Audience Effects: Journalists and Journalism

Abstract

Reversing the traditional logic of media effects research, this entry looks at the impact of media on professional communicators in general and on journalists in particular. They engage in distinct patterns of media use, which are assumed to result in outcomes that in turn influence their professional behavior and their audiences, in a multistep process. This notion is explained from six different perspectives: journalists as media users, coorientation of journalists, reciprocal coverage effects, dynamics of news diffusion at a macro level, sources effects, and direct versus indirect audience feedback. Future challenges follow from the changing roles of communicators and audiences in online media.

Constructing audience quantification: Social influences and the development of norms about audience analytics and metrics

“…This highlights the value of a more organizationally focused framework for capturing the social shaping of technology, rather than a macro-level approach that might miss important organizational dynamics (see Boczkowski, 2004; Fulk and Yuan, 2017; Thornton and Ocasio, 2008). Simultaneously, these findings also suggest that theories that put the organization and its members front and center—including, to some extent, SIT and AST—may miss the impact that organizational outsiders exert by virtue of a two-step flow or via institutional logics (Fulk et al, 1990; Poole and DeSanctis, 1990; Rössler, 2017). This is particularly important given constantly shifting media ecologies, wherein actors previously on the peripheries of media industries have moved closer to their centers (Belair-Gagnon and Holton, 2018).…”

“…This is particularly notable in light of the significantly larger amount of training that managers receive from analytics companies. Thus, while analytics companies’ direct influence may be limited, their indirect influence may be considerable—and a two-step flow of opinion leadership offers a more useful lens for assessing their impact on newsroom norms and practices (Rössler, 2017; Thornton and Ocasio, 2008). However, as anticipated by SIT, the locus of influence is still within the organization, as that is the setting where the greatest recurrence of interaction occurs and where actors are most proximate (Fulk, 1993; Fulk et al, 1990).…”

“…Breed, 1955). Such individuals “are crucial for the proliferation of norms and values in journalism,” but even members outside of the organization may act as “parasocial opinion leaders” despite the lack of personal contact (Rössler, 2017: 6). In the United States, external sources (e.g.…”

Journalists’ Misjudgement of Audience Opinion

“…One classic interaction is letters sent by citizens to newsrooms (Greulich 1979;Reader 2015;Wahl-Jorgensen 2004). The emergence of the internet and e-mail has facilitated contact between members of the audience and journalists (Holton et al 2016;Rössler 2017;Wolfgang 2018).…”