Rethinking Research Methods in an Age of Digital Journalism
The digital infrastructure of media production, dissemination and consumption is becoming increasingly complex, presenting the challenge of how we should research the digital journalism environment. Digital journalism takes many forms we therefore need to revise, improve, adjust and even invent methods to understand emerging forms of journalism.
In this book, scholars at the forefront of methodological innovations in digital journalism research share their insights on how to collect, process and analyse the diverse expressions of digital journalism, including online news, search results, hyperlinks and social media posts. As digital journalism content often comes in the form of big data, many of these new approaches depart from the traditional methods used in media research in significant ways. As we move towards new ways of understanding digital journalism, the methods developed for such purposes also need to be grounded in scientific rigour. This book aims to share some of the emerging processes by which these methods, tools and approaches are designed, implemented and validated. As such, this book not only constitutes a benchmark for thinking about research methods in digital journalism, it also provides an entry point for graduate students and seasoned scholars aiming to do research on digital journalism.
This book was originally published as a special issue of Digital Journalism.
Michael Karlsson is a Professor in Media and Communication Studies at Karlstad University, Sweden.
Helle Sjvaag is a Research Professor in Media Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Journalism Studies: Theory and Practice
Edited by
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 not only 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 United Kingdom 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.
Recent titles in the series:
(for full list, see: www.routledge.com/Journalism-Studies/book-series/JOURNALISM)
Journalism, Democracy and Civil Society in India
Edited by Shakuntala Rao and Vipul Mudgal
Photojournalism and Citizen Journalism
Edited by Stuart Allan
Entrepreneurial Journalism
Edited by Kevin Rafter
Rethinking Research Methods in an Age of Digital Journalism
Edited by Michael Karlsson and Helle Sjvaag
First published 2018
by Routledge
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN13: 978-1-138-07052-3
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Publishers Note
The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
Contents
Michael Karlsson and Helle Sjvaag
Jelle W. Boumans and Damian Trilling
Andreas Widholm
David Ryfe, Donica Mensing and Richard Kelley
Niina Sormanen, Jukka Rohila, Epp Lauk, Turo Uskali, Jukka Jouhki and Maija Penttinen
Elisabeth Gnther and Thorsten Quandt
Carina Jacobi, Wouter van Atteveldt and Kasper Welbers
Jacob rmen
Ike Picone
Annika Bergstrm
Stephanie Grubenmann
Michael Karlsson and Helle Sjvaag
