standards to add a valuable output within a harmonious, cooperative, and participatory form that influences the Emirati media ecosystem positively. The paradox is that all use their professional autonomy voluntarily to serve the national media’s interests through their contributions in accordance with national trends. However, their usage nationally has decreased to control the budgets with a tendency to depend on Emirates freelancers as new players, which increases the competition with residents and foreign freelancers in particular, who are preferred over domestic freelancers. Full article

This study is grounded in the premise that local media should be understood beyond a market-oriented framework, with their social role theoretically redefined through the concept of symbolic capital. The central thesis is that the survival of local media must be regarded primarily as a matter of public interest and as a prerequisite for strengthening the democratic capacity of communities in contemporary socio-communicative contexts. Representative examples of both active and defunct local media in Serbia were analyzed to assess how, across different historical periods, they contributed to the formation and transformation of symbolic capital in local communities. The theoretical framework draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital and Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the public sphere. The analysis indicates that local media functioned as institutional carriers of legitimacy during the socialist period, as spaces of resistance during the transitional period, and as sources of moral and professional capital in the contemporary era. Nevertheless, current project-based funding models and precarious working conditions undermine their autonomy and long-term sustainability. It is therefore concluded that the disappearance of local media represents not merely an economic problem but also a profound symbolic and democratic loss, as communities lose spaces of trust, dialogue, and public representation. Full article

The image of the journalist in popular culture has increasingly added value to metajournalistic discourse. These portrayals have the power to influence the audience’s perception of real-world journalists and the industry. However, most research analyzes portrayals in film and television. Using Terry Pratchett’s fantasy novel “The Truth,” this study explored how journalism, the media industry, and the journalist are portrayed in fantasy literature. Through a textual analysis of the novel, it was found that the work was a celebratory portrayal of journalism that shared a variety of themes found in film and television portrayals. Though its ethics were challenged throughout the novel, the Ankh-Morpork Times was devoted to the truth, served the watchdog role, and practiced social responsibility. Additionally, the novel’s historical rendition of the penny press highlighted the competitiveness of the media industry, how the public interest was challenged by political and corporate influence, and offered a portrayal of naïve news consumers. Lastly, it was found that William de Worde portrayed an ethical journalist and followed the common investigative journalist trope, but his character strayed from the usual editor, publisher, and male reporter tropes found in film and television. This study also suggests the possibility of looking at negative portrayals of journalism in fiction as a series of critical incidents in which journalism has difficulty fully repairing its paradigm. Full article

This paper explores the use of infographics by Líbero magazine, which is a benchmark of design and the epitome of slow journalism in Spain. The aim is to pinpoint the characteristics and role of these graphic features at a time when visual data journalism is becoming crucial in sports publications. This case study is based on analysing all 52 issues published by Líbero throughout its history. The authors apply a triangulation methodology that combines several techniques: qualitative, including content analysis based on an ad hoc form, designed to formally describe the purposes of the infographics, along with semi-structured in-depth interviews; and qualitative techniques, used to address the statistical aspect. The findings indicate a regular presence of infographics in the early issues, which were complex and large, yet with a strong emphasis on international football matches. However, the last few years of the sample reflect a trend towards gradual simplification of the infographics, together with less frequent use. Data suggest infographics are used to create complex narratives with simple visual compositions in order to improve the reader’s understanding of data that accompanies a journalistic story. This is consistent with Líbero’s commitment to slow journalism, which focuses on detailed explanations and in-depth information. Full article

This study investigates the emotional tone in international news coverage of Saudi women’s empowerment, with a focus on their recruitment into the military as a milestone reform. The analysis is based on 22 news articles published between 2018 and 2023 across Western, regional Saudi and Arab, and non-Western international media outlets, including coverage from Asian media contexts such as China and India. Drawing on sentiment analysis; the study employed lexicon-based tools (LIWC; Bing; and AFINN) alongside thematic analysis using Speak AI to capture both polarity and narrative framing. This triangulated approach addressed the limitations of word-level sentiment tools by integrating contextual and thematic interpretation. The findings reveal clear regional contrasts: Western media predominantly employed negative framings, emphasizing human rights concerns and ongoing gender inequality. In contrast, regional Saudi and Arab outlets highlighted empowerment, modernization, and Vision 2030 alignment, while non-Western international outlets tended to mirror these positive narratives with limited rights-based critique. Asian media presented mixed framings. These results complicate assumptions of a simple East–West divide by showing convergence between regional and non-Western portrayals. The study contributes methodologically by demonstrating how combining polarity-based sentiment tools with thematic analysis provides a more nuanced account of media sentiment, and substantively by revealing how empowerment narratives are unevenly distributed across global media systems. Full article

