Recent changes in the media environment make it easier than ever for people to actively shape their news repertoires according to their habits, needs, and preferences. As convenient as these practices seem, they may favor the development of misperceptions such as “news finds me” perception (NFM) and make it easier for some people to disconnect from news and political content. Building on the conceptualization of news avoidance as a general disposition and its consequential behaviors, this study jointly examines key individual-level predispositions that may motivate intentional news avoidance. Based on a two-wave survey collected in the United States, our results largely corroborate previous work showing the association of political interest, news overload, and trust in professional news with news avoidance, and stress the importance of including the NFM in the theoretical and empirical modelling of news avoidance. Our analyses also suggest that the linkages between these individual-level antecedents and news avoidance are contingent upon the design and robustness of the empirical tests, with NFM yielding the most consistent association across models.

Drawing on the theory of the economics of information, this study sheds light on the factors that influence willingness to pay for online news, using a telephone survey of 570 US (from the Pew Research Center) adults selected at random. Results of the logistic regression analysis revealed relationships between paying intent and predictor variables such as demographics (age and income), purchase of other digital products (online movies or TV content, software programs, eBooks and applications) and media use (Twitter). However, independent variables such as gender (demographics), video games and music files (purchase of other digital products) were not statistically significant. Future research on the economics of news may take into account these findings focused on studying paying intent.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has developed into a powerful tool for processing and generating human-like texts, unlocking innovative possibilities for quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Within qualitative research, artificial intelligence in general, and ChatGPT in particular, represent promising avenues to explore and examine textual transcriptions from interview data. This study is a step forward in this direction, advancing a reliable research protocol for using ChatGPT to conduct thematic analysis, which includes the following standard steps: (1) data preparation, (2) defining the analysis process, (3) chatbot interaction, (4) iterative process, (5) review and validation, and (6) analysis and interpretation. Results of the analysis revealed that ChatGPT may significantly facilitate qualitative data analysis exploration, especially during initial research stages and when dealing with extensive transcription material. Additionally, our protocol design is able to reliably identify different thematic patterns emerging from the text, although the granularity of the output may vary depending on the quality of the prompt and human intelligence interpretation. Accordingly, we conclude that despite its vast power, the ChatGPT model in its current state is unable to substitute the contextual insights and subtle metaphorical nuances associated with human qualitative analysis, interpretation and reflexivity.

This research-based essay examines the national diversity of editorial boards from a selection of journals in communication sciences. Specifically, it reviews the board composition of 39 Journal Citation Report journals indexed in quartile one (Q1) and quartile two (Q2) in the category of ‘communication’, proposing a typology of dominant nationalities. The most distinguished countries are the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany, monopolizing 79.4% of total members. The exaggerated domination of certain geographies is surprising given the increasing acknowledgement of plurality as a constitutive value of scientific progress. The article then problematizes why plurality is limited and, therefore, identifies a body of social and cultural bonds that underpin the domination of certain epistemic cultures. The study finally proposes an agenda that moves beyond the current status quo, and considers how these actions are likely to promote a more pluralistic and diverse intellectual terrain.

The crisis affecting news organisations, along with their struggle to find a sustainable online business model, have challenged journalists’ professional autonomy, as economic and commercial pressures find their way into journalists’ daily practice. This research explores the perceived influence of commercial pressures on Spanish newsrooms, paying special attention to how journalists resolve and manage those conflicts within the limits of the media organisation. Through 50 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Spanish journalists and editors, the findings emphasise the usual, while normalised prevalence of commercial pressures. The study argues that the newspaper crisis has weakened news organisations’ independence from advertisers, as big corporations that concentrate most of the market share have very significant structural influence. The article identifies the most common typologies of commercial pressures according to the producing source (internal or external), and addresses their main effects for journalism practice, specifically for journalists’ autonomy and newspapers agenda setting. It concludes that in order to decrease advertisers’ bargaining power, a more diverse organisational news media landscape needs to be enhanced and therefore, policymakers should accommodate shifts towards subscription and ensure a viable future for entrepreneurial journalism start-ups.