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JOS27
Towards a Digital News Ecology
PP 606
Digital News Ecologies in Scandinavia: A Big Data Hyperlink Study of News Geographies in Sweden, Denmark and Norway
E. Stavelin
1
, H. Sjøvaag
1
, M. Karlsson
2
1
UiB, Department of information science and media studies, Bergen, Norway
2
Karlstad University, Media and Communication Studies, Karlstad, Sweden
This paper maps the digital hyperlink news ecology in Scandinavia. Given that newspapers and their digital editions exist on the local, regional and national
levels in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, this paper investigates the extent to which the digital news agendas on the three levels are interconnected; anal‑
yses the relationship between local, regional and national hyperlink ecologies; and considers the role of central ‘hubs’and superhighways between outlets.
Operationalized as a news geographies study, the analysis finds that size, ownership and centrality matters most for hyperlink traffic, largely explained by
the historical realities of legacy press structures and social geography. This comparative big data tri-country hyperlink ecology study comprises 209 Swedish
sites, 263 Danish sites and 244 Norwegian sites (n=716), containing all editorial news outlets with an updated web news service in each country. The data
consists of unique outgoing hyperlinks linking to news sites on external news outlets, collected using a custom-written scraper following external links
from global urls. The data was collected between 1 January 2016 and 1 March 2016, amounting to approximately 2 million hyperlinks. The data is analysed
using network analysis, where each node is an individual news outlet geotagged into a graphic representation of the hyperlinking structure between news
outlets in the three countries. The visualisation of the network is one of the main outputs of the analysis. The study has three main findings, regarding local
hyperlink ecologies, national hyperlink superhighways and country-specific news ecologies. First, the analysis finds that there are distinct local and regional
hyperlinking networks that are tied primarily to two factors: geographical association or local news agendas; and ownership structures, or content sharing
between outlets owned by the same company. Second, the analysis finds that all three countries are dominated by hyperlink superhighways, where the pre‑
dominant amount of urls link between the two major cities, and consequently between the largest news outlets in each country. Third, the analysis also
finds that there are few links between the countries, i.e. that news agendas in the Scandinavian countries are predominantly national. Differences between
the countries can primarily be ascribed to social geography and centre-periphery dynamics of the countries’ socio-political histories reflected in legacy
press structures still visible in the digital news ecology. While all countries are centralised - with more links going into the capital than out of it - the data
also clearly displays that newsrooms are located where people live. Hence, the Danish hyperlinked news network is characterised by local editorial offices
linking to regional hubs; Norway is characterised by coastal geographic distribution; and Sweden is characterised by concentration in the south. A major
explanatory factor for the networked distribution of the hyperlinked news ecologies in Scandinavia is therefore the characteristics of state subsidy systems
supporting the newspaper structures. Overall, analysing link ecologies in Scandinavia illuminates the structural embeddedness of digital news geographies
as closely linked with localities, resources, and reach.
PP 607
Journalistic Innovation and Self-Reflection (Dis-)Continuities in the Media Discourse About Innovation in Journalism
C. Porlezza
1
1
University of Zurich, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, Zurich, Switzerland
Journalism is facing challenging times as the media industry is undergoing multi-faceted transformations, mainly driven by technological innovations,
changes in audience preferences and uncertainties with regard to the news ecosystem. These challenges cause a fundamental shift in the nature of news
production and the professional culture of journalists (Picard, 2014, 503). In order for journalism to remain viable and relevant, both practitioners (Briggs,
2013) and researchers stress the importance of innovation (Pavlik, 2013). While there is a growing body of research in journalism and media studies with
regard to the concept of (successful) innovation (see for instance Pavlik, 2013; Gynnild, 2014; Ekdale et al., 2015; and Raetzsch, 2015), it is not always
clear what it means in the news industry’s discourse, although it has become a frequently used buzzword. This vagueness in the journalistic reporting
and self-reflection about innovation raises questions about professionals’ definition, evaluation, and interpretation of innovation in journalism. The study
draws on the diffusion of innovation theory developed by Everett Rogers, understanding diffusion as 'the process in which an innovation is communicated
through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (2003, 5). According to Rogers, innovations often overlap or come in clusters:
transformations in journalism such as the adoption and diffusion of social media technologies, the changing relationship between journalists and their
communities as well as the shifting professional culture, are all interwoven. This interdependency between innovations makes it hard for journalists to
write about them (Lassila-Merisalo, 2011). On top of that, the challenges journalists are facing in their own newsrooms due to innovations might as well
contribute to the difficulties in the diffusion of and journalistic self-reflection about innovation. Taking these issues into account, it becomes clear why it is
all but simple to determine what journalism innovation might look like. The paper therefore focuses on the discursive construction of journalism innovation
within the journalistic field – a topic that, until today, has largely been disregarded by empirical research. The study applies a comparative analytical design
by collecting articles about journalism innovation, published between 2005 and 2015, from a cross-national sample of leading quality newspapers and
online news outlets in order to analyse the discursive structure (van Dijk, 1980) about innovation in journalism. The sample includes articles from The New
YorkTimes (USA),The Guardian (UK), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (D), the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (CH) and La Repubblica (I).The sample also included
two online pure players, Mashable (USA) and Vice (USA), in order to compare the structure of the discourse between traditional media outlets and online
news entities. The findings suggest, that journalism innovation is broadly defined, and in a positive way, although there are differences with regard to
journalism cultures and the type of news media (newspapers vs. online). Overall, the research specifies continuities, since innovation is often represented
as an opportunity to make quality journalism better, but also discontinuities, as many journalists are still sceptic towards innovation, particularly when it
comes to changes related to professional culture.