Search Results (46)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how news is produced, curated, and consumed, challenging traditional gatekeeping theories rooted in human editorial control. We develop a robust theoretical framework to reconceptualize gatekeeping in the AI era. We integrate classic media theories—gatekeeping, agenda-setting, and framing—with contemporary insights from algorithmic news recommender systems, large language model (LLM)–based news writing, and platform studies. Our review reveals that AI-driven content curation systems (e.g., social media feeds, news aggregators) increasingly mediate what news is visible, sometimes reinforcing mainstream agendas, according to Nechushtai & Lewis, while, at other times, introducing new biases or echo chambers. Simultaneously, automated news generation via LLMs raises questions about how training data and optimization goals (engagement vs. diversity) act as new “gatekeepers” in story selection and framing. We found pervasive Simon’s theory that reliance on third-party AI platforms transfers authority from newsrooms, creating power dependencies that may undercut journalistic autonomy. Moreover, adaptive algorithms learn from user behavior, creating feedback loops that dynamically shape news diversity and bias over time. Drawing on communication studies, science & technology studies (STS), and AI ethics, we propose an updated theoretical framework of “algorithmic gatekeeping” that accounts for the hybrid human–AI processes governing news flow. We outline key research gaps—including opaque algorithmic decision-making and normative questions of accountability—and suggest directions for future theory-building to ensure journalism’s core values survive in the age of AI-driven news. Full article

The first few days of the second Trump presidency saw a flurry of executive orders targeting immigrants, the transgender community, blacks, and federal government employees. The resulting “shocks” to the system are unprecedented, causing many to question the continuation of American democracy. These actions are a few of many policy preferences developed by conservatives and captured in “Project 2025”, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and with the overall intent of restructuring the federal government to suit authoritarian aims. Using a theoretical framework regarding policy entrepreneurs (PEs), I argue that conservative PEs (CPEs), under the aegis of the Republican Party and a second Trump term, are encouraging a shift away from a federal democratic republic to an authoritarian regime. CPEs of interest include elected officials, think tanks, media outlets, interest groups, and political operatives; collectively, these entities constitute a network of mostly unnoticed conservative political professionals using the mechanisms of policy entrepreneurship to damage American democracy. Overall, the actions CPEs take in terms of setting the agenda, controlling the electoral process, and informing the media indicate an eventual abandonment of democratic norms, an inclination towards the establishment of an authoritarian regime, and acceptance of said regime by a significant portion of the American people. Full article

This study investigates the impact of the media’s secondary agenda-setting on public perception and policy priorities regarding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Myanmar from to 2011–2024. Three hypotheses (Hs) were examined: H1 posits that media coverage aligns with public and policy perspectives; H2 proposes that media emphasis on specific attributes influences their prominence in public opinion and policymaking; and H3 suggests that public opinion mediates the relationship between media coverage and policy priorities, indicating an indirect media influence on policymaking. This study employed a cross-sectional research design, utilizing both quantitative content analysis and survey methodologies. The content comprises the analysis of two news outlets’ coverage (n = 144), surveys with 385 respondents (n = 385), and in-depth interviews with 30 participants (n = 30), and the findings revealed a significant positive correlation between media coverage and public opinion and policy priorities (r = 0.86, r = 0.81, respectively). SEM path analysis reveals that the media agenda indirectly shapes the policy agenda through the public agenda, with an indirect effect path coefficient of 0.718, highlighting the media’s role in policymaking processes. This is evidenced by a significant correlation between media coverage and public opinion (p < 0.05), and a strong direct association between public opinion and policy priorities (p < 0.05). This study extends the agenda-setting theory by empirically demonstrating the media’s indirect effect on policy formation in global infrastructure projects within a developing Southeast Asian country. Future studies should examine the evolution of media patterns across different administrations, including the current one. The results also suggest examining the broader media portrayal of governance issues and conducting extensive research on the media’s impact on public opinion. Full article

