Current literature examining journalism’s boundary work has focused mostly on traditional, hard news journalism, while soft news journalism, such as lifestyle journalism, has largely been overlooked. ...Guided by the framework of boundary work, this paper examines how traditional fashion journalists and fashion bloggers define their own professionalism and what that says about the negotiation of fashion journalism’s boundaries. Through a textual analysis of the ‘About’ pages of 40 mainstream fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs, this paper shows that fashion magazines and fashion blogs demonstrate differences in four areas: mode of presentation, rituals of asserting authority, organisational structure, and relationship with the audience. For each theme, fashion magazine websites and fashion blogs display different approaches that help to shape their professional identities. These four areas serve as markers of the emerging – and perhaps blurring – boundaries between the two media actors. Findings from this study have implications not just on boundary work in journalism, but also on the very definitions of journalist and journalism, and on the evolving digital cultural industry, particularly in relation to lifestyle-centred content.
This study seeks to understand how online discussion, fact‐checking, and sources of fact‐checks will influence individuals’ risk perceptions toward nuclear energy when they are exposed to fake news. ...Using a 2 × 3 experimental design, 320 participants were randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions. Results showed an interaction effect between online discussion and exposure to fact‐checking, in which online discussion lowered individuals’ risk perception toward nuclear energy when a fact‐check was unavailable. Of those who participated in the online discussion, those who viewed a fact‐check posted by traditional media have higher risk perception as compared to those who viewed a fact‐check posted by a fact‐check organization. Our findings indicate that different fact‐checking sources can have differential effects on public risk perceptions, depending on whether online discussion is involved. To curb the spread of fake news, different fact‐checking strategies will need to be deployed depending on the situation.
Guided by the framework of field theory, this study analyzes how traditional news organizations perceived, defined, and represented BuzzFeed, a website that rose to online fame through aggregation of ...funny memes and cat videos but has since started producing investigative and long-form journalism pieces, heralding its formal entry into the journalistic field. Four themes emerged from the analysis. First, traditional news organizations demonstrate ambivalence in defining BuzzFeed. Second, traditional news organizations invoke journalistic doxa in their representations of BuzzFeed, to some extent demonstrating how they recognize BuzzFeed as having entered the journalistic field. This is consistent with the third theme, where traditional news organizations problematize BuzzFeed’s forms of economic and cultural capital. Finally, despite some degrees of uncertainty, traditional news organizations seem to positively welcome BuzzFeed’s entry into the journalistic field, both as a transformative force and as a potential ally for preservation.
Gawker ignited a controversy when it published an article about a married Conde Nast executive who allegedly sought the services of a gay escort. The popular blog eventually removed the article ...following condemnation from readers and other journalists. Guided by the frameworks of boundary work and field theory, this study analyzed 65 news articles and 2203 online comments and found that journalists and audiences problematized Gawker’s identity as a journalistic organization and evaluated the article based on traditional standards of newsworthiness, audiences asserted their role in journalism’s larger interpretive community, and that the larger interpretive community assessed the article based on the ethics of outing. Investigating the discourse generated by this critical incident is important because it identifies where journalists and readers draw the boundaries of legitimate journalism, specifies the place of ethics in boundary discourse, and informs journalistic practice about the phenomenon of outing in the news.
Using retouched images of models in advertisements to embody idealized beauty prototypes (e.g., flawless skin) in various cultures has been a prevalent yet controversial practice. Guided by the ...overarching corporate moral responsibility framework, this study conducted two online experiments to assess the effects of ad retouching and disclaimers on advertising effectiveness. In Study 1, a 2 (model skin type: realistic skin vs. flawless skin) x 2 (retouch-free disclaimer: present vs. absent) between-subjects online experiment was conducted among Chinese female participants. The results revealed that Chinese female consumers' preference for flawless skin still drives purchase intentions toward a skincare brand. However, when an ad employed a retouch-free disclaimer, participants who saw an ad depicting a model with realistic skin indicated higher ad honesty than those who saw an ad depicting a model with flawless skin. Consumers' perceived ad honesty mediated the interaction effect between the model skin type and disclaimer on purchase intentions. In Study 2, we found a similar interaction effect and moderated mediation effects. Such that, when a retouch-free disclaimer was present, participants rated an ad featuring realistic skin to have significantly higher ad honesty than an ad featuring flawless skin, which in turn, led to higher purchase intentions. The findings provide theoretical and practical insights into how brands can better appeal to contemporary Chinese female consumers.
News media can influence citizens' health beliefs about COVID-19 and eventually their vaccination intention. However, existing literature has rarely investigated how such effect is contingent upon a ...country-level factor: press freedom. Situated in the Health Belief Model, this study draws upon a multi-national survey (N = 3,599), involving 10 major cities in Asia to address the research gap. Results showed that news exposure has a positive effect on personal health beliefs on COVID-19, affecting their vaccination intention. More interestingly, the relationship between news exposure and personal health beliefs about COVID-19 was negatively moderated by level of press freedom - that is, the relationship between news exposure and personal health beliefs is stronger in cities that belong to countries with low levels of press freedom.
Studies have acknowledged how Internet use can lead to increased loneliness, but while Internet use can lead to various types of behavior, less research has been done comparing the effects of ...different Internet behaviors on loneliness, such as prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Using survey data collected in Singapore, this study finds that online prosocial behavior reduces loneliness only when it enhances satisfaction with life, while online antisocial behavior increases loneliness only when satisfaction with life is unaffected. The findings provide support to the positive effects of engaging in pro-social behavior and suggest that a more reflective use of the Internet, such as engaging only in pro-social behavior, can help contribute to higher life satisfaction among users.
While some argue the term "fake news" has lost its meaning and should be discarded from academic lexicon, others say the term has conceptual utility and one that the public understands. This study ...revisits these arguments and compares how individuals respond to the term "fake news" with how they respond to other related terms, such as "misinformation," "disinformation," and "online falsehoods." Through an online survey involving a representative sample of 1,015 adult participants in Singapore, this study found that participants who saw the term "fake news" reported the highest level of perceptions of falsity and intentionality. The term "fake news" also elicited the highest level of concern, perceived severity, and treatment recommendation, although the terms "misinformation" and "online falsehoods" also displayed similar levels, while "disinformation" elicited the lowest ratings.
The increasingly assertive position of social media as a news source means that news audiences can no longer depend on traditional journalists for information verification. Instead, they must ...determine the news credibility on their own. The majority of information credibility studies have considered news audiences’ information evaluation as a purely cognitive endeavor, implying that individuals can arrive at valid information without social validation. By drawing on self-categorization theory, this article re-conceptualizes audiences’ acts of news authentication by considering it not as a one-off activity under the uncontested control of the individual, but as a cycle of collective authentication strategies whereby individual authentication and social validation are entangled in the context-dependent processing of social news. To do this, we unpacked the social dimension of news authentication by looking at the social motivation, strategies, as well as the consequences that support it through a series of focus group discussions in Singapore.
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