Einar Thorsen - Online Reporting of Elections

This book contributes to debates concerning online reporting of elections and the challenges facing journalism in the context of democratic change. The speed of technological adaptation by journalists and their audiences means online news is gradually becoming a normalised part of media landscapes across the world. Journalists monitor social media for insight into the political process and as an instant indication of public sentiment, rather than waiting for press releases and opinion polls. Citizens are actively participating in online political reporting too, through publishing eyewitness accounts, political commentary, crowd-sourcing and fact-checking information (of political manifestos and media reports alike). It is therefore growing increasingly important to understand how political journalism is evolving through new communicative forms and practices, in order to critique its epistemological role and function in democratic societies, and examine how these interventions influence daily online political reporting across different national contexts.

This volume covers comparative, research-based studies across a range of national contexts and electoral systems, including Australia, ten African countries, the European Union, Greece, the Netherlands, India, Iran, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.

Einar Thorsen is Senior Lecturer in Journalism and Communication at the Media School, Bournemouth University, UK. His research focuses on online and citizen journalism, particularly during crisis and conflicts, and in response to political and environmental change. He has published research on BBC News Online, Wikinews and WikiLeaks.

Journalism Studies: Theory and Practice

Series editor: Bob Franklin, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, UK

The journal Journalism Studies was established at the turn of the new millennium by Bob Franklin. It was launched in the context of a burgeoning interest in the scholarly study of journalism and an expansive global community of journalism scholars and researchers. The ambition was to provide a forum for the critical discussion and study of journalism as a subject of intellectual inquiry but also an arena of professional practice. Previously, the study of journalism in the UK and much of Europe was a fairly marginal branch of the larger disciplines of media, communication and cultural studies; only a handful of Universities offered degree programmes in the subject. Journalism Studies has flourished and succeeded in providing the intended public space for discussion of research on key issues within the field, to the point where in 2007 a sister journal, Journalism Practice, was launched to enable an enhanced focus on practice-based issues, as well as foregrounding studies of journalism education, training and professional concerns. Both journals are among the leading ranked journals within the field and publish six issues annually, in electronic and print formats. More recently, 2013 witnessed the launch of a further companion journal Digital Journalism to provide a site for scholarly discussion, analysis and responses to the wide ranging implications of digital technologies for the practice and study of journalism. From the outset, the publication of themed issues has been a commitment for all journals. Their purpose is first, to focus on highly significant or neglected areas of the field; second, to facilitate discussion and analysis of important and topical policy issues; and third, to offer readers an especially high quality and closely focused set of essays, analyses and discussions.

The Journalism Studies: Theory and Practice book series draws on a wide range of these themed issues from all journals and thereby extends the critical and public forum provided by them. The Editor of the journals works closely with guest editors to ensure that the books achieve relevance for readers and the highest standards of research rigour and academic excellence. The series makes a significant contribution to the field of journalism studies by inviting distinguished scholars, academics and journalism practitioners to discuss and debate the central concerns within the field. It also reaches a wider readership of scholars, students and practitioners across the social sciences, humanities and communication arts, encouraging them to engage critically with, but also to interrogate, the specialist scholarly studies of journalism which this series provides.

Available titles in the series:

Online Reporting of Elections

Einar Thorsen

First published 2013
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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2013 Taylor & Francis

This book is a reproduction of Journalism Practice, volume 6, issue 3. The Publisher requests to those authors who may be citing this book to state, also, the bibliographical details of the special issue on which the book was based.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN13: 978-0-415-82751-5

Typeset in Helvetica
by Taylor & Francis Books

Publisher's Note
The publisher would like to make readers aware that the chapters in this book may be referred to as articles as they are identical to the articles published in the special issue. The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen in the course of preparing this volume for print.