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  • 1.
    Baack, Stefan
    et al.
    Mozilla Foundation, United States; Weizenbaum Institute, Germany.
    Cheruiyot, David
    University of Groningen, Netherlands.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). University of Stavanger, Norway.
    Journalism Is Not A One-Way Street: Recognizing multi-directional dynamics2022In: The Institutions Changing Journalism: Barbarians inside the Gate, Taylor & Francis, 2022, p. 103-117Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The field of journalism studies places huge emphasis on researching how journalism (as a profession and institution) is changing due to the influence of “non-journalistic” actors. Paired with a “Western” focus and a tendency of journalism researchers to reproduce the boundary work of professional journalists, this has led to valuable, but one-sided strand of research that considers the influence on journalism, but much less journalism’s influence on others. This chapter explores the multi-directional interdependencies between journalists and peripheral actors while expanding our view toward wider professional and geographical realities. We present three case studies from our empirical work that show how certain journalistic practices and imaginaries about journalism influence the work of peripheral actors from around the world (Chequeado, Mozilla and Open Up). We argue that studying a broader set of dynamics between journalism and others, and thereby better understanding journalism’s outward influence, can lead to a shared and strengthened idea of what journalism is and what role it has in society. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Patrick Ferrucci and Scott A. Eldridge II; individual chapters, the contributors.

  • 2.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Baack, Stefan
    Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Data journalism at the periphery of news media: A comparative study of African and European practices2018In: The Annual SACOMM Conference 2018: "Communication at a Crossroads", 2018Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 3.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Baack, Stefan
    Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, DEU.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Data Journalism Beyond Legacy Media: The case of African and European Civic Technology Organizations2019In: Digital Journalism, ISSN 2167-0811, E-ISSN 2167-082X, Vol. 7, no 9, p. 1215-1229Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Research has paid relatively little attention to two aspects that are increasingly important in understanding data journalism as a maturing field: (a) journalism today is increasingly provided by a diverse set of actors both inside and outside of legacy media organizations, and (b) data journalism has become a global phenomenon that cannot be fully grasped within national contexts only. Our article brings both of these aspects together and investigates the roles and practices of peripheral actors in European and African contexts. We engage with research on the role of non-profits and civic technologists in journalism to interrogate further the entanglements between civic technology organizations and data journalism. Following in-depth interviews with 29 practitioners of data-driven non-profits in Europe and Africa, we conclude that practices and roles of these non-profits in relation to journalism are similar, but transcultural and contextual influences shape how they complement or expand data journalism.

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  • 4.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT, Department of Media and Communication Studies.
    Extract. Inject. Repeat.: Expanding journalistic practice through civic technologies and data journalism2018In: Nordic Data Journalism Conference (NODA18): “The second wave of data journalism research”, 2018Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 5.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    “Fact-Checking Africa”: Epistemologies, data and the expansion of journalistic discourse2018In: Digital Journalism, ISSN 2167-0811, E-ISSN 2167-082X, Vol. 6, no 8, p. 964-975Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The prominence of “fake news” today has sparked an open challenge to the legitimacy of traditional news media. As a result, a series of independent data-driven organisations are emerging to fact-check legacy news media as well as other news sources. This study examines how these actors advocate and adopt journalistic practice and the perceived impact they have on news journalism. We draw our data from in-depth interviews with 14 practitioners working in three organisations—Code for Africa, Open Up and Africa Check—that are currently leading major data and fact-checking operations in sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings show that while these non-journalistic actors are at the periphery of news media as institutions, their operations, activities and goals are at the heart of journalistic discourse. In their data strategies, they emerge as data advocates and activists seeking to reformulate fact-checking processes within news media.

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  • 6.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    University of Groningen, NLD.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). University of Stavanger, NOR.
    Pathway outta pigeonhole?: De-contextualizing Majority World Countries2021In: Media Culture and Society, ISSN 0163-4437, E-ISSN 1460-3675, Vol. 43, no 1, p. 189-197Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Should regional context overshadow theoretical contributions of a doctoral dissertation or an international journal article? In this essay, we argue that expendable region-centricism diminishes the contributions of Majority World Countries to the media and communication discipline. We propose that 'de-contextualized' studies - which accentuate the theoretical, conceptual, or methodological import of research - could complement current efforts to decentre knowledge.

