Hasil untuk "Newspapers"

J. Richardson

M. Gentzkow, Jesse M. Shapiro

Richard de Grijs

Speculation about Martian canals was a recurring feature of late nineteenth-century popular astronomy. This paper examines how colonial newspapers used humour to negotiate the epistemic uncertainty and interpretive excess associated with canal theory. Drawing on over one thousand metropolitan and regional Australian newspapers published between 1877 and 1899, we identify five overlapping modes of humour: imported metropolitan wit; satire of modern engineering culture; humour grounded in observational uncertainty; scale-based exaggeration and colonial self-comparison; and overt sceptical parody. These modes tracked shifting relationships between observation, interpretation and authority, allowing newspapers to entertain speculative ideas while marking the limits of scientific credibility. At the same time, humorous treatments positioned Australian readers within a global culture of science and modernity. Comparisons with projects such as the Suez and Panama Canals, and with European and American astronomers, aligned colonial audiences with metropolitan discourse, even as local experience with land, water and scale shaped the tone of satire. We demonstrate that Australian newspapers did not passively transmit overseas ideas but actively reworked them through humour, balancing fascination with restraint. More generally, this case suggests that humour could function as a cultural strategy through which historical newspaper audiences engaged with speculative scientific claims without abandoning trust in scientific authority.

N Harsha Vardhan, Ponnurangam Kumaraguru, Kiran Garimella

This paper investigates advertising practices in print newspapers across India using a novel data-driven approach. We develop a pipeline employing image processing and OCR techniques to extract articles and advertisements from digital versions of print newspapers with high accuracy. Applying this methodology to five popular newspapers that span multiple regions and three languages, English, Hindi, and Telugu, we assembled a dataset of more than 12,000 editions containing several hundred thousand advertisements. Collectively, these newspapers reach a readership of over 100 million people. Using this extensive dataset, we conduct a comprehensive analysis to answer key questions about print advertising: who advertises, what they advertise, when they advertise, where they place their ads, and how they advertise. Our findings reveal significant patterns, including the consistent level of print advertising over the past six years despite declining print circulation, the overrepresentation of company ads on prominent pages, and the disproportionate revenue contributed by government ads. Furthermore, we examine whether advertising in a newspaper influences the coverage an advertiser receives. Through regression analyses on coverage volume and sentiment, we find strong evidence supporting this hypothesis for corporate advertisers. The results indicate a clear trend where increased advertising correlates with more favorable and extensive media coverage, a relationship that remains robust over time and across different levels of advertiser popularity.

Jaihyun Park, Ryan Cordell

This study investigates the usage of "slave" and "servant" in the 19th century US newspapers using computational methods. While both terms were used to refer to enslaved African Americans, they were used in distinct ways. In the Chronicling America corpus, we included possible OCR errors by using FastText embedding and excluded text reprints to consider text reprint culture in the 19th century. Word2vec embedding was used to find semantically close words to "slave" and "servant" and log-odds ratio was calculated to identify over-represented discourse words in the Southern and Northern newspapers. We found that "slave" is associated with socio-economic, legal, and administrative words, however, "servant" is linked to religious words in the Northern newspapers while Southern newspapers associated "servant" with domestic and familial words. We further found that slave discourse words in Southern newspapers are more prevalent in Northern newspapers while servant discourse words from each side are prevalent in their own region. This study contributes to the understanding of how newspapers created different discourses around enslaved African Americans in the 19th century US.

Johan Heinsen, Camilla Bøgeskov

This Data Descriptor introduces the dataset Enevaeldens Nyheder Online (News during Absolutism Online). The Enevaeldens Nyheder Online (ENO) dataset provides a reconstruction of the contents of major newspapers in Denmark and Norway during the period of Absolutism (1660-1849). The dataset contains approx. 474 million words, created using neural networks designed to process digitised microfilm versions of Danish newspapers as well as a smaller selection of Norwegian publications that were all hitherto illegible for computers. The contributions details this process and its results, including a way to derive standalone texts from the editions, and the accompanying BERT-model trained on a beta-version of the dataset.

