Papers by Leslie-Jean Thornton
Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on added importa... more Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on added importance with journalism's widespread commercialization in the 1800s. It became an increasingly urgent issue, particularly for US newspapers, toward the end of the twentieth century. Readership was unexpectedly in steady decline and the cause didn't appear to be clearly identifiable. As readers left, the print industry pulled together to find out why-and to strategize, collaboratively, on ways to win readers back, keep the ones they still had, and attract new ones. A key focus became making content "reader-friendly." This paper delves deep into some of the dynamics and outcomes of that time. Newspaper readership continues to decline in the early part of the twenty-first century, but readership online is on the rise. The study suggests that readership itself may not have been the problem; newspaper readership was.
Tackling the tech scenario for j-schools How should instructors convey knowledge and teach skills... more Tackling the tech scenario for j-schools How should instructors convey knowledge and teach skills in online course delivery formats, and in an informative and engaging way? This challenge was accelerated with COVID-19, and the trend can be expected to continue. Journalism education, being heavily focusing on experiential learning and face-to-face interaction, is particularly challenged when it comes to remote teaching and learning. This manual aims to provide journalism instructors the resources to improve their teaching in digital spaces. The subject matter includes: - planning a new online course from scratch or transitioning an existing face-to-face course to online delivery, - strategies to curb academic dishonesty in online courses, - creating a student-centered learning environment, - ways to support diversity in the virtual classroom, - the future of online journalism education, drawing on what the pandemic period has taught. This handbook is a valuable resource for any journ...
Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 2018
The Poster, 2017
The image-sharing social media platform Instagram has become a site for political discourse that ... more The image-sharing social media platform Instagram has become a site for political discourse that combines visual and textual elements. These political conversations often take place in the form of memes or popular graphic sentiments intended for redistribution. Scholars have identified memes as markers of subcultural knowledge that may be used to reinforce beliefs and norms, define social boundaries and disparage outgroups. Gun rights activism in the United States has intensified in an increasingly partisan environment. We examined memes shared via Instagram to popular gun culture hashtags between June 2016 and February 2018. Insofar as memes act as vehicles for subcultural beliefs and values, here they may be seen as representing multiple realities from the perspective of Second Amendment enthusiasts: descriptions of their perceived reality, justifying the need for guns and conservative political positions; the construed reality of what the meme creators and sharers believe to be liberal attitudes; and the aspirational reality of a world that offers unobstructed support for their priorities. In other words, these memes can collectively be said to represent both the truth about the world, as seen by these users, and cultural messages to set power differentials and identity boundaries with Others.
Newspaper Research Journal, 2011
The broadest divisions of newspaper labor were fairly consistent from at least the middle of the ... more The broadest divisions of newspaper labor were fairly consistent from at least the middle of the 20th century almost to its end.1 Although the advent of pagination and design desks created some new newsroom job classifications in the 1980s,2 and some newspapers experimented with team-oriented job titles in the 1990s,3 the basic tasks of reporting, copy editing, photography, design, editorial writing, advertising, marketing, etc., remained fairly stable.Since newspapers began embracing the Web in the late 1990s, however, myriad new tasks have been created. Someone must produce online content or repurpose print content for the Web, insert hypertext links, process content for search-engine optimization and manage interactive features, such as reader comments, social media and audience-submitted content. In addition, someone must supervise overall online operations. Who holds ultimate authority over Web operations, however, has not always been clear. The confusion has been exacerbated by an increased blurring of the line between the business and editorial sides of newspapers, especially where websites are concerned.4This article, based on a national survey of newspaper managers, reports on who those managers say is in charge of the production, content and appearance of their newspapers' websites. It also analyzes the titles of the senior decision-makers for newspaper websites in order to locate ultimate control of the online presence inside or outside the newsroom. This information is important for several reasons. First, it updates information last gathered in the late 1990s, providing information future scholars can build on as they track changes in the newsroom division of labor. Second, it provides information about the titles of managers with ultimate authority for newspaper websites that should prove useful to scholars attempting to identify and contact those industry leaders to gather their opinions through surveys or interviews. Finally, and perhaps most important, the study addresses the development of chains of command in online journalism.Literature ReviewA solid body of literature has examined the place of online