Copyright by Ori Tenenboim 2020
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Copyright by Ori Tenenboim 2020 The Dissertation Committee for Ori Tenenboim Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: News Engagement Logics: Examining Practices of Media Outlets and Their Audiences on Social Networking Sites Committee: Stephen D. Reese, Supervisor Gina Chen H. Iris Chyi Thomas J. Johnson Natalie J. Stroud News Engagement Logics: Examining Practices of Media Outlets and Their Audiences on Social Networking Sites by Ori Tenenboim Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2020 Acknowledgements When I was a child and my parents thought I was working on something too hard or too long, they would say: “Ori, this is not a PhD dissertation.” In November 2020, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation. Bringing my work to fruition would not have been possible without the support of mentors, colleagues, friends, and loved ones. It would also not have been possible without interviewees who took the time to share their insights with me. To all of them, I am indebted and express my gratitude. As part of my work and PhD program at the University of Texas at Austin I got to interact with inspiring people who taught me a great deal. First, I would like to thank my dissertation adviser, Stephen Reese, for his mentorship. Dr. Reese taught me how to think conceptually by encouraging me to explicate concepts and to identify connections between them. By so doing, he made it possible for me to offer theoretical advancement. He also encouraged me to pursue my own ideas and to clearly state what I do and why it matters. He has been highly patient and supportive throughout my academic journey. I express my thanks to the Director of the Center for Media Engagement and my dissertation committee member, Talia Stroud, for her investment in me. Dr. Stroud gave me the opportunity to be part of the Engaging News Project, which later became the Center for Media Engagement, and to contribute to research that has practical implications. She helped me think about the role of journalism in a democracy and taught me to consider both democratic and business implications of media-related research. She also taught me to do meticulous work and has been incredibly generous to me. I thank the Associate Director of the Center for Media Engagement and my dissertation committee member, Gina Masullo, for her support. I was fortunate to be part of Dr. Masullo’s research group, Group of Online Media Engagement, and to later work closely with her in the Center for Media Engagement. I learned from her a great deal—from insights iv on incivility in the digital media environment to properly conducting experiments and focus groups. She also taught me how to write in an accessible way and has been very generous to me. I express my thanks to my dissertation committee member, Iris Chyi, for her mentorship. Dr. Chyi guided me through the process of developing my first major research project at UT. I later learned from her about the business of journalism and had the privilege to study with her newspapers’ online and print readership and newspapers’ price hikes. Our work was even featured in leading media outlets, such as Politico and The Guardian. Dr. Chyi encouraged me to challenge conventional thinking and has been greatly supportive throughout my academic journey. I thank my dissertation committee member, Tom Johnson, for his support. In Dr. Johnson’s Content Analysis course I learned how to conduct a content analysis of social media posts, and as part of his Digital Media Research Program I learned to develop survey questions. He offered valuable feedback on my papers and encouraged me to pursue my ideas and to clearly articulate them. I also appreciate his great generosity. At the start of my PhD journey, I had the privilege to work closely with Regina Lawrence, the former director of Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life. Thanks to Dr. Lawrence I gained a deeper understanding of political communication and civic engagement and learned to ask better questions. I am grateful for her tremendous support and for greatly inspiring me. At Strauss I was later fortunate to work closely with Roderick Hart. In each conversation with him I learned something new—for example, how hope is different from optimism, and why reader letters to newspapers are important. I am grateful for Dr. Hart’s words of wisdom, as well as for his help, kindness, and patience. I also had the great fortune to be mentored by friends and colleagues who were students when I arrived at UT and are now professors in other institutions. I express my v thanks to Rachel Mourão, Shannon McGregor, and Magdalena Saldaña for their tremendous guidance, help, support, and generosity, as well as for the fun time we spent—whether it was at a party in Austin or on a boat in Prague. I am grateful for friendships and collegial relationships formed in UT School of Journalism and Media, including with (in alphabetical order) Lourdes Cueva