Lecture on the role of emotions in journalism for the course I teach at LSE

1. The new human interest:
emotion and journalism in the
digital era
MC422
2016

2. News now networked by audience

4. From networked to personalised?

5. Audience response changes news

6. Journalistic epistemologies challenged
• Objectivity (rationalism)
• Truth claim (evidential)
• Authority (expert)
• Independence (unbiased)
• Public service role (democracy, community)
• Agenda setting (significance)
• Narrative framing (understanding, context)

7. Always with you

8. News becomes personal: from thinker
to swiper
• Email newsletters
• Topic selection ‘My FT’
• Facebook algorithms
• Personalised search
• News aggregators
• RSS feeds, Twitter feeds
• Artificial intelligence
• News bots
• Gamification
• Interactive graphics

9. Digital dependency: you love it

10. Pillow talk: news becomes intimate
not just personalised
• Always on
• Instant
• Live playing video
• News is blended
• Part of your private media
life
• Demands attention
• Expects interaction
• A relationship, not a
product

11. Dissemination and trust is
personalised

12. News responds

13. Emotion drives narratives

16. Why do we share news content?
• To bring valuable and entertaining content to
others
• To get get the word out about causes or issues
they believe in
• To define ourselves to others: an emotional
act

17. What are the consequences of this
for journalism impact and quality?

18. Human Interest

19. Sensationalism (and ‘good’ news)

20. Personal as political narrative

22. Impact on traditional journalism:
Objectivity v Empathy

23. Data driven journalism

24. Emotional formula for online mobile
video:
Channel 4 News
Emotional
imagery
Identity
politics
Social
Justice

25. Emotional formula for online mobile
video:
BuzzFeed News
Emotional
imagery
Identity
politics
A “gift”

26. The daily cycle of newsroom sensitivity
Emotional event
Interest
Shock
Compassion
Editorial process
Objective
Organised
Formulaic
Personal feelings
Guilt/pride
Reflection
Action

27. The new cycle of ‘sensitive’ content
creation
News Event
including immediate
mediation
Professional process:
selection, framing,
packaging
Affective/emotional
content
Emotional audience
response:
engagement,
interaction
Emotion driven
attention & sharing

28. Pushing at the boundaries

29. • "We expect broadcasters as fellow human
beings to neuter and cauterise their own
emotion to what they see. Jon has seen a lot
of suffering around the world in the last 40
years, and we should respect that emotion.”
• John Ryley, Sky News

30. Homophily

31. Homophily

32. “The better we get at modelling user
preferences, the more accurately we construct
recommendation engines that fully capture
user attention. In a way, we are building
personalized propaganda engines that feed
users content which makes them feel good
and throws away the uncomfortable bits.”
Gilad Lotan, Data Scientist, 2015

33. Rampant relativism

34. Is the use of emotion an economic
or ethical imperative?

35. The new objectivity

36. Quote for KWJ and Jeffreys“The epistemological tensions between the
historical professional paradigm of objectivity on
the one hand, and the more emotional styles of
citizen journalism, user-generated content and
social media on the other, are therefore by no
means resolved. Rather, what this chapter has
demonstrated are some potentially productive
spaces of encounter between them. This encounter
results in dynamic and variegated outcomes
circulating across amateur and professional forms
of news production and traditional and new media
platforms.”
• Wahl-Jorgensen

37. Back to the lab: how can networked
journalism incorporate traditional
news values and emotion?

38. The new human interest: emotion
and journalism in the digital era
MC422
2016