Alex Bawuah, Vicky Q. Wang, Khadijat Adeleye et al.

ABSTRACT Background and Aims Cervical cancer is a pressing global public health challenge, with sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) experiencing disproportionately high incidence and mortality rates compared to other regions. Early detection through screening and timely treatment is essential for mitigating the burden of this disease. Evidence suggests that mass media exposure can play a pivotal role in increasing cervical cancer screening uptake. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of cervical cancer screening in SSA and to identify factors associated with screening uptake, with a specific focus on the influence of mass media among rural women. Methods The analysis utilized data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in 11 SSA countries, encompassing responses from 72,565 rural women of reproductive age (15–49 years). The primary outcome variable was cervical cancer screening status. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies and cross‐tabulations, were employed to characterize the sample. Given the skewed distribution of the outcome variable, complementary log‐log regression models were applied to estimate adjusted odds ratios (AORs) in both bivariate and multivariable analyses. Robustness of the statistical models and their fitness were rigorously assessed to ensure the validity of the findings. Results The overall prevalence of cervical cancer screening among women in the 11 countries was 8.47%. Women with exposure to mass media were significantly more likely to undergo screening. Specifically, women who watched television less than once a week (AOR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.07–1.38) or at least once a week (AOR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.26–1.53) had higher odds of being screened compared to those with no exposure to television. Similar positive associations were observed for radio and newspaper/magazine exposure. Women who listened to the radio at least once a week (AOR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.45–1.74) and those who read newspapers/magazines at least once a week (AOR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.48–1.90) demonstrated increased odds of undergoing screening. Additional predictors of screening included older age, higher education levels, greater wealth, higher parity, and fewer barriers to accessing healthcare, such as not needing permission or assistance to seek care. Conclusion This study highlights the critical role of mass media—television, radio, and newspapers/magazines—in promoting cervical cancer screening among rural women in SSA. Public health stakeholders and governments should prioritize leveraging these platforms to design and disseminate culturally tailored campaigns aimed at overcoming barriers to screening in rural communities. By optimizing the reach and effectiveness of mass media, particularly traditional channels prevalent in rural SSA, cervical cancer screening rates can be significantly improved, thereby reducing the disease burden in the region.

Jaihyun Park, Ryan Cordell

Warning: This paper contains examples of offensive language targetting marginalized population. The digitization of historical texts invites researchers to explore the large-scale corpus of historical texts with computational methods. In this study, we present computational text analysis on a relatively understudied topic of how Asian workers are represented in historical newspapers in the United States. We found that the word "coolie" was semantically different in some States (e.g., Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas) with the different discourses around coolie. We also found that then-Confederate newspapers and then-Union newspapers formed distinctive discourses by measuring over-represented words. Newspapers from then-Confederate States associated coolie with slavery-related words. In addition, we found Asians were perceived to be inferior to European immigrants and subjected to the target of racism. This study contributes to supplementing the qualitative analysis of racism in the United States with quantitative discourse analysis.

Christian Schultze, Niklas Kerkfeld, Kara Kuebart et al.

The correct detection of dense article layout and the recognition of characters in historical newspaper pages remains a challenging requirement for Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning applications on historical newspapers in the field of digital history. Digital newspaper portals for historic Germany typically provide Optical Character Recognition (OCR) text, albeit of varying quality. Unfortunately, layout information is often missing, limiting this rich source's scope. Our dataset is designed to enable the training of layout and OCR modells for historic German-language newspapers. The Chronicling Germany dataset contains 693 annotated historical newspaper pages from the time period between 1852 and 1924. The paper presents a processing pipeline and establishes baseline results on in- and out-of-domain test data using this pipeline. Both our dataset and the corresponding baseline code are freely available online. This work creates a starting point for future research in the field of digital history and historic German language newspaper processing. Furthermore, it provides the opportunity to study a low-resource task in computer vision

