Invisible Locative Media: Key Considerations at the Nexus of Place and Digital Journalism

Abstract

Mobility and location-awareness are pervasive and foundational elements of contemporary communication systems, and a descriptive term to synthesize them, “locative media”, has gained widespread use throughout mobile media and communication research. That label of “locative media”, though, usually gets defined ad hoc and used in many different ways to express a variety of related ideas. Locative features of digital media increasingly have changed from visible location-driven aspects of user interfaces, such as check-in features and location badges, toward more inconspicuous ways of relating to location through automated backend processes. In turn, locative features—whether in journalism or other formats and content types—are now increasingly algorithmic and hidden “under the hood”, so to speak. Part of the problem with existing classifications or typologies in this field is that they do not take into account this practical shift and the rapid development of locative media in many new directions, intertwining ubiquitous digital integration with heterogeneous content distinctions and divergences. Existing definitions and typologies tend to be based on dated practices of use and initial versions of applications that have changed significantly since inception. To illustrate, this article identifies three emerging areas within digital journalism and mobile media practice that call for further research into the locative dimensions of journalism: <em>the situational turn in news consumption research</em>, <em>platform-specific vis-a-vis platform-agnostic mobile news production</em>, and <em>personalised news</em>.

What’s New about Whatsapp for News? A Mixed-Method Study on News Outlets’ Strategies for Using WhatsApp

“…Thus, WhatsApp for news is another example for the "dislocation of news journalism" (Ekstr€ om and Westlund 2019). The study shows how newsrooms partly employ a "platform-specific" (Erdal et al 2019) approach, creating journalistic content uniquely for mobile, which highlights the importance of research into "locative media" (Erdal et al 2019). Results regarding the adaption of the WhatsApp editorial process to the ubiquity of mobile communication and news snacking practices are mixed (RQ 1.2): There is no ubiquity in number of messages but ubiquity in time of day when the messages were sent.…”

“…Ultimately, not using the full technological and relational innovation potential of WhatsApp news channels is also a deliberate choice media outlets can make. Considering the power of nonproprietary platforms (Ekstr€ om and Westlund 2019), the number of different social media channels, and limited resources, it may be sensible for newsrooms to employ a platform-agnostic approach (Erdal et al 2019).…”

“…Because smartphones are ubiquitous and WhatsApp is a widely used application WhatsApp has become a relevant channel for digital journalism. To date, research has yet to define the exact characteristics of mobile devices for digital journalism production and consumption (Westlund and Quinn 2018) but the analysis of "locative media" is important, for example, the question whether "journalistic content is created uniquely by and for mobile devices" (Erdal et al 2019). WhatsApp can be a tool for production and consumption of news: For journalists, WhatsApp is not only an application to reach sources but also to reach their audiences.…”

What's New about Whatsapp for News? A Mixed-Method Study on News Outlets' Strategies for Using WhatsApp

“…Because smartphones are ubiquitous and WhatsApp is a widely used application WhatsApp has become a relevant channel for digital journalism. To date, research has yet to define the exact characteristics of mobile devices for digital journalism production and consumption (Westlund and Quinn 2018) but the analysis of "locative media" is important, for example, the question whether "journalistic content is created uniquely by and for mobile devices" (Erdal et al 2019). WhatsApp can be a tool for production and consumption of news: For journalists, WhatsApp is not only an application to reach sources but also to reach their audiences.…”

3. Kardashianering av fotografier i sosialemedier

“…I norsk sammenheng peker Fagerjord og Rettberg seg ut. Fagerjord (2012) stilte et spørsmål om apper og appfenomenet bør bli et eget forskningsfelt, og Rettberg (2014Rettberg ( , 2018a har flere bidrag om selfie-og sjølovervåkingsapper; Nyre, Bjørnestad, Tessem & Øie (2012), Tessem, Karlsen og Nyre (2016) om apper i lokasjonsjournalistikk; Øie, Erdal og Oppegaard (2018); Fagerjord (2011Fagerjord ( , 2017; Erdal, Øie, Oppegaard & Westlund (2019) om ulike lokasjonsapper; Hoem og Nyre (2018) om en radioapp; Liestøl (2018) og Nyre og Liestøl (2018) om en app for historiefortelling med augmented reality (AR) og Karlsen (2018) om en spillapp knyttet til Farmville. Internasjonalt finner vi Flückiger (2012), Rettberg (2014), Wendt (2014), Sheehan (2014), Fausing (2015), Manovich (2016), Bas (2016), Storr (2017), Elias og Gill (2018), Eckel, Ruchatz og Wirth (2018), som alle på ulike vis er opptatt av hvordan appene setter sine avtrykk.…”