University of Groningen
News devices Bounegru, Liliana
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Publication date: 2019
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Bounegru, L. (2019). News devices: how digital objects participate in news and research. University of Groningen.
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News devices
How digital objects participate in news and research
PhD thesis
to obtain the degree of PhD of the University of Groningen
on the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. E. Sterken
and in accordance with
the decision by the College of Deans and
to obtain the degree of PhD of Ghent University
on the authority of the Rector Prof. R. Van de Walle
and in accordance with
the decision by the Faculty Doctoral Commission. Double PhD degree
This thesis will be defended in public on Thursday 27 June 2019 at 11.00 hours
by
Liliana Bounegru
born on 10 October 1984 in Braila, Romania
Supervisors Prof. Dr. M. J. Broersma Prof. Dr. K. Raeymaeckers Assessment Committee Prof. Dr. M.J.P. Deuze Prof. Dr. G. Jacobs Prof. Dr. R.A. Rogers Prof. Dr. T.A.C. Witschge
Acknowledgements
Many thanks are due to my supervisors, Marcel Broersma and Karin Raeymaeckers, for their continued support, feedback, advice and
encouragement throughout the process of developing and writing this thesis, and to the Universities of Groningen and Ghent for providing an institutional home and financial support for this PhD.
I am also most grateful to Tommaso Venturini, who took on the role of informal supervisor and mentor and provided invaluable guidance and advice on all key aspects of this research as well as on the writing process (channeling an inimitable blend of Bruno Latour, Umberto Eco and Howard Becker in his advice on telling about collective life).
The Digital Methods Initiative at the University of Amsterdam, which I
consider my intellectual home, has been a continuous source of inspiration and support throughout these years. I would like to thank all of its members: Richard Rogers, Sabine Niederer, Esther Weltevrede, Erik Borra, Anne Helmond, Bernhard Rieder, Michael Stevenson, Carolin Gerlitz, Lonneke van der Velden, Marc Tuters, Natalia Sánchez Querubín, Simeona Petkova, Nadia Dresscher-Lambertus, Jonathan Gray, Saskia Kok, Emile den Tex, Marloes Geboers, Fernando van der Vlist and Stefania Milan. I would particularly like to register my gratitude to Esther Weltevrede and Jonathan Gray for taking time to read various parts of this dissertation and for their useful comments and encouragement; to Richard Rogers, Carolin Gerlitz and Natalia Sánchez Querubín for taking time to meet and discuss this project with me and for their inspiring ideas and suggestions; and to Erik Borra and Emile den Tex for their support with developing the software tools that I used in this research. The visiting research period at the médialab at Sciences Po, Paris, facilitated by Tommaso Venturini, provided a welcoming environment to develop this work
Christophe Leclercq, Guillaume Plique, Thomas Tari, Vincent-Antonin Lépinay, Barbara Bender, Diégo Antolinos-Basso, Paul Girard, Kari De Pryck, Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, Donato Ricci, Audrey Baneyx and Gabriel Varela for lively discussions and feedback during writing workshops, meetings and conversations. I also greatly benefitted from an invitation to visit and present work at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, as well as subsequent collaborations which emerged from this visit.
The Public Data Lab, of which I am a proud co-founder and member, has provided an ideal environment for the final years of my PhD as well as
providing a space for methodological experimentation around the Field Guide to
‘Fake News’. Thank you for making the journey rewarding: Tobias Blanke,
Carolin Gerlitz, Jonathan Gray, Mathieu Jacomy, Lucy Kimbell, Anders Koed Madsen, Noortje Marres, Michele Mauri, Anders Munk, Sabine Niederer, Kari de Pryck, Richard Rogers and Tommaso Venturini.
