Research Steve Paulussen

Abstract

Technological and economic developments have led to the availability of an overwhelming quantity of digital content. Therefore, it has become crucial, in particular for media content providers, to incorporate algorithmic gatekeepers, which filter, rank and recommend content. Are these algorithmic gatekeepers undermining media's contribution to epistemic welfare? In ALGEPI, we start from the novel concept of epistemic welfare, defined as the individuals' right to know and be exposed to trustworthy, independent and diverse information while respecting individual rights to their own data. By connecting legal, political, technological and sociocultural perspectives, we will develop a conceptual framework for epistemic welfare. This framework will allow us to understand the effects of algorithmic gatekeepers on epistemic welfare. The new interdisciplinary research program will build on multi-method empirical research applied to algorithmic gatekeepers. Thanks to the theoretical and empirical findings, we will be able to develop normative instruments to align algorithmic gatekeeping with epistemic welfare. Taking the novel concept of epistemic welfare as a starting point allows all project partners to embark on a joint, integrated exploration of the concept. This may lead to a paradigmatic shift in the conceptualization of the impact of algorithmic gatekeepers in media sectors, proposing to expand the notions of media pluralism and consumer welfare to epistemic welfare.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Van den Bulck Hilde

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project, financed by the Flemish Community, aims at the establishment of a knowledge centre for media research in Flanders. The aim of Mediapunt is to collect and share knowledge and research on trends in media, media use and media participation, with a focus on Flanders.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Aelst Peter
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Media, Movements and Politics (M2P)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Current society faces multiple challenges that are perceived as crises. Recent examples include the COVID-19 health crisis, the climate change crisis, the global energy crisis and the 'trust crisis', eroding trust in government, science, etc. They constitute complex, 'wicked problems', which are hard to resolve, and are the object of divergent views. What becomes increasingly apparent is that knowledge of the facts does not suffice to understand discussions of these complex events and evolutions. The ways these challenges are spoken about, how they are represented and conceptualized, is what we understand here as crisis discourse. Rather than simply capturing reality, discourses give meaning, attribute causes and consequences, and express moral views. Consequently, discussions on societal challenges can be viewed as a discursive struggle where different views of reality compete for dominance. For example, in discussions on climate change, ecological discourses compete with economical and social ones. Media play a crucial role in this discursive struggle to make sense of these societal challenges and construct them as crises. Media act as meaning-making devices, giving sense to the complex reality that surrounds us. Social media immediately come to mind, as highly influential platforms spreading ideas. However, 'legacy' media, such as newspapers and TV, also continue to play a key role in broadcasting and legitimizing certain worldviews and discourses. All these media are strongly intertwined in our current digitized and 'mediatized' society, where media both reflect and impact societal events on an everyday basis. The aim of the challenge we propose is to better understand the workings of competing mediated discourses on current societal crises. Drawing on Harold Lasswell's classic definition of communication, we ask the question: Who says what, in which channel, to whom, and with what effect? The focus is on 'what': the way a certain topic is talked about and made sense of. Here, the candidate uses one or more of the methods the PI's are specialized in to analyze media content on a topic of their choice: quantitative and qualitative content analysis, framing analysis, discourse analysis and digital ethnography (see further 2.2). The aim is to chart the competing discourses on a particular societal challenge that is perceived as a crisis, and to get a grasp on the discursive landscape, which includes attention to 'who' (the actors uttering certain discourse, such as journalists, politicians, experts) and 'in which channel' (TV, newspapers, social media, ...). Optionally, the candidate may also investigate the audience side ('to whom'), aiming to understand how media users deal with competing media discourses, and how these affect them ('with what effect'). Contrary to the linear nature of Lasswell's communication model, the research will also acknowledge the complex interaction between these different aspects of the communication process (for instance, audience members also producing discourse by commenting on social media).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Dhoest Alexander
• Co-promoter: De Ridder Sander
• Co-promoter: Maeseele Pieter
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Scientific breakthroughs, debates, and controversies reach the general public not through scientific publications, but largely through the news media. However, which breakthroughs, debates, and controversies are 'newsworthy' are by no means the same for everyone. In this project we investigate which (f)actors are important in the production of scientific news through qualitative and quantitative content analysis, and interviews with stakeholders.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: de Bruijn Gert-Jan
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Fellow: Vissers Miguel

Research team(s)

