ABSTRACT Fashion magazines, previously limited to print, have undergone a major transition to digital platforms, reshaping editorial practices and professional roles. Drawing on interviews with editors from globally licensed fashion magazines in South Korea, this study examines how multi-platform media environments influence content production and the evolution of editorial tasks. The findings indicate that digital transformation has redirected editorial strategies toward platform-specific approaches, rather than mere digitization of existing methods. The traditional linear workflow of print has developed into a circular, platform-centered system in which iterative practices—such as audience feedback and content repurposing—play a central role. This shift enhances flexibility, improves the utilization of information, and fosters dynamic reader engagement, while simultaneously increasing workloads and intensifying editorial pressures. Immediate audience responses further shape the depth of critical perspectives within articles. Theoretically, this study situates fashion journalism within broader debates on media transformation, demonstrating how digital platforms reconfigure editorial authority, professional roles, and cultural value. It also provides practical insights for content creators seeking to refine multimedia strategies and strengthen cross-media integration for more effective content delivery.

ABSTRACT Headlines are crucial for attracting click-through rates, and several factors influence audience preferences. While certain factors affect general audiences, there is a gap in the literature regarding specific factors that impact click-through rates among professional audiences. This study uses an econometric model to analyze a real-world time-series dataset (N = 8,179) of headlines from a financial news outlet catering to a global professional audience. The evidence reveals that headlines using simple words are preferred by audiences of financial professionals. Further testing on stipulated writing rules shows that some protocols enhance click-through rates, while others are less effective. These results suggest distinct audience preferences regarding headline readability and writing rules, providing valuable insights for journalists and editors targeting this specific group of readers.

ABSTRACT The landscape of local sports coverage in legacy media is facing seismic shifts. Regional sports networks are filing for bankruptcy, newspapers continue with layoffs, and local sports anchors are leaving the industry because of a perceived lack of value in the newscast. In local broadcast newsrooms, news directors hold a significant influence on editorial decisions, specifically whether to include sports or not. The purpose of this study was to better understand how news directors view the role of sports in their local television newscasts. Researchers conducted surveys with 95 news directors representing markets from across the United States. The findings of this study rendered four themes regarding local sports coverage in newscasts: the importance of local, evolving to stay relevant, potential financial boost, and a lack of interest from the public. The study identifies the contribution sports continues to offer through a focus on local coverage, while newsrooms continue to assess the value of sports within a media ecosystem laced with challenges around audience engagement.

ABSTRACT Predatory journals—or journals that prioritize profits over editorial and publication best practices—are becoming more common, raising concerns about the integrity of the scholarly record. Such journals also pose a threat for the integrity of science journalism, as journalists may unwillingly report on low-quality or even highly flawed studies published in these venues. This study sheds light on how journalists navigate this challenging publishing landscape through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 23 health, science, and environmental journalists from Europe and North America about their perceptions of predatory journals and strategies for ensuring the journals they report on are trustworthy. We find that journalists have relatively limited awareness and/or concern about predatory journals. Much of this attitude is due to confidence in their established practices for avoiding problematic research, which largely centre on perceptions of journal prestige, reputation, and familiarity, as well as writing quality and professionalism. Most express limited awareness of how their trust heuristics may discourage them from reporting on smaller, newer, and open access journals, especially those based in the Global South. We discuss implications for the accuracy and diversity of the science news that reaches the public.

ABSTRACT This study examines the factors that influence republishing, sharing, and engagement with news in a digital media environment. It does so using a sample of 69 stories about climate emergency preparedness published by The Conversation, which were republished 544 times by 215 media outlets and posted to Facebook (in their original or republished form) 675 times. Using content analyses and regression analyses, we tested the impact of content-related factors—such as news values and the inclusion of systemic vs personal solutions in the stories—on how frequently stories were amplified by republishing media outlets and Facebook users. We also tested the impact of source-related factors—such as whether stories represented original vs republished content, and whether the republishing media outlet represented legacy journalism—on Facebook posting and engagement. Our findings reveal that content- and source-related factors intersect in complex ways to shape which stories gain traction via these two forms of news amplification, pointing to the value of constructive journalism but also the power of a media outlet’s reputation. Moreover, we find that factors influencing republication differ from those impacting Facebook amplification, suggesting that what journalists find newsworthy may differ from what matters to social media audiences.