This study explores how digital media ecosystems shape collective visions of the future under conditions of rapid technological innovation and the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on a large corpus of social media content comprising 50,036,592 tokens, the research examines institutional narratives and user-generated responses through a hybrid methodological framework. This framework combines information-wave detection, network analysis, semantic and associative modeling (TextAnalyst 2.32), and interpretation supported by a large language model (GPT-5). The methodological contribution of the study lies in the integration of network-based and semantic algorithms with AI-driven analytical tools for the examination of large-scale textual data. The findings indicate that media discourses about the future operate as key mechanisms through which societies interpret the environmental, social, and economic consequences of technological change. Institutional actors promote multiple future-oriented models that often conflict with one another at both discursive and practical levels. In contrast, user-generated content reflects widespread fear, skepticism, and distrust. Prominent themes include nostalgia for the past, anxiety about socio-economic and environmental consequences, and concerns related to expanding forms of digital control. The analysis also reveals divergent perspectives on urban development. Positive narratives emphasize ecological balance, a comfortable urban environment, thoughtfully designed mixed-use development, and solutions to transportation challenges. Negative narratives, by contrast, focus on over-densification, environmental degradation, and the erosion of privacy in technologically saturated urban spaces. Full article

The disruptive effect of digital platforms is forcing media companies to rethink their business models, particularly when it comes to increasing revenues from the audience as a share of their total revenues. Audience engagement has become a key issue for media companies since, without it, there is no basis for the introduction of subscription fees, paywalls of any kind, or schemes for soliciting donations/support. Hungary is no exception in this regard; but Hungarian media companies must also contend with other challenges. In a captured media environment, independent media are struggling to survive and have essentially been relegated to the digital space. However, in the last decade, several projects have been launched in the digital market, and many of these projects have become financially sustainable. This sustainability owes largely to the fact that these media companies have been able to monetise their popularity: the awareness of Hungarian media consumers has increased, and more people are willing to pay for quality content. The present study examines the extent to which news media have been able to build communities around their organisations, as well as the special place these communities occupy for many consumers in Hungary’s illiberal democracy. The paper presents the various forms of community-building used by independent media, and it draws on in-depth interviews to examine how media company managers view the importance of these communities. Full article

UNESCO’s 2030 Agenda recognises education as a strategic pillar for sustainability, underlining the fundamental role that educational institutions need to play in equipping students with theoretical and practical skills geared towards developing best practices in today’s media ecosystem. However, recent technological transformations have not only failed to guarantee the responsible use of media but have also highlighted new challenges that need to be addressed from a media literacy perspective. This paper proposes a methodology that, applied in the fourth and final year of a journalism degree course, is based on relating the filmography of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne to news content through transmedia strategies. This methodology, employing a tool called Transmedia Quest, aims to foster students’ application of critical reading of reality that leads to an awareness of threats in terms of inequality and the lack of guarantees for fundamental rights. Several conclusions can be drawn from the results, which not only help to understand the tool’s usefulness in this specific study, but also highlight the opportunities it offers for its use in future projects that incorporate similar content, approaches, and methods, in line with both transmedia strategies and the Sustainable Development Goals. Full article

The article examines how framing and actor identity structure attention in short-video politics using a country-level corpus from Ecuador. It assembles 4612 public TikTok videos from official accounts and politically salient hashtags, extracts multimodal text via automatic speech recognition and on-screen OCR, and constructs two continuous indices: a quality index (programmatic, efficacy-oriented content) and a populism index (antagonistic, people-versus-elite cues). Engagement is modeled as a fractional response (binomial GLM with logit link), with robustness checks using OLS on logit(ER) and Poisson counts with an offset for log(plays + 1). Models include affect (positive sentiment and anger), hour/day controls, and actor fixed effects (leader, creator, institution, party, and media). The indices display construct validity: quality aligns with positive/joyful tone and populism with anger. Net of controls, populism is positively and consistently associated with engagement across estimators; quality is small and often null or negative. Effects are heterogeneous: leaders gain under both frames, creators primarily under populism, and media modestly under populism, while institutions face penalties under both, and parties show limited returns. Monthly series reveal event-linked intensification of populism, and hashtag networks are modular, mapping onto institutional, partisan, and creator ecosystems. A design analysis identifies a non-populist pathway—benefit-first micro-explanations, concise captions, targeted hashtags, and joyful/efficacy affect—that raises engagement without antagonism. The study contributes a reproducible, open-source pipeline for survey-free, multimodal framing measurement and clarifies how persona × frame interactions and meso-level discursive structure jointly organize attention in short-video politics. Full article

