Projects / Programmes
Journalism and the Internet: Political, Economic, and Cultural Perspectives of Technological Transformations of the Contemporary Journalism
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.06.03 |
Social sciences |
Political science |
Communication science |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S265 |
Social sciences |
Press and communication sciences |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.06 |
Social Sciences |
Political science |
mass media, journalism, globalisation, internet
Researchers (10)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Background
The rise of the internet has brought dramatic changes to social communication. Despite a large corpus of literature, which examines the political, economic and cultural aspects of the technological transformation, there is a considerable conceptual confusion that hampers a responsive and comprehensive theoretical and empirical examination of the relationship between journalism, the internet and society. Since the understanding of the changes in the era of globalization and the internet is related to the transformation of journalism, which plays the key role in informing, deliberation and political action, future examinations require theoretical and methodological renewal. The character of the relationship between journalism and the internet, which is formed in the articulations between the dominant types of democracy, commerce and regulation, provides implications not only for the future development of journalism as an institution, practice and business, but also for political and economic participation.
Research Problem
Since the rise of the internet journalism has changed considerably, its norms, identity and practice must be rethought. Exploring the relationship between journalism and technology becomes particularly important when the political and cultural crisis of journalism is interwoven with the financial and economic crisis, which brings additional complexity in the public sphere and increases uncertainty in the markets. In comprehensive and coherent conceptualization of the society-communication relationship, particularly in regards to online journalism in the era of globalization, there is a research gap, while existing studies only partially deal with the technological changes in journalism and realizations of online communication features. At the methodological level there is a lack of appropriate tools for planning research, which would by combining qualitative and quantitative methods enable a comprehensive study of the journalism-internet relationship on the production, reception and textual level. One of the problems of journalism history remains insufficiently explored: how can innovations in the journalism-technology relationship revitalize journalists’ societal roles in society, and relevance of journalism practice and industry?
Research goals
Module 1: Clarifying the relationship between society, technology and globalization, and disclosing the political, economic and cultural implications of these processes on the journalism-internet relationship.
Module 2: Presenting the development of journalism on the internet with a focus on the role of technological innovation in journalism and scientific inquiries of these issues in the past two decades.
Module 3: Determining the realizations of online communication features in news production, news items and audience reception of news.
Methods and procedures
According to the goals, the research is divided into three modules with associated methodologies. It uses a range of qualitative and quantitative methods – from in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, participant observation, discourse analysis and document analysis to survey and multivariate analysis. The project is limited to the six leading media institutions in Slovenia in terms of the reach of their outlets, market share and size of production – RTV Slovenia, ProPlus, Delo, Dnevnik, Večer and Žurnal media.
Relevance
The project contributes to science by overcoming the theoretical and empirical gaps in the study of journalism, the internet and society. To examine the communication-technology relationship, the project develops an integrative theoretical frame and inclusive methodology for investigating at the production, reception and textual levels. The project also has socio-economic relevance, as it recognizes the possibility of revitalization of journalism’s societal role, its political relevance and innovation in journalism business.
