Jelle Boumans | University of Amsterdam (original) (raw)
Papers by Jelle Boumans
Communications
Populist attributions of blame have important effects on citizens’ attitudes, cognitions, emotion... more Populist attributions of blame have important effects on citizens’ attitudes, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Extending previous studies that have mostly looked at populist messages blaming political elites, we use an online survey experiment (N = 805) to investigate the effects of blaming different elitist actors in populist and non-populist ways: (1) political elites, (2) corporate elites, (3) scientific elites, and (4) a combination of these elites. We compare mere causal responsibility attribution to populist blame attributions that highlight a central opposition between “pure ordinary people” and “corrupt elites” to tease out the specific effect of populist rhetoric. Results suggest that populist messages blaming all elites have stronger effects than isolated cues. Furthermore, populist blame attribution leads to more negative perceptions of the elites than non-populist blame attribution. The finding that populist frames can – under some conditions – activate negative perc...
Rethinking Research Methods in an Age of Digital Journalism, 2018
When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of su... more When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of substantial differences compared to traditional journalistic content. The sheer amount of data and the unique features of digital content call for the application of valuable new techniques. Various other scholarly fields are already applying computational methods to study digital journalism data. Often, their research interests are closely related to those of journalism scholars. Despite the advantages that computational methods have over traditional content analysis methods, they are not commonplace in digital journalism studies. To increase awareness of what computational methods have to offer, we take stock of the toolkit and show the ways in which computational methods can aid journalism studies. Distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning, we present a systematic inventory of recent applications both inside as well as outside journalism studies. We conclude with suggestions for how the application of new techniques can be encouraged.
International Journal of Strategic Communication
International Journal of Communication, 2018
While it is generally acknowledged that news agencies play a pivotal role in the current news lan... more While it is generally acknowledged that news agencies play a pivotal role in the current news landscape, empirical insights into the extent of news media’s reliance on agency copy are scarce. This study applies an innovative automated approach to trace agency copy for an entire year ( n = 119,452) in the major print and online news media articles ( n = 247,161) of the Dutch news landscape. Results suggest that particularly online news is highly dependent on agency content, with the agency being responsible for up to 75% of the online news articles. Furthermore, a large part of the online news consists of verbatim agency copy, involving little or no editing. The results provide a strong rationale to place news agencies high on the agenda of news production scholars. Moreover, the demonstrated agency domination of online news is alarming in the context of news diversity.
Journalists are increasingly accused of uncritically recycling subsidized material in the form of... more Journalists are increasingly accused of uncritically recycling subsidized material in the form of press releases and news agency copy. This practice has been labeled churnalism and is believed to compromise journalism’s autonomy and threaten news quality. While the context - rampant competition, decreasing newspaper circulation rates and advertising revenues, shrinking newsrooms, failing online business models - is well documented, it remains an empirical question what the consequences of these developments are for journalist’s reliance on ‘subsidized content’. A striking observation is also that the largest input provider, the news agency, is structurally overlooked in research on news content. Filling these voids, this dissertation employs automated content analyses to provide insight into the relationship between press releases, news agency copy and print and online news in the Dutch context. Comparing NGO’s and corporation’s visibility of press releases in the news, the results ...
Journalism Studies, 2017
View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles SUBSIDIZING THE... more View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles SUBSIDIZING THE NEWS? Organizational press releases' influence on news media's agenda and content Jelle Boumans The relation between organizational press releases and newspaper content has generated considerable attention. Yet longitudinal evidence that can substantiate claims of media's increased reliance on this "subsidized content" is scarce, and equally scarce is literature about the reliance of the news agency-a key factor in the news production process-on this content. Applying an automated content-analytical approach, this study assesses the impact of 4455 press releases on Dutch newspaper and news agency content over a period of 10 years. A distinction is made between source type (non-governmental organization or corporation) and newspaper type (quality, popular and free). Two indications of source reliance are proposed: first, the extent to which news articles are initiated by a press release, and second the extent to which the literal press release content is reproduced. Findings indicate that 1 in every 10 newspaper article is initiated by a press release; for the agency this is slightly higher. A routine of "churnalism"-copy-pasting of press releases-has been found for neither the agency nor the newspapers. These findings, combined with the fact that the reliance remains stable over time, call for a more nuanced perspective on journalists' dependency on organizational press releases.
European Journal of Communication, 2016
While news media are frequently criticized for their alleged increasing reliance on ‘subsidized c... more While news media are frequently criticized for their alleged increasing reliance on ‘subsidized content’ provided by sources and news agencies, this claim is seldom empirically verified. Based on insights from computer science, this study proposes an approach to quantitatively compare source, news agency and newspaper content over time. Including press releases from two corporate actors and one nongovernmental actor as well as articles of news agencies and newspapers, the approach is applied to the debate about nuclear energy in the Netherlands (2003–2012). Results show no indication of an increased similarity of newspapers’ content with either source content or news agency content, thus providing no justification for the concerns about an increasing dependency of newspapers on subsidized content. Contradicting literature, we found that media content is most similar to the nongovernmental organization’s content, with the exception of one regional newspaper that strongly reflects the...