As the issues of the world’s overreliance on fossil fuels still remain unresolved, mainstream media play a central role in influencing public attitudes towards energy sources. This article aimed to consider Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals as manipulation means in the news coverage of the 2021–2022 global energy crisis. Using computer-aided text analysis, media framing, discourse, and rhetorical analyses, this paper analyzes 600 news articles published on the websites of the four mainstream media sources from the key countries that were affected by the crisis. The results confirmed emotionalization of the news coverage that occurred through the use of similar rhetorical appeals and emotive language means aimed at inducing positive or negative feelings and shaping public opinion. The UK and US mainstream media appeared to rely more on the opinions of political, business, and energy authorities, highlighting a high level of politicization of their coverage. The findings also indicated polarization of the attitudes in the coverage, with mainly negative narratives about fossil fuels and more positive narratives about renewable energies, which contributed to public opinion manipulation and energy decision-making. This study opens up perspectives for future research on media emotions and rhetorical appeals as powerful manipulation means in applied linguistics, rhetoric, and journalism. Full article

This study investigates the relationship between news media and public opinion on Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects in Myanmar since media liberalization in 2011, using first-level agenda-setting theory. A mixed-method approach was employed: a quantitative content analysis of 217 articles from ELEVEN and The Irrawaddy, identifying 1436 distinct frames on ten BRI-related issues, and a survey of 385 respondents to assess public opinion. Spearman’s rank-order correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between media coverage and public opinion. A strong positive correlation (rho = 0.87, p < 0.05) was found between increased media coverage and public opinion alignment regarding BRI-related issues. The findings highlight the significant influence of the media on the public perception of BRI projects in Myanmar, and contribute to media effects and agenda-setting theory, offering insights for stakeholders investigating the interplay between the media, public opinion, and international development. Further research is needed to explore the media’s agenda-setting role in BRI project policy decisions in Myanmar. Full article

(1) Background: Studies on women with disabilities (WwD) are rare and tend to reveal certain representation patterns. This study aims to understand how and to what extent WwD and chronic diseases are deemed newsworthy in the Portuguese public news TV station RTP1 primetime news program. Feminist disability, standpoint, agenda-setting, and framing theories are used alongside the concept of intersectionality. (2) Methods: A mixed-method approach is adopted, combining quantitative content analysis of all broadcasted news in January 2020 (n = 704), and qualitative discourse analysis of news items on PwD (n = 5). (3) Results: The results reveal that disability is a reduced issue in Telejornal’s agenda. PwD, in general, are often portrayed in secondary roles and without a voice. The protagonists of news stories about disability or persons with disabilities are predominantly women without disabilities, occupying traditional roles as caregivers (mothers, nurses), while men are more often portrayed as public agents. Discourse analysis deepens understanding by uncovering the prevalence of negative news values and a problem-centred framing, often associated with negativity, rather than presenting solutions. (4) Conclusions: Consequently, WwD were found to be deprived of news representation with a more positive or ‘normal’ focus and an intersectional approach reveals a lack of inclusion, with the few existing news tending to focus on exclusion issues, portraying only white Portuguese women. This study underscores the urgent need for a more equitable approach in media representation, recognising the diversity and positive contributions of WwD to promote an inclusive narrative. Full article

As disinformation has become a topic of conversation in the media in recent years, the theory of agenda setting is once again making its presence known. The aim of this research is to verify the degree of interest in disinformation by the media (mainstream press) and in academic writing (scientific communication journals) according to frequency and whether or not such disinformation can be observed in the field of science. The primary research has been carried out through quantitative content analysis of three Spanish newspapers (El País, Abc, El Mundo) and 32 Spanish scientific communication journals included in the SJR-SCImago Journal Rank database from the year 2000 to 2023. The results were 732 units of analysis. From those, it can be concluded that once again, the pandemic represents a before and after. Firstly, a general increase in disinformation has been observed, as well as a corresponding rise in false information in certain fields of science, especially that of health. Secondly, a gradual increase in public interest in disinformation has also been detected, which indicates that the issue is on the agenda of both the media and citizens. Full article

