ABSTRACT

This study seeks to understand how newsrooms negotiate and navigate their way in adopting and using web analytics within an environment where the influence of the social system interacts with the influences of market forces and journalistic autonomy. Based on interviews with 22 editors and journalists from 13 publications in Singapore, this study finds two interesting trends: First, news organisations in Singapore follow closely how web analytics is used in newsrooms in the West and have embraced it but are cautious and selective, especially when it touches on sensitive issues like politics, race, and religion. Second, conceptualisations of web analytics use in earlier research conducted in the Western context is less significant in Singapore where its use accentuates a triangle of tension between three forces: the social system, journalistic autonomy, and market values. The findings show a need to expand the understanding of the place of web analytics in journalism—and how individual journalists adopt and adapt it in their news work—beyond the dominant market-forces-versus-journalistic-autonomy framework, especially in contexts where social system structures exert strong influences on journalism.

摘要

本研究旨在了解新闻编辑室如何在社会系统的影响与市场力量和新闻自主权的影响相互作用的环境中协商和导航其采用和使用网络分析的方式。根据对新加坡 13 家出版物的 22 名编辑和记者的采访，本研究发现了两个有趣的趋势：首先，新加坡的新闻机构密切关注西方新闻编辑室如何使用网络分析并接受它，但谨慎和有选择性，尤其是当它涉及政治、种族和宗教等敏感问题时。其次，在西方背景下进行的早期研究中使用网络分析的概念化在新加坡不太重要，因为它的使用突出了三种力量之间的三角关系：社会系统，新闻自主权和市场价值。调查结果表明，需要扩大对网络分析在新闻业中的地位的理解——以及个别记者如何在新闻工作中采用和调整它——超越占主导地位的市场力量与新闻自主框架，尤其是在社会系统结构对新闻业有很强的影响。