Predicting Audience-Rated News Quality

Using Survey, Text Mining, and Neural Network Methods

Bibliographic Data

ID22010735
AuthorsSujin Choi (0000-0002-7665-0734, Kyung Hee University, corresponding author), Hyopil Shin (Seoul National University), Seung-Shik Kang (0000-0003-3318-6326, Kookmin University)
Year2021
Volume9
Issue1
Pages84-105
Publication date2021-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2020.1842777
OpenAlexW3107384227
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited53

This study aims to predict audience-rated news quality with journalistic values and linguistic/formal features of news articles, based on the theoretical rationales derived from information processing models, journalism and news consumption literature, and linguistic studies. We employed a traditional social science survey of over 7,800 news audiences and implemented natural language processing, text-mining, and neural network analyses for 1,500 news articles concerning public affairs. Results suggest that the journalistic values of news articles are stronger predictors of audience-rated news quality than their linguistic/formal features. The impact of journalistic values overrode that of the news audience attributes which served as a baseline for comparison. Specifically, believability, depth, and diversity were more important in predicting audience-rated news quality than readability, objectivity, factuality, and sensationalism. Regarding linguistic/formal features, bylines, sources, subjective expressions, and article similarities were influential. This study provides an additional support that news audiences regard journalistic values highly as substantial factors of news quality. It also provides empirical evidence for the normative news reporting guidelines. Methodologically, it serves as an example of integrating computational and textual methods with traditional social science approach

Journalism · Media studies · News media · Normative · Political science · Readability · Social media · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Computer Science · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOI