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PS 076
Imagining the City: How Local Journalism Reports on Social Cohesion
A. Leupold
1
, U. Klinger
1
, O. Jarren
1
1
University of Zurich, Institute for Mass Communication and Media Research, Zurich, Switzerland
In recent years, both local journalism and social cohesion have faced disruptions and discontinuities: while local journalism is challenged by dwindling
readership, media concentration and economic crisis, social cohesion in cities is dealing with social fragmentation, gentrification and the increasing inflow
of migrants. At the same time both are interrelated, as perceptions of belonging, identity or community are heavily mediatised: local media provide the in‑
formational backbone of what people know about social life in their city. Our study analyses what image local media create of social cohesion in a communi‑
ty. And what is decisive for this image – community characteristics or the type of local media the population is exposed to? Social cohesion refers to 'resilient
social relationships, a positive emotional connectedness between its members and the community, and a pronounced focus on the common good in a given
society' (Delhey & Dragolov 2015: 2–3). We operationalize and measure social cohesion in different genres of local newspapers, by means of a newly devel‑
oped instrument for a standardized content analysis. We discriminate the role of nine dimensions of social cohesion in local reporting: social networks, trust
in people, acceptance of diversity, identification, trust in institutions, perceptions of fairness, solidarity, respect for social rules and civic participation. We
gathered information on the share of articles reporting on social cohesion, the distribution of the nine different dimensions of social cohesion and their main
point of geographical reference by coding all articles published in the local sections during an artificial week drawn from a three-month period (20 March
to 30 June 2015; N= 1309) in seven local newspapers from three German cities. We find remarkably similar images of social cohesion across cities. The main
difference is the local level of reference, which varies with city size: the bigger the city, the stronger the focus on the various neighbourhoods; the smaller,
the more the city as a whole (and even its agglomeration) provides the most important reference point for coverage. However, while social cohesion is sim‑
ilarly reported across cities, we found strong variation across newspaper types. Depending on whether readers prefer local newspapers, weekly advertisers
or tabloids, they are presented with very different images of their local society. Community characteristics therefore seem to have a minor influence on
the image of local social cohesion created by local media compared to the characteristics of different types of local media and their respective journalistic
resources and cultures, target audiences and local reach. Our findings also support evidence from other studies on the reporting styles of local journalism,
such as perceptions of a rather docile style of reporting about local affairs by regional newspapers and a tension between political and journalistic elites
with respect to the media’s role as critical observers on the local level.We will discuss our results and their relevance in the light of results from other studies
and normative implications for local journalism. Delhey, J. & Dragolov, G. (2015). Happier together. Social cohesion and subjective well-being in Europe.
International Journal of Psychology, pp. 1–14.
PS 077
The Data-Driven Newsroom
L.M. Kristensen
1
1
University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Business and Social Science- Centre for Journalism, Odense M, Denmark
The data-driven newsroomThe past three decades has seen rapid development in the field of audience research. From once relying on measures of exposure
such as circulation and readership, technological developments have made present day media companies capable of understanding and relying on audience
preferences in newways (Sonderman, 2011). Media companies are building complex information systems combining the use of quantitative audience data,
social media data and qualitative data (Ingram, 2014). As a result, audience research is no longer restricted to the marketing or sales department – it is
included in newsroom processes.The development poses an interesting challenge to traditional media and their journalists. From previously relying on pro‑
fessional ideals and ’gut feeling’, journalists and media strategists are now faced with quantified evidence of performance and audience ideas of relevance
(Anderson, 2011). Furthermore, alternative platforms such as Google and Facebook, which are widely employed by traditional media outlets, inherently
carry news values in their prioritization algorithms (Levy, 2010: Galloway, 2004). According to previous research, this development is perhaps shifting
the balance of interests and ideals in legacy journalism (Tien Vu, 2014; Kammer, 2013; Anderson, 2011). This study investigates how three Danish legacy
media organizations’ monitoring and analysis of quantitative and qualitative audience data affects journalism on their online platforms. The topic area is
web metrics and online news. Key words include: audience metrics, data analysis, digital journalism, as well as digital media. Qualitative audience data con‑
sists of interactions with users through e-mail and social media, combined with traditional audience research methods such as focus groups. Quantitative
audience data consists of data collected from social media interactions with news and through tracking of audience behaviour online by digital tools and
software for web analytics. Empirically, the study focuses on Danish daily tabloid BT, Danish broadcasterTV 2, and Danish daily newspaper, Jyllands- Posten.
Online platforms include both official social media profiles and news apps. One of two sources of empirical data is qualitative interviews with strategic
management employees, conducted in the winter months of 2013/2014. These were followed up with second interviews in the summer of 2014. The sec‑
ond source of empirical data is observation in the digital newsroom of each of the three media organizations, conducted in the spring/summer of 2014.
The findings are analyzed through frameworks explaining journalistic work processes and they are interpreted through existing hypotheses of journalism
objectives, using professional/occupational ideals of Danish journalists, Participatory Journalism (Singer et al., 2011), and Market-Driven Journalism (Co‑
hen, 2002; McManus, 1994) as a reference for analyzing and discussing the impact of audience data in journalistic processes.