This study investigates whether news sentiment plays a role in setting social media sentiment to explore the dynamics of sentiment develop and diffusion within the public agenda. Based on the agenda-setting theory, this study analyzed the public and media sentiments towards the 2016 US election and the candidates using data from Twitter, CNN, and Fox News. Focusing on the Twitter messages created by the supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, over 1.3 million Twitter messages were collected associated with the election, employing hashtags as indicators of support. The Granger causality test between social media and news sentiments revealed that there is a mutual influence between social media and news sentiments; CNN’s overall sentiment was influenced by the sentiment of Hillary Clinton’s supporters, whereas Trump supporters’ sentiment was influenced by Fox News’ negative sentiment. The results suggest that public sentiment is formed in response to public agenda and mass media, indicating that sentiment is a critical component in understanding public opinion. Implications for future studies and limitations are also discussed. Full article

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 ignited propaganda efforts from the U.S. executive branch of government and the U.S. media, as the country tried to position itself towards the war not just in the eyes of its citizens but of the entire world as part of its geopolitical power position. A comparative quantitative and qualitative analysis of official U.S. communications and U.S. partisan media coverage in the first week of the invasion aims to uncover how the U.S. government set the agenda and framed the events, and to what extent the media copied or diverged from this agenda-setting and framing. The results suggest a narrow focus and distinct framing on the part of the U.S. government, partly taken over by partisan media. The latter also touched on other topics that fit media logic and provided some counter-frames in line with their ideological positions, yet overall confirmed the dominant framing of the war as unjust, unprovoked and premeditated, as Putin’s choice, and the position of the U.S. as the leader of the free world and defender of democracy. Full article

The Swedish far-right party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), came to power in 2022 and is currently the second-largest party in the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. While it has been propagandizing an anti-migrant discourse, another newly founded party has been producing a counter-discourse. The newly created Nyans party claims to represent migrants and minorities in Sweden. However, its discourse uses controversial issues that could potentially misrepresent those communities. Our study aimed to analyze Nyans’ Facebook posts published in the month leading up to the 2022 elections. Through our analysis process, which lasted from January to August 2023, we applied a critical discourse analysis approach to uncover the relationship between sociocultural issues and their social, political, and ideological contexts. The results reveal that Nyans’ discourse focused on opposing left-wing parties and aligned itself with the far-right. The discourse aligned with misinformation campaigns on social media when addressing sociocultural issues. These issues include the childcare law, the burning of the Qur’an, and the veil, which are pertinent to a particular perspective in the Muslim community and do not necessarily represent immigrants or minorities. Full article

Because of China’s new wave of COVID-19 in May 2023, the issue of tackling COVID-19 misinformation remains relevant. Based on Lippmann’s theory of public opinion and agenda setting theory, this article aims to examine the concept of digital pseudo-identification as a type of logical fallacy that refers to supporting journalists’ opinions with ‘false’ arguments that lack factual evidence. To do so, the study applied computer-aided content analysis, as well as rhetorical and critical discourse analyses, to examine 400 articles related to four COVID-19 vaccines (‘Oxford-AstraZeneca’, ‘Pfizer-BioNTech’, ‘Sputnik V’ and ‘Sinovac’) published on the online versions of two major British and American mainstream media sources between August 2020 and December 2021. The results of the study show that journalists of the ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The Guardian’ used similar logical fallacies, including the opinions of pseudo-authorities and references to pseudo-statistics and stereotypes, which contributed to creating distorted representations of the COVID-19 vaccines and propagating online misinformation. The study also reveals political bias in both of the mainstream media sources, with relatively more positive coverage of the European vaccines than non-European vaccines. The findings have important implications for journalism and open up perspectives for further research on the concept of digital pseudo-identification in the humanities and social sciences. Full article

This study, using content analysis and frame analysis, examines whether there is any connection between the International Criminal Court’s (ICC’s) announcement on the fifth day of Russia’s war against Ukraine (which began on 24 February 2022) that it would investigate credible allegations of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, and the reporting of the international press in those first five days. This study finds a functional relationship between the ICC’s application of international law and international press reporting, in that the latter pursued an agenda grounded in the sources of international law. This reporting appeared to have made people think about the likelihood of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine (accessibility effect) and that Putin and his regime should be punished under international law (applicability effect). In turn, this was advantageous to the ICC’s announcement that it would investigate allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The speed of the ICC’s decision to open this investigation opens questions as to what distinguished the situation in Ukraine from similar situations. Media reporting may have contributed to a broader rationale for potential realpolitik objectives concerning Ukraine and Russia, underpinned by laudable humanitarian and legal concerns. This study concludes that if power saturates law, then the media is a diffusing agent of that power—an actor that spreads and amplifies elite narratives into the public sphere, rationalising the actions of institutions like the ICC. Full article