Alessio Buscemi, Daniele Proverbio

Democratic opinion-forming may be manipulated if newspapers' alignment to political or economical orientation is ambiguous. Various methods have been developed to better understand newspapers' positioning. Recently, the advent of Large Language Models (LLM), and particularly the pre-trained LLM chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini, hold disruptive potential to assist researchers and citizens alike. However, little is know on whether LLM assessment is trustworthy: do single LLM agrees with experts' assessment, and do different LLMs answer consistently with one another? In this paper, we address specifically the second challenge. We compare how four widely employed LLMs rate the positioning of newspapers, and compare if their answers align with one another. We observe that this is not the case. Over a woldwide dataset, articles in newspapers are positioned strikingly differently by single LLMs, hinting to inconsistent training or excessive randomness in the algorithms. We thus raise a warning when deciding which tools to use, and we call for better training and algorithm development, to cover such significant gap in a highly sensitive matter for democracy and societies worldwide. We also call for community engagement in benchmark evaluation, through our open initiative navai.pro.

Aletta Lucia Meinsma, Thomas Rothe, W. Gudrun Reijnierse et al.

Quantum technology is expected to have an impact on society. Scientists warn against the use of certain frames because they may create barriers to effective science communication. We studied 385 Dutch newspaper articles for the use of these frames. Newspapers commonly explained quantum concepts when mentioning quantum technology. They also regularly framed quantum technology as beneficial and enigmatic, often in prominent positions of the articles. The economic development/competitiveness frame, the social progress frame and the risk frame were less common. Although these frames are only potential barriers, we encourage journalists to weigh them when communicating about quantum technology.

Leszek Hensel

Laughter Closed up in Horror: The Case of the Hungarian Ballad about a Walled-up Woman The paper is dedicated to a paradox. By approaching the topic of violence, I am actually trying to answer the question of whether and how it is possible to combine it with laughter. I was inspired to adopt this perspective by research on the different types of humorous recycling of one of the most popular works of Hungarian folk literature, the ballad Kőmives Kelemenné [Kelemen Mason’s Wife], which is a story of men’s violence against a woman: the walling-up of the master mason’s wife so that the husband and his team could build a durable castle and receive the agreed payment for their work. The article is based on a rich material base, including both short lexical jokes and longer satires and humorous sketches that have been produced in Hungary since the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to written texts, it refers to humorous drawings published in newspapers and magazines and to versions of the ballad that are present in the internet space. Based on theoretical works by, among others, S. Freud, V. Raskin, R. A. Martin, it seeks an answer to the question of the image of Hungarian society that the analysed materials reflect.   Humor zamknięty w horrorze. Przypadek węgierskiej ballady o zamurowanej kobiecie Artykuł poświęcony jest pewnemu paradoksowi. Podejmując temat przemocy, w istocie próbuje odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy i jaki sposób jest możliwe jej połączenie ze śmiechem. Do przyjęcia takiej perspektywy skłaniają badania nad różnymi rodzajami humorystycznego recyklingu jednego z najpopularniejszych utworów węgierskiej literatury ludowej – ballady Kőmives Kelemenné [Żona Kelemena Murarza]. Ballada opowiada o zamurowaniu żony mistrza murarskiego, aby mąż i jego współpracownicy mogli zbudować trwały zamek i otrzymać wysoką zapłatę za swoją pracę. Artykuł opiera się na bogatej bazie materiałowej, obejmującej zarówno krótkie żarty leksykalne, jak i dłuższe satyry i humorystyczne skecze, które powstawały na Węgrzech od początku XX wieku do czasów współczesnych. Oprócz tekstów pisanych odwołuje się do humorystycznych rysunków publikowanych w gazetach i czasopismach oraz do wersji ballady obecnych w przestrzeni internetowej. Biorąc za podstawę prace teoretyczne m.in. S. Freuda, V. Raskina, R. A. Martina, autor poszukuje odpowiedzi na pytanie o obraz społeczeństwa węgierskiego, jaki odzwierciedlają analizowane materiały.