Chacón, Víctor García, Danielle Kilgo, Kyser Lough, Shuning Lu, Paro Pain, Martin Riedl, Jiyoun Suk, and Miki Tanikawa, who have been a source of encouragement. I am also indebted to friends and colleagues related to the Center for Media Engagement for their support and encouragement, including (in alphabetical order) Melody Avant, Jessica Collier, Alex Curry, João Gonçalves, Yujin Kim, Ivan Lacasa, Taeyoung Lee, Ashley Muddiman, Caroline Murray, Per Oleskog Tryggvason, Christian Staal Bruun Overgaard, Cynthia Peacock, Josh Scacco, Emily Van Duyn, María Victoria-Mas, Kelsey Whipple, Claudia Wilhelm, Tamar Wilner, and Marc Ziegele. Additional faculty and staff members at UT Austin (in the present or past) deserve thanks and praise for their help, support, and insight, including R.B. Brenner, Kathleen McElroy, Sharon Jarvis, Mary Bock, Susan Nold, Kathy Warbelow, Fred Zipp, David Donaldson, Clare Boyle, Chaz Nailor, Chuck Courtney, Melissa Huebsch-Stroud, and Sylvia Edwards. Furthermore, as a teaching assistant I had the privilege to teach and interact with UT journalism students. I was impressed by their creative storytelling and thank them for being a source of inspiration. I express my thanks to Akiba Cohen and Idit Manosevitch of Israel for mentoring me and allowing me to gain research skills before I came to UT Austin. My first published academic work is with Dr. Cohen, and the development of ideas related to participatory journalism and online deliberation was made possible as part of my work with Dr. Manosevitch. vi I am also grateful for the meaningful time I spent with older and newer friends and colleagues in different parts of the world. In particular, I want to acknowledge my friends Yigal Harkavy, Boaz Anin, Ely Kovetz, Kobi Barkan, and Yoel Kornreich, who have enriched my life since childhood. A major source of strength throughout my life has been my amazing family. In particular, I thank my parents and sister for their love. Thanks to the unwavering support and dedication of my mother, I have been able to pursue higher education. Thanks to the lessons from my father, I learned to never give up. Thanks to my sister, I have been inspired and learned that even pursuing a PhD is an achievable goal. I also express special thanks to my niece for her help and to my family members Hana and Marcel for their support and for making my visits on the East Coast unforgettable. Last but not least, I thank my partner Alysia whose love, patience, help, and persistent encouragement have made this dissertation possible. vii Abstract News Engagement Logics: Examining Practices of Media Outlets and Their Audiences on Social Networking Sites Ori Tenenboim, PhD The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: Stephen D. Reese In an attempt to build relationships with audience members in the digital media environment, news organizations operate beyond their proprietary platforms. On non- proprietary platforms, such as Facebook, they occupy spaces that are termed here triple-party news-spaces: digital spaces that involve a news publisher, a platform owner, and users. The proposed dissertation seeks to identify and explicate the underlying logics of media production and usage in these spaces. On the production side, it draws on 28 interviews to investigate how 14 news organizations in the United States of America and Israel produce messages for triple-party news-spaces. On the media usage side, it employs a content analysis of 1,600 messages and an analysis of engagement metrics for 157,962 messages to examine to what extent and how news organizations’ messages differ in the modes of engagement they generate: commenting versus sharing versus liking/reacting. By examining media production and usage in triple-party news-spaces, the dissertation develops conceptually and empirically news engagement logics that are employed in these spaces—logics by which news organizations act to evoke audience interaction with their content, and audience members actually interact with it. While audience engagement is generally important for news organizations, it is particularly important on social networking sites where algorithms prioritize posts that generate engagement. In developing news engagement logics, the viii dissertation uses the theoretical construct of media logics, news value theory and literature on engagement enhancers, and the participatory paradigm in audience research, suggesting that certain content characteristics are associated with each of the examined modes of engagement in more than one country and other content characteristics are associated with particular modes of engagement. The dissertation also suggests that the news organizations under study strive to balance between perceived journalistic imperatives or standards and perceived rules of the social media “game” by combining older and newer logics in selecting content, deciding when to post it, choosing expression style, signaling which content deserves more attention, and determining the organizations’ approach toward user-generated content.