The Dallas Morning News is a leader in using engagement journalism to increase and retain digital subscribers. This ethnography examined the efficacy of the engagement journalism work by the News in rebuilding trust and forming relationships with its audience. This research is exceptionally timely as more newsrooms are erecting paywalls to their content and asking their audiences to offer monetary support in exchange for greater access and engagement by journalists. This work is examined through two mass communications theories: functionalism, which says a society can be viewed like an ecosystem as a "system in balance" consisting of complex sets of interrelated activities, each of which supports the others in maintaining the system as a whole; and the dual responsibility model, which says that companies should operate in the best interests of all in the community who depend on them, not only those who benefit financially. Additionally, the work is considered from a human-interaction design standpoint to evaluate whether the News has created affordances that enable the journalists and the readers to communicate, and whether the journalists are effectively practicing service design when publishing news and information for the audience.

This study explored how social media are setting the agenda of the traditional media and re-defining the role of the journalists. Content analysis was done to analyse the coverage of Jacob Zuma stories in newspapers and on Facebook, from the 1st of February until the 30th of June 2018.The sample for the study was drawn from three local newspapers, the Citizen, the Sowetan, the NewAge (AfroVoice), as well as the Facebook page called #Zumamustfall. This was done to determine if newspapers which are traditional media were being influenced by social media in what stories to report on. Results from the study showed that social media are influential in building an agenda for the traditional media and in particular, with the Zuma story. In the same vein, it emerged that traditional and social media set the agenda for each other. Based on these findings the research recommends that other social media sites including Twitter be used in similar research to determine their effects on agenda setting of traditional media (newspapers). / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)

This study investigates Grocott’s Mail’s rape reporting through a participatory action research process. It draws on feminist cultural studies, sociology of news, and normative theories of the media to inform the research project. The participatory action research process explored three areas with the journalists at Grocott’s Mail: their understanding of the community they serve and their own professional identity as a community of practice, roles of the media in society which inform reporting, and rape as a social issue and problem. Through this process the study found that the pervasiveness of rape in the Grahamstown community, the complexities around rape reporting which include the significant legal challenges, the personal impact rape cases have on journalists, and the journalistic roles and approaches employed in rape reporting all influence how the paper covers rape. In analysing these matters the study found that the primary factor inhibiting a successful strategy for managing rape reporting was that Grocott’s Mail does not place gender-based violence on their news agenda as an issue requiring attention in order to develop the community they serve.

