Study up for ONA: A guide to making the most from this session
Election 2006: As newsrooms and Web staffs prepare to cover the midterms, it is a dry-run for 2008?
Entering this political season, with so much of the discourse occurring online, how will news outlets use beat specialists, online packagers and citizens to explain and interpret the political landscape? What are the strategies of shops big and small, from all media disciplines? The panel will include journalists ranking from large international and national news sites to independent sites focused solely on politics.
Participants: Scott Anderson, CNN.com (moderator); Rachel Nixon, BBC News; Jeff Mayers, WisPolitics.com; Jennifer Sizemore, MSNBC.com; Ron Fournier, HotSoup.com
KEY SOURCES and ARTICLES
SAMPLER: AROUND THE ONLINE WORLD
FROM THE ACADEMY
The full versions of these papers, delivered at the August meeting of journalism educators, may be available on the AEJMC site this autumn. You could also contact the authors for more information.
Blog agenda: What did they blog about in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election? • Jae Kook Lee, Texas at Austin • This study investigates the way that political blogs prioritize a variety of public issues in comparison with mainstream media. With an analysis of news coverage of blogs and mainstream media in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, the study found that the priority, or the agenda, of blogs are similar to that of mainstream media. Furthermore, the study found that political blogs cover the election with virtually the same agenda, regardless of their political leaning.
Coverage of youth issues in 2004 election: Television v. online • Karon Reinboth Speckman, Truman State University • Evidence shows that youths are tuning out to news and to voting. This content analysis examined whether television and online news covered issues of importance to youth, covered youth as a voting unit, and used youths as sources in 2004 election coverage. Outlets examined were NBC evening news, ABC.com, CNN.com and Yahoo.com. The results showed all sources did not do a good job of covering youths and their issues and rarely used youths as sources.
Learning about Politics from the Internet • Kajsa Dalrymple and Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin – Madison • Recent research has suggested that traditional and online news sources may differ with respect to their ability to inform audiences. In particular, there is tentative evidence that the hyperlink structure of online newspapers, for example, can promote a more in-depth understanding of political issues than traditional news media. We analyzed data from the 2004 American National Election Study (ANES) to test some of these relationships empirically.
Something Ventured, Something Gained: Moderating Impact of Blogs on Political Activity • Daekyung Kim and Thomas Johnson, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and Barbara K. Kaye, University of Tennessee-Knoxville • Based on an online survey that attracted 1,366 blog users during the 2004 presidential election, this study examines not only the effects of traditional interpersonal discussion but also the potential of blogs in facilitating political activity. Results of this study show different roles of online media in connection to political discussion. While blog reliance has little influence on political activity and political knowledge, it increases feeling of political involvement.
Uses of the Internet by College Students: Implications for Political Involvement • Kristine Nowak, David Atkin, Christian Rauh and Mark Hamilton, Cleveland State • In this emerging online environment, an intriguing avenue for research involves the relationship between Internet use and political involvement. In an effort to fill that void, the present study explores the extent to which college students rely on the Internet as a channel for political information and the influence that such uses have on their levels of political involvement.
Weblogs as Agents of Political Participation: Mobilizing Information in Weblogs and Print Newspapers • Masahiro Yamamoto, Washington State • Considering the growing popularity of Weblogs for journalistic use, the present study investigated the possibility that Weblogs could become a catalyst for political participation. Examining Weblogs and print newspapers, this content analysis study found more tactical mobilizing information in Weblogs than in print newspapers. This result suggests that Weblogs can potentially function as an alternative information source that encourages citizens to engage in political activities.