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The New Yellow Journalism: Examining the Algorithmic Turn in News Organizations’ Social Media Information Practice Through the Lens of Cultural Time Orientation

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The New Yellow Journalism: Examining the Algorithmic Turn in News Organizations’ Social Media Information Practice Through the Lens of Cultural Time Orientation UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The New Yellow Journalism: Examining the Algorithmic Turn in News Organizations’ Social Media Information Practice through the Lens of Cultural Time Orientation Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5k712905 Author Ascher, Diana L. Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The New Yellow Journalism: Examining the Algorithmic Turn in News Organizations’ Social Media Information Practice through the Lens of Cultural Time Orientation A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies by Diana Ascher 2017 © Copyright by Diana Ascher 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The New Yellow Journalism: Examining the Algorithmic Turn in News Organizations’ Social Media Information Practice through the Lens of Cultural Time Orientation by Diana Ascher Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Leah A. Lievrouw, Chair To address the complex challenges posed by increasingly fast information exchange in social media networks and declining advertising revenue in the digital era, news organizations are turning to software to automate online engagement. To date, there has been little study of whether algorithmic social media solutions used by news organizations are able to replicate the nuances of culturally informed human judgment. Using a novel combination of the critical incident technique, network analysis, and a new interpretive method—the Time Analytic Framework for Information Practice—this dissertation explores the effects of cultural time orientation on the social media activity of three culturally distinct news organizations before and after automation. The present study investigates how cultural time orientation may exacerbate or mitigate the effects of the algorithmic turn on news organization information practice by examining cases ii in which tweet prioritization appears to have violated reader expectations. Findings suggest that the three methods employed by the news organizations to automate the information practice previously conducted by social media managers reflect the news organizations’ cultural time orientations. Further, case studies of persistent tweets in each social media network reveal the emergence of a new form of yellow journalism—algorithmic sensationalism—arising from information practices that disproportionately amplify inflammatory content and lack a mechanism for applying timely human judgment. iii The dissertation of Diana L. Ascher is approved. Christine L. Borgman Jonathan Furner Ronald E. Rice Leah A. Lievrouw, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angles 2017 iv For my parents For my daughter Because life is both, always v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... xii Vita ............................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Situating the Study ................................................................................................................ 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Terminology .......................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Information Practice as a Reflection of Values ................................................................... 10 2.3 Decision Making and Prioritization .................................................................................... 11 2.4 Analyzing Existing Models of Information Practice........................................................... 19 2.4.1 Instrumental facets of information practice models ..................................................... 21 2.5 Time and Models of Information Practice .......................................................................... 27 2.5.1 Problem-solving models ............................................................................................... 28 2.5.2 Awareness models ........................................................................................................ 29 2.5.3 Implicit time orientation in models of information practice......................................... 31 2.6 Culture ................................................................................................................................. 36 2.6.1 Cultural time orientation ............................................................................................... 38 2.6.2 Cultural time orientation as research focus .................................................................. 52 2.6.3 Culture in information studies ...................................................................................... 54 2.7 Time Analytic Framework for Information Practice........................................................... 61 2.7.1 Attention ....................................................................................................................... 64 2.7.2 Interpretation ................................................................................................................ 65 2.7.2 Evaluation ..................................................................................................................... 66 2.7.3 Prioritization ................................................................................................................. 67 2.7.4 Action ........................................................................................................................... 68 2.7.5 Context and expectations .............................................................................................. 68 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................................... 70 3.1 Research Design .................................................................................................................. 70 3.2 Suitability ............................................................................................................................ 74 3.3 Social Media News Production as a Site of Information Practice ...................................... 75 vi 3.3.1 Twitter as a news platform ........................................................................................... 76 3.3.2 Technology employed in this study .............................................................................. 83 3.3.3 Setting and participants ................................................................................................ 88 3.4 Data Sources and Collection ............................................................................................. 113 3.4.1 Selection of pre- and post-automation periods ........................................................... 114 3.4.2 Pilot tests..................................................................................................................... 116 3.4.3 Data collection procedure ........................................................................................... 117 3.5 Data Analysis Techniques ................................................................................................. 124 3.5.1 Critical incident technique and network analysis ....................................................... 125 3.5.2 Social network analysis .............................................................................................. 127 3.5.3 Informetric network analysis ...................................................................................... 129 3.5.4 Interpretive analysis .................................................................................................... 134 Chapter 4: Findings ..................................................................................................................... 136 4.1 Pre-Automation Synopsis .................................................................................................. 136 4.1.1 Pre-automation social network analyses..................................................................... 137 4.1.2 Pre-automation informetric network analyses ............................................................ 138 4.2 Post-Automation Synopsis ................................................................................................ 141 4.2.1 Post-automation social network analyses ................................................................... 142 4.2.2 Post-automation informetric network analyses .......................................................... 143 4.3 Persistent Path Topics ....................................................................................................... 143 Chapter 5: Historical Recognition, Animal Rights, and The Korea Times Twitter Network ..... 145 5.1 Pre-Automation ................................................................................................................
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