Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap - Volume 43, Issue 2, 2015

Beste lezer,

Project X Haren research revisited. A critical analysis of the research project about the role of the media in the Facebook riots in September 2012

In September 2012 the Dutch town of Haren witnessed a real-time version of a Project X party, starting with a Facebook event page and culminating in riots and substantial property destruction.The Cohen Committee studied the alleged mobilizing role of the news media and social media in the start-up phase. In this article a critical analysis will be made of the results and the methodology of this study. The results will be placed in the perspective of scientific research traditions on media and mobilization processes leading to large scale social disturbances. The Cohen Report tried to prove that a ‘cross-media-hype’ developed based on the critical mass on Facebook, but the empirical data contradict this position. They show that Facebook exploded after the first reports on Project X Haren in the news media. The concept of ‘cross media interactions’ leading to a powerful and comprehensive media hype is also quite problematic. It will be shown that new concepts are needed to analyze these complex interactions, combining different research paradigms on (online) media, youth culture and mobilization.

Vasterman en Wijfjes hebben ons rapport De weg naar Haren gedetailleerd op de snijtafel ontleed. Veel van hun kritiek is nuttig voor de discussie over de rol van de sociale en traditionele media in sociale bewegingen en mobilisaties, de relatie tussen sociale en traditionele massamedia en het verschijnsel mediahype bij deze relatie. Hun evaluatie dat over de kwaliteiten van het onderzoek het nodige valt af te dingen is echter overtrokken. Zij beseffen het bestaan van de tijdsdruk waaronder het onderzoek moest worden uitgevoerd en zij constateren dat weliswaar ‘in zeer korte tijd indrukwekkend veel materiaal is verzameld en geanalyseerd’. Het rapport kan gezien worden als een beleidsrapport gebaseerd op wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Voor de lezers van beleidsrapporten kan men niet allerlei communicatiewetenschappelijke theorieën, formules van netwerkanalyse, gedetailleerde operationaliseringen van inhoudsanalyse, steekproeftrekkingen enzovoort voorschotelen. Dat hebben wij gedaan in de artikelen voor wetenschappelijke tijdschriften die wij daarna geschreven hebben. Helaas zijn die op het moment van schrijven nog niet gepubliceerd (Van Dijk, Van de Wijngaert & Ten Tije, forthcoming; Van de Wijngaert, Van Dijk & Ten Tije, forthcoming). Bij het schrijven van deze artikelen hadden wij achteraf gezien ook liever bepaalde vraagstellingen en methoden anders aangepakt dan toen onder grote tijdsdruk mogelijk was. Niettemin verdedigen wij de wetenschappelijke kwaliteit van het beleidsrapport.

Participation, youngsters and public service media projects. Carte Blanche (VRT) and BNN University (NPO)

This article analyses whether and to what extent public broadcasters have been able to transpose concepts like interaction, co-creation and participation into day-to-day media service delivery. The article theoretically frames this discussion, first, by defining and operationalising these concepts, focusing mainly on participation, and, second, by analysing four emerging audience challenges. Subsequently, a comparative case study analysis is conducted. Included in the analysis are two PSM multiplatform projects targeted at youngsters: Carte Blanche (VRT, Flanders) and BNN University (NPO, the Netherlands). Findings are based on a qualitative document analysis, desk research and semi-structured interviews with both producers of and participants in these multi-platform projects.

From political centre Binnenhof to the Albert Cuyp street market: a longitudinal analysis of sources in television news

Since the 1990s, many have argued that journalists should focus less on elite sources and more on alternative sources as news definers. It is however unclear whether they succeed in doing so. A longitudinal content analysis of Dutch television news (1990-2012) showed that the use of elite sources has declined, whereas citizen sources have increased. The use of civil society sources did not change over the years. The finding that citizen sources are primarily used as vox populi implies that citizens generally play a passive role in news stories, and that they thus do not add significant information to the story. The traditional monopoly of political elite sources as primary news definers is counter-balanced throughout the years by the use of in particular other elite sources: journalists and experts.

Demographic diversity in the Flemish press

This study analyses the diversity of the Flemish news by looking at demographic diversity, i.e. the extent to which gender, age and ethnicity in society are proportionally represented in the news. In a constructed week (April-May 2012) (N = 4,800) 12,743 persons were mentioned, each of them were assigned to age groups, man or woman, ethnic minority or ethnic majority. The results indicate that youngsters, the elderly, women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented as news sources in the Flemish news. Especially in the case of elite sources, the news was strongly dominated by adult ‘white’ men. Women were systematically associated more often with ‘feminine’ topics such as welfare and culture, whereas news topics such as sports, politics or economics were strongly dominated by male actors. Ethnic minorities were predominantly (84,2%) connected to sport, crime and justice, and human rights including immigration.

Daan Muntinga volgt Nathalie Sonck op als nieuwe book editor binnen de kernredactie van Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap.