Insta-worthiness of News in New Media Journalism: How to Understand News Values on Instagram

Abstract

The Internet and Web 2.0 have changed the communication and information systems. Social media has emerged as an alternative or a developed version of traditional media. In this respect, journalism is obliged to keep up with the new technology. Social media has become an effective platform for information and news sharing. Traditional understanding of news values and newsworthiness has been reconstructed within this period. Concepts such as share, like, comment, etc. have become significant for news values and newsworthiness in digital age. In this context, this study aims to find out how news values have changed on social media by focusing on Instagram. To this end, three newspapers, which have highest circulations in Turkey were sampled over a one-month period. Content analysis was selected as research technique. Based on research questions, three-step analysis was conducted. The findings were discussed in the conclusion. A new term – insta-worthiness – is suggested in this study to clarify the main components of news values on Instagram.

Keywords

• news values
• new media journalism
• Instagram
• Insta-worthiness
• Content Analysis

Yeni Medya Gazeteciliğinde Haberlerin Insta-değerliliği: Instagram’da Haber Değerini Anlamak

Abstract

İnternet ve Web 2.0 teknolojisi bilgi ve iletişim sistemlerini de yeniden şekillendirmiştir. Sosyal medya, geleneksel medyanın gelişmiş bir versiyonu ya da diğer bir ifadeyle alternatifi olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu anlamda teknoloji ile değişen gazetecilik pratikleri açısından bakıldığında, sosyal medya bilgi ve haber paylaşımını sağlayan etkili bir platform niteliği kazanmıştır. Haber değerlerin geleneksel anlayışı da bu süreç içerisinde değişmiştir. Paylaşım, beğeni, yorum vb. kavramlar dijital çağda haber değeri anlayışının bileşenleri haline gelmiştir. Bu bağlamda bu çalışma bir sosyal medya platform olan Instagram’a odaklanarak haber değerlerinin sosyal medyada nasıl değiştiğine odaklanmaktadır. Çalışma kapsamında Türkiye’de en yüksek tiraja sahip üç gazetenin bir aylık süreci incelenmiştir. Araştırma tekniği olarak içerik analizi seçilmiştir. Araştırma soruları temelinde üç aşamalı bir inceleme süreci izlenmiştir. Araştırma bulgularına istinaden insta-değerlilik kavramı önerilmekte ve tartışılmaktadır.

Keywords

• haber değeri
• yeni medya
• İnstagram
• İçerik Analizi
• İnsta-değerlilik

References

1. Allern, S. (2002). Journalistic and commercial news values. Nordicom Review, 23(1-2), 137-152. https://doi. org/10.1515/nor-2017-0327
2. Araujo, T., & van der Meer GLA T. (2018). News values on social media: Exploring what drives peaks in user activity about organizations on Twitter. Journalism, 1-19. DOI: 10.1177/1464884918809299
3. Bednarek, M. & Caple, H. (2014). Why do news values matter? Towards a new methodological framework for analyzing news discourse in critical discourse analysis and beyond. Discourse & Society, 15(2), 135-158. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0957926513516041
4. Bednarek, M., & Caple, H. (2017). The discourse of news values. New York: Oxford University Press.
5. Berger, A. A. (1989). Seeing is believing: An introduction to visual communication. California: Mayfield Publishing Company.
6. Bock, A. M. (2016). Showing versus telling: Comparing online video from newspaper and television websites. Journalism, 17 (4), 493-510.
7. Borden, L. S. (2007). Journalism as practice: Macintyre, virtue ethics and the press. Burlington: Ashgate Borges-Rey, E. (2015). News images on Instagram. Digital Journalism, 3(4), 571-593. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2015.1034526
8. Brighton, P., & Foy, D. (2007). News values. London: SAGE.