Anna E. Bazanova, Mohamed Alsadig Hamid Musa

The concept and phenomenon of a language game, its main functions, types and application in commercial advertising is a way to attract the attention of consumers and promote a product. Examples of phonetic, morphological and syntactic wordplay in the texts of English-language commercial advertising are analyzed. The purpose of the article is to analyze the techniques of a language game and identify their functional features at various levels in an English-language advertising text. In this article, the following methods were used: descriptive-analytical method, interpretation method, search method. When choosing a material for analysis, the method of continuous sampling was used. As the material of the research, we used English-language advertisements in various resources, such as from magazines and newspapers and videos, in which a language game was revealed. Thus, the language game implemented in advertising texts is an important phenomenon, since it contributes to the maximum impact on the consumer, since the recipient, thanks to his techniques and functions, draws attention to this advertisement. In addition, an advertisement in which a language game as present is an indicator of a high level of the consumer’s language competence.

C. Chuan, W. Tsai, Sumi Cho

Publics' perceptions of new scientific advances such as AI are often informed and influenced by news coverage. To understand how artificial intelligence (AI) was framed in U.S. newspapers, a content analysis based on framing theory in journalism and science communication was conducted. This study identified the dominant topics and frames, as well as the risks and benefits of AI covered in five major American newspapers from 2009 to 2018. Results indicated that business and technology were the primary topics in news coverage of AI. The benefits of AI were discussed more frequently than its risks, but risks of AI were generally discussed with greater specificity. Additionally, episodic issue framing and societal impact framing were more frequently used.

A. Abbas

This article critically studies coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic news in the press. The article attempts to study the way the news of COVID-19 is used for political and ideological purposes. In order to achieve the aim, two newspapers namely, The New York Times from the United States of America and Global Times from China are selected. Van Dijk’s news schemata framework is used for the analysis of the reports selected from the two newspapers. Van Dijk’s news schemata is crucial for the analysis of any news story (report) whether such a news story is taken from a news channel or a newspaper and whether broadcasted or printed. Based on data analysis, the article found out that the news of COVID-19 has been politicized and used for ideological interests. The article recommends that pandemics should not be politicized, instead we should work together to save our lives and live peacefully.

周愚文 Yu-Wen Chou

以往教育研究多注意國家太平時期的發展，較少關注政局動盪下的教育變革。1912年1月中華民國建立，但因民初政局未穩，為因應開學所需，新設教育部只得儘速修改前清癸卯學制後發布命令施行；之後再新頒教育宗旨、學校系統、各級教育令及課程標準。最初教育部曾想另訂新制，但後迫於復學時間緊湊，只能修改舊制。再者，新訂學校系統仍是以前清學 制為基礎而稍修訂。本研究旨在探討民初辛亥革命後至袁氏稱帝前（1912-1916年）教育制度的再造，採史學方法，根據政府檔案、法規、公報、教育報刊及時人文集等一手資料，經內、外部考證後，探討教育制度調整的原因、經過、實施狀況及影響因素。研究發現，當時地方未能完全落實新制，其原因除政局不穩、戰事迭起外，原仿日學制持續發揮影響力、中央及地方經費支絀、地方教育行政體制殘破及中央地方爭權，均影響新制改革與落實。最後，研究指出政治革命後，舊有教育制度不必然也遭推翻，政府往往仍沿用後再修改，策略上是「穿衣改衣」，而無法另起爐灶。此段國家動盪時期的教育變革經驗，值得今後欲採革命式教育改革策略決策者關注。 The state of education during tumultuous times has often been overlooked by educational historians. However, such periods warrant attention because educational opportunities can be severely limited during these times. The fall of the Ch’ing dynasty in October 1911 led to the establishment of the Republic of China. Although a provisional Republican government was inaugurated in Nanking on January 1, 1912, the new democracy remained divided. A new Ministry of Education was established, and Dr. Yuan-Pei Tsai became its first minister. Tsai endeavored to replace the Ch’ing dynasty’s existing K’uei Mao School System, instituted in 1904, with a new educational framework for the Republic. Because the government urgently wished to resume academic sessions by March of that year, a provisional general education regulation was promulgated through telegrams by the new ministry. The Republic was forced to adapt the Chi’ing dynasty’s educational system, implementing emergency modifications such as renaming schools and principals, implementing a two-semester academic year, permitting coeducation in primary schools, removing the distinction between general and vocational secondary schools, revising primary and secondary school textbooks, and shortening the duration of secondary and normal school to 4 years. The effectiveness of the new regulations remained unclear because of ongoing conflicts between China’s southern and northern governments. Reconciliation between the two factions led to superficial national unity in April. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education convened the Provisional Education Meeting in Peking, the new capital, in July 1912. President Shih-Kai Yuan announced new educational objectives and a reformed school system in early September, 2 months after the meeting. The revised educational goals emphasized moral, military and national, and aesthetic education. The new system comprised five educational stages: 4-year junior elementary school, 3-year senior elementary school, 4-year secondary school, 3-year prep-school, and 4-year university. This structure, although similar to the Ch’ing dynasty 4-5-4-3-3-4 model, had been streamlined to a 4-3-4-3-4 model; completing one’s education from elementary school through university required a minimum of 18 years. A series of educational codes, regulations, and curricula were systematically introduced between 1912 and 1913, culminating in the establishment of the Jen Tzu K’uei Ch’ou School System. Regarding the historical narrative of educational reforms in early Republican China, the literature provides only a cursory overview of the new system; it does not delve into the complexities of the reform process or offer critical commentary. Employing a historical method, this study used first-hand sources, including documents from government archives, statutes, regulations, official gazettes, journals, and newspapers. This study employed both internal and external criticism to explore how the new central government sought to reconstruct China’s educational system between 1912 and 1916; to analyze the causes, process, practices, and factors influencing these educational reforms; and to draw conclusions and implications. The major findings are as follows. The primary motivations for reforming the Ch’ing dynasty’s educational system included its inefficiency, shortcomings, excessively long duration, improper curricula, and inconsistencies or redundancies across educational levels. Empirical evidence indicates that only 6 out of 18 provincial governments adopted the new statutes and regulations to implement the new educational system; the status of the remaining provinces remains unknown. Four major factors influenced these reforms. First, the Ch’ing school system, which was modeled after the Japanese system, continued to exert a considerable influence. Although the number of students who had graduated from Western countries increased after 1912, most had not focused on educational studies and consequently had limited understanding of Western educational systems. Second, ongoing political turmoil from 1913 to 1916, involving the rapid failure of the Second Revolution, the dissolution of China’s parliament, the abolition of the constitution, the ascent and rapid descent of President Yuan as Emperor, the fleeting restoration of the Ch’ing dynasty, and the outbreak of civil wars among various warlords, severely hampered reform efforts. Third, the financial resources allocated to education by local governments were consistently inadequate, primarily due to the diversion of educational funds to military activities. In addition, the limited educational funds were often squandered by local educational agencies and schools. Finally, administrative disorganization and power struggles among provincial, local, and central governments negatively affected the implementation of the new system. The lessons from China’s modern history indicate that completely abolishing an existing educational system is not strategically necessary for a new regime. In China, some revisions were made, and the old system continued to function. In understanding these reforms, consideration must be given to the fact that numerous provincial and central government officials visited Japan to gain educational insights after 1894. Additionally, a substantial number of Chinese students were studying in Japan at that time. These factors may have influenced the subsequent introduction of the Japanese education model into China. In the development of comparative education, modern China transitioned from what can be termed the “traveler’s tale” stage to a stage of “educational borrowing.” A comparison of the number of Chinese students studying in Japan and the US between 1906 and 1912 revealed that more students were in Japan. Moreover, these students displayed a deeper understanding of the educational system they were immersed in. During the Provisional Education Meeting of 1912, the participants who had received Japanese education outnumbered those of US and therefore likely had a greater influence on the final decisions. Notably, Hsi-Kuang Yau and Yi Chen, who were sent by Hu-Kuang Governor-General Chih-Tung Chang to inspect Japanese education in the late Ch’ing dynasty, played influential roles. Chen had even translated Japanese educational laws and drafted a framework for the K’uei Mao School System. Both individuals were official delegates, and therefore, their influence was substantial. Since 1922, the educational system established between 1912 and 1913 has been replaced by what is known as the New School System, which was modeled after the US 6-3-3-4 educational structure. In conclusion, the educational reforms of early Republican China offer valuable lessons for modern educational reformers. Adopting an evolutionary strategy rather than a revolutionary one, China reformed its education system during a period of political instability. Modern China’s experience serves as an insightful case study for those considering revolutionary strategies for educational reform in the future.

