Electronic News

This content analysis examined how Twitter is used as a content dissemination tool within the news industry. Using Gans’ conception of news values as a theoretical framework, this study looked at tweets of nine news organizations during a 4-month period to determine how individuals, links, news headlines and subject areas were employed within the 140-character limits. Results indicated that regional media tended to differ in Twitter usage from both local and national media and that broadcast news agencies were more likely to tweet multimedia packages than were print-based organizations. Crime and public affairs were the most tweeted topics. Implications of results were discussed.

As online and mobile information technologies continue to become more commonplace, Americans are increasingly turning to these sources for news. Online news sites often allow readers to post comments about news stories. Using an experiment, the authors of this study sought to understand how user comments influence individual perceptions of media bias and third person perception in online political news. Results indicate that user comments accompanying online content can influence perceptions of bias in media depictions of presidential candidates. Additionally, user comments can influence perceptions of how much online news affects the political attitudes of others (third-person perception).

Focus groups with teenagers (ages 15–18) were conducted to understand how they define news; what motivates them to consume news; what news sources they use; and how much knowledge about the news media industry, content, and effects they bring to the task of consuming and thinking critically about the news. Findings suggested exposure to news came largely incidentally via social media and/or parents; participants expressed the sense that news would find them. These teens saw news as depressing, conflict-ridden, and something that, although important, was of less value to them than to adults. Considered in light of a media literacy model adapted for news, these focus group participants exhibited a basic sense of news literacy but lacked the kind of knowledge about news industries, content, and effects that could better direct their own exposure, understanding, and subsequent civic engagement.

This article examines the role social media is playing in local television newsrooms. The authors used a web-based national survey of news managers at network affiliated stations to look at what forms of social media are being used in the newsroom, who is using it and how it is being applied. The results show stations are embracing social media as a means of connecting with news consumers and raising their newsrooms’ profile in the community, and are encouraging their news staff members to have an individual social media presence. Stations also report their news staff are using social media as a newsgathering tool, but the value and reliability of information gathered through this means is up for debate.

Fox News is one of the most popular news sources in the United States. Yet, there are those who reject the idea that Fox should be considered a news source in the first place, claiming it should be considered something more akin to propaganda. This article uses the ambiguity surrounding Fox News’ classification as an opportunity to explore how news sources get defined and categorized within journalism research and practice. It discusses three approaches that can be utilized to understand and categorize partisan media—producer-focused, audience-focused, and critical/normative. It explores the benefits and limitations of these perspectives and the need for scholarly inquiry that transverses and synthesizes them. We argue that an increasingly variegated news landscape calls for scholars to develop a richer vocabulary for distinguishing key features of partisan news outlets and greater reflexivity in research design that acknowledges the challenges inherent in translating meaning and values between producers, audiences, and scholars.

A total of 118 hr of sports news broadcast programming was subject to gender clock-time analysis, half from Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN’s) SportsCenter and half from 2013 startup network Fox Sports 1’s Fox Sports Live. Results showed that both programs featured women’s sports less than 1% of the time, with only modest gains found in an Olympic month (February 2014) of presumed heavy women’s sports exposure compared to a fall (October/November 2013) coding period. Moreover, both programs featured the same top five sports in nearly identical proportionality and story lengths of women’s spots were consistently 70% of a men’s spot regardless of program. Results indicate that Fox Sports Live is replicating SportsCenter’s programming choices far more than challenging them from a gender perspective.

A major topic of analysis in sport in Western media has been the gender gap between the amount of coverage dedicated to men’s sports compared to the amount of coverage women’s sports receive. Most of the existing research on the gender gap in sports coverage has been conducted in traditional media, but the creation and development of the internet gave new hopes to women’s sports representatives to bridge the gap. This study is a yearlong, quantitative content analysis of the home pages of eight sports news websites from four Western countries—the United States, Canada, France, and Great Britain. The goal is to determine whether the “symbolic annihilation” of women in sports found in traditional media coverage is perpetrated online, a platform on which journalists and editors are not limited by time or space.

This study examines NBC’s U.S. prime-time broadcast coverage of the 2012 summer Olympic games for gender equality and compares that coverage to previous years. Olympic coverage is particularly important to female athletes because many receive little media attention beyond Olympic competition. The study found that, for the first time since 1996, NBC gave more airtime to women’s sports than to men’s sports. However, most of that coverage devoted to women’s events was confined to “socially acceptable” sports.

