Journal Description
Electronic News is a quarterly journal devoted to advancing knowledge and understanding of the news as disseminated through electronic media channels. This is the official journal of the Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
Electronic News promotes and publishes research and ideas with clear relevance to the content, practice, education, and administration of news across radio, television, mobile, web, social, and streaming platforms.
Electronic News bridges between scholars and practitioners, providing opportunities to publish and read applied research, invited essays, and reviews of books relevant to electronic news as an evolving and dynamic practice.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Journal Description
- by Suzanne LysakElectronic News, Ahead of Print. This mixed methods study analyzes how broadcast news directors renegotiate their roles under organizational and cultural times of change. Even before COVID-19, local television news directors, one of the two predominant groups of journalism managers in the United States, were experiencing shifts in roles related to their growing work responsibilities. These changes were the result of long-term workplace upheavals including conglomeration and digital disruption. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, news directors found themselves managing through this additional, short-term upheaval. The authors of this study sought to discover how industry upheavals impact broadcast newsroom management roles.
- by Ellen K. DunnElectronic News, Ahead of Print. Much like first responders, journalists run toward dangerous scenes instead of away from them, often putting themselves at risk. Unlike first responders, there is no research on how a person's risk propensity ties to their career. To gauge if need correlates with risk, as Risk Sensitivity Theory suggests, reporters of various ages and tenures were surveyed on their sensation-seeking levels and propensity to engage in risky behaviors while on the job. According to the results, journalism risk propensity correlated positively with sensation seeking. Risk motivations increase with age and tenure, meaning that older and more […]
- by Mirjana PanticElectronic News, Ahead of Print. This study analyzed mission statements of mainstream news media in the United States and surveyed news consumers to investigate gatekeeping practices in a contemporary news ecosystem. Data show that news organizations expressed commitment to independence, truth-telling, and crafting news based on readers’ interests. However, the mission statements never mentioned any form of citizens’ active engagement in news creation. Looking into the citizens’ perspective, a survey of 280 participants shows that they primarily expect news organizations to provide opportunities for them to post comments on news and share stories, which is the most common form of […]
- by Kelly KaufholdElectronic News, Ahead of Print. A national panel survey (n = 1,332) oversampled partisans (40% Democrat, 40% Republican, 20% Independent) and exposed them to an experiment showing partisan news sources (Fox News Channel and MSNBC) and partisan content, in a test of hostile media perception. Partisans did not find the news outlets to be hostile but did find out-group content to be hostile. The study also compared partisan cable news with broadcast TV news and found that viewers of traditional broadcast news (both network and local) were more moderate and viewed the news, and news sources, as less hostile. This study is […]
- by Tom DobberElectronic News, Ahead of Print. The comment section accompanying news stories on social media offers an important interactive context for news, but may also afford the possibility to spread anti-establishment, trust-eroding comments. Exposure to such comments may affect social media users’ trust in news media. However, evidence of over-time effects is scarce. This study draws upon cultivation theory and uses a three-wave panel survey in the Netherlands (N = 906). Findings indicate that increased comment reading at T2 exacerbates and deepens news media mistrust at T3, suggesting that exposure to the comment section accompanying news stories posted on social media indeed has […]
- by Nataliya RomanElectronic News, Ahead of Print. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a rare opportunity for analysis of local American television news reporting during a global health crisis. Using Diffusion of Innovations as the theoretical framework of their study, researchers conducted 20 in-depth interviews in summer 2021 with local television reporters from small, medium, and large markets across the United States about their work conditions during the pandemic. Thematic analysis revealed time-saving, cost-saving, and health-saving measures adopted under difficult and confusing circumstances.
- by Elia PowersElectronic News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Page 196-212, December 2024. Scholars commonly reference journalistic neutrality, but not in the context of self-presentation. This study examines how journalists feel compelled to demonstrate neutrality through their performance of self. Through in-depth interviews (n = 57) with broadcast journalists and those who shape their on-air presentation, I explore the construct of performance neutrality, identifying dimensions related to speech, appearance, and demeanor. Journalists negotiated expectations of performance neutrality by conforming to—and in some cases challenging—restrictive institutionalized norms. Drawing on social constructionism theory and the notion of White normativity, I argue that neutrality is a false ideal […]
- by Kenneth CampbellElectronic News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Page 191-195, December 2024. In this special issue, we examine the practice of journalism globally from a lens through which the power of journalism can be maintained and secured for the benefit of society, pushing back against misinformation and disinformation.
- by Gizachew Nemomsa EranfenoElectronic News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Page 213-242, December 2024. This study examines the diversity of news sourcing in Ethiopian TV channels, utilizing Critical Political Economy approach. It analyses 1167 news stories from 2019 to 2021 and interviews with 25 journalists. The study reveals disparity in the representation of peripheral communities, despite the utilization of various news sources. This indicates that diversifying news sources alone does not guarantee equal representation of diverse voices. Economic limitations, editorial decisions, and language barriers confine news gathering to specific geographic regions. Journalists’ limited autonomy and newsroom culture contribute to prioritizing government affairs thereby limiting […]
- by Sean R. SadriElectronic News, Volume 18, Issue 4, Page 243-262, December 2024. Utilizing framing theory, the present study examined gender differences in Iranian state-run media and alternative media portrayals of elite athlete emigration. By analyzing 704 online news articles published between 2007 and 2022 and comparing gender disparities, the study provides insights into the framing narratives used by a nation without a free press to undermine gender equity and national dialogues about sport. The study determined that male athletes received disproportionally high framing coverage over time, but this gender imbalance shifted to the inverse in 2020. This can be attributed to a […]
- by Ran WeiElectronic News, Ahead of Print. This study explores the perceived effects of political ads that appeared on social media in the 2012 presidential campaign from a third-person effect perspective. Results of a survey using a probability sample of 496 college students indicated that the respondents tend to believe that political ads on social media have a greater influence on others than on themselves. However, the more desirable they viewed such ads, the more they admitted the ads to having influenced themselves. Finally, third-person perception of political ads on social media was found to be a positive predictor of engagement in […]