operations at newspaper companies, generally suggesting that they were more isolated early in the online news era5-sometimes even located in a different building than print operations.6 Since then, online operations gradually have become more integrated with print operations, 7 although exceptions remain.8 Meanwhile, although several essays have called for further study of online journalists9 and some research has examined their journalistic orientations,10 a more popular line of research in recent years has been how online journalists share news-production authority with site users and other non-journalists.11 Only a few articles, written early in the Web era, have considered who is setting policies for newspaper websites and whether ultimate control of them lies in the newsroom or in corporate offices or marketing arms.12A 1997 survey by Singer, Tharp and Haruta found that newspaper online managers were far less likely than their print counterparts to report directly to a publisher or chief executive officer. 13 Nearly a third of online editors reported directly to the publisher or CEO, compared with about 60 percent of print editors. Other online editors reported to corporate owners or presidents and to print managing editors, editors and executive editors. Similarly, Arant and Anderson reported that a 1999 survey of online newspaper editors revealed that 36 percent reported to the publisher/CEO; 31 percent to the top print editor; 7 percent to an officer in marketing and 3 percent to the production manager.14 The remaining 23 percent of online editors, the authors wrote:. . . had a variety of bosses: the president of a wholly owned newspaper subsidiary, assistant to the publisher, general manager, metro editor, news editor, operations director, president of the interactive publishing division, director of new media, director of technology, technology manager, online director, new media manager and corporate director of online content. …
Cogent Social Sciences, 2016
Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on added importa... more Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on added importance with journalism's widespread commercialization in the 1800s. It became an increasingly urgent issue, particularly for US newspapers, toward the end of the twentieth century. Readership was unexpectedly in steady decline and the cause didn't appear to be clearly identifiable. As readers left, the print industry pulled together to find out why-and to strategize, collaboratively, on ways to win readers back, keep the ones they still had, and attract new ones. A key focus became making content "reader-friendly." This paper delves deep into some of the dynamics and outcomes of that time. Newspaper readership continues to decline in the early part of the twenty-first century, but readership online is on the rise. The study suggests that readership itself may not have been the problem; newspaper readership was.
Visual Communication Quarterly, 2014
Applifam, a global Instagram community that edits and shares images daily, has grown steadily sin... more Applifam, a global Instagram community that edits and shares images daily, has grown steadily since its late-2011 founding. Since then, the group (led by founder Johan Du Toit) has grappled with ethical and legal ways to use images in a technological environment that makes image theft easy, a cultural “remix” environment that finds unauthorized uses natural, an artistic environment that values the symbolic statements of appropriation art, a legal environment that varies by country, and a socially collaborative environment that may not reward adherence to copyright standards. In June 2012, when Applifam took a stand about original work, a conversation began as to what that meant. It yielded a rare look at evolving standards regarding our common visual heritage.
Communication Education, 2015
A mentor can be of great importance to doctoral student success and progress. While many have stu... more A mentor can be of great importance to doctoral student success and progress. While many have studied student perceptions of the process, research regarding how doctoral faculty mentors interpret and enact mentoring practices is less evident. To address this empirical gap, a doctoral student mentor functions measure was created. The measure is based on two surveys, one involving 21 specific mentors, and another of 551 communication faculty self-identified as mentoring doctoral students. Results show that research method preference, recent research productivity, academic rank, and mentor self-efficacy significantly related to variations in mentor functions (career, psychosocial, research, and intellectual). The findings reveal certain traits can influence participants’ interpretation of mentoring.
From the Publisher: Just about everyone knows how to "surf" the information superhighwa... more From the Publisher: Just about everyone knows how to "surf" the information superhighway these days. But very few people who rely on the Internet for the most current news know how to maximize their "surfing" time in the most efficient and informative way. This practical, hands-on book offers readers the tools to think about the Internet from a journalistic perspective and provides tactics that may help both the budding and the experienced journalist meet the tightest of deadlines. Readers will find an up-close look at the different elements of the Internet and how they can be used as tools. Electronic mail, mailing lists, newsgroups, and the World Wide Web issues are thoroughly covered. This book describes not only how to find information on the Internet but also how to evaluate the credibility and newsworthiness of the information retrieved. Broadcasters, journalists of print and television media, investigative reporters, public affairs reporters, and anyone in...
Newspaper newsrooms in the 1990s, hard-hit by financial pressures and steady declines in circulat... more Newspaper newsrooms in the 1990s, hard-hit by financial pressures and steady declines in circulation, sought ways to be more efficient and attract more readers. One result was the creation of topic teams: groups of journalists assigned to produce reports on topics deemed to be of interest to targeted readers. As newspapers reorganized to enable such teams, newsrooms became more participatory and less authoritarian, altering decades of journalistic routines, culture, and job descriptions. Although the first experimenters were greeted with jeers and suspicion, topic-team newsrooms were widespread by the turn of the century. This study is the first to contextualize the adoption of topic teams in the United States in terms of history and journalistic experience. In-depth interviews with topic-team journalists yielded insights into management, professional values, newsroom practices, and the interaction of all three. Within a continuum, three types of teams emerged: negative, cohesive, and synergistic. Negative teams, which were the least functional, were associated with the highest degree of management control and the lowest degree of reward for the team member. Synergistic teams offered the highest reward with the least degree of management control. Cohesive teams were moderate in both regards. Management risk appeared greatest at both extremes. A model of topic team instrumentality, using these findings, is proposed. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Perhaps every researcher feels a particular tie to people who yield rich data and compellingly personal insights simply because they were asked to in the name of knowledge. This study bursts at the seams with their generosity, but it also speaks eloquently of the participants' love of what they do, their belief that what they do matters, and their willingness to undergo rigors and challenges to continue doing their jobs. If there is any "takeaway" idea with hopeful meaning for journalism as a whole, it is that. I owe particular thanks to Meg McGuire, who pointed the way to this doctorate, and to the Freedom Forum, which gave me a fellowship to do it. It would not have been possible without the generous help of my chair, Patricia A. Curtin; committee members Frank Fee, Steve May, Mary Alice Shaver, and Ken Smith; Susan Keith, constant friend and research colleague; Deborah Gump, who was there from the beginning; and my husband, Randy Jessee, who was the first to say, "Why not research topic teams?" and the one to share a whoop of joy at the end. I am grateful to my colleagues at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University for encouragement and support. Particular thanks go to Marianne Barrett, associate dean, for protecting my time and urging me on.
1 * Abstract: Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on... more 1 * Abstract: Readership has always been a necessary element in news transmission, but it took on added importance with journalism's widespread commercialization in the 1800s. It became an increasingly urgent issue, particularly for US newspapers, toward the end of the twentieth century. Readership was unexpectedly in steady decline and the cause didn't appear to be clearly identifiable. As readers left, the print industry pulled together to find out why—and to strategize, collaboratively, on ways to win readers back, keep the ones they still had, and attract new ones. A key focus became making content "reader-friendly." This paper delves deep into some of the dynamics and outcomes of that time. Newspaper readership continues to decline in the early part of the twenty-first century, but readership online is on the rise. The study suggests that readership itself may not have been the problem; newspaper readership was.
Visual Communication Quarterly, 2021
This article critically analyzes a pair of photographs from the Unite the Right rally in Charlott... more This article critically analyzes a pair of photographs from the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017: Samuel Corum’s nighttime image of torch-bearing protesters on the University of Virginia campus and Ryan Kelly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning daytime image of counterprotesters falling through the air as James A. Fields Jr. rammed his car into them, killing Heather Heyer. Using a close reading of the images as texts—considering their production, contrasts, and resonances—we argue that the photographs form a temporal, technical, and theoretical diptych of anger, hate, fear, confusion, and sorrow.