Digital Journalism, 2015
When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of su... more When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of substantial differences compared to traditional journalistic content. The sheer amount of data and the unique features of digital content call for the application of valuable new techniques. Various other scholarly fields are already applying computational methods to study digital journalism data. Often, their research interests are closely related to those of journalism scholars. Despite the advantages that computational methods have over traditional content analysis methods, they are not commonplace in digital journalism studies. To increase awareness of what computational methods have to offer, we take stock of the toolkit and show the ways in which computational methods can aid journalism studies. Distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning, we present a systematic inventory of recent applications both inside as well as outside journalism studies. We conclude with suggestions for how the application of new techniques can be encouraged.
International Journal of Communication, Jun 29, 2021
Bronnen spelen een centrale rol in de westerse journalistiek. Het bestuderen van structuren en re... more Bronnen spelen een centrale rol in de westerse journalistiek. Het bestuderen van structuren en relaties tussen bronnen en journalisten is dan ook essentieel om nieuwsinhoud te kunnen doorgronden. ‘Bronnen maken het nieuws’, zo stelde Sigal in 1986 reeds, en afgaande op de recente literatuur lijkt dit meer dan ooit het geval (Carlsson & Franklin, 2011; Tiffen et al., 2013). In hoog tempo hebben organisaties hun communicatie geprofessionaliseerd om de media te bedienen van informatie. De explosieve groei van de PR-industrie getuigt hiervan: niet alleen multinationals en grote overheidsorganen, ook scholen, ziekenhuizen, goededoelenorganisaties en vakbonden beschikken tegenwoordig over een communicatie-expert of zelfs over een hele communicatie-afdeling (Davis, 2000). De voornaamste taak van deze experts of afdelingen is het om positieve berichtgeving voor de organisatie in de media te genereren. Zo proberen zij invloed uit te oefenen op zowel de onderwerpen die aan bod komen als op de...
Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap
Samenvatting Inhoudsanalyse is een van de meest gebruikte methoden in de communicatiewetenschap. ... more Samenvatting Inhoudsanalyse is een van de meest gebruikte methoden in de communicatiewetenschap. Door de steeds betere beschikbaarheid van grote hoeveelheden digitale tekstdata groeit de vraag naar geautomatiseerde methoden. We laten zien welke technieken er zijn, in hoeverre ze al zijn toegepast op Nederlandstalige teksten, en welke taalspecifieke uitdagingen er zijn.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Communications
Populist attributions of blame have important effects on citizens’ attitudes, cognitions, emotion... more Populist attributions of blame have important effects on citizens’ attitudes, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Extending previous studies that have mostly looked at populist messages blaming political elites, we use an online survey experiment (N = 805) to investigate the effects of blaming different elitist actors in populist and non-populist ways: (1) political elites, (2) corporate elites, (3) scientific elites, and (4) a combination of these elites. We compare mere causal responsibility attribution to populist blame attributions that highlight a central opposition between “pure ordinary people” and “corrupt elites” to tease out the specific effect of populist rhetoric. Results suggest that populist messages blaming all elites have stronger effects than isolated cues. Furthermore, populist blame attribution leads to more negative perceptions of the elites than non-populist blame attribution. The finding that populist frames can – under some conditions – activate negative perc...
Rethinking Research Methods in an Age of Digital Journalism, 2018
When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of su... more When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of substantial differences compared to traditional journalistic content. The sheer amount of data and the unique features of digital content call for the application of valuable new techniques. Various other scholarly fields are already applying computational methods to study digital journalism data. Often, their research interests are closely related to those of journalism scholars. Despite the advantages that computational methods have over traditional content analysis methods, they are not commonplace in digital journalism studies. To increase awareness of what computational methods have to offer, we take stock of the toolkit and show the ways in which computational methods can aid journalism studies. Distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning, we present a systematic inventory of recent applications both inside as well as outside journalism studies. We conclude with suggestions for how the application of new techniques can be encouraged.
International Journal of Strategic Communication
International Journal of Communication, 2018
While it is generally acknowledged that news agencies play a pivotal role in the current news lan... more While it is generally acknowledged that news agencies play a pivotal role in the current news landscape, empirical insights into the extent of news media’s reliance on agency copy are scarce. This study applies an innovative automated approach to trace agency copy for an entire year ( n = 119,452) in the major print and online news media articles ( n = 247,161) of the Dutch news landscape. Results suggest that particularly online news is highly dependent on agency content, with the agency being responsible for up to 75% of the online news articles. Furthermore, a large part of the online news consists of verbatim agency copy, involving little or no editing. The results provide a strong rationale to place news agencies high on the agenda of news production scholars. Moreover, the demonstrated agency domination of online news is alarming in the context of news diversity.
