Journalism and Media

It is a popular assumption that people learn certain practices for handling media in the course of their adolescence and adulthood, which make it difficult for them to develop new patterns for the use of media at a later point in their lives. From this theoretical standpoint, it is a challenge for older people to learn how to handle new media and integrate them into their current living situation. Beyond theoretical assumptions, there has formerly been a lack of exploratory investigations pursuing the conditions under which older adults take up digital media with which they were previously not familiar and incorporate them into their daily lives. Between October 2023 and March 2024, 32 semi-standardised individual interviews were conducted with a group of people between 80 and 93 years of age, who had recently acquired a digital medium and integrated it into their everyday lives. The decisive factor here was the presence of certain motives that generate plausible incentives to make permanent use of new media. The interviewees have purposefully acquired new media. It is notable that acquisition processes were strongly initiated by significant changes in life circumstances. In the case of most interviewees, the intention to acquire an internet-enabled medium was based on the wish to use a few selected functions. New options for online use were only explored after a while. The following patterns were identified regarding the motives and gratifications of acquisition: new media as…(1) hobby extension, (2) support network, (3) compensation tool, (4) connection opportunity, (5) escape from everyday life. It can be assumed that older people experience the use of new media as purposeful if they have specific motives for doing so. Biological, psychological and social correlations as well as ways of coping and dealing with age(ing) are relevant here. If daily use potentials are perceived as beneficial, older people show a high level of adaptability in terms of new media. Against this background, a gratification-orientated model appears to be a promising starting point for explaining the prerequisites for media adoption based on motives that generate plausible incentives for learning how to use new media at an older age. Full article

This study examines how major newspapers in South Korea and China portrayed national crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative content analysis with qualitative interpretation, this study systematically analyzes news frames and editorial tones across various phases. The qualitative analysis further clarifies the quantitative results. Editorials from The Chosun Daily, Hankyoreh, People’s Daily, and Ming Pao covering the period from 1 January 2020, to 31 March 2023, were reviewed. The research categorizes the pandemic into three distinct phases: the global spread of COVID-19, vaccine rollout, and living with the virus. It applies three news frames: crisis response, international relations, and responsibility attribution. In the initial phase, most newspapers focused on the crisis response frame, highlighting national mobilization and social solidarity. Notably, The Chosun Daily emphasized the international relations frame with the strongest critical tone. The crisis response frame continued to dominate in the second phase, accompanied by an increasingly critical tone. In the final phase, as the pandemic began to stabilize, the international relations frame significantly declined due to fewer global differences in pandemic responses. The results suggest that the media’s portrayal is influenced by political orientation and approaches to crisis management perspectives. Full article

This study explores the impact of DW’s news coverage on the perceptions, knowledge, and behavioural changes of the Syrian diaspora in Germany regarding the Syrian crisis. Grounded in the Uses and Gratifications theory, data were collected from 207 Syrian immigrants residing in Germany between September and November 2023 using a convenience sampling approach. The findings reveal that DW is perceived as a credible and objective news source that provides comprehensive and balanced coverage of the Syrian crisis. Exposure to DW’s reporting significantly enhanced respondents’ understanding of the crisis, enabling them to engage in informed discussions. DW’s coverage motivated behavioural changes, encouraging participation in social media discussions and humanitarian initiatives. This study highlights the critical role of trusted international media in shaping diaspora communities’ perceptions, knowledge, and actions during crises. These findings also highlight DW’s influence as a key information source for the Syrian diaspora, fostering both awareness and proactive engagement with the ongoing crisis. Full article

This study investigates the relationship between gender and global media consumption habits, platform preferences, and engagement types. Prior research suggests that gender significantly influences media preferences, with men being traditionally engaged with news, action-oriented content, and competitive media, and women with entertainment, lifestyle, and social media-driven content. The current primary quantitative research is based on a questionnaire that was distributed online and answered by 292 respondents, equally distributed between men and women. The research findings showed that men are more likely to consume news, video games, and discussion-based media. On the other hand, women showed higher engagement with entertainment content, music, and listening-based media. Pearson’s correlation analysis, conducted using SPSS (v23), further confirmed these gendered preferences. Despite the persistence of traditional gendered media patterns, this research also identified the areas in which digital platforms seem to facilitate more balanced engagement across the two genders. Full article

