Sourcing the Economy in Times of Crisis: Automated Content Analysis of Journalistic Sourcing Practices in the Czech News

TKACZYK, Michal, Rubén OLVEIRA ARAUJO and Jan MOTAL. Sourcing the Economy in Times of Crisis: Automated Content Analysis of Journalistic Sourcing Practices in the Czech News. In ECREA Journalism Studies Conference: Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in and through Journalism. 2024.

Basic information

• Original name: Sourcing the Economy in Times of Crisis: Automated Content Analysis of Journalistic Sourcing Practices in the Czech News
• Authors: TKACZYK, Michal, Rubén OLVEIRA ARAUJO and Jan MOTAL.
• Edition: ECREA Journalism Studies Conference: Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in and through Journalism, 2024.

Other information

• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Keywords in English: Journalistic Sourcing Practices, economic experts, automated content analysis

Abstract (in English)

Economic expert sources in the news play an essential role in facilitating the general public’s understanding of economic issues. Statements made by those authoritative sources carry significant symbolic power to define consensual representations of social reality and justify specific policy steps and measures to be taken. Prior research showed the low diversity of expert sources in economic news beats and that journalists typically turn to market-orientated experts who sponsor narrow neoliberal perspectives and policies. Because the evidence is mostly cross-sectional, less is known whether this pattern is constant or it varies in time. During times of crises in particular, the high level of routine access given to strategic PR experts sources may increase. On the other hand, news producers may show greater commitment to the notion of socially responsible journalism, which should result in the preference for sources with higher epistemic status and greater diversity of expert voices with access to news. Therefore, to address limitations of prior research the current study applied NLP techniques to conduct an automated quantitative content analysis of news stories published during the four years (2019-23) in 12 major Czech news outlets, including TV news programs, daily newspapers, and digital news platforms. The study has twofold aims. First, it examines the institutional range and diversity of news sources labelled as economic experts and quoted in the economic news beats for the general audience. Second, it examines how sourcing practices related to the use of economic expert sources vary in time, particularly between crises and regular business. The analysis found the low diversity of economic expert sources – experts from business and financial sector prevailed with no differences between policy-related and other topics. Sourcing practices were constant over time – no substantial variability over time, neither across periods of crises and normal business.