The use of metrics and analytics is becoming pervasive in newsrooms the world over. However, ethnographic research in six newsrooms in three different countries revealed a dearth of distinctive terminology in scholarly literature in regards to such practice that limits understanding of how audience data are being used on the newsroom floor. This issue is addressed with the development of a new participative gatekeeping model that shows three previously unidentified channels of gatekeeping specifically related to the use of audience data: promotional, for the type of short-term gatekeeping done on news site homepages that involves tracking real-time metrics to position content, often tied to traffic targets; developmental, for longer-term use of analytics to discern how the audience consumes information that leads to hypotheses of audience behaviour, shaping future coverage; and a third more porous channel of experimentation where such hypotheses are tested. These channels were observed in newsroom practice and elucidated through interviews at Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK; Canada’s subscriber-based national news agency, The Canadian Press (CP); and two local newsrooms working within larger media organizations, The Hamilton Spectator in Canada, and The Bournemouth Daily Echo in England.
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Participative Gatekeeping
1. Participative
Gatekeeping
The Intersection of News, Audience Data, Newsworkers,
and Economics
Dr. Nicole Blanchett Neheli
Sheridan College
@NicoleBlanchett
redefiningjournalism.wordpress.com
4. Sociological Bricolage
• Field theory to establish sites of study within the field of the
newsroom and reflect on efforts within that field to retain
editorial autonomy (Bourdieu 1996;2005; Schultz 2007; Neveu 2005; Willig 2013; Willig et al. 2015; Moyo et al. 2019)
• Gatekeeping to examine specific functions of metrics and
analytics in terms of story selection, development, and
promotion (White 1950; Shoemaker & Vos 2009; Tandoc 2014; Heinderyckx 2015; Reese & Shoemaker 2016; Wallace 2017)
• Boundary work to examine the struggles to define journalism
and journalistic standards in the newsroom field (Gieryn 1983; Carlson 2015;
Björkman & Franco 2017; Duffy et al. 2017; Bunce 2017; Deuze & Witschge 2017; Belair-Gagnon & Holton 2018)
• Role negotiation mechanisms—assimilation, appropriation,
and exit (Hanitzsch & Vos 2017)—to identify journalists’ acceptance or
rejection of changing boundaries
*Just a sample of references
6. Clarification of Terms
Metrics are units of measurement that reflect a specific
element of audience behaviour
Analytics encompass the analysis of audience data as
a means of performance appraisal on existing content
and the development of hypotheses to improve
audience engagement in the future
Analytics systems are platforms specifically designed
to aggregate, display, and assist in the reporting and
analysis of audience data
(Blanchett Neheli 2018; 2019a)
7. Media Logic
Format over function, eyeballs over information sharing,
narrowed frames of reference, impact on public
discourse (Altheide & Snow 1979;1991)
Ecology of Communication
“…the impact of information technology and communication
formats on established institutional, cultural, and everyday life
activities” (Altheide 2019).
18. For references:
Blanchett Neheli, N., 2018. News by Numbers: The evolution of analytics in journalism. Digital
Journalism, 6(8), p.1041-1051. Available from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2018.1504626
Blanchett Neheli, N., 2019a. Metrics and analytics in the newsroom: An ethnographic study
exploring how audience data are changing practice. Thesis (PhD). Bournemouth University.
Available from http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/31683/
Blanchett Neheli, N., 2019b. Here’s how metrics and analytics are changing newsroom practice.
J-source [online] 19 February 2019. Available from https://j-source.ca/article/heres-how-metrics-
and-analytics-are-changing-newsroom-practice/
Blanchett Neheli, N., 2019c. Can analytics save local newspapers? In New journalisms:
Rethinking practice, theory and pedagogy. Routledge: London
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429487477
Blanchett Neheli, N., forthcoming. Participative gatekeeping: The intersection of news, audience
data, newsworkers, and economics (email me for a copy
nicole.blanchettneheli@sheridancollege.ca)