ABSTRACT The 2020 Amazon Fire Season crisis can be summarized by record monthly deforestation numbers and by the negligence of the Brazilian government. Considering the political scenario in Brazil as a fertile ground for false information, we question which discourses on the Amazon forest fires were constructed by legacy media outlets and junk news sources during the 2020 fire season in Brazil. By means of a critical discourse analysis, we observe the ideological structure of the discourse created by both media types, comparing and synthesizing how the Amazon fires were portrayed throughout the fire season. Our findings demonstrate that neither legacy media nor junk news websites framed the Amazon fire season as a sustainability crisis. Instead, coverage overlooked the main goals of environmental journalism, focusing on the economic consequences of deforestation resulting from Brazil’s “bad image” internationally. Our results also indicate similarities and differences between legacy media and junk news discourses and suggest that Bolsonaro was able to instrumentalize the media ecosystem with conspiratorial denialism and populist discourse.

ABSTRACT In a November 2023 podcast, veteran sports broadcaster Charissa Thompson admitted to blatantly lying during live sideline reports by fabricating responses from National Football League coaches she could not interview. Utilizing boundary work as the primary theoretical framework, the present study draws on qualitative interviews with current and former female sideline reporters (N = 17) to examine the potential impact of Charissa Thompson’s comments on the careers and perceived credibility of those working in the field. Interviewees articulated predominantly negative reactions to Thompson’s comments and a belief that reductive dialogues surrounding her remarks are detrimental to all women in the field. Others had mixed feelings about the incident and believed some blame should be placed on the NFL’s lack of sufficient reporter access to players and coaches. Additionally, interviews uncovered that building and sustaining credibility is especially challenging for women in sports media because some fans dismiss their essential role within a live broadcast and inaccurately equate their hiring to physical appearance. Interviewees emphasized that the public has overly simplified perceptions of their profession which requires arduous prep work to do the job effectively. The theoretical, professional, and ethical implications of these findings are discussed.

ABSTRACT Brian McNair, an influential journalism scholar, argued in his book The Sociology of Journalism that “the available technology of newsgathering, production, and dissemination crucially determines the form and content of journalism.” Although this statement was made over two decades ago, it remains highly relevant today as technology continues to influence the field significantly. Mobile media stands out as a particularly powerful technological innovation that has immensely impacted the journalism industry. Nevertheless, research exploring the role of mobile media in journalism, especially political journalism, in the Global South is limited. This paper employs a mixed methods research design to examine political journalists' perceptions of mobile media's influence on political journalism in Pakistan. It specifically investigates the effects of mobile media on opinion diversity, news credibility and press freedom within the country. The study includes an online survey of Pakistani journalists and semi-structured interviews with political journalists and reporters working in the news beats of parliament (comprising the national assembly and senate), provincial assemblies, the prime minister's office (the head of government) and political parties.

ABSTRACT This study explores journalists’ role negotiations and perceptions of boundaries on their personal (yet public) Instagram profiles. While journalism research often assumes that such profiles function as professional self-branding tools, such assumptions overlook the platform culture of Instagram and the fact that many journalists – especially younger ones – initially used the platform for private purposes and may continue to do so. Drawing on 15 qualitative interviews, the study investigates the roles journalists believe to perform on their profiles as well as the relevance they attribute to it (RQ1) and the contextual factors that influence the performance of their journalistic role (RQ2). The findings reveal a wide spectrum: Some journalists treat their profiles as journalistic spaces, some consider them private, and others navigate in between. Role negotiations often occur in moments of context collapse, as audiences from private and professional spheres converge. In such moments, journalists reassess their self-presentation, which can result either in a consolidation of the private focus or a reorientation towards their professional identity. Four contextual factors were found to influence these negotiations: Perception of a representative function, felt responsibility through visibility, pressure to protect oneself and one's journalistic image, and the need for personal branding.

ABSTRACT This study set out to understand the nature and status of investigative journalism in the world’s largest democracy—India. Contrary to the existing literature which broadly focuses on forms, constraints, and collaborations, it examined the narratives produced through a (mis)use of investigative journalism. The study is situated in a qualitative paradigm and a thematic analysis was conducted on investigative stories obtained from three major English-language news channels: India Today, Republic TV, and Times Now. The study found that while investigative journalism thrives, it is deployed to serve the political, ideological, and cultural interests of those in power. The findings of this study were situated within the conceptual framework of “media capture” to argue that the changes in investigative reporting reflect a wider trend in the Indian media sphere—unidimensional support for the government and demonisation of the opposition as well the minorities.