New Directions
Digital Media vs Mainstream Media: Influence of Media Exposure and Information Preference on Perceptions of Media Credibility
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mistura Adebusola Salaudeen, Ngozi Onyechi
The advent of the internet and the proliferation of social networking sites and weblogs in Nigeria have caused a paradigm shift in journalism practice. Citizens who were solely recipients of information transmitted exclusively by the mainstream media, have themselves, become active creators and disseminators of media contents. With the digital media and the mainstream media vying for attention by daily inundating the audience with limitless amount of information, there are growing concerns among Nigerians about the authenticity and reliability of these information, which begs the questions; how trustworthy is mainstream journalism and citizen journalism to Nigerians? What is the correlation, if any, among people’s exposure to both forms of media, their information preference on both forms of media and their perceived credibility about both forms of media? Although, previous studies in other parts of the world have examined the relationship between media exposure and media credibility, this study takes a different approach by investigating the relationship among three variables – media exposure pattern, information preference, and perception about mainstream and citizen journalism credibility. Analysis of data gathered from 264 Nigerian university students through survey and focus group discussions reveals that respondents rate mainstream media as more credible although they are more exposed to and prefer to access information from digital media. The study concludes that the nature of the two media platforms as well as the manner of practicing journalism on these two media platforms greatly influences how the audience perceive their credibility.
Publisher, Author, Protagonist, and Change-maker: A Case Study of Photojournalist Ed Kashi’s Imagery Through the Instagram Frame
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sini Kaipainen
Social media like Instagram has allowed for a professional photojournalist to emphasize the value of personal testimony over institutional media. Furthermore, a shift to these platforms offers opportunities to connect directly with audiences without traditional editorial intervention. Yet, empowering of individuals can be seen overall positive for society but not necessarily for the profession of conflict-related reporting and witnessing. For these reasons, this case study of photojournalist Ed Kashi's Instagram profile imagery outlines the aspects of discursive constructions of his professional identity narrative. Accordingly, using Kashi’s own words, Instagram allows him take a role of publisher, author, protagonist, and change-maker. The present paper uses the media observation of the participant’s Instagram account and the close reading of his research interview as a method in order to consider 1) how, for instance, promotional, autobiographical, testimonial, and journalistic discourses are interlinked, and 2) how photojournalist's media identities emerge in these discourses in a media-specific way. The present case study indicates that these discourses are connected and repeatedly blended not only to condition such discourses but also to capitalize them in a performative manner on and because of Instagram. Therefore, the platform can reshape or expand the dimensions of photojournalism both as a profession and practice. This case study is a part of a larger ongoing PhD project that explores professional photojournalists, who document conflicts-related issues on Instagram.
Computer Mediated Communication: Maintaining an Online Relationship
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sam Nkana
This paper discusses the notion that individuals can build and maintain online relationships that are satisfying. Social information processing theory (SIP) was developed by Joseph Walther in 1992 to answer the question how the Internet and World Wide Web impacted the ways people communicated. The underlying question was whether people could really form a meaningful relationship when their only point of contact was through a computer. When Walther developed SIP in the early 1990s the prevailing response to the question was no. However, he argues that given the opportunity for sufficient exchange of social messages and subsequent relational growth, “as goes face-to-face communication, so goes online communication.” (Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2019). Walther goes so far to suggest that people can indeed form relationships online that are satisfying, and sometimes even more satisfying than their offline interactions. Furthermore, Walther believes SIP can be as effective for its users similar to theories such as presence theory, social penetration theory, and uncertainty reduction theory.
Glocalized Entertainment: Creativity and Deviance in Arab Music Videos
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mustafa Taha
This paper examines creativity and deviance in popular Arab music videos from an Islamic perspective. The researcher relies on a nonrandom sample (50 music videos) and uses qualitative content analysis to collect, analyze, and interpret the data. The unit of analysis is a music video, and the categories of the variables include clothing, facial expressions, exposure of body parts, dance, camera zooms, and the role of the singer in the video clip. The results show that the majority of the singers’ clothes are revealing, and most of the singers' body parts are exposed. Moreover, the music videos contain provocative moves and dances that are considered indecent and inappropriate from a conservative Islamic perspective. The paper highlights the concept of Western cultural invasion and the implications of transnational satellite television and social media in challenging conservative Islamic teachings.