* Kaye, Jeff and Stephen Quinn (2010). Funding Journalism in the Digital Age: Business Models, St... more * Kaye, Jeff and Stephen Quinn (2010). Funding Journalism in the Digital Age: Business Models, Strategies, Issues and Trends. New York: Peter Lang. pp. 185. * Bugeja, Michael and Daniela V. Dimitrova (2010). Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age. Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, pp. 86. In a dazzlingly short time, our communication and research habits have dramatically changed. Thanks to technology and the Internet, we've found new ways to share, store, connect, search, and inform. In so doing, we've damaged, outgrown, or abandoned systems that supported "old" ways - as is plainly seen in the news industry's turmoil of the past decade. Some functions those old ways served, however, need protecting. These books address two such challenges. The difficulty of finding new economic underpinnings for the production of journalism has been the focus of heated attention. The need to be able to consistently retrieve what has been shared online has not. Both areas deserve explication, which the books' authors ably provide. Anyone who has said the word "paywall" in discussions of current journalism likely knows it provokes passionate defenses and attacks. The concept - requiring people to pay for digitally distributed news - sparks broad debate over how journalism might be funded, what journalism means and should mean, who qualifies as a journalist, and journalism's role. Jeff Kaye and Stephen Quinn's book brings perspective to those rightfully touchy subjects. After all, business models that sustained huge news organizations and efforts for centuries have crumbled, the authors point out, resulting in slashed staffs and budgets, about ten U.S. newspaper closures annually, and a murky financial outlook. The "talk is of survival" (p. 1). Meanwhile, journalism has flourished "in remarkable ways - from instant global distribution to community participation and more powerful storytelling techniques" (p. 1). What hasn't changed, they note, is a long-held perception that "an informed public is an intrinsic social good" (p. 1). While the book initially appears to view the news industry primarily as victim, it gains in context and breadth as it develops. The opening three-chapter section gives an overview of how emerging technologies and social trends affected mass distribution of news. Increased competition from a growing number of sources drew readers and viewers away from established news outlets. Without masses being attracted in the same numbers to print newspapers and (much less known) to newscasters, advertisers found increasingly fewer reasons to buy ad space or time. Newspapers' dual-product model - selling "eyeballs" to advertisers while bringing in far less money from adnews print sales - foundered. Readers' attention was going to the web. Attempting a similar model online, however, was problematic because of strong competition from online advertisers (such as Craigslist and Google) and an interlaced web culture built on free transfer of information. Other factors in news organizations' slow embrace of the web, the authors explain, included a risk-averse culture, an ability to maintain high profit margins through cuts to the core product, an interest in staking a claim online through quickly built readership, and poor methods for collecting secure payments. Newspapers' first forays into online journalism were in dial-up days, which were slow, frustrating, and pricey for consumers. Nevertheless, news organizations' failure to charge for content from the beginning is seen by some as "Original Sin" (p. 23). The authors cover the 1990s dotcom boom and subsequent bust, the emergence in 2004 of Web 2.0 and social media popularity, and the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. They then explain various approaches to paid-content models including subscriptions, micropayments, and thirdparty fees. Because Kaye and Quinn built a firm foundation, it becomes understandable why news organizations would at the same time lure free "hits" through search engines, social media, reporting strategies, and distributed media of all kinds. …
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 2016
Art Herbig, Andrew F. Herrmann, and Adam W. Tyma (Eds.). Beyond New Media: Discourse and Critique... more Art Herbig, Andrew F. Herrmann, and Adam W. Tyma (Eds.). Beyond New Media: Discourse and Critique in a Polymediated Age. London: Lexington Books, 2015. 201 pp.What should we call a "new media" environment when it is, well, not new anymore? How do we define and study what our media-soaked world has become, and what it says about us?That conversation, at least in terms of this book, began among its three editors and like-minded others in 2012. It was propelled by a perceived need to discover how one talks and, therefore, thinks about media. Were "old" words and concepts keeping us from realizing "new" and important ways in which media have already joined our lives? Is technology changing faster than the language we have to discuss it? What umbrella term could be used to refer to what was happening? It was "clearly time to have the discussion: #WeNeedaWord," the editors decided (p. xiv), declaring and legitimizing it in true social media form with a hashtag they first used on Facebook (p. 164).When the word searchers began discussing in earnest, "there were red faces, raised voices, and slamming heads on tabletops," the introduction notes.All of us are trying to get to a place that makes sense in this mediated environment we find ourselves in. There are many words out there (i.e., rhizome, secondary orality, convergence); however, those words seem insufficient to explore the diverse mediated phenomena that we are experiencing. (p. xiv)They chose "polymediation." The ensuing book reflects their aim for a robust and multifaceted definition of the chosen word so that the conversation might continue.The term, earlier coined by Mirca Madianou and Daniel Miller, describes environments in which each medium operating within an environment interacts and exists in relation to