General information
Code: J5-3110
Period: 1.10.2021 - 30.9.2024
Range on year: 0.19 FTE | 2021
Project leader at FDV: prof.dr. Alojzij Slavko Splichal
Research activity: Social sciences
Abstract
Journalism as a specific mode of knowledge production and as a profession has changed significantly over the years under the significant but not exclusive influence of (communication) technology. Pervasive historical changes make a comprehensive study of new technological tools, social trends and professional orientations in journalism essential not only for its existence and development, but also for the existence and development of the entire public sphere, which largely rests on journalism. Based on this general historical background, the project has three main objectives: (1) to examine how new modes of digital communication affect, (re)create and protect actions, conditions and qualities of (Slovenian) journalism in the context of the global attention economy and the liquefied public sphere, (2) to identify key journalistic “boundary objects” shared with key economic, technological and political complementary and competitive non-journalistic actors, and (3) to assess the consequences and future implications of regulatory claims and actions addressed to journalistic “boundary objects”. To achieve these objectives, an innovative boundary-work model of journalism’s responses to technological challenges will be developed to address four sets of specific questions: 1. How do changes in the labor process affect the nature and boundaries of journalistic production and the professional status of journalism by reshaping journalistic skill requirements, restructuring the division of labor and social control in newsrooms, and rearranging the degree of journalists’ autonomy in relation to management? 2. How do changes in news subsidies, particularly advertising and marketing, imposed by the attention economy affect news media business models and the deprofessionalization of journalism in a situation where information is over-abundant and attention has become commodified, scarce, concentrated, and fragmented? 3. Do the financial incentives provided by technology companies strengthen the link between journalists and the communities they serve, or jeopardize the practices, autonomy and authority of journalism? 4. How do communicative and regulatory actions implemented by political actors and representatives of the Slovenian executive, legislative, and judicial authorities affect journalism by enabling or preventing it to perform the role of guardian of the principle of publicness? Associated with the main objectives and research questions, the project is structured into four work packages of research activities addressing (1) changes in the journalistic labor process, actors and boundaries (WP1), (2) related to the status of journalistic profession between the market form of the attention economy and possibilities for public participation (WP2), (3) affected by technological incentives that transform journalistic practices and values (WP3), and (4) new forms of political, legal and judicial actions regulating journalism (WP4).
The phases of the project and their realization
RECONFIGURATION OF JOURNALISM AMIDST THE RISE OF THE ATTENTION ECONOMY AND THE DECLINE OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Work programme
WP1: Changes in the journalistic labour process, actors and boundaries
RT1.1: Homogenization of online news - Analysis of online news
Research task 1.1: Homogenization of online news. The aim of the task is to empirically study the homogeneity of online news texts by measuring the similarity between them during the COVID-19 epidemic, which the group will supplement with a qualitative method of content analysis of individual "events". The group will perform the big data analysis with the help of the Eventregistry platform or with the help of the system for recognizing the similarity of news, developed by the Slovenian Press Agency.
• Literature analysis, agreements with IJS or STA and planning of the study: 1.-6. month (October 2021-March 2022)
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis of news: 7-14. month (April 2022-December 2022)
• Writing the study: 15.-21. month (January 2023-July 2023)
• Announcement of results: 22.-36. month (August 2024-October 2024)
RT1.2: Reconfiguring journalistic skills - Survey of journalists
Research Task 1.2: Reconfiguring journalistic skills. Based on the findings of RT1.1, the team will supplement the Worlds of Journalism questionnaire with a module on the changing skills required and perceptions of autonomy. The survey will be conducted on a sample of journalists in the Slovenian media, who are in the Media Register of the Ministry of Culture.
• Literature analysis, identification of the "population" and construction of the "sample": 8.-14. month
• Completion of the questionnaire and implementation of the survey: 15–21. the month of the survey
• Analysis of the obtained data and writing of the study: 22.-30. month
• Announcement of results: 31-36 month
WP2 Journalism between the economy of attention and possibilities for public participation
RT2.1: Transforming advertising markets
The main research goal is to analyze how structural changes in the Slovenian advertising market affect the business strategies of the main news media and their news production. The implementation of research tasks is divided into five phases:
• Design of both research tasks, collection of material (secondary sources, annual reports), determination of interviewees (1st - 6th month)
• Document analysis (months 6-12)
• Interviews with advertising agencies and media houses on a limited scale (months 13-18)
• Analysis of interviews, guidelines for creating a survey on the journalistic work process, preliminary report
• Final report (months 25-36)
WP3 Technological incentives for the transformation of journalism
RT3.1: Content analysis of research project applications. The goal of the assignment is to analyze 662 projects funded as part of the most important of such programs – Google's Digital News Initiative (DNI) between 2016 and 2019. The analysis of the content of the funded projects will focus on the problem the project investigates and the proposed technological solutions for it. Special emphasis will be placed on projects where both the problem and the solution are related to the values, norms, principles and practices of professional journalism, which can be identified as "boundary objects" shared by journalists, researchers, application developers and funders
• Preparatory work and study planning (months 1-6)
• Document analysis (months 7-12)
• Final analysis and report preparation (months 12-18)
WP4 Political, legal and judicial processes affecting journalism
RT4.1: Politicians as "new journalists" on Twitter
This task is aimed at analyzing the (re)configuration of journalistic boundary objects in tweets that refer to journalists, journalism and the media, published or published by key Slovenian politicians and power actors. The research will include (1) a quantitative analysis of big data on the key trends of the most active Twitter users among political actors and (2) a qualitative analysis of the content of selected tweets, focused on border objects related to journalism and politics.
• First phase: preparatory work, data collection, meta-analysis of existing analyzes on changes in the political space (phase-3, part of preliminary preparations for the project, partly done before the formal start of the project)
• Second phase: quantitative analysis of big data of the most active political Twitter users, focus on Prime Minister Janez Janša (0-3 and 7-12)
• Third phase: qualitative analysis of the content of selected tweets of political actors who are related to journalism and the media (0-3 and 7-12)
Due to the intertwining of quantitative and qualitative analysis, the second and third phases are carried out simultaneously and are ongoing. The first part of the analysis is completed (result: a scientific article with the analysis, which is in the review process, months 0-3), the second part of the data analysis is planned for months 7-12.
RT4.2: Case law
RT4.2 focuses on cases in the Slovenian Constitutional, Supreme and higher courts (in civil, penal and administrative matters), as well as European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) cases involving Slovenian subjects, in which parties (both politicians and journalists, either in the role of plaintiff or defendant) invoke fundamental rights related to journalism. devote the rest of the semester to meta-analysis, setting up a research plan and defining the rights that will be the basis for creating a sample of cases. Due to halved funding, there will be a set of rights to refer to
Research Organisation
http://www.sicris.si/public/jqm/prj.aspx?lang=eng&opt=2&subopt=403&hits=1&id=18767&search_term=J5-3110
Researchers
http://www.sicris.si/public/jqm/prj.aspx?lang=eng&opt=2&subopt=402&hits=1&id=18767&search_term=J5-3110
Citations for bibliographic records
http://www.sicris.si/public/jqm/prj.aspx?lang=eng&opt=2&subopt=400&hits=1&id=18767&search_term=J5-3110
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