Snurb's blog

Singapore.
OK, after my break from proceedings I'm back for my final ICA 2010 session today, which starts with Donna Stephens. She begins with the view that one of the functions of the media is the civic exchange of ideas - orchestrated for example through the letters to the editor pages. Today, blogs have taken over some of that role, and enabled a more instant form of feedback and conversation - however, they are also different: more anonymous, better controllable by the poster, and more immediate.

Also, few people write letters to the editor, while opinion exchange through blogs may happen at a greater volume or continue for longer than in the mainstream media. Blogs no longer follow the media agenda, too, but occasionally set it as well. But what is the difference in content between the two? This study compared letters to the editor to an Arkansas newspaper with comments on the general blog of another statewide newspaper, in each case relating to an (at first secret) $300,000 bonus payment for the University of Central Arkansas president Lu Hardin, and the events following these revelations through to Hardin's resignation.

Singapore.
The final speaker in this ICA 2010 session is David Brake, who introduces a simple blogging communication model: the blogger is utilising their Weblog as a tool for reaching a global audience. However, this is likely to be too simplistic - especially for highly personal Weblogs -, and it is necessary to investigate more closely how bloggers themselves see their interaction with their readers. David conducted a range of surveys and interviews with some 150 bloggers in the UK to explore this.

In an interaction with others, we tend to be conscious of the effect of our communication on others so that we can refine it and enhance its effect. Bloggers could do so for example by looking at their site stats, but didn't appear to be very interested in doing so; indeed, bloggers in David's study tended to assume that nobody would read their posts anyway, and expressed surprise when they did receive reader responses.

Singapore.
The next paper in this ICA 2010 session is by Aaron Veenstra, whose interest is in the cognitive processing of blog-based information. He begins by raising the problem with the term 'new media' - an idea which remains in flux, to which new communication tools are constantly added. There remain significant gaps in the blog literature, too - we still have only a general definition of what blogs are, indeed.

The readers of blogs, Aaron suggests from previous work, are more susceptible to framing effects than other media users; there is a constraint of attitudes and a set of responses to media content which is not found in users of other media. The focus here is on political blogs, whose technical definitions are workable but remain dynamic, and which are difficult to define from an informational perspective. Especially at the popular end, there are significant inconsistencies between blog formats and styles; at the bottom end, there is a similar fuzziness.

Singapore.
The next session at ICA 2010 starts with Sandra Hsu, whose interest is in the distinctions between active and passive blog use. What are the relationships between these uses? What is the impact of blogging, especially of political participation? How do users select the media they use? What is the role of interactivity, and how does blog-based discussion unfold?

The core hypothesis of this research was that active blog use will predict online and offline political participation, while passive use will not. This was tested using a Web-based survey with some 1,100 respondents. Participants were categorised for their online and offline participation, their level of discussion with people connected by weak ties, their reasoning strategies (backing up argumentswith facts) and their level of engagement with non-like-minded participants.

Singapore.
The final presenters in this session at ICA 2010 are Mark Deuze and Peter Blank, introducing the idea of media life - a way of living through the media; a point of view. Mark begins by showing images from weekly protests in Bil'in, a Palestinian town against the wall being built in Israel - in February this year, protesters dressed as the Na'vi from Avatar, for example, recently, they dressed as the Palestinian football team; and during protest marches, on their banners they carry photos of previous protest marches. (Avatar director Jim Cameron has become involved in a few other protest actions, in fact.)

Singapore.
The next speaker at ICA 2010 is Espen Ytreberg, whose interest is in active audiences; does convergence and digitalisation empower users and make them more active and independent? The term itself certainly has spread far beyond academia, although interpretations may vary between different users of it. Espen's focus is on the attitudes at the management level in Norwegian media.

One working notion is characterised by statements such as 'the audience want to be active', and if it is held by media workers it has consequences for the future shape of media products regardless of whether it is true. It has become an institutional discourse - it is language doing work and creating new media models. Espen explored these processes through 45 interviews with managers in Norwegian TV, radio, and press who were decisionmakers on media products.

Singapore.
The next speaker at ICA 2010 is Tim Markham, who shifts our focus to war reporting - what impact do the conditions of reporting have on the way journalists relate to one another? In this, he takes on journalists' identities, values, and ethics as strategic. There are two symbolic economies that underpin war reporting - mystification (why journalists have differing standing and jobs is unclear to them) and ambivalence (a downplayed distanced relationship to their journalistic work). This ties into a broader trend of anti-establishment attitudes.

Singapore.
And we're back for another day of ICA 2010. I'm afraid I may not see much of today, through, both as I'm still backing up from the football last night and as I still have to finish our slides for tomorrow. The first session I'm seeing, then, starts with Scott Rodgers, whose interest is in the relationship between the newspaper and the city. He highlights the series The Wire as a useful fictional study of the sociology of city journalism; its underlying message is that the hollowing out of the local newspaper has serious implications for the city.

Singapore.
The second paper in this ICA 2010 session is by Wolfgang Donsbach, who begins by outlining three broad traditions of journalism: the subjective tradition (pursuing individual goals), the public service tradition, and the commercial tradition. Each can be characterised along a number of criteria (goals, dominant relationships, prototypes, dominant values, dominant content, and the journalist's role).

In his view, the public service tradition - selecting relevant and verified information - is the crucial one for journalism, but it is now under threat: from within the media, through the tabloidisation of content (increasing levels of pop politics, personalisation, scandalisation and sensationalism, negativity) and the attendant changes in format (growing emotionalisation, fragmentation and sound bites, a race to maximise audience reach, and bottom line pressures on journalists). Journalists increasingly complain about bottom line pressures and about how frequently their content is changed by others after filing, for example.

Singapore.
I'm afraid in the battle between lunch and the second plenary, lunch won out, so I'm skipping Ien Ang's keynote at ICA 2010, and jumping right to the first of the post-lunch sessions. I may miss some of those as well as I've got a few meetings in the afternoon, but we'll see how we go. We start the afternoon with a paper by Wiebke Loosen from the fabulous Hans-Bredow-Institut in Hamburg, whose interest is in the relationship between journalism and its audiences. One of the key issues here is the change in the sender/receiver relationship - always a complicated and paradoxical relationship (journalism provides a service and needs an audience, but that audience plays a subordinate role - journalists are often oriented more towards their colleagues than towards audiences).