This study examines National Broadcasting Company (NBC)’s U.S. broadcast coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games for gender equality and compares that coverage to previous years. Olympics coverage is particularly important to female athletes because many receive little media attention beyond Olympic competition. The study found that, while female participation in the Olympics has increased, NBC’s coverage of women’s events has not, and 97% of airtime devoted to women’s events was confined to six “socially acceptable” sports.

The growth of new media is changing how news organizations publish their work, and the explosion of social networks is changing the way news consumers of all ages share information. As news outlets face an uncertain future and try to reach younger, newer audiences, the rapid growth of mobile devices means new opportunities to create, share, and consume news content. This study examines how young news consumers share and consume news content, specifically whether they are more likely to get news through social networks (Facebook and Twitter) or directly through news sources (news stations, newspapers, websites, and mobile apps). The findings here indicate that students may hear of news through social media, but rely on other internet sources to confirm it. Local news does not seem to carry as much weight with them, but they can be persuaded to pay attention to their college towns, if only for community news and information. The findings of this study could help producers of news content tailor their information to fit these new “publishing” formats to maintain (or perhaps increase) their audience.

The central argument of Media Change is straightforward but consequential: media are undeniably changing, but change often arrives late, unfolds unevenly, and sometimes reverses course altogether.Across cases ranging from streaming television and online-only news to automated journalism and generative artificial intelligence, Neil Thurman carefully separates technological possibility from widespread adoption, institutional displacement, and lasting social consequence.New forms absorb features of older ones, established organizations adapt rather than simply disappear, and political, economic, legal, and cultural conditions help determine which innovations endure.Thurman's target, then, is not the idea of media change itself, but our tendency to see technological novelty and too quickly declare transformation.That intervention feels especially timely in a media environment crowded with claims of rupture, most recently around generative AI.Thurman captures the messier reality of media change through six recurring dynamics-Revolution, Remediation, Resistance, Rapidity, Regulation, and Reversals.Together, the six Rs move us beyond the broad question of whether media have changed and toward more useful ones: what has changed, for whom, under what conditions, and for how long?As Thurman puts it, "We exist in a present that is ever changing, but with the past showing through" (p.13).The book is at its best in the case studies, where Thurman moves beyond what a technology might allow in theory and asks what institutions and audiences have actually done with it.Automated news production is a good example.It can easily appear to be a recent development, yet Thurman traces experiments with computer-generated journalism back decades.What eventually made automated journalism viable was not a single technological breakthrough but the gradual accumulation of computational capacity and digital data.Thurman describes GenAI itself as a form of remediation: however novel its outputs may appear, they remain deeply indebted to the texts,

How does collective attention to televised crisis news evolve across a prolonged armed conflict? Drawing on media system dependency and mood management theories, this study analyzes 902 days of Israeli television ratings from September 2023 to February 2026, together with an externally verified log of 53 conflict-related events occurring between October 2023 and October 2025. Successive shocks produced audience surges comparable in magnitude to those of the conflict's earliest weeks, yet elevated viewing generally normalized more quickly: approximately 77 days after the October 7, 2023, attack, compared with substantially shorter periods later. This dissociation between preserved amplitude and faster normalization is termed tactical attention. The pattern varied with event structure, as sustained escalation and recurring triggers prolonged some attention waves. The findings bridge issue-attention theory and news avoidance research, with implications for television coverage during prolonged crises.

Legacy television and radio news stations have operated under a familiar refrain for much of the last 2 decades: do more with less. As the RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey has reported, newsrooms have steadily expanded the amount of content they produce while staffing has remained within a relatively narrow range. Technological advances and evolving news philosophies have simultaneously expanded the number of platforms journalists are expected to serve. Academic scholarship has documented this paradox, finding that technological change and expanded production have coincided with shrinking staffs, consolidated job responsibilities, and growing demands on local journalists. The latest survey suggests that paradox is entering a new phase: Local news stations are increasingly being asked to do more in more places with less.

Local television news directors are responsible for editorial decision-making, staffing, and resource allocation within complex newsrooms. Guided by institutional theory, this study examines how news directors perceive the value of sports coverage and how resource allocations related to sports have changed within newsrooms. Using survey responses from 95 news directors across the United States, the study found that sports continue to occupy an important role within local news operations, particularly when coverage emphasizes hyperlocal storytelling, community connection, and local identity. Respondents described organizational challenges including staffing shortages, hiring freezes, budget constraints, and evolving labor expectations that have influenced how sports journalism is produced. Findings suggest that sports departments occupy an uncertain but strategic position within contemporary local television newsrooms. Rather than preserving sports because of its traditional role, news directors appear to evaluate sports according to its organizational value in strengthening community relevance while adapting to institutional and economic pressures.

