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PS 074
Content Marketing et al.: Journalism Under Pressure
J. Fidalgo
1
1
University of Minho, Communication Sciences Department, Braga, Portugal
Credibility has always been one of the key elements in the evaluation of journalism and its quality: journalism is, before and after all, a bout information you
can trust. On the other way, transparency has always been one of the basic pre-conditions for the construction of that credibility: you only trust (and handle
accordingly) certain piece of information if/when you know where it comes from, who is responsible for it, how it came to you, which purpose it intends to
serve, ultimately who pays for its selection, production and distribution. Things used to be rather clear in this domain: the classical separation of‘church and
state’ in the media business, regarded for many decades as a sacred dogma, traditionally helped to keep news in the editorial areas and advertisement in
the commercial spaces (always presented and labelled as such). You could read / listen to / watch both, but you knew for sure what it was about: either in‑
formation in the public interest, or promotion of products and services in the private interest of some company that paid for it. In recent years, for a number
of reasons (one of the most relevant being the dramatic decrease of advertising revenues and a clear fight for survival within most newspapers, radio and
TV stations, still looking for a new ‘business model’for the new media landscape), things began to change – and go on changing every day. The fast devel‑
opment of formats associated to hybrid or mixed products such as advertorials, content marketing, native advertising, brand / corporate journalism, etc.,
brought major challenges to the need for independence of news and information, when opposed to paid propaganda or commercial promotions of the most
diverse origins. This is where (and why) credibility of journalism is at stake: when the audience doesn’t know for sure (and doesn’t have the means to find
out) if the piece of information they are consuming is really news – selected, gathered, developed, edited and diffused according to journalistic criteria,
allegedly serving the public interest – or, on the contrary, it is no more than a sponsored or commercially-driven initiative, with no proper identification
and label, then the trust relationship between the news medium and the public may be broken. In this paper, we intend to show how these new trends in
advertising and marketing within the media industry are spreading a bit all over the world, somehow putting pressure on the ways journalism used to be
regarded and dealt with. Furthermore, we intend to discuss the consequences of these new hybrid formats in the way the public looks at media products
and in the degree of trust such information is given, thus eventually affecting the role of journalism in society. The results of an inquiry among Portuguese
professionals that have worked as journalists and then moved to advertising, PR or marketing, will help us to better understand how relevant actors of this
process regard it ‘from within’and how they forecast its evolution in coming years.
PS 075
Business News Before, During and After the Financial Crisis – Mere Reflection of Economic Developments or Result of Journalistic
Criteria of Selection and Presentation?
V. Hase
1
1
University of Muenster, Department of communication studies, Münster, Germany
The collapse of the economy from 2007 onwards jeopardized not only corporations but also common citizens. Pertaining to the crisis, journalism was
accused of having failed as a watch dog (Manning, 2012). However apart from it, journalism is criticized for being too negative (Ju, 2014). Although journal‑
istic coverage influenced recipients’expectations during the financial crisis (Lischka, 2015), science has neglected longitudinal research on patterns of jour‑
nalistic reporting. Focusing on a German quality newspaper (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2005–2012), two main questions are answered: (1) Has the volume
of newspaper coverage changed throughout the crisis? (2) Which journalistic criteria of selection and presentation are constant patters of news reporting
and which are bound to times of economic crises? First, there is more news coverage during the crisis than before or after (N = 2.057). This tendency to
not only applies to times of crises but also to economic downturns before and after the crisis: When the economy is in downswing, the volume of reporting
increases. Second, a random sample of articles is examined through content analysis (N = 527). Specifically, the valence of economic events chosen as cause
of news coverage, the tonality of reporting regarding economic developments as well as politics and the disclosure of uncertainty regarding economic
forecasting are examined. In general, journalism does not solely report on economic downturn, thereby disproving a constant pattern of negativity in
selection. This changes, as could be expected, with the financial crisis. Regarding negativity in presentation, a diverse pattern emerges: While negativity
regarding the economy is, overall, not a constant pattern of presentation, tonality significantly worsens with the break-out of the financial crisis. Although
evaluations are therefore at least partially tied to economic developments, journalism fails to fill its watch dog function: There is no journalistic warning
prior to the summer of 2007 – neither by referring to negative developments nor by expressing possible endangerment through journalistic tonality. In
contrast to this volatility, there is a constant pattern of negativity regarding politics before, during and after the financial crisis expressing a rather tight
connection to political news for which similar patterns have been documented. Finally, journalism seldom expresses uncertainty throughout any point
of reporting. In sum, there is a constant pattern of exaggerated attention to economic downturns but also negativity regarding politics. In contrast, some
criticism towards business news is inadequate and certain journalistic criteria are bound to crises: Journalism news neither solely display negative economic
developments nor is there a general negative bias. References: Ju, Y. (2014). Issue obtrusiveness and negative bias: Exploring the moderating factors for
asymmetric news coverage of the economy. Asian Journal of Communication, 24(5), 441–455. doi:10.1080/01292986.2014.908933; Lischka, J. A. (2015).
What follows what? Relations between economic indicators, economic expectations of the public, and news on the general economy and unemployment
in Germany, 2002–2011. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(2), 374–398. doi:10.1177/1077699015574098; Manning, P. (2013). Financial
journalism, news sources and the banking crisis. Journalism, 14(2), 173–189. doi:10.1177/1464884912448915