Abstracts of the 2016 winning papers are posted below.
First Place
Metrics, Clickbait, and the Anemic Audience: Audience Perceptions and Professional Values among News Aggregators, Mark Coddington, Washington and Lee University
Abstracts: Journalists have long been dismissive of their audiences, but the rise of online metrics and participatory journalism have challenged that attitude. This study examines that challenge by looking at aggregators’ audience perception, exploring its influence on their news judgment and the role of metrics in their work. It finds that the audience weighs heavily on aggregators’ work, but their conception of it is thin and non-participatory, mediated largely through the professionally contested tool of metrics.
Second Place
Local Newspaper Use in Hawaii Fosters Acculturation to Local Culture, Community Ties and Involvement, Francis Dalisay, University of Guam; Masahiro Yamamoto, University at Albany – SUNY; Chamil Rathnayake; Joanne Loos, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Kapiolani Ching, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Abstracts: We use the case of Hawaii to test a proposed mediation model positively linking local newspaper use with community ties (i.e., social cohesion and trust) and community involvement via acculturation to local culture. Findings revealed acculturation to local culture was associated with higher social cohesion, trust, and community involvement. Also, local newspaper use had an indirect positive association with sense of belonging, feelings of morale, social trust, and community involvement through its positive association with acculturation to local culture.
Third Place
Digital News Sharing: The Role of Influence and Habits in Social Media News Sharing,
Samuel Tham, University of Missouri
Abstracts: 30% of Americans use social media for news. With news organizations seeking to harness more online news sharing from their viewers, questions are raised as to what kinds of users share news on social media. This study proposes a model that examines the impact of technology leadership (social influence), news affinity, digital device use (habits), and the role of demographics to better understand the characteristics of users that share news on social media.
