Jee Young Lee

The blurring of professional boundaries between journalism and other communications roles is a contested issue in journalism scholarship. To date, much of the work has examined this topic in relation to the impact of digitization on journalism practice, and the challenges this presents to traditional conceptions of journalistic professionalism. Less attention has been paid to audience perceptions of the shifting margins between traditional journalism and non-journalism roles. Data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018 found 26% of news consumers from 33 countries knew that the responsibility for writing a press release belonged to a spokesperson of an organization, rather than a lawyer (3%). However, 40% thought that it was the role of news reporters or producers and a further 34% said they did not know. Regression analyses reveal that news consumers in countries with higher online news consumption, use of news alerts, trust in news on social media and lower press freedom are less likely to answer correctly. Drawing on theory of advocacy in journalism this article argues these findings point to a possible perception on the part of the audience of journalists being both marketers and providers of news. We suggest this partly stems from journalists and news organizations increasingly assuming marketing functions to publicize themselves and their stories on social media and other digital platforms; and that this promotional activity helps blur the distinction between journalism as a news provider from public relations and other marketing roles in the eyes of the audience.

The use of social media by politicians has received much scholarly interest. However, much less is known about the citizens who follow them and whether their motivation to seek information directly from political actors is linked to perceptions of journalism practice. To
address this gap, this paper examines the motivations of news users, in six countries (Australia, Germany, Ireland, Spain, UK and USA), who also follow politicians and political parties on social media. Analysis of data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2017 shows the desire to access information unfiltered by journalists was the primary motivation, followed by partisan support, and dissatisfaction with elements of mainstream political reporting. Additional logistic regression analyses for each country reveals these ‘followers’ are younger, have a higher interest in political news, stronger political orientation and efficacy, and participate more in sharing and commenting, than ‘non-followers’.
Drawing on contemporary gatekeeping theory and the curation of information flows, this paper highlights the desire of these politically interested news users for greater control over the information they consume and raises questions about the impact of negative perceptions of journalism on the desire to seek alternative information sources.

Cyberbullying is one of the negative consequences of online social interaction. The digital environment enables adolescents to engage in online social interaction beyond the traditional physical boundaries of families, neighbourhoods and schools. This study examined connections to friendship networks in both online and offline settings are related to their experiences as victims, perpetrators and bystanders of cyberbullying. A comparative face-to-face survey of adolescents (12 to 15 year-olds) was conducted in Korea (N=520) and Australia (N=401). The results reveal that online networks are partially related to cyberbullying in both two countries, showing the size of SNS networks was significantly correlated with experience cyberbullying among adolescents in both countries. However there were cultural differences in the impact of friendship networks on cyberbullying. The size of the online and offline networks has a stronger impact on the cyberbullying experiences in Korea than in Australia. In particular, the number of friends in cliques was positively related to both bullying and victimisation in Korea.