Significance for science
The results of this project have relevance for the development of social sciences, as they close some research gaps in studying the relationship between journalism, the Internet and the society on three levels: 1) On the theoretical level, we contributed to fulfilling the conceptual gap in theoretical elaborations on society, communication and globalization. We combined different theoretical and disciplinary approaches to studying technology in journalism and reflected on the epistemological assumptions; in this way, we contributed to furtherly clarifying the role of technological innovations for journalism and we reconceptualised theoretical dynamics between continuities and change in this context. Conceptually we clarified the key features of online communication beyond ideal-typical and technological-deterministic stances. 2) On the methodological level, we overcame solid boundaries in studying production, texts and reception in communication studies. We integrated different qualitative and quantitative methods, from in-depth interviews with relevant actors, mostly journalists and editors, analyses of normative acts and strategic documents in media organisations and analyses of journalistic texts, to standardised public opinion survey. 3) On the empirical level, we overcame the prevalent scarcity to one of the key areas of journalism practice and study. Instead, we explored the relationship between journalism and the Internet comprehensively, that is, on the levels of production, text and reception. Since the digital technologies have an important impact on the development of journalism and on the contemporary trends of fragmentation of media channels, segmentation of audiences, crisis of business models and social role of journalism, the results of this project contribute significantly to understanding these processes, also by analysing impacts of digital technologies on decision-making processes in editorial offices of mass media and the balance of power between news organisations and advertisers, and by analysing influences of fragmentation of media channels and segmentation of audiences on audiences’ trust in journalism. The most significant contribution of this project to science both in Slovenia and internationally can be noticed in its critical, yet public attitude; the research results, which were published in 15 original scientific articles in Slovenia and abroad, as well as presented at science conferences and different (international) meetings, provide foundations for a critical reflection on the contemporary processes and changes in journalism, which we had studied with the intention of increasing social emancipation; thus, the research problems and results were not presented to become part of academic discussions only, but also to be dealt with in the wider public, which attributes to the strengthening of the public role of science. The research results’ original contribution to science had been confirmed also by reviewers in distinguished Slovenian and international scientific publications, where we published our articles within this project, that is, European Journal of Communication, Journalism Studies, Annales, Javnost/The Public, Medijska istraživanja/Media Research, Digital Journalism, Teorija in praksa and Časopis za kritiko znanosti. Among the most relevant publications we point out the article of Slavko Splichal and Peter Dahlgren, which was published in 2016 in the European Journal of Communication (impact factor 1.095 in 2015), and the article written by Igor Vobič, published in 2013 (2015) in Journalism Studies (impact factor 1.044 in 2016). These two journals are among the crucial in the field of researching journalism and media/social communication.
Significance for the country
The significance of the project for the development of Slovenia can be recognized in its scientific and social-economic results, which have relevance for (1) the practice of Slovenian journalism and its understanding; and (2) for the Slovenian science, particularly journalism sciences. (1) The project contributes to understanding the specifics of Slovenian journalism mainly in terms of specific local articulations of global trends of technological development of social communication. While considering the historic development of information and communication technologies as well as social-economic consequences of the Internet for an individual and the society, the project establishes that the Internet does not bring uniform social consequences and that these are not necessarily beneficial. The project overcomes the simplified perceptions and offers an in-depth insight into the development of professional and scientific thought about the technological development in Slovenian journalism. The results revealed that in the age of the Internet it is more and more difficult to differentiate Slovenian journalism from entertainment, advertising and political spin; instead of attributing to enforcement of the right to communicate, the contemporary communication technologies deepen the problem of impoverishment of journalism, which has become obvious in Slovenia after the expansion of the global economic crisis. On the one side, we can recognize the alienation as an internal process of Slovenian journalism, which forces journalists and editors with different stages of autonomy to mutually compete and exclude, and thus neglect the public character of journalism. The project results reveal pressures to loosen boundaries between editorial contents and selling advertising space, to which technological innovations have added significantly. As a consequence, discourse practices, which blur boundaries between the public discussion, propaganda and entertainment, are strengthened, which can be noticed particularly on online social networks. On the other side, we can recognize alienation as an external process, visible in strengthening distrust in journalism and the gap between the normative and the empirical roles of journalists, as well as in contradictions of pro-sumption journalism which is to blur the boundary between passive consumption and active production in communication. Online social networks reconstruct existing power relations, while at the same time the participatory potentials of contemporary technologies are degenerated into their opposite; they enforce the exclusivist social fabric of social elites. By disclosing the segmentation of audiences, the project can contribute not only to more in-depth debates about dynamics between journalism and the Internet, but also to more reflective and transformative acting of journalists on the fragmented media landscape. (2) The project is significant for the development of Slovenian science, as it deals with issues which represent main research focuses within central research and education associations in the field of communication studies, such as ECREA, ICA and IAMCR. Thus the project contributed to the development of scientific research of journalism, media and communication, mostly within the Center of Social Communication Research, but also in collaboration with the external partner; the realization of the project presents solid basis for further research as well as transfer of research findings into undergraduate program of Journalism, postgraduate program of Journalism Studies and doctoral program of Journalism Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2013,
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2013,
2014,
2015,
final report