This experimental study models an approach for de-westernizing communication theory by exploring exemplification within a Global South context. Incorporating local knowledge from Nigerian journalists on their motivations for using exemplars in poverty reporting and their anticipated audience outcomes, the study identifies and tests constructs that align with previous experimental studies on exemplification—such as perception of issue significance, awareness of social responsibility to address a social issue, and emotional connection with exemplified group—and those that diverge from previous scholarship—such as trust in media and trust in government. The study also identifies the mediating influence of identification, true to Nigerian journalists’ expectations. By grounding theoretical explanations for exemplification effects on local knowledge from this context, this study challenges the assumption of the universality of exemplification theory, enriches the theory by making it more cumulative, and advances an argument for a more inclusive and just theorizing of exemplification phenomena. Full article

The digital age, driven by advancements in data processing and internet technologies, has seen virtual social networks, particularly Instagram, become integral to daily life, influencing both leisure and professional activities. Instagram, with over two billion users in 2023, emphasizes visual storytelling, making it a pivotal platform for media outlets to engage audiences through photos and videos. This study quantitatively analyses the Instagram engagement and content strategies of five prominent legacy news outlets from the United States and the United Kingdom—The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, The Independent, and The Washington Post. Through an examination of over 9000 posts from January to December 2023, this research evaluates posting frequency, user engagement (likes and comments), hashtag usage, profile mentions, and geographic coverage. Findings indicate significant differences in posting strategies and engagement levels, highlighting The Washington Post’s intensive posting and The Guardian’s selective engagement strategy. This study emphasizes tailored strategies, thematic consistency, and careful use of mentions and hashtags as crucial for maximizing audience interaction. Full article

This research conducts a comparative content analysis of two leading English-language newspapers, The Kathmandu Post and Rising Nepal, to examine the media framing of China’s cultural and educational diplomacy in Nepal. This study employs a frame analysis methodology alongside a qualitative content analysis approach to systematically examine thirty news items published from 2021 to early 2025. Key themes were coded and examined based on frequency and contextual framing, including cultural interaction, Chinese language promotion, Confucius Institute coverage, education diplomacy, and geopolitical alignment. Rising Nepal demonstrates a clear state-centric editorial stance, frequently articulating a supportive tone that emphasizes bilateral collaboration, strategic partnership, and mutual growth, thereby highlighting a significant contrast in representational patterns. This research argues that these contrasting frames signify underlying ideological and geopolitical affiliations, rather than merely editorial choices. This research contributes to the expanding body of literature on soft power, media and culture diplomacy, and the geopolitics of influence in South Asia by integrating media framing theory with qualitative analysis. Full article

This study applies the technology hype cycle model to explore the interplay between political communication and digital technology from the mid-1990s to the present. It identifies four stages that reflect the hype cycle’s trajectory: initial optimism about the Internet’s democratic potential, subsequent disillusionment as limitations surfaced, renewed enthusiasm with the emergence of social media, and a current measured understanding of associated risks. The evolution of the digital political landscape is elucidated by synthesizing scholarly literature and documented historical accounts to trace key innovations and their impact on integrating the Internet and social media into political communication strategies. The findings highlight the critical need for enhanced media literacy and careful evaluation of technologies to uphold democratic ideals. This research contributes to the literature by providing a comprehensive perspective on the dynamic relationships between politics, communication, and emerging digital platforms, offering valuable insights for both practitioners and scholars. Full article

