scholarly journals Writing between the ‘red lines’: Morocco’s digital media landscape

2020 ◽  
pp. 016344372097231
Author(s):  
Abdelfettah Benchenna ◽  
Dominique Marchetti

This article presents an overview of the emergence of online news sites, which has radically altered news provision and media consumption patterns in Morocco. This sector has rapidly become a strategic site. Firstly, its precedence over print media and national television networks does not only stem from the high traffic figures of news websites. Along with certain social platforms, these websites are the only vehicules for 24/7 news in a country which currently has just one such news channel and where, in spite of the ‘liberalisation’ of media, national networks provide very institutionalised news programs based on the activities of the state official institutions and of the monarchy. Secondly, certain domestic Arabic-language news websites have become the main platform for the voicing of political dissent. Based on 31 interviews, the article briefly describes the historical development of the online press, since the ‘February 20th Movement’ of 2011. This case study provides a good example of the new challenges surrounding the control of information: an issue long shaped by the limitation of news provision to duly authorised political and journalistic organisations and by limited ‘demand’ resulting from widespread illiteracy. This article describes how the Moroccan establishment react to the explosive growth of online news media by creating new mechanisms to control it.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Jane Son

Reader comments to online news websites have become a critical component of civic engagement and debate since the introduction of digital media. While many online news organisations encourage reader comments to maintain a loyal audience, audience participation is often constrained by the terms and conditions used to govern reader comments. By imposing strict moderation policies, news organisations demonstrate a lack of trust towards the audience. Yet, many organisations continue to demand high levels of public trust in their brands and the institution of journalism. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines the terms and conditions used to moderate reader comments to four Australian online news sites, and assesses the level of trust afforded to audiences through comment moderation policies. Public statements from each of these organisations about public trust in their organisation or the institution of news are also assessed, to contrast the level of trust these organisations expect with that which is afforded to the audience through moderation policies. This research finds that the moderation policies analysed represent significant impediments to audience expression, and demonstrate a discrepancy between the level of trust afforded to participants and that which the organisations demand from their readers. Despite early hopes that online reader comments may facilitate greater opportunities for democratic participation for citizens, the potential for substantial democratic debate on the online news sites examined in this research remains unrealised.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-185
Author(s):  
Vanessa De Macedo Higgins Joyce ◽  
Zahra Khani

Abstract This study contrasts the effects of news media to those of neighborhood in building consensus regarding trust in government. Consensus building is a consequence of agenda setting at a societal level. It conducts a secondary data analysis from an online survey with a panel of 983 older Texans from November/December 2015. We found significant correlation between trust and following the news, accessing TV news, using digital media, online news and newspapers. We found that news media in general and online news increased consensus both within education and location; radio and television increased consensus for education and digital media for income. Our spatial auto-correlation test found a minimal tendency of similar values of trust to be clustered. We cannot infer that neighborhood contributes in the formation of trust. We found evidence, in a case study of older Texans, that the news media may bring us closer together than next-door neighbors


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Sumiala ◽  
Tiina Räisä

This article investigates the ritual work in terrorist news events, using the Berlin truck attack as a case in point. The article connects with the larger cluster of anthropologically inspired communication research on media events as public rituals in news media and applies digital media ethnography as its method. Fieldwork is conducted in 15 online news sites. The article identifies three key phases through which the ritual work was carried out: the rupture in the news event (ritualised as the strike), the liminal phase (ritualised as the manhunt) and the reconstitution of order following the attack (ritualised as the mourning). The article concludes with an interpretation of the broader social implications of the ritual work and related naturalisation of ‘friends’ and ‘foes’ and suggests that this type of ritual work contributes to a collective mythologisation of terrorism in news media and society at large.


2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Van Cauwenberge ◽  
Hans Beentjes ◽  
Leen d’Haenens

A typology of young news users in the Low Countries A typology of young news users in the Low Countries This article investigates different types of young news users (15-34 years) in the Low Countries. Therefore a survey among 1200 Flemish and Dutch youngsters and adolescents was conducted, analyzing the combined use of media platforms for news consumption and time spent with these news carriers. The cluster analysis identified five types of news users: the sound and vision group, characterized by the use of mainly audiovisual news platforms, combined with online news sites; the e-news users, who give most prominence to online news sites but also rely on traditional news platforms, the all rounders, depending on a range of off- and online news channels; the traditionalists, who spent most time with offline news media; and the dabblers, a group with an overall low level of news consumption. Our results indicate that Flemish and Dutch youngsters combine online and traditional news platforms for their news gathering, giving most prominence to traditional news media, especially television news.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-170
Author(s):  
Ryan J. Phillips

This article examines the boundary work of frames and the methodological significance of understanding this work when conducting rhetorical framing analysis. While the boundary properties of frames have been theorized by scholars, there remains a lack of clear engagement with how to effectively address these discursive boundaries methodically. I argue that agenda-dismissal, which makes use of both prolepses and blind spots, ought to be addressed in addition to agenda-setting and agenda-extension when conducting rhetorical framing analysis. A case study is provided in which the rhetorical framing of vegan parenting in online news media is analyzed and critiqued for confining the issue within a dominant health-based frame. Strategies for dismantling discursive boundaries and reframing public issues are also considered within the context of the case study.