• Media, ICT and interpersonal relations in Organisations and Society (MIOS)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This proposal puts the role of politicians as opinion leaders central. The new digital media environment has given politicians more tools to influence, both directly and indirectly, people's consumption and interpretation of news and information on current affairs. We will study what news stories politicians share on social media and how this affects their followers and public opinion in general. First, politicians can influence to what extent people trust mainstream and alternative media. By sharing and commenting on the content of news stories on social media, politicians can help disseminate their messages, circumventing the gatekeeping role of the media. This influence can enhance the trust in (alternative/partisan) media outlets, but also damage the media's reputation as a democratic institution. Second, politicians can promote more extreme views and opinions, and contribute to the polarization of their audience. Ultimately, politicians, by acting as opinion leaders, may contribute to their followers getting stuck in so-called 'echo chambers' of like-minded information. We will use a multi-method approach (content analysis, user engagement analysis, survey, experiment) to study the news sharing behavior of politicians and its effects on their followers in Belgium (Flanders), the Netherlands, and the UK.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Aelst Peter
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Media, Movements and Politics (M2P)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In a context of, across Western democracies, an increasing popular dissatisfaction with political representation, PREPINTACT examines the beliefs, attitudes and behavior of three types of individual intermediary actors— politicians, interest group leaders and journalists—in tandem with the parallel beliefs, attitudes and behavior of ordinary citizens. It argues that in order to get a better grip on how representation works, we need to focus on individual intermediaries. We examine the up- and downstream flows of information that form the core of representation and that connect society with the government system. PREPINTACT has a special interest in political inequality and hypothesizes that disadvantaged societal groups are less adequately represented. Within that general framework, the consortium launches a number of specific, comparative research projects using a range of methods combining social science (experiments, surveys, interviews…) with computational linguistics approaches. The concrete projects look into the accuracy of intermediaries' perception of public opinion, the social bias in their personal networks, the selective communication to their voters/members/audience, the role of social media in reinforcing their attitudes, how they represent within their organizations (parties, media organizations...) etc. Taken together, these projects constitute a never seen, in-depth analysis of how individual intermediaries make representative democracy work (or not).

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Walgrave Stefaan
• Co-promoter: Daelemans Walter
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Van Aelst Peter

Research team(s)

• Media, Movements and Politics (M2P)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In the context of the agreement between public broadcaster and Flemish goverment, the VRT wishes to verify whether it fulfills its mandate to be impartial in providing news and current affairs. This is being investigated by a team of researchers led by Prof. Peter Van Aelst and Prof. Steve Paulussen from the University of Antwerp, in collaboration with Prof. Tim Raats and Prof. Ike Picone (Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In order to get a good idea of the impartiality of the VRT, we opt for a combination of methods to map the content, its production, and its perception by the public. The UA research team focuses on the content of the news coverage. In terms of content, we opt for a combination of a systematic analysis of television news reporting over time (2003-2019) with a case-based approach (2020). When examining three cases in more detail, we will analyse the presence of actors and viewpoints in the content of the reports of the VRT and other Flemish media.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Aelst Peter
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Media, Movements and Politics (M2P)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The digitalisation of news has put the news ecosystem under pressure. External stakeholders (e.g. readers, advertisers) are redefining their relationship with the news medium, destabilizing the dominant revenue model. Readers are no longer willing to pay for news and advertisers are turning to other digital players (Facebook and Google) to spend their ad dollars. These changes create tensions and many news media consider scale as the only way to survive, but most news media won't be able to reach this. Therefore, this multi-method project wants to investigate stakeholder marketing as a strategic framework for the news industry to deconstruct the dominant business model, resolve tensions and help build strong and lasting relationships with key stakeholders (readers and advertisers) to help keep news sustainable in the long run. We use both qualitative (interviews, case studies, focus groups) and quantitative (experiments, survey) methods to study the ecosystem, the relationships between stakeholders and the effect of stakeholder marketing on multidisciplinary teams at the news organisation.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Poels Karolien
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Fellow: Luyckx Dorien

Research team(s)

• Media, ICT and interpersonal relations in Organisations and Society (MIOS)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

News media are being challenged by the rapidly changing digital environment. Traditional online banner advertisements are nowadays often being avoided, or disabled by ad blockers. To counteract advertising avoidance, and create new revenue streams, so-called 'native advertising' is on the rise. Native advertisements are advertisements with the look and feel of editorial news articles. Although native advertising is the fastest growing advertising format in online news media, little is known about how news readers perceive and evaluate native advertising. Native advertising may be problematic if readers are not able to recognize that they are influenced. Also, the credibility of news media is at stake. In order to implement native advertising in a sustainable and ethically responsible manner, more research is needed. Therefore, this project will investigate native advertising by taking a unique multi-stakeholder approach, integrating theories from the fields of advertising and journalism. A series of experiments will be conducted to investigate how readers process and evaluate different types of native advertisements and news media. In addition, news media's perspective will be explored by conducting interviews at news organizations. The main objective is to unravel when and how readers recognize native advertising and how they deal with it. This will result in a theoretical and practical framework for implementing native advertising in news media, in a responsible manner.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Poels Karolien
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Fellow: Krouwer Simone

