Making & Shaping the News - technical artifacts and the interplay of journalism and audience

Making and Shaping the News

Theoretical Perspectives on the Role of Technical Artifacts as Intermediaries Between Journalism and its Audience(s)

Nele Heise, M. A.

Internet Research 13.0, Salford (UK)October 21, 2012

Outline

1. Intro

2. On the interplay between journalism, audience(s) and technology

3. Technical artifacts as intermediaries?!

4. OpenQuestions

Heise | Technical intermedaries 2

Intro

Something about me

• Junior Researcher @ Hans-Bredow-Institute (Hamburg/Germany)• member of the Graduate School Media & Communication (GMaC)• Dissertation project on „radio activity“ (role of technical artifacts and

technical agency/competence for participation in radio communication)

Focus today: “spin-off” project on technical intermediaries


Technik matters?

Perspectives on technology and the media

• Previous shortcomings: Technological vs. Social Determinism


• “mutual shaping” perspective (Boczkowski 2004): … ongoing interdependent technological and social transformations

• “molding forces” of media (Hepp): … media exert a certain „pressure“ on the way we communicate

• Actor-Network-Theory (Latour/Callon; Couldry 2006; Plesner 2009):… (technological) objects and non-humans as „actors“ in networks

• Structuration Theory (Larsson 2012)… agency (situated use, facilities, norms & interpretive schemes) and its relation to structure (“Technologies-of-practice” aka rules and norms instantiated in use)

Technik matters!

„Materialism“ in journalism studies & audience research


• Audience research - on interactivity, and its impact on consumption, “influence” and distribution (e.g.

Carpentier 2011; Himelboim/McCreery 2012)

- on affordances of new ICTs and impact on media appropriation and active participation (e.g. King/He 2006; Correa 2010; Siles/Boczkowski 2012)

- on social representations of ICTs and familiarisation (e.g. Sarrica 2010)

• Journalism studies - on the production of content and journalistic routines (e.g. Nielsen 2012)

- on newsroom cultures, role conceptions etc. (e.g. Domingo 2008; Schmitz Weiss/Domingo 2010; Singer 2010)

The „place“ of technology

Theories on interrelations of journalism and audience, for example• dynamic-transactional approach (cf. Wünsch et al. 2008)• Inclusion concept in systems theory (cf. Schmidt/Loosen 2012)• Critical concepts of appropriation of media content (cf. Renger 2004)

focus on cognitive, normative aspects or production of content and meaning; but: influences of technical artifacts remain untouched


Where is the “place” of (media) technology in the interplay of journalism and audiences?

The missing link

Journalism

Audience

?

?


*technical artifacts: infrastructure (cable, satellite, server structures), hardware (devices), software (programs, algorithms) and (user) interfaces

*

:: exemplified ::

The good old Tagesschau: From “Ivory Tower” and “Proclamation” …


… to “Getting in Touch“ and “Sharing Spaces“ with the News

:: exemplified ::



What if we see technical artifacts as intermediaries between journalism and audience(s)?

Intermediaries?

• original meaning third parties, offering intermediation between two trading parties (e.g. producer & consumer) that create some added value to the “transaction”


• Intermediaries as actors organizations, companies etc.; in the internet: “Cybermediaries” (e.g. search engines, publishers, forums) or „digital intermediaries“ (e.g. content platforms, social networks)

• Intermediation as process functions such as information aggregating, matching, scanning, “gatekeeping”, (re-)combination of knowledge, integration of consumer and producer needs


And what role do intermediaries play in the production, distribution and consumption

of journalistic content?

Technical artifacts as intermediaries

Technical Artifacts

Audience(s)Journalismproducing stories e.g. via crowd-sourcing, audience material or data-driven storytelling

distributing contente.g. via social media channels and search engines

monitoring & quantifying audiences / “numerical inclusion”e.g. user rankings on news sites

mutual observation and imitation among media organizations

Generating content actively with regard to journalistic products,

e.g. discussion boards, re-mixing and mash-ups or commenting

media content in SNS

processing of news as a social experience, e.g.

sharing activities, social navigation

consuming journalistic products: interactive tools, personalized

news, mobile media use, e.g. RSS-feeds, newsletters


:: again exemplified ::

Intermediaries Functions ExamplesSearch engines & Aggregators Searching, selecting, aggregation, “gatekeeping” Google News, Rivva, reddit, netvibes

Tagging-& Social Bookmarking Information processing, distribution Mr. Wong, Delicious

Social networksobservation, investigation, distribution/content passing, consumption, follow-up communication, “shared spaces” for opinion exchange and interpretation

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ (+ interfaces on media websites)

Content platforms observation, investigation, distribution/content passing, consumption, follow-up communication YouTube, Vimeo, flickr, Bambuser

Web analytics Observation (customer information) and surveillance, presentation, aggregation

Google Analytics, Omniture Site Catalyst, Rankings („most read/commented/emailed“)

Crowdsourcing-/Crowdfunding-Tools

investigation, examination, presentation, processing & combination of knowledge, financing, collaboration

Spot.us, emphas.is, flattr, Open Platform Guardian, storify, ProPublica

Uploading Tools investigation, observation, combination of knowledge 20min.ch, BILD Leser-Reporter, Die ZEIT Leserartikel

Mobile Apps Distribution, consumption, observation (user statistics), presentation

Push messages, Updates, breaking news

Subscription services Personalization (customer needs), consumption RSS-Feeds, newsletters

On-Demand platforms Distribution, consumption, observation (user statistics) ARD-Mediathek, BBC iPlayer, Catch Up TV, IPTV, VOD


Technical artifacts as intermediaries

Audience(s)JournalismImplementationPracticesSocial Representations

DomesticationPractices

Social Representations


DesignFunction(ality)

Purpose

Designers &

Webm

astersPr

ovid

ers

&

Com

pani

es

OpenQuestions

Implications?

• irritations and conflicts with normative, professional, social positions of journalism, as seen with non-use of interactive features on both sides (see Larsson 2012; Nielsen 2012)


• technical artifacts as “black boxes” for both, journalists and users

• “Autonomy” of technical artifacts; Substitution of journalistic functions

• Power and dependency: the role of big players like Google or Facebook

• The mutual shaping of technical artifacts, the role of the audience (as consumer, producer, citizen) and participatory practices

Thanks for your attention!

Nele Heise, M. A.

Hans Bredow InstituteWarburgstraße 8-10

20354 [email protected]

@neleheise

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Education

Making & Shaping the News - technical artifacts and the interplay of journalism and audience