Media and Communication Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2439
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Media and Communication Open Access Journal | ISSN: 2183-2439 Volume 7, Issue 1 (2019) EmergingEmerging TechnologiesTechnologies inin JournalismJournalism andand Media:Media: InternationalInternational PerspectivesPerspectives onon TheirTheir NatureNature andand ImpactImpact Editor John Pavlik Media and Communication, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1 Emerging Technologies in Journalism and Media: International Perspectives on Their Nature and Impact Published by Cogitatio Press Rua Fialho de Almeida 14, 2º Esq., 1070-129 Lisbon Portugal Academic Editor John Pavlik, Rutgers University, USA Available online at: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication This issue is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). Articles may be reproduced provided that credit is given to the original and Media and Communication is acknowledged as the original venue of publication. Table of Contents Advancing Engaged Scholarship in the Media Field John V. Pavlik 114–116 Optimizing Content with A/B Headline Testing: Changing Newsroom Practices Nick Hagar and Nicholas Diakopoulos 117–127 Does Fear of Isolation Disappear Online? Attention-Seeking Motivators in Online Political Engagement KyuJin Shim and Klive (Soo-Kwang) Oh 128–138 Social Television Viewing with Second Screen Platforms: Antecedents and Consequences Miao Guo 139–152 Audience-Centric Engagement, Collaboration Culture and Platform Counterbalancing: A Longitudinal Study of Ongoing Sensemaking of Emerging Technologies Sherwin Chua and Oscar Westlund 153–165 Invisible Locative Media: Key Considerations at the Nexus of Place and Digital Journalism Ivar John Erdal, Kjetil Vaage Øie, Brett Oppegaard and Oscar Westlund 166–178 Insularized Connectedness: Mobile Chat Applications and News Production Colin Agur 179–188 Conducting Research on the World’s Changing Mediascape: Principles and Practices John V. Pavlik, Everette E. Dennis, Rachel Davis Mersey and Justin Gengler 189–192 Media and Communication (ISSN: 2183–2439) 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages 114–116 DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1984 Editorial Advancing Engaged Scholarship in the Media Field John V. Pavlik Department of Journalism and Media Studies, The School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 21 January 2019 | Published: 19 February 2019 Abstract Policy makers, industry leaders, and concerned citizens alike all face vexing questions about the changing nature of emerg- ing technology and its impact on journalism, media and society. Research on this topic has never been more critical in the U.S. and around the world. The need is especially acute for engaged scholarship in this domain. By bringing their research into the broader public arena, engaged media scholars can contribute to policy debates, shape industry practices and poli- cies, and enrich public understanding. Keywords engaged scholarship; journalism; media; technological change Issue This editorial is part of the issue “Emerging Technologies in Journalism and Media: International Perspectives on Their Nature and Impact”, edited by John Pavlik (Rutgers University, USA). © 2019 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). This thematic issue of Media and Communication is dia utilizing voice and image, and a more modern form devoted to an international examination of the conse- of public communication emerged. The invention of the quences of technological change on media and society. Internet, World Wide Web, and a host of digital technolo- This editorial seeks to articulate why this focus matters. gies based on electronic computing and its miniaturiza- In doing so, it examines why technological change is a tion have ushered in even more sweeping changes to the crucial area of inquiry in media research and why taking media landscape. The rise of social media, mobile plat- an international perspective is essential. forms, and artificial intelligence in the 21st century has Media and technology always have been intertwined. brought even more change. Carved in stone or metal, Caesar’s Acta Diurna of an- It is not a matter of technological determinism. Tech- cient Rome was arguably the world’s first newspaper. nological developments by themselves do not necessar- The use of papyrus as a medium of printed text enabled ily produce changes in the media system. A classic exam- a more portable form of news and information distribu- ple is the development of 8-track audiotape. In the late tion throughout the Roman Empire. The development 1960s it emerged as a new media format for recording of movable type in the 15th century enabled the print- and distribution of audio, music especially, but the ad- ing of books and laid the foundation for the Renaissance. vent of the miniature cassette recorder swept it aside. The optical telegraph allowed Napoleon to disseminate Rather, the characteristics or qualities of a