Research team(s)

• Media, ICT and interpersonal relations in Organisations and Society (MIOS)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project revolves around two types of advertising used in online news media - banner advertising and native advertising. Online banners are widely used and a significant part of the online (news) media profits rely on them. Online banners are not massively viewed or clicked on, however. Also, readers are increasingly using ad blockers to actively avoid them. In response, advertisers have shifted their focus to native advertising in which commercial content is blended with the editorial content. The embedded nature of such ads decreases the distinction readers can make between news versus advertising. This puts both consumer protection and journalistic autonomy at risk. Even more, when readers are aware of the disguised commercial nature of native advertising, credibility of news media and the advertiser may decline. Taking an innovative approach by integrating insights from advertising research, journalism studies and adopting a stakeholder perspective, we aim to investigate the perceptions and behavior related to native advertising and banners. We will first explore perspectives from three stakeholders: readers, advertisers and news media professionals. We will then test several situations in which readers of online news media are confronted with (combinations of) online advertising. We will investigate causal relations between the type(s) of online advertising, readers' critical reasoning, brand and medium credibility and related behaviors.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Poels Karolien
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Media, ICT and interpersonal relations in Organisations and Society (MIOS)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

News media are being challenged by the rapidly changing digital environment. Traditional online banner advertisements are nowadays often being avoided, or disabled by ad blockers. To counteract advertising avoidance, and create new revenue streams, so-called 'native advertising' is on the rise. Native advertisements are advertisements with the look and feel of editorial news articles. Although native advertising is the fastest growing advertising format in online news media, little is known about how news readers perceive and evaluate native advertising. Native advertising may be problematic if readers are not able to recognize that they are influenced. Also, the credibility of news media is at stake. In order to implement native advertising in a sustainable and ethically responsible manner, more research is needed. Therefore, this project will investigate native advertising by taking a unique multi-stakeholder approach, integrating theories from the fields of advertising and journalism. A series of experiments will be conducted to investigate how readers process and evaluate different types of native advertisements and news media. In addition, news media's perspective will be explored by conducting interviews at news organizations. The main objective is to unravel when and how readers recognize native advertising and how they deal with it. This will result in a theoretical and practical framework for implementing native advertising in news media, in a responsible manner.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Poels Karolien
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Fellow: Krouwer Simone

Research team(s)

• Media, ICT and interpersonal relations in Organisations and Society (MIOS)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Qualitative research into the representation of minorities, ordered by public service broadcaster VRT. Each year a specific group is studied, using a selection of clips to check how the VRT fulfils its obligation to adequately represent social diversity.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Dhoest Alexander
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In a democracy, citizens need knowledge about politics. The mass media are traditionally considered as key actors in providing this necessary information. Ample studies on agenda-setting and framing have shown time and again that the news media have a profound influence on what people know, and how they think about politics. The question is to what extent it is possible to maintain many of these classic insights in the digital era. The increasing importance of the Internet and in particular social media as a means of communication and information has likely changed how people learn about what is going on in the world, and about politics more specifically. For instance, the agenda-setting and framing role of the media is challenged, because social media use puts the underlying causal mechanism, from mass media to the public, into question. More and more journalists are influenced by discussions on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. In addition, politicians have more digital opportunities to directly influence the public while bypassing the traditional media. In short, we aim to study consume and engage with political news and how they are affected by it, but also on how journalists and politicians are, in turn, influenced by people's engagement with the news. Digital media not only challenge some of the established theoretical insights but simultaneously also offer new opportunities to study how information spreads and how the public deals with it. Today, it is possible to map all online news and all citizens' digital reactions to it (comments, likes, tweets). This makes it possible to study much more accurately agenda-setting processes by how people interact with news. Framing, as well, can be studied now much more precisely and especially drawing on much larger samples of citizens and media messages. In addition, analyzing digital text and expressed opinion in social media allows demographic and attitudinal profiling of citizens that could strongly increase our knowledge of the individual moderators of agenda-setting and framing effects. To make sense of this unprecedented source of written language and digital behaviour, we opt for a multidisciplinary collaboration between computational linguistics, data mining and social sciences. The appropriateness of social scientific theories of agenda-setting and framing will be put to the test in a digital context by means of big data analyses. Computational linguistics techniques will be used to automatically analyze the topics addressed in social media text, the opinions expressed about these topic, and the profiles of the social media users expressing these opinions. The possibilities of digital text analysis, however, go beyond testing classic media effects theories such as agenda-setting and framing. Our ambition is to use the new data opportunities to develop new theoretical insights by discovering underlying patterns in an inductive fashion. By applying data mining techniques on the data of users' digital behavior and searching for underlying patterns, we may obtain insights into which events, persons and topics ordinary citizens 'like' and want to 'share'. Concretely, we aim to study one planned major political event, the 2019 Belgian election campaign, and one non-planned or unexpected event in the course of 2018. We expect that the information flows in both types of events are structurally different. For each event we plan a survey and a large quantitative data collection covering about four weeks, with content drawn from all major online news websites, and the social media platforms Twitter and Facebook.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Van Aelst Peter
• Co-promoter: Daelemans Walter
• Co-promoter: Martens David
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Walgrave Stefaan

