Three new research papers by Reuters Journalism Fellows now online
14 Oct 2009
Three new research papers by Reuters Journalism Fellows are now online:
Eleanor Hall, the presenter of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s The World Today, has examined the use of e-campaigning and social networking by the Obama campaign, and asked whether the same phenomenon could happen in the UK. She concludes that while many MPs and citizens are increasingly using web 2.0 to engage in politics, institutional and cultural differences between the US and the UK make it unlikely Britain will ever see Obama-levels of enthusiasm for using web 2.0 in political campaigns.
Annikka Mutanen, a science journalist at the Finnish magazine Tiede, has researched conventions that guide journalists when they are writing – or choosing not to write – about religion. Via interviews with 25 journalists and editors from the British and Finnish press, she examines whether newspapers are reluctant to understand and explain religious faith. On the other hand, do they leave religious ideas unquestioned and beyond criticism? To a certain extent, the answer to both questions was yes–and more so in Finland than in the UK.
Nic Newman, Future Media Controller at the BBC, has written an up-to-date paper on the rise of social media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and their impact on mainstream media organisations like the BBC, CNN, the Guardian, Telegraph and CNN. It includes an analysis of how coverage of breaking news events like the G20 London summit and the Iranian street protests is changing. One of his conclusions is that social media are not replacing journalism, but they are creating an important extra layer of information and diverse opinion.
