Intermedia Reliance and Sustainability of Emergent Media: A Large-Scale Analysis of American News Outlets’ External Linking Behaviors

Authors

  • Chankyung Pak BNU-HKBU United International College
  • Kelley Cotter Michigan State University
  • Julia DeCook Loyola University Chicago

Keywords:

media ecology, journalism, hyperlinks, gravity model, network visualization

Abstract

Although concerns over the sustainability of news outlets online have prevailed for the past decade, niche media—with partisan news outlets as a notable example—have been gaining more influence on public discourse. This study suggests information outsourcing via hyperlinks to other outlets as a sociotechnical factor that explains how online emergent media sustain themselves during the contemporary “period of disruption.” Using computational data collected from 89 U.S.-based news outlets, we applied a gravity model to analyze relationships between pairs of outlets and produced a novel spatial network visualization. We found that emergent media rely more heavily on legacy media as they become institutionalized. Further, we find that “antagonistic” linking across ideology is exclusively a conservative phenomenon. We argue that these patterns have been provided by the new technological affordances that have transformed journalism.

Author Biographies

Chankyung Pak, BNU-HKBU United International College

Chankyung Pak is an assistant professor at Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College. His research interests lie in computational social sciences as applied to the study of transforming Internet media ecosystems and their impact on formation of public opinion. Recently, he investigates the economic base of extreme ideas or disinformation.

Kelley Cotter, Michigan State University

Kelley Cotter is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Media & Information at Michigan State University. Her work explores how individuals make sense of the sociotechnical systems they are a part of, as well as how they mobilize this knowledge and to what ends. She particularly focuses on how people become aware of and construct knowledge about algorithms.

Julia DeCook, Loyola University Chicago

Julia R. DeCook is an assistant professor of advocacy and social change in the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago. Her research focuses on how extremist groups sustain their movements by studying their practices in navigating digital infrastructure. In particular, her research highlights the sociotechnical mechanisms that allow for the persistence of extremist ideology through these modes of epistemic production. 

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Published

2020-06-09

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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