Research team(s)

• Media, Movements and Politics (M2P)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and on the other hand the client. UA provides the client research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Dhoest Alexander
• Co-promoter: Vandebosch Heidi
• Co-promoter: Van den Bulck Hilde

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Conducting research into the continuation of involvement and participation in the implementation and operational phase of the cAT-project. This research will be based in the literature on available frames and moddels, and take into account concerned actors' expectations.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Bergmans Anne
• Co-promoter: Loots Ilse
• Co-promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Society and Environment
• Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project aims to examine the impact of social media on the sourcing and flow of news in the Flemish networked public sphere. A multi-method research design is proposed to investigate the conditions under which social media can contribute to the source diversity in journalism. We hypothesize that social media's source power in journalism will depend on the actor using social media, the medium covering the news, the type of issues in the news, and the degree of routine involved in the coverage of the news.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Van Aelst Peter

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this PhD research project is to investigate to what extent and how social media are reshaping sourcing and agenda-setting practices in mainstream journalism and how this affects the mediated debate on public affairs. To this end, a three-step multi-method research design is proposed, which will generate statistical evidence and in-depth insights into the role of social media in the flow of news in today's networked public sphere. First, in order to examine inter-media agenda-setting relations between old and new media, time series analyses will be done on an integrated large-scale dataset of news output from different Flemish media outlets, including newspapers, TV, radio, online and social media. Next, the study will take a closer look into the ways in which social media, and particularly Twitter, are handled as sources of information in mainstream news stories, and vice versa. This will be done by means of a qualitative content analysis, which will be supplemented with in-depth reconstruction interviews with professional journalists to deepen our understanding of journalists' sourcing practices in the social media age. The research project focuses on three different 'news beats' or 'issue domains' in the journalistic field: political news, economic news and crime and justice news, each reflecting a dominant field of power in society (i.e. politics, business and the judicial field). Through the combination of agenda-setting and gatekeeping theory and the focus on social media, this project will generate unique and original results on the flows of news in today's 24/7, cross-media, networked news ecology.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Van Aelst Peter
• Fellow: Harder Raymond

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the existence of echo chamber and source cycle effects due to the use and remediation of social media as sources in professional mainstream news coverage. First, a quantitative descriptive content analysis will be done of articles published in 7 Flemish newspapers over a period of six consecutive weeks in 2013 that explicitly mention Facebook, Twitter or YouTube as sources of information. The content analysis will provide an overall picture of how social media are being used in routine, day-to-day news reporting in the Flemish press. Next, a sample of news items will be selected for a qualitative content analysis to examine how social media are handled as sources in news reports. The qualitative content analysis will focus on the 'source credibility' of social media. Do they serve as primary or secondary sources of information? How often and how is social media content explicitly cited in the news items? Is social media content presented as representative or indicative for public opinion? And (how) do journalists deal with problems of reliability, authenticity and objectivity of social media content? Additionally, to deepen our understanding of these questions, the content analysis will be combined with 'reconstruction interviews' with newspaper journalists to obtain detailed information about the journalist's sourcing practices in the process of the news production.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a formal research agreement between UA and the Flemish Public Service. UA provides the Flemish Public Service research results mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions as stipulated in this contract. The main objective is to investigate the media representation of young parenthood on Flemish television and its reception among socially vulnerable young people.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Paulussen Steve
• Co-promoter: Dhoest Alexander
• Co-promoter: Maeseele Pieter
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Dimitri
• Co-promoter: Neels Karel
• Co-promoter: Ponnet Koen
• Co-promoter: Vandebosch Heidi
• Co-promoter: Van den Bulck Hilde
• Co-promoter: Walrave Michel

Research team(s)

• Antwerp Media in Society Centre (AMSoC)

Project type(s)

• Research Project