This study compares news consumption and engagement patterns related to public affairs news between mobile news consumers—digital natives and digital immigrants. Using data from a purposive web survey of mobile news consumers ( n = 520) analyzed using partial least squares multi-group analysis, the study found no significant generational differences across most factors, except that news credibility significantly influenced mobile news consumption, with a stronger effect observed among digital immigrants. This implies that older individuals consume more public affairs news when they perceive it as credible. The findings of this study suggest that the generational gap in mobile news use is narrowing in Asia, including Malaysia. The study highlights the importance of credibility cues for digital immigrants and emphasizes the need to further strengthen the practice of news literacy. Our findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for addressing generational gaps in mobile news consumption.

This qualitative study examines hiring difficulties in local television (TV) news in small and medium TV markets (DMA #30+). The results of in-depth interviews showed that most interviewed news directors experienced talent shortages in their markets and had fewer and less prepared applicants for reporter and producer positions than several years ago. This has resulted in a growing number of news directors hiring younger and non-traditional applicants without a journalism degree. The paper discusses the ways news directors adapt to the hiring challenges and provides recommendations about how to address these issues. It also examines the findings through the lens of supply and demand economic theory and the organizational prestige framework.

By utilizing Hallin and Mancini’s four media systems criteria as a baseline interpretive lens, this study expands understandings of how Russian global media challenge existing international institutions. It illustrates how Russia Today (RT) frames Russia's media system vis-à-vis the West to online audiences. It examines 5 years of media-related posts (prior to Meta's ban) on RT's Arabic, English, French, and Spanish Facebook pages to reveal how audience engagement and post frequency related to media circulation, political parallelism, journalistic professionalism, and state intervention frames varied across languages and world regions. The study concludes with implications of RT's Western versus global south-targeting approaches and how they relate to the Kremlin's stated goal of creating a multipolar world.

The current research examines two similarly situated journalism organizations, The San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Gate , to compare how they are utilizing the social network Reddit. Through the lens of post-publication gatekeeping theory, findings demonstrate that the Chronicle 's approach is more effective in terms of generating higher karma scores and more comments despite posting less frequently. One of the biggest differences was that SFGate tended to post more soft news, which was less well-received. Other variables were examined to understand how the audience responded to the content regardless of which publication posted it. By highlighting the relationship between content type, audience engagement, and platform features, this study offers key takeaways for journalism organizations seeking to optimize their Reddit strategies. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Push notifications have become a crucial touchpoint between news organizations and mobile audiences, yet little is known about how organizations strategically frame these brief messages. Drawing on framing theory, this study examines 3,459 push notifications from 11 major news organizations using data from Project Push, overcoming previous data collection limitations. Through quantitative content analysis, we investigate how organizations differ in their framing approaches across topic selection, urgency, news type, locality, calls to action, clickbait language, and message length. Results reveal significant organizational variation: some outlets prioritize traditional news values with longer, urgent, informative notifications, while others emphasize engagement through shorter, clickbait-heavy messages. Topic-based patterns emerge, with inherently urgent topics receiving straightforward framing while softer news relies on curiosity-provoking language. These findings extend framing theory to the constrained mobile environment and demonstrate how organizational priorities and brand identities manifest in push notification strategies, with implications for audience engagement and journalistic credibility.

Electronic news education stands at an inflection point as artificial intelligence, streaming platforms, and mobile-first consumption reshape newsroom practice and classroom pedagogy. This article situates current disruption within a longer history of broadcast journalism education, from early radio laboratories and the Missouri Method to teaching hospital models grounded in experiential learning. Drawing on a systematic review of 88 electronic news education studies published between 2015 and 2025 across ten leading journals, we find a shift from technically centered training toward mission-driven, experiential pedagogy. Critical thinking remains central, while data skills appear less prominent. Since 2020, scholarship has increasingly emphasized social issues and ethics, reflecting journalism education's civic response to misinformation and polarization. We argue that the task for educators is not merely adapting to new tools, but stewarding journalism's enduring mission of truth seeking while redesigning pedagogy for an evolving media landscape.