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News dissemination online is driven by three gatekeeping logics: the gatekeeping logic of the news media (publishing), the gatekeeping logic of social actors (sharing), and the gatekeeping logic of platform algorithms (spreading), each guided by different values and with a different relationship to content. Using a reverse engineering approach, this study applies a 2015 dataset to empirically explore how a Facebook algorithm changed the overall composition of the news users saw, highlighting the ongoing issue of how the different gates and associated gatekeeping logics – especially that of platforms – influence news distribution. In contrast to previous studies, we find the relationship between news properties and the distribution of news online to be non-linear. Results point to Facebook's role in the overall composition of online news, both directly and in interaction with other gatekeepers. As news stories become more widely spread online, algorithmic logics take precedence over user behaviour and preferences.

Editorial offices are being shut down in small municipalities, raising the question of whether hyperlocal media can fill the gap left by legacy media. However, very little is known about the shape of this gap and thus to what extent it can be filled by hyperlocal media. To inform this line of research, this study asks: what happens to the news coverage of a municipality when there is no permanent presence of journalists? A quantitative content analysis (N = 606), measuring news topics, framing, style, original reporting and sourcing practices, was performed regarding the news coverage of 12 Swedish municipalities – six with editorial offices of a legacy media organisation and six without. The results indicate that municipalities receive less original coverage, community news receives less attention and institutional actors are quoted more often when there is no permanent presence of journalists. Implications for communities and hyperlocal media are discussed.

Digital media allow for instant tracking of audience behaviour, thus enabling a potential negotiation between journalists’ traditional authority and professional news values, on the one hand, and the audience’s power in terms of ignoring or paying attention to the journalistic outcome, on the other. The present study investigates whether clicks change news values and have an impact on news routines in tabloid, broadsheet and public service newsrooms. The findings indicate that audience metrics bring a new dimension to the news evaluation process regardless of publishing tradition, but that the commercial media seem to keep a closer tab on traffic. In general, journalists strive for a “good mix” between customization to achieve audience satisfaction and a desire for editorial independence.

Information production, dissemination, and consumption are contingent upon cultural and financial dimensions. This study attempts to find cultures of engagement that reflect how audiences engage with news posts made by either commercial or state-owned news outlets on Facebook. To do so, we collected over a million news posts (n = 1,173,159) produced by 482 news outlets in three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and analyzed over 69 million interactions across three metrics of engagement (i.e. comments, likes, and shares). More concretely, we investigate whether the patterns of engagement follow distinct patterns across national boundaries and type of outlet ownership. While we are skeptical of metrics of engagement as markers of specific cultures of engagement, our results show that there are clear differences in how readers engage with news posts depending on the country of origin and whether they are fully state-owned or private-owned outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News dissemination online is driven by three gatekeeping logics: the gatekeeping logic of the news media (publishing), the gatekeeping logic of social actors (sharing), and the gatekeeping logic of platform algorithms (spreading), each guided by different values and with a different relationship to content. Using a reverse engineering approach, this study applies a 2015 dataset to empirically explore how a Facebook algorithm changed the overall composition of the news users saw, highlighting the ongoing issue of how the different gates and associated gatekeeping logics - especially that of platforms - influence news distribution. In contrast to previous studies, we find the relationship between news properties and the distribution of news online to be non-linear. Results point to Facebook's role in the overall composition of online news, both directly and in interaction with other gatekeepers. As news stories become more widely spread online, algorithmic logics take precedence over user behaviour and preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]