(1) Background: The incidence and impact of misleading information on public opinion in the field of nutrition and food science, focusing on the mechanisms of dissemination and their potential consequences, are increasingly being explored in academia. It is therefore essential to highlight the importance of studying discourse to understand the contexts and motivations behind the persistent circulation of hoaxes. For this reason, this research compiles and analyses the news content on food fake news published in the web repository of Spanish information verifiers Newtral and Maldita Alimentación. (2) Method: The period analysed extends from the launches of both platforms (2018 and 2021, respectively) to 2024, examining a total of 564 news items using computerised analysis software. (3) Results: The results show three thematic clusters related to the information refuted by Newtral and five clusters belonging to Maldita Alimentación. The findings of this research are consistent with a prevalence of concern for public health; the risk of disease due to poor food management; the role of authorities, especially in the European context; the supervision of food quality and the protection of public health; and the debunking of messages about food properties without scientific evidence. (4) Conclusions: The article highlights the importance of implementing strategies that foster trust in information sources, such as fact-checkers, and encourage the scientific dissemination of food-related content in an accessible manner. Full article

Journalism is an inherently fast-paced and pressure-filled profession with features such as industry competition and reporting on traumatic events that can cause mental health issues for journalists. However, little work has examined the extent to which rapid implementation of new technologies might also contribute to the stress that journalists experience. In this study, I carried out qualitative interviews with working journalists to understand how they manage technostress in their work. The journalists’ experiences indicated that they approach technostress based on different levels within the decision-making process to adopt, reinvent, or reject an innovation. At the individual professional level, journalists used the strategies to adapt and alter technology for their needs and implement new tools when meeting timeliness, not just deadlines; at the social connection level, journalists built off educational encouragement through personal experimentation and engaged with mentors, coworkers, and audience for support; and at the foundational meaning level, journalists took breaks from technologies while acknowledging their downsides and kept humanity at the center of journalistic work. These findings contribute to diffusion of innovations theory by focusing on the ongoing decisions made to manage adverse impacts of a new tool being adopted. Further, the findings showcase that humanity remains central to the journalistic enterprise even in the technology-saturated digital age. Full article

This study aimed to examine the impact of utilizing artificial intelligence techniques on developing media content production skills among media students in three different educational contexts. This study employed a quasi-experimental design with independent groups, involving 90 students distributed across: France (n = 30) from the École Supérieure de Journalisme et de Communication, Egypt (n = 30) from Minia University, and the United Arab Emirates (n = 30) from Al Ain University. Each group received an applied training program integrating AI tools into editing and proofreading, fact-checking and media verification, and digital media production. The results showed significant improvement in all measured skills after the training, with high effect sizes, most notably, France: η² = 0.949, Egypt: η² = 0.912, and the UAE: η² = 0.887. The results also indicated that the French group outperformed the others in the effective use of the tools and the quality of the produced content, followed by the Egyptian and then the Emirati groups. These results underscore the importance of integrating artificial intelligence techniques into media curricula to enhance students’ skills and improve the quality of their media production. Full article

To understand how student journalists handle news coverage surrounding suicide, this study took a case study approach and analyzed how two student newspaper staffs at U.S.-based universities reported on the topic throughout the 2022–2023 academic year, in which multiple student deaths by suicide occurred on each campus. Guided by the literature on trauma in journalism and the Communication Theory of Coping, and through interviews with reporters, editors, and the newspapers’ advisors and a thematic analysis of the newspapers’ coverage during that academic year, we were able to glean insight into how coverage decisions were made, how students navigated such a sensitive topic, and how they enacted care for each other during and after the coverage period. Our findings underscore the pivotal role of the newspaper advisor in helping students navigate such sensitive reporting. Full article

This study explores how institutional- and ideological-level pressures affect both the gatekeeping role and mental well-being of journalists reporting on traumatic incidents, particularly war, conflict, and crime in Pakistan. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on in-depth interviews with (n = 50) journalists, including Directors, Reporters, Editors, NLEs, Cameramen, and Photographers from print, broadcast, and online media outlets across Pakistan. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Thematic analysis was applied, and the data were interpreted through the Hierarchy of Influences (HOI) model, an extension of gatekeeping theory. Findings reveal that official/unofficial sources, government agencies, interest groups, and cultural norms significantly influence journalistic decision-making. Importantly, participants also reported emotional distress, moral injury, and institutional neglect when covering traumatic stories. The study concludes that journalists’ dual pressures from media owners driven by ratings and audience interest in sensationalism not only shapes news content but also contributes to psychological strain and burnout. The head office’s demand for emotionally charged coverage often clashes with reporters’ ethical limits, intensifying the internal conflict between professional duty and emotional resilience. The study argues that traumatic event coverage in Pakistani media is not only ethically complex but also psychologically stressful. It highlights the need for trauma-informed newsroom policies, organizational support, and ethical editorial leadership to protect journalists and their mental health. It contributes to the broader discourse on mental well-being in high-risk journalism, especially in conflict zones. Full article