particular messages hundreds of kilometers in a matter of minutes technology have enabled certain media capabilities. But via a system of semaphore communications using line- often it has been a matter of how certain innovative peo- of-sight towers built across France and much of Europe ple have put those capabilities to use that has shaped the in the 1790s. The invention of steam-powered printing particular media form. For example, New York City pub- in the 19th century enabled the first true mass commu- lisher James Gordon Bennett was among those who saw nication. Later the advent of photography and moving the potential in the new steam-powered printing press pictures, the electric telegraph, wireless communication to reinvent the 19th century newspaper. He and others and electronic television enabled new forms of mass me- reimagined the then-elite newspapers of the day to cre- Media and Communication, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages 114–117 114 ate the Penny Press, daily printed products available for tising marketplace not only in the U.S. but also in much one cent to many thousands of readers, and thus give of the world. They do not dominate China, but that coun- birth to an era of mass media. In the late 20th century, in- try has its own social media and digital giants such as ventors such as Steve Mann and Jaron Lanier envisioned WeChat that increasingly control almost every aspect of the potential to employ miniaturized digital technologies the media and communication system. to design a wearable computer. Today’s immersive plat- Technological change continues to disrupt media and forms such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality society across the globe. The impact is seen in virtually (VR) are the direct descendants of their pioneering work. every aspect of life, from the arena of politics and pub- Nor is it a simple matter whether the changes that lic affairs, to the interpersonal relationships among fam- result will be beneficial or detrimental to society. Broad ily, friends and the wider public. Never has the need cultural, economic, and political forces and institutions for research been more acute. The consequences can are in a dynamic relationship with how media and those be seen in at least four broad areas. First, the meth- who own or control them utilize new technological capac- ods of production, the ways journalists and other media ities. For example, as Carey (2009) has noted, the advent practitioners do their work, are shifting. In just a matter of the telegraph played a key role in the development of of a few years, virtually every journalist employs a mo- modern America. bile device, for example, in their reporting, whether it is to take photographs or capture video of news events, In one of the most famous paragraphs of our most fa- or to conduct voice interviews, send and receive text mous autobiography, Henry Adams located the pre- messages with sources or editors, or search for infor- cise moment when ‘eighteenth-century troglodytic mation via Google, or navigate to a location, mobile de- Boston’ joined industrial America: ‘the opening of vices are indispensible tools in modern journalism. Sec- the Boston and Albany Rail-road; the appearance of ond, the content itself of journalism and media is dra- the first Cunard Steamers in the bay; and the tele- matically shifting from traditional forms designed largely graphic messages which carried from Baltimore to for analog media (linear text stories for printed newspa- Washington the news that Henry Clay and James K. pers and magazines, audio or video reports for terres- Polk were nominated for the presidency. This was trial broadcast television and radio) to digital, mobile, May, 1844’. (Carey, 2009) networked media. Whether in immersive formats such as AR or VR, downloadable or streaming formats such In the 21st century, the disruption of media fueled by as video, music or podcasts, textual narratives with em- digitization has led to wide-spread economic and jour- bedded clickable links, or interactive audio formats de- nalistic restructuring in the news industry. Many daily livered via smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo with newspapers have ceased printing, some converting ei- Alexa or the Google Home, the on-demand world of me- ther entirely or largely to digital distribution, and some dia content bears less and less resemblance to the quaint have closed operations entirely. Recognizing a fire sale, media content of the 20th century. Third, the nature large publicly traded hedge funds such as Alden Global and extent of public engagement in the media sphere Capital have become major owners of news organiza- is completely transformed. Increasingly gone are notions tions (i.e., local newspapers) across the U.S. As of this of a passive audience. In its place is an active, participa- writing, the hedge fund MNG Enterprises, better known tory media user who is almost as likely to upload con- as Digital First Media, has bid about $1.4 billion to ac- tent as download or stream it.