other media. In the word "polymediation," the authors use "poly" to signify the many different forms that media take as well as the many possible interactions one might have with them.Convergence, it is noted, "helps us understand the point at which we can send and receive multiple messages across platforms via a single technology" (p. xix). Polymediation takes that a step further referring to the convergence of "mediated moments" (p. xx). Think, perhaps, of hashtags. They are organizing tools, modes of expression, and shapers of communities that in turn shape thoughts. In convergence, through concurrent use on more than one platform, they gain power and presence. Many make the jump into a widespread social consciousness where, seemingly, awareness of the hashtag and what it represents propels actions. Consider the political tentacles of #ArabSpring, a tag that arose in mid-December 2010 and now signifies, at a global level, upheavals and uprisings that began at that time in the Middle East.The edited collection's 10 authors broaden the original concept, chapter by chapter. Collectively, they illustrate how polymediation pervades the post-convergence world. They argue that we ourselves, not just our individual media platforms, are constantly surrounded and shaped by the processes of polymediation. Furthermore, they assert, we are increasingly defined by media while we define ourselves by our choices of which media we use and how we use them.Adam W. Tyma first provides needed context in his review of mass media history pre-polymediation. Then, in a chapter describing the characteristics of polymediation, Michelle Calka opens with discussion of ubiquity. The ubiquitous ability to connect, the expectations that those abilities bring (timely replies to text messages, perhaps), and the ways in which we conduct our lives-and portray our selves-because of our technological tools is an area that remains relatively unexplored. Deftly, and using well-known examples, Calka additionally probes three other defining elements.The concept of shape-shifting authorship (a marvelously evocative term for a remix culture that likes to share, comment, and create in technologically enabled ways) helps provide inclusivity for such diverse topics as copyright practices, one's relationship to property and original thought, and one's role in participatory tsunamis of Web-enabled sentiment. …
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 2014
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
The Poster, 2018
The image-sharing social media platform Instagram has become a site for political discourse that ... more The image-sharing social media platform Instagram has become a site for political discourse that combines visual and textual elements. These political conversations often take place in the form of memes or popular
graphic sentiments intended for redistribution. Scholars have identified memes as markers of subcultural knowledge that may be used to reinforce beliefs and norms, define social boundaries and disparage outgroups.
Gun rights activism in the United States has intensified in an increasingly partisan environment. We examined memes shared via Instagram to popular gun culture hashtags between June 2016 and February 2018.
Insofar as memes act as vehicles for subcultural beliefs and values, here they may be seen as representing multiple realities from the perspective of Second Amendment enthusiasts: descriptions of their perceived reality, justifying the need for guns and conservative political positions; the construed reality of what the meme creators and sharers believe to be liberal attitudes; and the aspirational reality of a world that offers unobstructed support for their priorities. In other words, these memes can collectively be said to represent both the truth about the world, as seen by these users, and cultural messages to set power differentials and identity
boundaries with Others.
Uploads
Papers by Leslie-Jean Thornton
graphic sentiments intended for redistribution. Scholars have identified memes as markers of subcultural knowledge that may be used to reinforce beliefs and norms, define social boundaries and disparage outgroups.
Gun rights activism in the United States has intensified in an increasingly partisan environment. We examined memes shared via Instagram to popular gun culture hashtags between June 2016 and February 2018.
Insofar as memes act as vehicles for subcultural beliefs and values, here they may be seen as representing multiple realities from the perspective of Second Amendment enthusiasts: descriptions of their perceived reality, justifying the need for guns and conservative political positions; the construed reality of what the meme creators and sharers believe to be liberal attitudes; and the aspirational reality of a world that offers unobstructed support for their priorities. In other words, these memes can collectively be said to represent both the truth about the world, as seen by these users, and cultural messages to set power differentials and identity
boundaries with Others.
graphic sentiments intended for redistribution. Scholars have identified memes as markers of subcultural knowledge that may be used to reinforce beliefs and norms, define social boundaries and disparage outgroups.
Gun rights activism in the United States has intensified in an increasingly partisan environment. We examined memes shared via Instagram to popular gun culture hashtags between June 2016 and February 2018.
Insofar as memes act as vehicles for subcultural beliefs and values, here they may be seen as representing multiple realities from the perspective of Second Amendment enthusiasts: descriptions of their perceived reality, justifying the need for guns and conservative political positions; the construed reality of what the meme creators and sharers believe to be liberal attitudes; and the aspirational reality of a world that offers unobstructed support for their priorities. In other words, these memes can collectively be said to represent both the truth about the world, as seen by these users, and cultural messages to set power differentials and identity
boundaries with Others.