When Newsmen Make Networks

Bibliographic Data

ID12908893
AuthorsPeter Bro (0000-0003-4322-5528, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume4
Issue1
Pages17-32
Publication date2009-08-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512780903119669
OpenAlexW1968789396
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited26

When news reporters connect people in a news story they essentially construct social networks in the news media. Networks through which news sources can be aligned symbolically in written, audible or visual form. This particular type of network is first defined and described with reference to the ways in which the concept of networks has previously been used by researchers and news reporters. Following this conceptualization the vision of networks in the news media and the adjacent vocabulary are then operationalized and used as a backdrop for an analysis of Danish newspapers from 1905 to 2005. This is an approach that can help delineate—and graphically visualize—how networks in the news media have evolved over the past century, and the content analysis shows that the socio-symbolic networks not only augment communicative actors and structures from parliament and other pre-existing platforms for communication, but also complement or even substitute them. The development offers people both inside and outside news rooms new potentials—and problems—when it comes to affecting the lives of people connected directly or indirectly to the networks. Keywords: network theoryjournalism historysourcing practicesmedia lobbyism Notes 1. The movie version of John F. Nash's life differs in some aspects from his real-life experiences. In real life John F. Nash's mental disorder made him look for signs representing divine revelations. Among the places he looked—and found—such revelations was the news media (Nasar, Citation1998). 2. This article is based on a research project known as MODINET (an acronym for Media and Democracy in the Network Society), where Danish researchers from a number of different fields and disciplines, such as politics, sociology, communication and media studies, collaborated. 3. The content analysis is based on the way in which three major Danish newspapers, Politiken, Berlingske Tidende and Jyllands-Posten, included news sources in the articles in the so-called yearly "news week" (week 46) in 1905, 1955 and 2005 (Ekecrantz and Olsson, Citation1994; Lund, Citation2002). News stories focusing on national affairs were analysed so that every news source was coded in relation to the other news sources that appeared within the same news story. Finally, the results were aggregated for all three newspapers for 1905, 1955 and 2005, and the archetypical news sources were divided into eight groups representing culture (writers, painters etc.), experts (academics, think tanks etc.), companies (CEOs, press secretaries etc.), organizations (chairmen, spokespersons etc.), authorities (policemen, doctors, civil servants etc.), private citizens (home owners, shoppers etc.), politicians (ministers, members of the opposition) and the media (editors, journalists etc.). More information about background, data-material, methodology etc. is accessible in Bro (Citation2009). 4. Other researchers have suggested that apophenia and creativity might be two sides of the same coin, in the sense that the "propensity to see connections between seemingly unrelated objects or ideas most closely links psychosis to creativity" (Brugger, Citation2001)

Business · Computer Science · Media Influence and Politics · Media Studies and Communication · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies

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