This study employs uses and gratifications theory and the news value of celebrity to explore comments from New Zealanders on the news coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, New Zealand’s constitutional Head of State. Twenty-five participants kept a weekly diary of their news consumption and participated in focus groups to discuss their understanding of news. As the focus groups coincided with the media coverage of the Queen’s death, the participants discussed their responses to the news coverage of this event. These comments were classified by the sentiment expressed and analyzed in two age cohorts to explore the cognitive and affective responses of the participants. Overall, the participants over 26 years had more affective responses, and those under 26 years had more cognitive responses. With the older cohort, the participants experienced more media interactions with Queen Elizabeth II and had stronger grief responses and connections to her death, but it was hard to determine the full extent of any parasocial relationships. This paper concludes that uses and gratifications theory and news values can assist in understanding how audiences form connections to celebrities through the news media. In turn, these connections will impact how the news media cover celebrity deaths and the public mourning rituals of audiences. Full article

This study examines how socio-environmental issues are framed and disseminated in far-right WhatsApp and Telegram groups in Brazil. By collecting and analyzing over 87,962 messages shared from 2023 to 2024, we identify how the sustainability agenda is instrumentalized to deepen political polarization. Using a mixed-methods approach guided by a theoretical–methodological perspective in framing theory, we applied topic modeling to identify key themes and conducted qualitative analysis to categorize hyperlinked sites shared by group participants. The results suggest that environmental discussions in these groups are often intertwined with broader cultural war narratives and economic interests, particularly agribusiness. Disinformation, conspiracy theories, and attacks on environmental policies, activists, and NGOs are common strategies used to reinforce the salience of frames that undermine sustainability efforts. This study highlights the role of chat apps in facilitating the spread of anti-environmental narratives due to their decentralized and encrypted nature. Additionally, the findings suggest that hyperlinking practices within these groups can be understood as a framing strategy that contributes to the legitimization of misleading narratives by repeatedly circulating information from biased or unreliable sources. Full article

Latvia after the collapse of the Soviet Union regained its independence in 1991. Since then, many political and social reforms have been introduced, minority education among them. Latvia began gradually abandoning the use of minority languages as mediums of instruction and switching to teaching exclusively in Latvian as the sole state language. This caused protests by minority groups, especially by Russians—the largest minority group in Latvia. The article examines 77 online news articles by Latvian, Russian, and European media covering protests against minority education reform in Latvia between 2004 and 2024. Each news article used at least one photograph/video of placard(s) with written information from the protests. The aim of the article is to understand how different media represent the linguistic landscape of protests against minority education reform and what are the main discourses they create and maintain regarding to the linguistic landscape of such protests in Latvia. The description of the linguistic landscapes shows three main trends: (1) only journalists (most often anonymous) describe the written information expressed at the protests, (2) emphasis is on the number of placard holders at the protests, their age and affiliation with minority support organizations and political parties, (3) author(s) quote individual slogans, more often demonstrated from one protest to another, without disclosing in which language they were originally written and what problems (within and behind the language education) they highlight or conceal. The main narratives that are reinforced through the descriptions of the linguistic landscapes included in the articles are two: (1) the Russian community is united and persistent in the fight against the ethnolinguistically unjust education policy pursued by the government, and (2) students, parents, and the Russian community should have the right to choose which educational program to study at school. Full article

This article explores the challenges surrounding the Scottish media graduate landscape after the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing factors that impact Scotland-based students and educators include a shift in the jobs market, altering pedagogies during and post-pandemic, and social drivers including fewer students choosing media pathways of study due to the cost-of-living crisis. This study draws on insights from 40 students at five Scottish universities, all of whom graduated in the summer of 2023. The research presents a window into the mindset and expectations of this post-pandemic graduating class while drawing on current and relevant literature. In addition, the paper includes reaction from industry and academic experts in Scotland and questions what can be done to address trends surrounding the stability and sustainability of journalism education. The experts include senior broadcasters, an established media educator who has worked across further education and higher education in Scotland while also being a national news editor, and one of Scotland’s most experienced journalism educators who is the chair of the World Journalism Education Council. This work is predominantly qualitative, drawing on a mixed research approach of expert interviewing and surveys while providing recommendations for journalism educators. Full article