Yan Su, Porismita Borah

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the intermedia influence between Twitter’s and newspapers’ agendas on the topic of climate change. Accordingly, using President Trump’s announcement of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement as a dividing point, we compare the agendas on Twitter and newspapers before and after the announcement, analyzing rank-order and cross-lagged correlations between both platforms. Results suggest that newspapers influenced Twitter before the announcement, whereas Twitter conversely influenced newspapers within five days after the announcement. However, Twitter’s influence was found ephemeral, newspapers regained its unidirectional impact five days after the announcement. The findings imply that Twitter is more likely to influence newspapers’ agenda in terms of breaking news, whereas newspapers are more likely to lead Twitter’s agenda in terms of ongoing discussions during non-breaking news periods.

Julia Cagé

This paper investigates the impact of increased media competition on the quantity and quality of news provided and, ultimately, changes in political participation. Drawing from the literature on vertical product differentiation to model the production choices of newspapers, I show how an increase in the number of newspapers can decrease both the quantity and quality of news provided. I build a new county-level panel dataset of local newspaper presence, newspapers' costs and revenues and political turnout in France, from 1945 to 2012. I estimate the effect of newspaper entry by comparing counties that experience entry to similar counties in the same years that do not. These counties exhibit similar trends prior to newspaper entry, but newspaper entry then leads to substantial declines in the total number of journalists. More newspapers are also associated with fewer news articles and lower hard news provision. These effects are concentrated in counties with homogeneous populations, as predicted by the model, with little impact on counties with heterogeneous populations. Newspaper entry, and the associated decline in information provision, is ultimately found to decrease voter turnout.

H. I. Chyi, Yee Man Margaret Ng

Abstract U.S. newspapers’ digital experiment has been going on for more than two decades, with Christensen’s disruptive technology thesis providing theoretical support for the industry’s digital transformation process. Most newspapers expanded their digital offerings, erecting paywalls since 2011. However, little is known about local newspapers’ paywall results. To extend media economics research on digital news consumption and to assess the influence and practicality of the disruption theory in the context of the newspaper business, this study systematically examines consumer demand for 50 major U.S. newspapers’ multiplatform products through analyzing their circulation and pricing data. Results reveal that they charged digital subscribers a fraction of the print subscription price, but digital subscribership remained small, contributing only 3% of total reader revenue. Digital performance as weak as such raises concerns about the viability of digital subscriptions as a revenue source, provides support for the “online news as an inferior good” thesis, and calls for a reassessment of self-disruption as a practical strategy for newspaper firms.

M. Boukes, R. Vliegenthart

Journalists use news factors to construct newsworthy stories. This study investigates whether different types of news outlets emphasize different news factors. Using a large-scale manual content analysis (n = 6489), we examine the presence of seven news factors in economic news across four different outlets types (i.e. popular, quality, regional, and financial newspapers). Results suggest that popular and regional newspapers particularly rely on the news factors of personification, negativity, and geographical proximity. Quality newspapers, instead, employ a rather general pattern of news factors, whereas the financial newspaper consistently relies on less news factors in its reporting. Findings urge scholars to move toward a more detailed understanding of how newsworthiness is constructed in different types of news outlets.