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Research into people's digital news use centers on the here and now, which means sustained attention to the processes influencing changing consumption patterns is often perfunctory. Accordingly, this article advances journalism studies scholarship by developing a comprehensive analytical framework to investigate such processes, focusing on the emergence, maintenance, and (re)formation of audiences' news repertoires in everyday life and across the lifespan. First, we delineate the repertoire concept and its insights for audience research, before crafting a heuristic to illustrate how faster and slower timescales interact to influence these practices. We then synthesize diverse concepts of different theoretical ancestry to develop analytical prisms around socio-spatial context, technology, and the individual, which guide research inquiries alert to the transformational processes of news repertoires. Finally, we introduce an empirical agenda to operationalize our conceptual treatment, elucidating methodological premises around diachronic change, identity formation, and sense-making that capture why publics develop a relationship with journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article conceptualizes the distinctiveness of fields of scholarship within the discipline of communication through particular normative assumptions and identity practices defined here as commitments. A case study of journalism studies results in the postulation of six conceptual commitments that define its core ontological and epistemological premises: contextual sensitivity, holistic relationality, comparative inclination, normative awareness, embedded communicative power, and methodological pluralism. These interrelated features articulate the central dimensions of journalism studies, establishing the boundaries of the field and its relational, cultural, holistic, ecological, and contextual acts of scholarship. This article provides a blueprint for other communication scholars to address assumptions and commitments that situate and define their subdisciplines as distinct fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current conceptualizations of mediatization, particularly the mediatization of politics, stem largely from the imaginaries of the mass media era. This article questions the validity of these conceptualizations in the contemporary, more diffuse media environment. It argues that we are entering a new phase of mediatization in which journalism-as a core institution of the media-itself struggles with the effects of mediatization. Bringing together the discussions of mediatization and the 'crisis of journalism,' the article suggests that a system theory based approach that understands mediatization as a process in which the construction of 'public attention' changes its role in the coordination of institutional action can capture journalism's role both in the mass media era and in the present media environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on foreign affairs reaches Americans primarily through the news media, yet we know little about why some global actors receive more attention than others. We constructed a new data set describing media attention to, and US state actions and discourse about, foreign leaders from 1950 to 2008 to assess which leaders receive more attention and why. The results of our analyses suggest that media attention is disproportionately allotted to (1) leaders of the most powerful countries in the international system; (2) leaders of countries experiencing instability and violence; (3) leaders of countries that domestic political elites (Congress and the president) pay attention to, or where the US is currently fighting a war; and (4) leaders of countries whose connections to global networks signal positions of neutrality vis-à-vis the Cold War superpowers. We do not find any evidence that media attention diffuses through connections in the world polity. We conclude that media attention to foreign leaders is a reflection of the dynamics of geopolitical struggles and conflicts rather than global interconnectedness. Thus, in the context of attention to world leaders, news values favoring conflict and struggle resonate more than news values favoring connections and cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a content analysis of news articles (N = 540) to examine whether news coverage of media violence accurately reflects scientific knowledge about exposure to media violence and its effects on viewer aggression. The analysis revealed that over the past 30 years, news articles generally suggested that a link between media violence and aggression exists. However, the tone shifted sharply back toward a neutral conclusion since 2000. This shift may be attributable to the type of medium discussed (e.g., television vs. video games), the number of unaffiliated sources that are cited in the news article, and the sex of the journalist. Implications for how this news coverage may influence news readers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, using survey data (N = 529), examined perceived immigration “threat,” subjective knowledge, support for punitive and assimilative immigration policies, and opinions about media coverage effects. Perceived threat was not related to a third-person effect; however, perceived threat of immigrants was related to support for punitive immigration policies, and a strong “hostile media perception” was confirmed. There was a significant belief among respondents that others would view immigration negatively, if only media were not biased in favor of immigration. Internet use, age, race, and education predicted threat perception; perceived threat, perceived favorableness of coverage, and daily newspaper reading predicted presumed influence of news coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This longitudinal study investigates whether the impact of political interest—a key motivational factor behind news consumption—on various forms of news consumption has increased over time. The analysis is based on a unique large-scale representative annual survey conducted in Sweden over the years 1986–2010, enabling a comprehensive analysis of citizens’ total and specific news consumption across multiple channels and platforms. Results show that news consumption has become more polarized between news-seekers and news-avoiders over time, and that political interest has become a more important determinant of news consumption in today’s high-choice media environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores media research studies in the academic field of sociology. An historical overview of mass communication research at the University of Chicago is provided and its shift towards public opinion research is mentioned. The relationship between sources of academic funding and interdisciplinary social science study is analyzed. The authors contend that sociological scholars in the U.S. abandoned mass communication research to professional schools of journalism in the 1950s. Other topics addressed include internet research, the media as an agent of social integration, and survey-based research.

Focuses on the critical assessment of news media reporters by cultural theorists and looks at the sociopolitical relations of control and power. Information on ideological claims of news reports; Definition of the sociological conception of ideology; Information on the determining of truth by media discourse.

Proposes a framework to join journalists and communication scholars in dialogue about the conditions that promote public dialogue of democracy. Change in news organizations; Proposal for building analytical perspectives of studying the real world; Merging of different research traditions; Set of supplementary norms.