Whether it is asking Alexa to set a reminder or having Google Assistant place a call, AI-powered assistants are becoming an increasingly seamless part of our daily lives. This study aims to address what predicts the users’ satisfaction with Alexa by analyzing the using motives, cognitive involvement, and emotional involvement of its consumers. The variables include using motives, attention, elaboration, emotional involvement, and usage satisfaction. Alexa users (N = 299) completed a brief online survey, including Scales of Using Motives for Media, the Perceived Attention Scale, the Elaboration Scale, the Mood Adjective Check List Scale, and Television Viewing Satisfaction Scale. Participants who were at least eighteen years of age and owned and used Alexa were included in this study. An exploratory factor analysis revealed four distinct types of motivation for using Alexa: Companionship, Entertainment–Information, Work-Efficiency, and Pastime. The results from hierarchical regressions showed that Alexa usage satisfaction was predicted by Entertainment–Information and feeling positive emotions while using. Full article

Sport and sports communication is growing. Sport is an integral part of (everyday) communication in both traditional and so-called new media. Digitalization poses major challenges for sports journalism. In connection with the changing media consumption, the crisis of the majority of print media and the increasing globalization and standardization of sports at the international level, this applies above all to daily newspapers. In addition, sports newsrooms have been described as “toy departments”. This paper discusses the findings of the 2021 International Sports Press Survey (ISPS) on the current state of the quality of sports reporting in daily newspaper and confronts these findings with the results of the 2011 study. Against the backdrop of quality journalism based on diversity, the quantitative content analysis examines 6614 articles from eight countries. The 2021 ISPS results highlighted several key findings regarding the quality and diversity of sports journalism. These included the persistent underrepresentation of women as both authors and protagonists in sports reporting, a focus on current events over in-depth research, and a limited use of sources. However, when compared to data from a decade ago, there is evidence of a slight positive trend towards increased diversity and improved quality in sports journalism. Full article

In the digital era, social networks play a crucial role in promoting university cultural events and enhancing accessibility, interaction, and student engagement. This study examines the impact of the communication strategies employed by the West University of Timisoara (UVT) to promote the initiative “At UVT, Culture is Capital” within the framework of Timisoara 2023—European Capital of Culture. This research employs a mixed methodology, combining a quantitative analysis of the performance of Facebook and Instagram posts with a qualitative examination of communication strategies. The results reveal that, despite Generation Z’s preference for visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram, Facebook continues to be an effective channel for promoting university cultural events. This effectiveness stems from trust in the information shared and the strengthened community surrounding the university. Key factors contributing to the campaign’s success included the prominence of guest speakers, high-quality visual and textual content, and the organization of interactive giveaway campaigns. There was also a notable increase in student participation in events and an enhanced sense of belonging to the university community. The findings suggest incorporating more dynamic media formats, such as reels and stories, to boost engagement and explore emerging platforms favored by younger audiences. This research contributes to understanding how universities can effectively leverage social media to promote cultural events and foster a more engaged academic community. Full article

Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, which escalated into full-scale military confrontation in February 2022, originated in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the backing of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. However, this war extends beyond bilateral hostilities, reflecting a broader geopolitical confrontation with the West that aligns with Vladimir Putin’s strategic vision, as signalled in his 2007 Munich Security Conference speech. Russian security doctrines have consistently framed the West as an existential threat, a perception reinforced by state-controlled media. This study examines the role of Russian state media in shaping public perceptions of the West between 2014 and 2022. It explores how Russian media, particularly RIA Novosti, constructed adversarial narratives about Latvia, Poland, and Serbia within the framework of Russian security policy. Through qualitative content analysis, the research investigates the alignment of media narratives with official strategic objectives, the portrayal of Western nations as threats, and the intended audience of these narratives. The findings underscore the integral role of state-controlled media in Russia’s security strategy, highlighting an increasing consolidation of media control to sustain domestic legitimacy and justify external aggression. As Russia faces growing challenges, media restrictions are expected to intensify, reinforcing state-driven narratives and information isolation. Full article