Journalists are increasingly accused of uncritically recycling subsidized material in the form of... more Journalists are increasingly accused of uncritically recycling subsidized material in the form of press releases and news agency copy. This practice has been labeled churnalism and is believed to compromise journalism’s autonomy and threaten news quality. While the context - rampant competition, decreasing newspaper circulation rates and advertising revenues, shrinking newsrooms, failing online business models - is well documented, it remains an empirical question what the consequences of these developments are for journalist’s reliance on ‘subsidized content’. A striking observation is also that the largest input provider, the news agency, is structurally overlooked in research on news content. Filling these voids, this dissertation employs automated content analyses to provide insight into the relationship between press releases, news agency copy and print and online news in the Dutch context. Comparing NGO’s and corporation’s visibility of press releases in the news, the results ...
Journalism Studies, 2017
View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles SUBSIDIZING THE... more View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles SUBSIDIZING THE NEWS? Organizational press releases' influence on news media's agenda and content Jelle Boumans The relation between organizational press releases and newspaper content has generated considerable attention. Yet longitudinal evidence that can substantiate claims of media's increased reliance on this "subsidized content" is scarce, and equally scarce is literature about the reliance of the news agency-a key factor in the news production process-on this content. Applying an automated content-analytical approach, this study assesses the impact of 4455 press releases on Dutch newspaper and news agency content over a period of 10 years. A distinction is made between source type (non-governmental organization or corporation) and newspaper type (quality, popular and free). Two indications of source reliance are proposed: first, the extent to which news articles are initiated by a press release, and second the extent to which the literal press release content is reproduced. Findings indicate that 1 in every 10 newspaper article is initiated by a press release; for the agency this is slightly higher. A routine of "churnalism"-copy-pasting of press releases-has been found for neither the agency nor the newspapers. These findings, combined with the fact that the reliance remains stable over time, call for a more nuanced perspective on journalists' dependency on organizational press releases.
European Journal of Communication, 2016
While news media are frequently criticized for their alleged increasing reliance on ‘subsidized c... more While news media are frequently criticized for their alleged increasing reliance on ‘subsidized content’ provided by sources and news agencies, this claim is seldom empirically verified. Based on insights from computer science, this study proposes an approach to quantitatively compare source, news agency and newspaper content over time. Including press releases from two corporate actors and one nongovernmental actor as well as articles of news agencies and newspapers, the approach is applied to the debate about nuclear energy in the Netherlands (2003–2012). Results show no indication of an increased similarity of newspapers’ content with either source content or news agency content, thus providing no justification for the concerns about an increasing dependency of newspapers on subsidized content. Contradicting literature, we found that media content is most similar to the nongovernmental organization’s content, with the exception of one regional newspaper that strongly reflects the...
Digital Journalism, 2015
When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of su... more When analyzing digital journalism content, journalism scholars are confronted with a number of substantial differences compared to traditional journalistic content. The sheer amount of data and the unique features of digital content call for the application of valuable new techniques. Various other scholarly fields are already applying computational methods to study digital journalism data. Often, their research interests are closely related to those of journalism scholars. Despite the advantages that computational methods have over traditional content analysis methods, they are not commonplace in digital journalism studies. To increase awareness of what computational methods have to offer, we take stock of the toolkit and show the ways in which computational methods can aid journalism studies. Distinguishing between dictionary-based approaches, supervised machine learning, and unsupervised machine learning, we present a systematic inventory of recent applications both inside as well as outside journalism studies. We conclude with suggestions for how the application of new techniques can be encouraged.
International Journal of Communication, Jun 29, 2021
Bronnen spelen een centrale rol in de westerse journalistiek. Het bestuderen van structuren en re... more Bronnen spelen een centrale rol in de westerse journalistiek. Het bestuderen van structuren en relaties tussen bronnen en journalisten is dan ook essentieel om nieuwsinhoud te kunnen doorgronden. ‘Bronnen maken het nieuws’, zo stelde Sigal in 1986 reeds, en afgaande op de recente literatuur lijkt dit meer dan ooit het geval (Carlsson & Franklin, 2011; Tiffen et al., 2013). In hoog tempo hebben organisaties hun communicatie geprofessionaliseerd om de media te bedienen van informatie. De explosieve groei van de PR-industrie getuigt hiervan: niet alleen multinationals en grote overheidsorganen, ook scholen, ziekenhuizen, goededoelenorganisaties en vakbonden beschikken tegenwoordig over een communicatie-expert of zelfs over een hele communicatie-afdeling (Davis, 2000). De voornaamste taak van deze experts of afdelingen is het om positieve berichtgeving voor de organisatie in de media te genereren. Zo proberen zij invloed uit te oefenen op zowel de onderwerpen die aan bod komen als op de...
Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap
Samenvatting Inhoudsanalyse is een van de meest gebruikte methoden in de communicatiewetenschap. ... more Samenvatting Inhoudsanalyse is een van de meest gebruikte methoden in de communicatiewetenschap. Door de steeds betere beschikbaarheid van grote hoeveelheden digitale tekstdata groeit de vraag naar geautomatiseerde methoden. We laten zien welke technieken er zijn, in hoeverre ze al zijn toegepast op Nederlandstalige teksten, en welke taalspecifieke uitdagingen er zijn.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations