Volume 39, Issue 1

Based on extensive fieldwork, the present article illustrates how the logic of the news media is expanding from influential communication departments to the practices, routines and priorities of traditional career bureaucrats. To theorize the mediatization of a traditional bureaucratic rationale, the article proposes a typology for how rule-based public organizations adapt to and adopt the news media’s implicit ‘logic of appropriateness.’ We emphasize the importance of (1) the news rhythm and (2) news formats, but also (3) how and why being in the media is valued by civil servants, and (4) how this leads to a reallocation of resources and responsibilities within the organization. We find that career bureaucrats both anticipate and adopt a news logic in their daily work. The normative implications of these transformations are discussed in the final section of the article.

While media coverage is a main aim of celebrities’ societal engagement, academic analysis of its news-making ability is scarce. As a diverse phenomenon, we argue that the ability of celebrities’ societal engagement to attract media attention depends on how certain characteristics (i.e., celebrities’ claim to fame, roles they take on and issues they support) fit news selection criteria to a greater or lesser extent. First, this article determines how the three studied components (claim to fame, role and issue) relate to each other by means of an internet search and analysis. Second, using the internet data as a benchmark, the article looks at how celebrities’ engagement is covered in Flemish newspapers. Results suggest that certain forms of celebrities’ societal engagement are more likely than others to generate media coverage, as Flemish newspapers tend to focus more on the issue of development aid, ad hoc celebrity roles, and local Flemish celebrities and issues.

While all forms of Internet activity have an impact on the lives of Internet users, some are particularly beneficial and allow people to improve their daily lives. One of such Internet use is Digital Political Participation (DDP). In this paper we seek to understand how the influence of digital skills on the adoption of Digital Political Participation practices may form the basis of a second level of digital divide and of a set of political inequalities. We operationalize the digital skills construct in terms of users’ Internet competence and level of appropriation. We hypothesize that digital skills have a significant influence on the adoption of beneficial uses of the Internet, such as DPP. At the same time, we examine whether digital skill levels are stratified by socio-demographic background, thereby generating political and social inequality. By looking at the Spanish case, we first tested the adequateness of the items chosen to measure these two dimensions. Second, we looked into sequences of multiple influences between socio-demographic variables and digital skills and between digital skills and DPP. The results show that socio demographic variables have an influence on digital skills. At the same time, digital skills have a strong influence on DPP.

The current study aims to integrate the findings of previous research on the use of video games by older adults by applying the Uses & Gratifications (U&GT) paradigm (Blumler and Katz, 1974). A qualitative study was performed with 35 participants aged between 50 and 74, who were selected from a larger sample of 213. Based upon their primary playing motives and the gratifications they obtain from digital game play, a classification was developed, resulting in five categories of older adults who actively play games: “time wasters”, “freedom fighters”, “compensators”, “value seekers” and “ludophiles”.

This study investigated the role of television news as entertainment by focusing on the enjoyment that viewers experience while watching television news stories. In particular, the study examined the relationship between arousing news stories and enjoyment, and explored the potential moderating role of age and sensation seeking. Participants ( N = 288) watched four news stories and reported both their feelings of arousal and their enjoyment of each story. An ∩-shaped relationship between arousal and enjoyment was found. This relationship was not moderated by sensation seeking, but it was moderated by age: The level of arousal at which enjoyment reached its maximum was higher in younger viewers.