Look Who's Talking

Dimitrova, Daniela V.; Strömbäck, Jesper

doi:10.1080/17512780802560773

Cited by 109 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…More specifically for health journalism, Colson (2011) argues that health and science blogs can play an important role. Some authors (Deuze, Bruns, & Neuberger, 2007;Dimitrova & Strömback, 2009) even suggest that online platforms as social media are most convenient to find personal stories of ordinary citizens to illustrate health issues (Hinnant, Len-Riós, & Young, 2013). In a recurring critique on sourcing ordinary citizens in the news, some authors state that this approach does not add depth and new viewpoints to the message but rather dumbs down the information in the news article (Habermas, 1996).…”

Section: Sourcing Practices In Health Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines

Dobbelaer

Leuven

Raeymaeckers

2017

Health Communication

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Health journalists are central gatekeepers who select, frame, and communicate health news to a broad audience, but the selection and content of health news are also influenced by the sources journalists, rely on (Hinnant, Len-Rios, & Oh, 2012). In this paper, we examine whether the traditional elitist sourcing practices (e.g., research institutions, government) are still important in a digitalized news environment where bottom-up non-elite actors (e.g., patients, civil society organizations) can act as producers (Bruns, 2003). Our main goal, therefore, is to detect whether sourcing practices in health journalism can be linked with strategies of empowerment. We use a multi-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. First, two content analyses are developed to examine health-related news in Belgian magazines (popular weeklies, health magazines, general interest magazines, and women's magazines). The analyses highlight sourcing practices as visible in the texts and give an overview of the different stakeholders represented as sources. In the first wave, the content analysis includes 1047 health-related news items in 19 different Belgian magazines (March-June 2013). In the second wave, a smaller sample of 202 health-related items in 10 magazines was studied for follow-up reasons (February 2015). Second, to contextualize the findings of the quantitative analysis, we interviewed 16 health journalists and editors-in-chief. The results illustrate that journalists consider patients and blogs as relevant sources for health news; nonetheless, elitist sourcing practices still prevail at the cost of bottom-up communication. However, the in-depth interviews demonstrate that journalists increasingly consult patients and civil society actors to give health issues a more "human" face. Importantly, the study reveals that this strategy is differently applied by the various types of magazines. While popular weeklies and women's magazines give a voice to ordinary citizens to translate complex issues and connect with their audiences, general interest magazines and health magazines prefer elite sources and use ordinary citizen stories as a way of "window dressing."

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Section: Sourcing Practices In Health Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines

Dobbelaer

Leuven

Raeymaeckers

2017

Health Communication

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“…Dentro de los estudios de periodismo, el uso de fuentes constituye un objeto de investigación en constante avance desde los años setenta (Dimitrova & Strömbäck, 2009a;Gans, 1980;Manning, 2001;Shoemaker & Reese, 1996;Tuchman, 1978). Las fuentes son consideradas una pieza fundamental en la construcción noticiosa, que los periodistas necesitan para que les aporten informaciones relevantes y dignas de confianza (Berkowitz, 2010).…”

Section: Fuentes Informativas Y Su Relación Con La Práctica Periodísticaunclassified

Agenda y uso de fuentes en los titulares y noticias centrales de los medios informativos chilenos. Un estudio de la prensa impresa, online, radio y televisión

Diaz

Mellado

2017

Cuadernos.info

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“…dominant private ownership, shrinking manpower and job security), some of its structural factors may affect the results. Levels of direct accessibility to sources and events might be more limited in larger countries, where social, political and physical distances are greater and reporter–source relationships are more formal (Dimitrova and Strömbäck, 2009). Greater prominence of textual exchanges can be expected in ‘softer’ news beats, such as sports and entertainment, where sources and PR people are more dominant, putting greater emphasis on news subsidies (Lewis et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The decline in orally negotiated news: Revisiting (again) the role of technology in reporting

Reich

2018

New Media & Society

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This article summarizes a longitudinal study on the role of technology in obtaining the information behind print and online news in Israel, across 15 years. Rather than taking the benefits of innovation for granted, knowledge acquisition technologies should be evaluated according to their ‘epistemic bandwidth’, involving the scope of knowledge-seeking opportunities they afford, the convenience of challenging this information, and its verifiability via the same channel. Hence, innovative technologies are very likely to have broader bandwidth when bypassing human agents. However, when human sources are concerned, traditional channels, like face-to-face and telephone, have broader bandwidth. Findings show that telephone is losing its historical dominance and face-to-face is declining in favour of emails and messaging. Even though textualization may afford greater accuracy and less deniability, and emancipate journalists from functioning as ‘oral relays’ of sources, it provides them with less space to interrogate their sources and confront them with interview techniques.

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Look Who's Talking

Cited by 109 publications

References 19 publications

The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines

The Human Face of Health News: A Multi-Method Analysis of Sourcing Practices in Health-Related News in Belgian Magazines

Agenda y uso de fuentes en los titulares y noticias centrales de los medios informativos chilenos. Un estudio de la prensa impresa, online, radio y televisión

The decline in orally negotiated news: Revisiting (again) the role of technology in reporting

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