2014 ◽  
pp. 324-352
Author(s):  
Rick Malleus

This chapter proposes a framework for analyzing the credibility of online news sites, allowing diaspora populations to evaluate the credibility of online news about their home countries. A definition of credibility is established as a theoretical framework for analysis, and a framework of seven elements is developed based on the following elements: accuracy, authority, believability, quality of message construction, peer review, comparison, and corroboration. Later, those elements are applied to a variety of online news sources available to the Zimbabwean diaspora that serves as a case study for explaining the framework. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the framework in relation to some contextual circumstances of diaspora populations and presents some limitations of the framework as diaspora populations might actually apply the different elements.


Author(s):  
Judith Bessant

This chapter presents a case study of Facu Diaz, a Spanish satirist whose on-line ridicule of the Spanish government created a political furor that brought him before the courts. The chapter engages the problem of the criminalization of political dissent by liberal states in the digital age. The case highlights how digital media is now being used to create content for satire, as well as to replicate and infiltrate more traditional political and media forums, changing many traditional forms of political practice. The case [points to some of the central problems inherent in liberalism which may give reason to curb the enthusiasm of those who think that new digital media creates fresh opportunities for augmenting the ‘public sphere'. It is argued that liberalism as a political theory and ethos, tends to be blind to non-traditional political expressions like satire and other artistic work. In addition, the expansion of security laws in many countries suggests, liberalism's ostensible commitment to freedom needs to be reframed by recalling its historical preoccupation with security.


Author(s):  
Daya Kishan Thussu

The international flow of news has traditionally been dominated by that from North to South, with the West being at the core. Within the West itself, news flow is dominated by Anglo-American media, a situation which has its roots in the way that journalism developed historically. The historical context of global news begins with the introduction of the telegraph and undersea cables in the nineteenth century, which created a global market for news. Major players emerged—including news agencies—and shaped the transnational news flows. What emerges is that, in all ages, key innovations in transnational news flows have been closely linked to commerce, geopolitics, and war, from the telegraph to online news outlets. The increasing availability and use of news media, from major non-Western countries, are now affecting transnational news flows. Global journalism has been transformed in the digital age by internet-based communication and the rise of digital media opportunities—allowing for multi-directional news flows for growing global news audiences.


2011 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
Yeran Kim ◽  
Irkwon Jeong ◽  
Hyoungkoo Khang ◽  
Bomi Kim

This article explores how Korean bloggers, in contestation, participate in the social structure of communication and potentially transform it through their vernacular practices of decoding and recoding in the blogosphere. As a neo-liberal regime has been established, citizens practise discursive politics in a seemingly democratic and technologically advanced society that is actually a coercive-controlled communication system. Through the analysis of news blogs on the Cheonan disaster, it is suggested that a majority of bloggers are seen to utilise news media stories to gain leverage for their points of view or to provide counter-arguments against the dominant frames generated by the established news media. The critical reframing of the digital network in Korean society allows a reflexive reading of the Korean digital wave, which should be contextualised within generation politics, economic polarisation and ideological contestation. In order to avoid a nationalistic celebration of the IT power of the country, citizens' digital media practices are analysed as contributions to the democratisation of the public sphere and the enhancement of social openness and participation in the digitised arena of discursive politics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Septiawan Santana Kurnia ◽  
Dadi Ahmadi ◽  
Firmansyah Firmansyah

An investigative reporting has changed quite rapidly in the last few periods after the development of information technology. The presence of online media encourages the emergence of online journalism. The existence of online journalism, within the framework of online media, gives a certain touch to investigative reporting activities. Investigative reporting developed in online media has managerial uniqueness and certain coverage patterns. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how the management of editorials and online media coverage patterns in Indonesia conducting investigative coverage.Data for this research is obtained through interviews with data analysis using a qualitative approach and a case study method of single case-multilevel analysis. Research subjects (journalism) and research objects (online investigative news) of this study are Detik.com and Tirto.id.The results of the study show that investigative data are at the core of investigative reporting in online media. It can be in the form of direct observation under investigation (disguising) or the disclosure of new facts that have not been revealed before. The online news media in Indonesia, although it relies on the speed, also still takes into account the accuracy and rules of journalism, especially in the coverage of investigations. The online media strategy in reporting investigations is to divide investigative data into several news stories with one theme, but each headline is different according to the investigative reporting to be reported in parts.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document