Representation of Patients With Rare Diseases in Spanish Media

There are more than 360 associations of patients with rare diseases in Spain that strive for visibility to obtain funding and encourage clinical pathologies. The Spanish Year of Rare Diseases has been a considerable effort to be part of media agenda since 2013 and a “collective voice” throughout the media has been encouraged with the international initiatives devoted to the cause. Over the past years, representation of patients with rare diseases in Spanish media has been very superficial, despite the renewed interest during the Spanish Year of Rare Diseases. Certain cases as “Paco Sanz” or “Los Padres de la Pequeña Nadia” have negatively affected this representation by using the disease to pursue economic benefit. This chapter reports on the representation of rare diseases through Spanish media and the way it evolved in the last 6 years. The findings highlight the effort that has been made by patient advocacy groups with rare diseases and their relatives and caregivers, who have been recognized and proactive to get the treatment and medication needed.

British Politics

British Politics provides an introduction to British politics with an emphasis on political science to analyse the fundamental features of British politics, and the key changes post-Brexit. Part A looks at constitutional and institutional foundations of the subject. Chapters in this part look at leadership and debating politics and law creation. The second part is about political behaviour and citizenship. Here chapters consider elections, the media, agenda setting, and political turbulence. The final part is about policy-making and delegation. The chapters in this part examine interest groups, advocacy, policy-making, governing through bureaucracy and from below, delegating upwards, and British democracy now.

Courting Coverage: Rhetorical Newsworthiness Cues and Candidate-Media Agenda Convergence in Presidential Primaries

What can political candidates do to make their agenda more enticing to journalists? This study argues that the answer lies in appealing to newsworthiness values—specifically conflict, human interest, and simplicity—via rhetorical newsworthiness cues. Using an original data set of announcement speeches and national news media coverage from 1984 to 2016, this study tests this argument and finds that candidates whose speeches include more anger and candidate-based appeals, which appeal to journalists’ preference for conflict and human-interest stories, have their issue agenda covered with greater proportionality. It concludes with a discussion of the implications of these incentives on the electorate.

Media Agenda Against Bernie Sanders? Examining the Emotional Tone of US Political News Articles

The emotional tone of news articles (N = 120) on Democratic Party primary candidates was examined to determine if the media has bias towards Bernie Sanders. Using the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009), article words (N = 115,569) in the first 60 days of 2020 were measured for their pleasantness, activation, and imagery by candidate - Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Significant differences between Bernie Sanders and the other candidates were found for article pleasantness (p = .000), article imagery (p = 0.003) and headline activation (p = 0.23). Articles written on Bernie Sanders were less pleasant and more active in tone, as well as being more abstract (low in imagery). <br><br>

Media Agenda Against Bernie Sanders? Examining the Emotional Tone of US Political News Articles

The emotional tone of news articles (N = 120) on Democratic Party primary candidates was examined to determine if the media has bias towards Bernie Sanders. Using the Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009), article words (N = 115,569) in the first 60 days of 2020 were measured for their pleasantness, activation, and imagery by candidate - Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Mike Bloomberg. Significant differences between Bernie Sanders and the other candidates were found for article pleasantness (p = .000), article imagery (p = 0.003) and headline activation (p = 0.23). Articles written on Bernie Sanders were less pleasant and more active in tone, as well as being more abstract (low in imagery). <br><br>

When Algorithms Recommend What’s New(s): New Dynamics of Decision-Making and Autonomy in Newsgathering

Newsroom innovation labs have been created over the last ten years to develop algorithmic news recommenders (ANR) that suggest and summarise what news is. Although these ANRs are still in an early stage and have not yet been implemented in the entire newsroom, they have the potential to change how newsworkers fulfil their daily decisions (gatekeeping) and autonomy in setting the agenda (agenda-setting). First, this study focuses on the new dynamics of the ANR and how it potentially influences the newsworkers’ role of gatekeeping within the newsgathering process. Second, this study investigates how the dynamics of an ANR could influence the autonomy of the newsworkers’ role as media agenda setters. In order to advance our understanding of the changing dynamics of gatekeeping and agenda-setting in the newsroom, this study conducts expert interviews with 16 members of newsroom innovation labs of<em> The Washington Post</em>,<em> The Wall Street Journal</em>, <em>Der Spiegel</em>, the BBC, and the Bayerische Rundfunk (BR) radio station. The results show that when newsworkers interact with ANRs, they rely on suggestions and summaries to evaluate what is newsworthy, especially when there is a “news peak” (elections, a worldwide pandemic, etc.). With regard to the agenda-setting role, the newsworker still has full autonomy, but the ANR creates a “positive acceleration effect” on how certain topics are put on the agenda.

Media Agenda and Press Conferences on COVID-19 in Mexico: An Analysis of Journalists’ Questions

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to strengthen health communication in times of crisis. This study aims to analyze the media agenda of press conferences on COVID-19 in Mexico during the first two phases of the pandemic, based on journalists’ questions. The study is based on framing theory. The method used was content analysis from a quantitative perspective. This method was explicitly applied to the final section of the conferences, which dealt with “questions from the press.” The results show that at the beginning of the pandemic, the press was more interested in the government’s management of the health crisis than in issues such as the prevention of the disease itself or the economic impact of the crisis on the country. Moreover, the main characteristic of the questions was that they were generally socially relevant. In conclusion, we found that in the media agenda of the Mexican conference, the frame of attribution of responsibility was prominent but in combination with the frames of conflict, human interest, morality, and economic consequences.

The era of information pollution: new definition of news production in Nigeria

This article explores the possibility of redefining professional news production in order to suspend the disseminators of disinformation. For achieving this goal, the author examined the areas of the likely distortion of information: headlines and editors of online news. Headlines play the key role within information ecosystem, since they can deceive the audience. This is acquired by using arresting phrases to draw attention of the audience. It is determined that some editors of online news do not observe certain ethical standards, and thus, post articles without verifying the accuracy of the material. It is noted that politicians have infiltrated the online media space, which affects that the editors choose what to post. It is recommended that headlines should not only be attractive, but also written in a way not to deceive the audience, as well as the extent of influence of the political figures upon media agenda should be established. And ultimately, the people who have no experience in journalism, should be trained by an experienced journalist in order to minimize the information pollution common to the era of Internet and social networks.