Use of social media metrics in newsworthiness determination and bulletin structuring in mainstream television journalism at nation television Uganda

Abstract

Communication and journalism research on the use of social media has been voluminously rising over the last two decades, but its focus has largely been on how social media has weakened its users’ expectancy for mainstream media news, gatekeeping, agenda-setting, and scooping roles. The use of social media metrics in determining the newsworthiness of content posted on networking platforms such as X and how this use influences application of news values and structuring of news bulletins are understudied, especially in the context of Uganda’s mainstream television industry. With particular focus on NTVU, this study’s specific objectives were thus: To analyse NTVU’s use of X metrics to determine its newsworthiness of post content; To explore how NTVU’s use of X metrics influences application of mainstream news values in selecting news items to include in news bulletins and To determine how NTVU’s use of X metrics influences the structuring of its telecast bulletins. The study was underpinned by the intermedia agenda setting theory, the social networks as knowledge markets theory and news values framework, and was designed as a qualitative single case study. Data were collected using face-to-face interviews held with 13 news journalists and analysed using Yin’s (2015) framework of thematic analysis. Corroborative secondary data from the X platform was collected by scrolling the platform and analysis using qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate that engagement and impressions were the social media metrics mostly used by NTVU to determine the newsworthiness of X posts. The more viral a post’s views, retweets, shares, likes and comments were, the more its content was considered newsworthy. The metrics also influenced NTVU’s application of news values by making this media station emphasise interestingness more than eliteness, prominence and conflict. However, NTVU’s application of credibility and verification, and its emphasis on exclusiveness remained uninfluenced. The metrics further influenced the structuring of NTVU’s news bulletins by making it replace predetermined headlines with viral shocking stories, complementing their content, and interrupting their airing to include breaking news, updates and live feeds of newsworthy events on social media. The study concluded by underscoring the need for NTVU to balance rather than replace eliteness, conflict and prominence with interestingness, not to replace its headlines considered impactful with viral shocking stories since virality makes the latter stale news. NTVU can continue with its exclusiveness and interruption of its bulletin structure with breaking news and newsworthy updates. Recommendations were made urging NTVU, particularly it news department to address this need. The study was qualitative, which limited generalisation of its findings. Its replica using a quantitative approach was thus recommended.