CAPES / Esta dissertação aborda como profissionais do jornalismo, através das práticas do cotidiano, se apropriam de artefatos e tecnologias computacionais para trabalhar com Jornalismo Guiado por Dados e, especificamente, com visualizações de dados. Para isso, considera-se que é no cotidiano que as tecnologias são apropriadas por quem as usa, e que este uso leva as tecnologias a uma estabilização, na qual elas deixam de ser percebidas como um elemento estranho. Os modos de uso dos artefatos também são considerados enquanto elementos construtores de identidades. O objeto principal da pesquisa são seis profissionais que fazem uso de artefatos e técnicas do Jornalismo Guiado por Dados no seu dia a dia. Através de entrevistas e observações, foram levantadas algumas maneiras através das quais as práticas e apropriações de tecnologias constroem as identidades de quem faz uso delas e levam os artefatos à estabilização. A análise das práticas do cotidiano colaboraria para uma visão menos instrumentalista no desenho de artefatos e também no ensino de técnicas, legitimando assim os modos de uso de cada pessoa. Para entender essas práticas do cotidiano, são apresentados os conceitos de “táticas” e “estratégias” com o objetivo de situar as relações de poder do cotidiano e como as pessoas podem subvertê-las, e conceitos dos estudos em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade como SCOT – construção social da tecnologia – e códigos técnicos, para analisar os processos que levam à estabilização de uma tecnologia. Relacionando esses conceitos com o jornalismo, é analisada a conotação de neutralidade dos grandes conjuntos de dados e comparando-a com a ideia de neutralidade da tecnologia. O Jornalismo Guiado por Dados é então relacionado a algumas taxonomias de gêneros e formatos jornalísticos, e é apresentado um breve histórico do uso do computador no jornalismo, para situá-lo dentro do jornalismo de modo geral e nas identidades jornalísticas que são construídas através das tecnologias consumidas no cotidiano. Por sua vez, é apresentado como os produtos jornalísticos derivados de grandes bases de dados propõem outro tipo de relação entre o jornalismo e o público, especificamente através da visualização de dados. São consideradas as possibilidades da visualização como forma de explorar e/ou comunicar grandes conjuntos de dados, assim como formas de leituras que elas propiciam. São descritos alguns processos para produzir visualizações de dados e mostrados exemplos de visualizações usadas no jornalismo, além de descrições de ferramentas de software usadas no Jornalismo Guiado por Dados. Como conclusão principal, defende-se que a legitimação das táticas, assim como uma visão menos instrumentalista e determinista do computar e de outras tecnologias, colaboraria para que mais pessoas se aproveitem dos recursos do Jornalismo Guiado por Dados e das visualizações. / This dissertation looks at how journalism professionals, through everyday practices, appropriate artifacts and computational technologies to work with Data-Driven Journalism and, specifically, with data visualization. For this, we considered that it is in everyday life that technologies are appropriated for those who make use of them, and that this use leads technologies to a closure or stabilization, in which they are no longer perceived as a foreign element. We also consider the way people make use of artifacts as elements that construct identities. The main study subjects are six professionals that make use of artifacts and techniques related to Data-Driven Journalism in their everyday life. Through interviews and observations, we collected some ways through which people appropriate technology, and thus takes them to stabilization and build identities. The analysis of everyday practices would collaborate to a less instrumentalist approach in artifact design and technique teaching, thus legitimating the ways each person makes use of technologies. For a better understanding of those everyday practices, the concepts of "tactics" and "strategies" are introduced, in order to situate the everyday power relations and how people can subvert them, as well as concepts from the Science, Technology and Society studies – STS –, such as SCOT – social construction of technology – and technical codes, in order to analyze the processes that lead to the closure of technology. Relating these concepts to journalism, the neutral connotation of large data sets is analyzed and compared to the idea of technology neutrality. Data-Driven Journalism is then related to some taxonomies of journalistic genres and formats, and a brief history of computer use in journalism is presented to situate it within journalism and how journalism’s identities are constructed through technology consumed in daily life. In turn, is presented how journalistic products derived from large databases propose another type of relationship between journalism and the public, specifically through data visualization. We describe some possibilities of visualization as a way to explore and/or communicate large data sets, as well as some different ways of reading they provide. We also describe some processes and tools for producing data visualization in journalism, as well as some software tools used in Data-Driven Journalism. The major conclusion of this study is that legitimating tactics, as well as a less instrumentalist and determinist approach to computing and other technologies, would help more people in making use of the artifacts and techniques of Data-Driven Journalism and data visualization.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Text in Afrikaans / It has become clear that the continued existence of the Afrikaner in the 21st century will demand a recontextualisation of the identity and values attached to being an Afrikaans-speaking South African in a post-apartheid South Africa. Various institutions and intellectuals are already busy with this process. The study used the social phenomenology of Alfred Schutz to describe and analyse the first steps taken in the recontextualisation of Afrikaner identity from the perspective of letter writers to the Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld. Phenomenology accepts that the world of everyday life is man's fundamental and pervasive reality. Schutz uses concepts like the social stock of knowledge, typifications and intersubjectivity to explain how people interpret their everyday reality so that it becomes meaningful to themselves and others in communication. The task of the phenomenologist would be to question the taken-for-grantedness of this life world and identify its underlying principles (or essences). The study found that, while the letter writers did adjust their typification of the Self, no fundamental review of their typification of the Other (black South Africans) took place. Letter writers managed to free themselves of the baggage of apartheid after De Klerk gave up power in 1990 and declared white South Africa ready for negotiations for a new democratic South Africa. Together with giving up power, letter writers also freed themselves from the aspect of Christian-nationalism which was one of the fundamental building blocks of Afrikanerskap. The Afrikaner of 2004 seems to be a white minority, proud of their language and culture, and fighting for their right to speak and hear Afrikaans. However, no major revision of the Other has taken place. The study will show that letter writers have adjusted their perception of blacks in so far as it became practically relevant to do so for survival in the new South Africa. Very few, if any, fundamental changes took place in terms of the perception of racial or cultural superiority. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

Text in Afrikaans / It has become clear that the continued existence of the Afrikaner in the 21st century will demand a recontextualisation of the identity and values attached to being an Afrikaans-speaking South African in a post-apartheid South Africa. Various institutions and intellectuals are already busy with this process. The study used the social phenomenology of Alfred Schutz to describe and analyse the first steps taken in the recontextualisation of Afrikaner identity from the perspective of letter writers to the Afrikaans daily newspaper, Beeld. Phenomenology accepts that the world of everyday life is man's fundamental and pervasive reality. Schutz uses concepts like the social stock of knowledge, typifications and intersubjectivity to explain how people interpret their everyday reality so that it becomes meaningful to themselves and others in communication. The task of the phenomenologist would be to question the taken-for-grantedness of this life world and identify its underlying principles (or essences). The study found that, while the letter writers did adjust their typification of the Self, no fundamental review of their typification of the Other (black South Africans) took place. Letter writers managed to free themselves of the baggage of apartheid after De Klerk gave up power in 1990 and declared white South Africa ready for negotiations for a new democratic South Africa. Together with giving up power, letter writers also freed themselves from the aspect of Christian-nationalism which was one of the fundamental building blocks of Afrikanerskap. The Afrikaner of 2004 seems to be a white minority, proud of their language and culture, and fighting for their right to speak and hear Afrikaans. However, no major revision of the Other has taken place. The study will show that letter writers have adjusted their perception of blacks in so far as it became practically relevant to do so for survival in the new South Africa. Very few, if any, fundamental changes took place in terms of the perception of racial or cultural superiority. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)