The purpose of this research is, through a methodological proposal, to determine the representation of the image of a destination generated by the travel youtubers of the gastronomic segment. This is the case of Saudi Arabia and its gastronomic image. To identify the gastronomic image of Saudi Arabia, the theories of social representation, agenda setting, and framing will be used to analyze the videos of two important gastronomic youtubers and their effects on their audiences. Overall, this study supports the idea that new communication channels can be used to verify the effectiveness, adapting the methodologies used in traditional media as well as taking advantage of processing software for qualitative and quantitative data such as Atlasti. The proposed study can contribute to methodological development in the field, and the insights gained by its application can influence tourism marketing and media planning in tourism organizations. The results show several positioning attributes detected in the public frame as amazing, hospitality, delicious, and culture as well as in the media frame were found attributes such as delicious, fresh, camel, liver, lamb, ghee, spices, rice, etc. Full article

Newspaper sports departments in Germany are reacting to changes in social media by expanding their offerings and employing a variety of publishing and engagement strategies. In this constantly evolving media environment, it is important to understand how newsrooms utilize social media to inform their audiences. This study examines the approaches German newspapers apply to publishing sports content on social media, and outlines how users interact with these posts. In analyzing these aspects, this paper applies theoretical elements of agenda setting and audience engagement, gender in media, and quality and diversity of published content. Social media posts were examined across eight German publications, totaling 3633 posts from Twitter and Facebook. Results in the study, which is part of the global 2021 Social Media International Sports Press Survey, highlighted how most of the content published by German newspapers on social media aimed to redirect users to the publications’ websites. The findings also reflect how social media is used less as an editorial space and more as part of a campaign to increase the audience. These results demonstrate challenges for the quality of sports coverage distributed via social networks in Germany. Full article

The purpose of this study was to prove the use of content and sentiment analysis to understand public discourse on Nytimes.com around the coronavirus (2019-nCOV) pandemic. We examined the pandemic discourses in the article contents, news, expert opinions, and statements of official institutions with natural language processing methods. We analyzed how the mainstream media (Nytimes.com) sets the community agenda. As a method, the textual data for the research were collected with the Orange3 software text-mining tool via the Nytimes.com API, and content analysis was conducted with Leximancer software. The research data were divided into three categories (first, mid, and last) based on the date ranges determined during the pandemic. Using Leximancer concept maps tools, we explained concepts and their relationships by visualizing them to show pandemic discourse. We used VADER sentiment analysis to analyze the pandemic discourse. The results gave us the distance and proximity positions of themes related to Nytimes.com pandemic discourse, revealed according to their conceptual definitions. Additionally, we compared the performance of six machine learning algorithms on the task of text classification. Considering the findings, it is possible to conclude that in Nytimes.com (2019-nCOV) discourse, some concepts have changed on a regular basis while others have remained constant. The pandemic discourse focused on specific concepts that were seen to guide human behavior and presented content that may cause anxiety to readers of Nytimes.com. The results of the sentiment analysis supported these findings. Another result was that the findings showed us that the contents of the coronavirus (2019-nCOV) articles supported official policies. It can be concluded that regarding the coronavirus (2019-nCOV), which has caused profound societal changes and has results such as death, restrictions, and mask use, the discourse did not go beyond a total of 15 main themes and about 100 concepts. The content analysis of Nytimes.com reveals that it has behavioral effects, such as causing fear and anxiety in people. Considering the media dependency of society, this result is important. It can be said that the agenda-setting of society does not go beyond the traditional discourse due to the tendency of individuals to use newspapers and news websites to obtain information. Full article