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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
universities, and those who have been working for the media organizations for
several decades now. Interestingly, both the youngest and the oldest journalists seem
to share some of their characteristics (among others, they believe that journalists
should provide solutions to the problems of the ordinary people), while journalists who
entered the profession two decades ago seem to be more interested in investigating
claims and statements made by politicians. Since their professional career started
during the political transformation period, they still perceive themselves as an
adversary of the public officials. At the same time, despite of the facts, hardly any
journalist accepts the fact that the journalists provide entertainment and relaxation, or
that they should concentrate on news that’s of interest to the widest possible
audience.
Paper panel 18 – Journalism in Africa and the Middle East
Tuesday, July 5th 10.30 - 12.00 (Room 2)
Diversified sources, diverging agendas? Social networking and mediatisation in
TV news coverage of the 2010 Tunisian protests
Madrid Morales, Dani
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona, Spain
From the publishing of the McBride report onwards there has been scholarly interest
in examining the dynamics of an apparent process of homogenisation of content in
news outlets around the globe. Research has shown that convergence of content has
been particularly acute, theme-wise, in foreign (global) news items and, medium-wise,
in TV broadcasting. Multiple factors have been identified in such a process but
amongst them, reliance on news-agency served television footage appears to be
pivotal. Access to video material scores high in any classification of newsworthiness
in television news. This study aims at looking how the advent of social networking and
the easing of distribution of non professional video through social networks might be
able to modify the existing dynamics of news gathering and event mediatisation.
Based on an analysis of how four ‘global’ news outlets (CNN, BBC World, Al Jazeera
and France 24) covered the 2010 Tunisian protests, this paper tries to assess the
influence that social networks (Youtube, Twitter, Facebook) can have in setting the
news agenda. Whilst some mainstream media were slow in picking up the story of
Tunisian protests, others relied on audience generated content to report on the
events. Comparing the findings with other existing studies, I will put forward some
possible implications and areas for further research.
Investigating at the grassroots: An analysis of the Slumlords investigation
storytelling strategies.
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