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Yepez-Reyes, V.; Cevallos, P.; Carrillo-Andrade, A.; Cruz-Silva, J.; López-Paredes, M.; González-Quincha, A. Multimodal Analysis: Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/44799 (accessed on 19 May 2024).
Yepez-Reyes V, Cevallos P, Carrillo-Andrade A, Cruz-Silva J, López-Paredes M, González-Quincha A. Multimodal Analysis: Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/44799. Accessed May 19, 2024.
Yepez-Reyes, Veronica, Patricio Cevallos, Andrea Carrillo-Andrade, Jorge Cruz-Silva, Marco López-Paredes, Alejandra González-Quincha. "Multimodal Analysis: Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/44799 (accessed May 19, 2024).
Yepez-Reyes, V., Cevallos, P., Carrillo-Andrade, A., Cruz-Silva, J., López-Paredes, M., & González-Quincha, A. (2023, May 24). Multimodal Analysis: Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/44799
Yepez-Reyes, Veronica, et al. "Multimodal Analysis: Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena." Encyclopedia. Web. 24 May, 2023.
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Political phenomena concern facts related to the regime or political system. Digital citizenship has become a political issue that has changed the ways in which citizens and authorities relate to each other and the ways in which decisions are communicated (both politically and in terms of policies). On the other hand, social phenomena refer to dialogues that are inherent to the networked community. Digital media and social networks are catalysts that reconceptualize and reimagine social relations, political and cultural participation, and so on.
multimodality
newsworthiness
political participation
1. Introduction
In times of “liquid modernity”—in the Baumanian sense of the term—it is a risky undertaking to approach the analysis of interactions univocally. Moreover, digital interactions comprise a wide variety of forms of communication, including texts, images, and sounds, as well as links to other texts, images, and sounds. What makes the study of digital interactions fascinating—particularly in light of Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity—is the existence of unfamiliar people interacting directly with each other, with all its implications: “The meeting of strangers is an event without a past. More often than not, it is also an event without a future (it is expected to be, hoped to be, free of a future), a story most certainly ‘not to be continued’, a one-off chance, to be consummated in full while it lasts and, on the spot, without delay and without putting the unfinished business off to another occasion” [1] (p. 95).
In light of these findings, with regard to digital interactions, the concepts of multimodality and phenomenology prompt knowledge on this subject to continuously reset and shift when analyzing newsworthy political and social phenomena.
2. Approaches to Phenomena
First, let us focus on phenomenology, which may be understood as the rigorous means by which people examine and perceive the world scientifically before they come to properly understand it. The ways in which phenomenology investigate how people experience the world, as well as how they abstract from the world around them, are derived from the work of Husserl [2]. By creating a general understanding of mental processes, Husserl created an operative abstraction. When the mind receives input via stimuli from the world around it or experiences images or sounds, something concrete or abstract occurs. How does the mind respond to tenderness and injustice? Husserl’s study is completely theoretical rather than empirical [3].
The content—concerning what is discussed or what dialogues occur in digital and convergent media—refers to Halliday’s field [4]. In this study, the field is understood as the phenomenon; thus, a phenomenon is understood as any fact, situation, or experience that is highlighted or relevant to users due to factors that answer questions such as what, who, why, and so on. As in any dialogue, the sine qua non for it to exist is that someone talks about it and interacts with it. “Someone”, according to Halliday, refers to the tenor.
Phenomenology refers to a body of knowledge that deals with empirical observations (concerning phenomena).
Husserl believed that the social world was formed before the formation of the self and the world. He also believed that people’s subjectivities were formed before intersubjectivity. The second step requires a phenomenological reduction to be performed. This eliminates the discarding process and leaves only a trace of reality in the mind. This is not the same as the impression received, but rather an impression of reality stored in the subconscious; this is what digital behavior can generate.
A central question in phenomenology is as follows: what is the intention? To answer this question, classical phenomenology uses three methods: (1) the mere description of a past experience; (2) the interpretation of the experience in relation to its context; and (3) the analysis of the type of experience. Over time, these methods have developed via: (4) semantic analysis to determine thought conditions and types of intention; and (5) experiments to confirm or refute aspects of an experience [5]. Regarding communication processes, phenomenology is mainly interested in grounding research through inquiry. Hence, interdisciplinarity is one of the strengths of studies that are based on phenomenology.
Narrative studies report stories, whereas a phenomenological study interrogates the meanings of the experiences of individuals from a phenomenon-based perspective [5]. In this sense, phenomenology does not focus on the mere description of the event but on an interpretation of the event, noting who intervened, what was experienced, and how the event occurred [6]. Phenomena are determined using facts that change over time; hence, the relationships between them are provisional. In other words, phenomena are not subject to stable conditions given that they are events and processes; therefore, when conducting research using a phenomenological lens, the possible variables and the dimensions of the object of analysis are studied. Emphasis is given to changes in and impacts on relationships between actors.
3. Newsworthiness of Political and Social Phenomena
A phenomenon refers to an event or fact that impacts the communicative sphere and requires analysis and explanation. By focusing on messages that occur in digital contexts, phenomenology is able to guide the study of the circulation and dissemination of these messages. One approach to the social repercussions of messages is to frame them in terms of their newsworthiness. Journalists generate messages with certain elements that make them suitable for publication/broadcast on a media platform, including opportunity, proximity, prominence, impact, conflict, magnitude, and rarity [7].
From a sociological perspective, qualities that contribute to a message’s newsworthiness can be classified into frequency, surprise (novel, unpredictable, or unique events), proximity, continuity, power of the elite (nations, institutions, and people), spectacle, celebrity, bad news (conflict, crime, material, or personal damage), good news, sex, significance (political, economic, or cultural), relevance (geographical or cultural proximity), authenticity, opportunities, and competition [8]. Changes in media, regarding digitalization, embrace reconfigured approaches to news writing in terms of its value criteria. They suggest that this approach may be divided into three areas: goals, factors, and values. The goals of news writing comprise a set of general objectives that writers strive to achieve, including clarity of expression, brevity, accuracy, and color, among others. In addition, news writing involves selection factors that determine whether a story is published or not, such as commercial pressures, deadlines, and the availability of reporters. These criteria are not necessarily based on value. Finally, news values are recognized criteria that determine the newsworthiness of actors, happenings, and issues. These values include negativity and proximity, among others. By understanding these objectives, factors, and values, writers can create informative, engaging, and impactful news content.
Some study classifies newsworthy phenomena into political and social categories for academic purposes because there are evident overlaps between both categories. Political phenomena concern facts related to the regime or political system. Digital citizenship has become a political issue that has changed the ways in which citizens and authorities relate to each other and the ways in which decisions are communicated (both politically and in terms of policies). These phenomena have repercussions for forms of legitimization with regard to democratic political intervention. On the other hand, social phenomena refer to dialogues that are inherent to the networked community. Digital media and social networks are catalysts that reconceptualize and reimagine social relations, political and cultural participation, and so on.
The mode of symbolic interaction (how meanings are exchanged) [9] that is transferred to digital culture creates a particular pattern with which to understand how content is produced, disseminated, and regenerated. It has been suggested that the two substantial characteristics of the Information Society are as follows: the shrinking of distances and the short duration of time spent online [10]. Currently, multi-screen and cross-platform consumption can occur on the same screen at the same time. Millennials are known for using more than one medium at a time. Obtaining information in this way can cause one of the following scenarios: a) information becomes significant as the various content sources complement each other (the so-called meshing), despite being played simultaneously; or b) if a person’s attention is divided, it can make data collection useless as one content source may prove to be more distracting than the other, thus preventing the attainment of useful and efficient information (called “stacking”).
Hence, hybrid content emerges, and contrasting sources are combined to generate a third reality; at the same time, this may also be considered detached autonomous content. Faced with the task of scrutinizing messages from audio, video, and photo mixes (using apps or platforms such as TikTok), content analysis is faced with an interesting challenge: it needs to track the original sources, identify the context (so as to understand the combination (the mashup) of layers), and understand the informative purpose behind the final product.
In addition to the manner in which messages are produced, the relationship between people and the media has also been modified. The former media receiver (or consumer) inhabits two spaces at the same time: producer and consumer. As a result, the concept of “prosumer” arises, which refers to the actual simultaneous performance of three key actions: composing, sharing/participating, and disseminating (emit, share, receive). These actions have been possible since the arrival of digital social networks (social media), which thus combined the media concerning social communication (mass media) [11].
The possibilities surrounding the creation of messages are numerous and are not limited to written texts; there are multiple ways to use technologies, their applications, and devices. Once the content is created, there is a sine qua non condition to share it, and it is due to the mechanisms of social networks that enable information to be immediately disseminated.
References
- Bauman, Z. Liquid Modernity; Polity Press: Cambridge, MA, USA, 2006.
- Husserl, E. La Idea de Fenomenología; Herder: Barcelona, Spain, 2012.
- Gros, A.E. Alfred Schutz, un fenomenólogo inusual: Una reconstrucción sistemática de la recepción schutziana de Husserl. Discus. Filosóficas 2016, 17, 149–173.
- Halliday, M.; McIntosh, A.; Strevens, P. The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching; Longman: London, UK, 1964.
- Creswell, J.W. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches; SAGE: Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2013.
- Moustakas, C. Phenomenological Research Methods; SAGE Publications: New York, NY, USA, 1999.
- Shoemaker, P.J. News and newsworthiness: A commentary. Communications 2006, 31, 105–111.
- De Nies, T.; D’ heer, E.; Coppens, S.; Van Deursen, D.; Mannens, E.; Paulussen, S.; Van de Walle, R. Bringing Newsworthiness into the 21st Century. In Proceedings of the Web of Linked Entities Workshop in Conjuction with the 11th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2012), Boston, MA, USA, 11–15 November 2012.
- Halliday, M. El Lenguaje como Semiótica Social; Fondo de Cultura Económica: Bogotá, Colombia, 1998.
- Hassan, R. The Information Society: Cyber Dreams and Digital Nightmares; Wiley: Oxford, UK, 2013.
- García-Galera, M.C.; Angharad, V. Prosumidores mediáticos. Cultura participativa de las audiencias y responsabilidad de los medios. Comunicar 2014, 43, 10–13.
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