This study examines the evolving relationship between online media coverage and protest movements by analyzing year-long demonstrations in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Through comprehensive qualitative thematic analysis and content analyses of 219 online newspaper articles from five major Israeli newspapers; 324 social media posts across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter; and 9 semi-structured interviews with protest leaders, this research identifies a gradual paradigm shift in protest representation in online media. The findings reveal a transition from the traditional “protest paradigm”—which frames protests as violent and remote through warlike discourse and visual distancing—toward an emerging “our protest paradigm”, characterized by rhetorical and visual proximity to protesters. This new paradigm manifests through personal testimonies in mainstream media and portrait photography on social media platforms, both creating a sense of closeness and accountability. The study further reveals a significant disconnect between protest leaders’ perceptions and legacy media, as leaders increasingly view traditional media as irrelevant despite their advisers’ recommendations to engage with it. Using polysystem theory as a theoretical framework, this research demonstrates how two media systems—legacy media and social media—operate with epistemological rigidity, challenging the previously established notion of “competitive symbiosis” between protesters and journalists. This investigation offers a novel analytical perspective through the lens of distance, illuminating how changing dynamics in online information transfer are reshaping protest coverage and production. The resulting paradigm model explains the coexistence of two simultaneous protest paradigms and provides valuable insights into the contemporary relationship between social movements, legacy media, and digital platforms in an evolving media ecosystem. Full article

This research focuses on current photojournalism practices in the media representation of the climate crisis, exploring how images published by Spain’s leading digital newspapers contribute to shaping public perception of the phenomenon. Through a mixed-methods approach, this study examines eco-visual reporting in 2023—a year characterized by unprecedented global temperatures—alongside an examination of the initial month of coverage of the 2024 DANA floods. The main objective of this study is to evaluate whether the visual depiction of climate change in mainstream media aligns with or deviates from the established visual patterns associated with stereotyped iconography and alarmist narratives. This research provides a taxonomy of the predominant thematic elements and their frequency, addressing key issues such as the persistence of worn-out visual tropes, the reliance on stock images, and the episodic nature of its news treatment. The inclusion of the most catastrophic climate disaster of the 21st century in Spain allows for an exploration of how the media pressure inherent to crisis situations intensifies the risk of errors in image attribution and contextualization. Finally, we offer practical recommendations to guide visual coverage toward comprehensive, accurate, and human-centered approaches, aiming to foster public trust and maximize the potential of photojournalism as a key tool in collective mobilization against the climate emergency. Full article

This research is driven by the expansion and popularity of the Manosphere network in the last decade, causing online and offline harassment of women. The study examines the phenomenon of the Manosphere in the Greek digital space and, more specifically, it researches the case of the popular, anonymous, and public accessed Facebook page of “Όχι, Δεν Είσαι Μισογύνης” (No, you are not a misogynist). The study’s research questions are whether the Greek Manosphere follows the same patterns of the international Manosphere groups and how gendered identities and roles are represented in its discourse. In order to answer the research questions, the study combines the method of thematic analysis and the approach of critical discourse analysis. The “Όχι, Δεν Είσαι Μισογύνης” (OΔΕΜ) page is found to be a case of the Men’s Rights Activists subculture of the Manosphere, with the main topic of interest being the online activism against feminism. Although the Facebook page reproduces traditional gender stereotypes and representations, a crucial difference from “classic” patriarchal perceptions is that the OΔΕΜ discourse portrays women as privileged, socially dominant and violent, while men are depicted as victims, discriminated by women and the social system. This inversion of reality is executed by the misinterpretation and falsification of data, along with the appropriation of activist and feminist discourse, which could lead to latent, or overt, misogynist perception and stereotypes (re)gaining popularity. Full article