Analytics-Driven Journalism: Editorial metrics and the reconfiguration of online news production practices in African newsrooms

In the Service of Good Journalism and Audience Interests? How Audience Metrics Affect News Quality

“…In many editorial offices, journalists are expected to check the page views of their articles at least once a day. In addition, audience metrics are regularly reviewed in editorial meetings or sent via e-mail to the entire newsroom, typically as a ranking of the most popular articles of the day, week or month (Anderson, 2011;Belair-Gagnon, 2019;Blanchett Neheli, 2018;Cherubini & Nielsen, 2016;Christin, 2018;Ferrer-Conill & Tandoc, 2018;Ferrucci, 2020;Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013;Lamot & Paulussen, 2020;Lawrence, Radcliffe, & Schmidt, 2018;Moyo et al, 2019;Nelson & Tandoc, 2019;Schlesinger & Doyle, 2015;Tandoc, 2014;Usher, 2012Usher, , 2016Whittaker, 2018). Besides monitoring audience metrics, journalists are increasingly expected to promote their articles on social media and build up a followership to enhance traffic numbers (Agarwal & Barthel, 2015;Chadha & Wells, 2016;Siegelbaum & Thomas, 2016;Tandoc & Vos, 2016;Whittaker, 2018).…”

“…Both researchers and the journalists themselves assume that a strong orientation towards audience metrics will eventually translate into a rise of soft news and tabloidisation (Bright & Nicholls, 2014, p. 172;Currah, 2009, p. 87;Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013, p. 69;Moyo et al, 2019;Puppis et al, 2014;Tandoc & Thomas, 2015). Some perfect examples of this traffic-driven tabloidisation are stories about animals, crime, sex, and celebrities (Anderson, 2011, p. 561;Blanchett Neheli, 2018, p. 1045Christin, 2018Christin, , p. 1403Currah, 2009;Hanusch, 2017Hanusch, , p. 1579Nguyen, 2013;Tandoc, 2014, p. 570;Usher, 2018).…”

“…Accordingly, articles with a high number of page views usually receive follow-up reports, while those with lower audience traffic are less likely to receive further coverage, regardless of content, quality, and journalistic relevance (Arenberg & Lowrey, 2019, p. 141;Bunce, 2015;Currah, 2009, p. 47;Ferrucci, 2020;Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013, pp. 72-73;Lamot & Paulussen, 2020, p. 367;MacGregor, 2007, p. 288;Moyo et al, 2019;Tandoc, 2014, p. 567;2019, p. 45;Vu, 2014Vu, , p. 1104Welbers, van Atteveldt, Kleinnijenhuis, Ruigrok, & Schaper, 2016). Due to expectations of high audience traffic, journalists are sometimes "forced to look for angles and come up with something when actually nothing has changed" (Bunce, 2015, p. 20), leading to deception in terms of timely and relevant news.…”

“…Furthermore, previous audience numbers are used as arguments in editorial discussions when "journalists argue for a more prominent position on the front page" (Bucher, 2017, p. 929). In the long run, the regular monitoring of audience metrics illuminates the kinds of topics that generally attract a lot of traffic, which are then covered more often and more prominently (Agarwal & Barthel, 2015, p. 388;Arenberg & Lowrey, 2019;Belair-Gagnon, 2019;Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013, p. 73;MacGregor, 2007;Meier & Tüshaus, 2006;Moyo et al, 2019;Tandoc, 2019, p. 45). These practices and trends weaken journalistic independence as well as the professional standards of news selection that value relevance, as editorial values are increasingly overpowered by the economically motivated pursuit of the largest possible audience.…”

“…1095Vu, , 1106; for a critical perspective, see Groot Kormelink & Costera Meijer, 2018). Others argue that the growing impact of these metrics is primarily motivated by commercial pressure (Currah, 2009;Moyo, Mare, & Matsilele, 2019;Nguyen, 2013;Phillips, 2015). Both perspectives, however, see audience metrics as likely to weaken journalistic autonomy and the traditional criteria of newsworthiness.…”