Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

Dimitrova, Daniela

doi: 10.1177/10776990241234438pmid: N/A

Chan, Michael

doi: 10.1177/10776990231223998pmid: N/A

Across the globe, social media have become dominant channels of communication and news for many citizens. They also provide online spaces where misleading information can exacerbate social cleavages and political differences in societies, which can then lead to deleterious democratic outcomes. Therefore, much work has sought to understand the ways in which the effects of misinformation can be attenuated. This virtual theme collection highlights eight studies that examined the conditions in which individuals would actively verify information as well as the effectiveness of certain countermeasures designed to help individuals discern information veracity.

Rendon, Hector

doi: 10.1177/10776990231217476pmid: N/A

This study includes a survey of 1,077 participants to explore the audiences’ perceptions of news representations about the largest minoritized group in the United States: Latinxs and Hispanics. The findings suggest that news exposure, age, ethnicity, education, and income are significant variables for the public to perceive more positive portrayals of Latinxs/Hispanics. Also, some negative stereotypical interpretations of Latinx/Hispanic news frames continue to be pervasive. The results point to the need for updated theoretical approaches focused on the role of media in the minoritization process of ethnoracial populations.

Wu-Ouyang, Biying

doi: 10.1177/10776990231217482pmid: N/A

Amid the proliferation of multiplatform social media use and fake news, the ongoing debate about social media’s impact on news engagement and selective exposure remains inconclusive. Drawing on a representative sample of 17 countries (N = 34,633), the present study examined the association of country-level media systems, individual-level fake news concerns, and multiplatform news use with news engagement and selective exposure. The multilevel analyses revealed (a) an overall positive association between multiplatform social media use and news engagement, (b) the role of fake news concerns on the formation of echo chambers, and (c) the role of state intervention in mitigating individuals’ news engagement in a multiplatform landscape.

Comel, Naiza; Kohls, Chirlei; Orso, Maíra; Otavio Prendin Costa, Luiz; Marques, Francisco Paulo Jamil

doi: 10.1177/10776990231217466pmid: N/A

Considering the claims for “de-Westernizing” Communication and Media studies, we examine the publication trends of BRICS-based researchers between 2012 and 2021. The article compares SciVal and SJR data concerning 7,938 articles to understand the circulation of such academic communities in top-ranked outlets. The results reveal a remarkable productivity growth in all BRICS countries, striking differences within the group in the number of research articles, the emergence of China as the bloc’s leading hub, and the lack of cooperation among such five countries. We also discuss and criticize how the “de-Westernization” agenda may eventually become another category domesticated by the Global North.

Mellado, Claudia; Márquez-Ramírez, Mireya; Van Leuven, Sarah; Jackson, Daniel; Mothes, Cornelia; Arcila-Calderón, Carlos; Berthaut, Jérome; Blanchett, Nicole; Boudana, Sandrine; Chen, Katherine Y. N.; Davydov, Sergey; De Maio, Mariana; Fahmy, Nagwa; Ferrero, Martina;

Li, Qian; Shao, Chun; Walker, Shawn; Kwon, K. Hazel

doi: 10.1177/10776990231217740pmid: N/A

This study explores the intermedia agenda-setting of the U.S. gun control movement in 2018, with a specific focus on the role of activism/advocacy media and ephemeral websites in shaping the movement discourse in news outlets. Structural topic modeling and cross-lagged correlation analyses of the Facebook URLs Share dataset show that activism/advocacy media played an important role in proposing unique agendas and aligning them with other news outlets. Meanwhile, ephemeral websites were prone to containing conspiratorial information, which could have been purposive to influence the movement. The study provides empirical insights into how various media actors interact to shape social movement discourses.

Holtrup, Stefanie; Henke, Jakob; Steffan, Dennis; Möhring, Wiebke

doi: 10.1177/10776990231202692pmid: N/A

Trust in the news media is an important prerequisite for democracies. Building on media trust and accuracy research, we investigate reciprocal effects between perceived accuracy and trust in news. We implemented a two-wave online panel survey (N = 952) in the context of the 2021 German federal election. For media individuals' use, we find that trust and accuracy are reciprocally related and are influenced by media use. For the media in general, only trust has an effect on accuracy, whereas media skepticism and cynicism are only associated with trust, not with accuracy. Further results and their implications are discussed.

Kim, Minchul; Grabe, Maria Elizabeth

doi: 10.1177/10776990231202702pmid: N/A

Hate crimes against Muslims in the United States have been on the rise since 2016 (FBI, 2022), discouraging this group’s participation in public life. Most Americans, therefore, encounter Muslims only via media representations. We investigated if two journalistic storytelling devices can kindle in white non-Muslim Americans empathy and supportive attitudes toward Muslim women who are victims of discrimination. Indeed, personalization and emotionalization of news stories increased empathy for Muslim victims among participants with high Muslim prejudice. Gender differences moderated the effect of emotionalization, with women participants reporting more empathy and willingness to help victims than men.

Scott, Alex; Peña, Vincent

doi: 10.1177/10776990231202690pmid: N/A

This study examined news images and captions published by The Associated Press (N = 7,455) between 2018 and 2022 to ascertain whether names were more frequently included for certain groups of people. The analysis found that people depicted in the Global North are named far more frequently than in the Global South, and that sports, entertainment, and political images include names more often than news and feature images. These pervasive patterns suggest naming has a discursive function that constructs an Other by excluding familial and cultural connotations inherent in names, forming a hierarchy through opposition, and extending social prominence for certain groups.