I would also like to acknowledge co-authors of articles, chapters and reports, collaborators and participants in summer school and data sprints for time, experimentation and reflection which enriched various chapters. I received invaluable feedback from participants at various conference where different parts of this research were presented, including in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bath, Berkeley, Cambridge, Coventry, London, New York, Oxford, Paris, Perugia, Sheffield, Siegen, Stockholm, Utrecht and Zurich. Anonymous reviewers from Digital Journalism and New Media & Society provided comments which helped to tighten texts associated with this project. I would also like to note the support of friends and colleagues who supported this work with scripts, tips, calls, conversations and coffees: Sam Leon, Noortje Marres, Craig Silverman, Claire Wardle, Sarah Van Leuven, Stefan Baack, C.W. Anderson, Sylvain Parasie, Michael Stevenson and Phil Howard.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and support, including Lenuta, Carol, Laura, Ruxandra and George, and particularly to my
partner Jonathan who was involved in the day to day joys and challenges of this project.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ... i
Table of Contents ... iv
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 Why Study Digital News Work ... 3
1.2 Attending to Digital News Work Through News Devices ... 5
1.3 Thesis Outline ... 11
2. The “Material Turn” in Journalism Studies Meets Device Perspectives From Digital Social and Media Research ... 16
2.1 The “Material Turn” in the Study of Journalism ... 19
2.1.1 Accounting for Materiality by Studying Digital Objects ... 19
2.1.2 Conceptual and Methodological Considerations ... 24
2.1.3 Some Commitments and “Blind Spots” in Journalism Research25 2.2 Device Perspectives in Digital Social and Media Research .... 27
2.2.1 Digital Devices as Objects of Study ... 30
2.2.2 Digital Devices as Resources for Research ... 34
2.2.3 Towards a News Device Approach ... 40
2.3 Approaching News Devices Through Case Studies ... 43
2.3.1 The Case Study Approach ... 44
2.3.2 Selecting Digital Objects and Developing Case Studies ... 46
3. Narrating Networks: Network Diagrams as Storytelling Devices in Journalism ... 54
3.1 Journalism and Storytelling ... 58
3.2 When Networks Meet Narratives ... 59
3.3 How the Analysis Was Conducted ... 61
3.4 Five Narrative Readings of Networks ... 64
3.4.1 Exploring Associations around Single Actors ... 65
3.4.2 Detecting Key Players ... 70
3.4.3 Mapping Alliances and Oppositions ... 75
3.4.4 Exploring the Evolution of Associations over Time ... 81
3.4.5 Revealing Hidden Ties ... 86
3.5 Conclusion ... 90
4. Platformising News Code: GitHub as a Connective Coding Device ... 96
4.2 From Social Coding to Connective Coding ... 102
4.2.1 GitHub’s Multiple Stakeholder Market ... 102
4.2.2 Making Participation on the Platform Economically Valuable .. 105
4.2.3 Connective Coding ... 108
4.3 Exploring Journalism Coding on GitHub ... 110
4.3.1 The Research Affordances of Platformised Repositories ... 111
4.3.2 Demarcating the Journalism Code Space Through an Expert List ... 113
4.3.3 API Calling as Data Collection Technique ... 115
4.3.4 Imitation and Originality in Journalism Coding Work ... 117
4.3.5 How Journalism Code is Engaged With, Valued and Ranked . 118 4.3.6 Journalism Code as Ephemeral Construction ... 123
4.4 Conclusion ... 126
5. Making Audience: Web Trackers as Audience Marketplace Devices in Professional and Junk News ... 130
5.1 Digital Transformations of Audience Marketplace Practices 136 5.2 A News Device Approach to Audience Marketplaces ... 141
5.2.1 Web Trackers as Digital Objects ... 141
5.2.2 Trackers as Audience Marketplace Devices ... 143
5.3 Studying Audience Marketplaces With Tracker Signatures .. 146
5.3.1 The Tracker Tracker as a Research Device ... 148
5.4 A Visual Network Exploration of Audience Marketplace Configurations From the Perspective of Web Tracking ... 151
5.4.1 Advertising-Dominated Tracking Networks ... 158
5.4.2 Variations in Tracking Styles and Audience Marketplace Configurations ... 160
5.4.3 Asymmetries of Participation in the Audience Marketplace .... 166
5.5 Conclusion ... 168
6. Conclusion ... 172
6.1 Key Contributions ... 175
6.1.1 News Devices: A Device Approach to Digital Journalism Research ... 176
6.1.2 The News Device Approach in Action: Three Empirical Applications ... 178
6.1.2.1 Networks as Storytelling Devices ... 179
6.1.2.2 GitHub as Connective Coding Device ... 181
6.1.2.3 Trackers as Audience Marketplace Devices ... 184
References ... 195
Thesis Summary ... 234
Nederlandstalige Samenvatting ... 242
List of Tables ... 250
List of Figures ... 251
List of Publications and Presentations Based on This Doctoral Research ... 253
Publications ... 253