9. Broersma, M., & Graham, T. (2013). Twitter as a news source. Journalism Practice, 7(4), 446-464. DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2013.802481
10. Carey, W. J. (1989). Communication as culture: Essays on media and society. Winchester, MA: Unwin Human, Inc.
11. Domingo, D. (2008). Interactivity in the daily routines of online newsrooms: Dealing with an uncomfortable myth. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 680-704. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083- 6101.2008.00415.x
12. Drisko, W, J., & Maschi, T. (2016). Content analysis. New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
13. Fletcher, R. & Nielsen, K. R. (2018). Are people incidentally exposed to news on social media? A comparative analysis. New Media and Society, 20(7), 2450-2468. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817724170
14. Galtung, J. & Ruge, H. M. (1965). The structure of foreign news. Journal of Peace Research, 2(1), 64-91. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F002234336500200104
15. Gans, J. H. (2004). Deciding what’s News: A study of CBS evening news, NBC nightly news, newsweek, and time. Evanson, IL: Northwestern University Press.
16. Hadland, A., Cambell, D., & Lambert, P. (2015). The state of news photography: The lives and livelihoods of photojournalists in the Digital Age. Technical Report. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved from: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/research/files/ The%2520State%2520of%2520News%2520Photography.pdf (Accessed date:10 September 2020)
17. Hall, S. (1981). The determination of news photographs, In S. Cohen & J. Young (eds), The Manufacture of News: Deviance, Social Problems and the Mass Media (pp. 226-243). London, UK: Constable.
18. Harcup, T. & O’Neill, D. (2017). What is news? Journalism Studies, 18(12), 1470-1488, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193
19. Hermida, A. (2010). Twittering the news. Journalism Practice, 4(3), 297-308, DOI: 10.1080/17512781003640703 Hermida, A., Fletcher, F., Darryl K., & Donna L. (2012). Share, like, recommend. Journalism Studies, 13(5- 6), 815-824. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2012.664430
20. Kümpel, S. A., Karnowski, V., & Keyling, T. (2015). News sharing in social media: A review of current research on news sharing users, content, and networks. Social Media + Society, 1-14, DOI: 10.1177/2056305115610141
21. Krippendorf, K. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Thousand Oaks, USA: SAGE Larsson, O, A. (2018). The news user on social media. Journalism Studies, 19(15), 2225-2242, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2017.1332957
22. Lasorsa, L, D., Lewis, C, S., & Holton, E. A. (2012). Normalizing Twitteri Journalism Studies, 13(1), 19-36, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2011.571825
23. Lee, M. A., & Hsiang, I. C. (2014). When newsworthy is not noteworthy. Journalism Studies, 15(6), 807-820. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2013.841369
24. Lippmann, W. (1998). Public opinion. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
25. Maares, P., & Hanusch, F. (2018). Exploring the boundaries of journalism: Instagram micro-bloggers in the Twilight zone of lifestyle Journalism. Journalism, 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918801400
26. McIntyre, K. (2016). What makes “good” news newsworthy? Communication Research Reports, 33(3), 223- 230. DOI: 10.1080/08824096.2016.1186619
27. Nechushtai, E. (2018). Could digital platforms capture the media through infrastructure? Journalism, 19(8), 1043-1058. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917725163
28. Neuendorff, A. K. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, USA: Sage.
29. Noyunsan, C., Katanyukul, T., Wu, M. Y., & Saikaew, R. K. (2016). A social network newsworthiness filter based on topic analysis. International Journal of Technology, 7 (7), 1239-1245.
30. Picard, G. R. (2014). Twilight or new dawn of journalism? Journalism Studies, 15 (5), 500-510.
31. Rodriguez, C., Ferron, B., & Shamas, K. (2014). Four challenges in the field of alternative, radical and citizens’ media research. Media, Culture and Society, 36 (2), 150-166.
32. Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies. London: Sage Publications.
33. Rudin R , P., Bomhoff, J., Haschke, F. J., Kersten, J. & Müller, R. (2011). Selection and impact of press photography. An empirical study on the basis of photo news factors. Communications, 36 (4), 415- 439.
34. Sartori, G. (2006). Görmenin İktidarı, (Translator: Gül Batuş & Bahar Ulukan). Istanbul: Karakutu.
35. Statista Research Department Report. (2020). Newspaper reading by young people in the United Kingdom (UK) 2005-2016. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/299081/newspaper-readingby- young-people-in-the-uk/ (Accessed date: 10 August 2020)
36. Steensen, S. (2011). Online journalism and the promises of new technology. Journalism Studies, 12(3), 311- 327, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.501151
37. Stephens, M. (1988). A history of news. New York, USA: Viking Press.
38. Stroud, J. N., Scacco, M. J., Muddiman, A., & Curry, L. A. (2015). Changing deliberative forms on news organizations’ Facebook sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20 (2), 188-203.
39. O’Sullivan, J., & Heinonen, A. (2008). Old values, new media. Journalism Practice, 2(3), 357-371, DOI: 10.1080/17512780802281081
40. Trilling, D., Tolochko, P., & Burscher, B. (2017). From newsworthiness to shareworthiness: How to predict news sharing based on article characteristics. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(1), 38-60. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1077699016654682
41. Twenge, J. M., Martin, G. N., & Spitzberg, B. H. (2019). Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(4), 329–345.
42. Vazguez-Herrero, J., Direito-Rebollal, S. & Lopez-Garcia, X. (2019). Ephemeral journalism: News distribution through Instagram stories. Social Media + Society, 1-13. DOI: 10.1177/2056305119888657
43. Vis, F. (2013). Twitter as a reporting tool for breaking news. Digital Journalism, 1(1), 27-47. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2012.741316
44. Weber, P. R. (1990). Basic content analysis. Newbury Park, USA: Sage.
45. Weber, P. (2014). Discussions in the comments section: Factors influencing participation and interactivity in online newspapers’ reader comments. New Media & Society, 16, 941‐957. Doi: 10.1177/1461444813495165
46. Wolswinkel, H. (2008). New paper reading: the explaining factors of newspaper reading behavior of young adults. Master Thesis. Enschede: University of Twente.
47. Ziegele, M., Breiner, T., & Quiring, O. (2014). What creates interactivity in online news discussions? An exploratory analysis of discussion factors in user comments on news items. Journal of Communication, 64, 1111-1138.