推进媒体多元化政策与研究:中国新闻多样性计算监测的创新

Advancing Media Pluralism Policies and Research:Innovations in Computational Monitoring of News Diversity in China

在本研究中,我们开发了一种新的计算工具,通过新闻报道中公共事务内容的比例来评估网络新闻的多样性,该工具被应用于分析微信公众号上的算法分发新闻。研究发现,一篇新闻文章的用户参与度高低与新闻标题、内容和图片使用之间存在相关性。本文认为,媒体研究的去西方化应该包括媒体多元化/多样性政策,这种方法可以增进我们对新闻媒体的理解。对中国网络新闻及其多样性的研究强调过程研究和系统研究,以及政策制定的结构、机构和路径之间的相互作用。此研究为网络新闻语料库分析提供了基于计算方法的理论框架,有助于理解和促进不同媒介系统的新闻多样性。

Algorithmic visibility of news has emerged as a key issue for those researching questions of media pluralism,and Chinese platforms are at the forefront of these trends(Zhang,2021).In this presentation we discuss a new computational tool developed for assessing online news media diversity,based on the proportion of public affairs content in news stories.We then apply this framework to the algorithmic aspects of news distribution across WeChat Official Accounts(WOAs)from this social media platform’s news providers.The research contributes to the development and understanding of media pluralities across divergent media systems through theorized frameworks informed by computational methods for the analysis of online news corpora.It is argued that transformations in digital media production,distribution and access to online content,especially news,invite researchers to rethink the application of media policies in national media systems.In that context,frameworks that were previously relied on for comparative national media system analyses now warrant reassessment.The argument is made that de-Westernization of media studies should include media pluralism/diversity policies within the scope of that project,and this approach can advance our understanding of news media in China.Researching online news and diversity in China underscores the benefits of studying processes as well as systems,and the dynamic interactions between structure,agency and pathways of policymaking.