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  • 7.
    Cheruiyot, David
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Baack, Stefan
    Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Germany, DEU.
    Fact-checking and journalism discourse: The perceived influence of data-driven non-profits in Africa2018Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 8.
    Fast, Karin
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ryan Bengtsson, Linda
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    A spatial approach to fan labor: Conceptualizing fan mobilization in transmedia marketing2017Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    When Swedish artist Tove Styrke released her album Kiddo (2015) on Spotify, she mobilized her fans through an immersive marketing campaign that stretched across and beyond media platforms: an 8-bit game, Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, Dreamhack, and a major Swedish music festival were key campaign platforms. The campaign construction was hardly unique, but rather illustrative of current trends in cultural production, including transmedia marketing and the increasing reliance on fan labor.This paper argues that informed spatial approaches to fan labor, and business strategies aimed to cultivate such labor, are missing in the existing research on cultural production. While descriptions of our transmediatized culture often-times do include spatial metaphors, such as “flow”, “stream”, “fluid”, and “liquid”, our conviction is that a more serious engagement with geography is vital for understanding, mapping, and ultimately critiquing industry practices that potentially are exploitive, unethical, and even harmful.Therefore, this paper suggests a theoretical framework for exploring the geographies of fan labor and presents exemplifying cartographies of authentic music marketing campaigns. The framework is influenced by two recent ‘turns’ in media and communication studies: the labor turn and the spatial turn. From labor theory, we borrow the idea that consumer engagement can be read as labor that is typically unpaid, affective, and voluntarily given. Spatial theory, next, provides us with a conceptual toolbox to disentangle the spatiality of transmedia marketing, including the relationship between physical and virtual elements.The notion of ‘transmediascape’ is brought in to describe the embodiment of transmedia marketing – in mediated and non-mediated spaces and flows. Such transmediascapes, the paper argues, can be read as the perfect soil for fan labor since they mobilize consumers in more than one respect: they assemble fan affect and, at the same time, encourage physical as well as virtual fan movement. Due to its multifaceted connotation – pointing towards both affectivity and mobility – the term ‘mobilization’ fruitfully bridges labor theory and spatial theory and serves, ultimately, as a key concept for analyzing contemporary forms of cultural production.

  • 9.
    Fast, Karin
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ryan Bengtsson, Linda
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Geographies of free labor: Conceptualizing and Analyzing the 'Transmediascape'2017Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 10.
    Fast, Karin
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ryan Bengtsson, Linda
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Geographies of free labor: Mobilizing consumers across immersive transmediascapes2017Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    When Swedish artist Tove Styrke released her album Kiddo on Spotify in 2015, she simultaneously released an 8-bit game for her fans to play on kiddogame.com. By sharing high scores, users could win merchandise especially put together by the artist. The game was also promoted by one of the most well-known Swedish gaming streamers, posting his own Kiddo Game competition to his followers. A week after the release, Tove performed at Dreamhack, which also shared the game on their website and on Twitter. Later that summer, a live version of the game was staged at a major Swedish music festival, where Tove also performed. The game was easily shared via Facebook and twitter, and while playing the game the album played via Spotify.Worldwide, the music industry struggles to come to terms with how to make profit in times of illegal downloading, streaming, and Spotifyication. One apparent strategy is to rely on consumer engagement. The Tove Styrke campaign could be read as a contemporary example of so called transmedia marketing; that is, as a “holistic content creation approach” (Zeiser, 2015: xv) that simultaneously involves multiple content platforms. The attraction of transmedia marketing lies in its potential to foster engaged consumers who are ready to “haunt” a brand experience across several content platforms. In this paper, we join with the burgeoning critical scholarship that interprets consumer “engagement” as a form of labor. Since much of this labor gets paid in affect rather than money, such labor has rightfully been recognized as a form of free labor.While both transmedia marketing and free labor has been subjected to many studies over the last decade, there is a lack of research initiatives that explicitly address the spatiality of both of these phenomena (though see e.g. Stork’s [2014] engagement with the “transmedia geography” of the Glee franchise). What is more; if it is rare to talk about the geographies of transmediality in the first place, it is equally rare to talk about transmediality, at all, in relation to music. Perhaps not so surprisingly but all the more inaccurately, there seems to be a prevailing perception that transmedia productions are exclusive to, at least traditionally, more narrative-bound franchises such as television, film, game, or comic books. However, storytelling is becoming all the more important also to music brands. Consequently, we identify a need for studies that acknowledge that 1) the notion of transmediality is applicable also to music, and 2) that the spatiality of transmedia endeavors is worthy scholarly review. Our conviction is that just as work-places constitute obvious research objects in relation to other kinds of labor, so do the transmedia “social factories” warrant scholarly attention.As to compensate for the identified research lack then, this paper investigates several actual cases of transmedia marketing in the music industry – and the free labor that such marketing potentially engenders – by way of qualitative content analyses that employ a cross-disciplinary conceptual framework. The framework combines theoretical perspectives from the ‘spatial turn’ and the ‘labor turn’ in media studies and allows us to approach, and visually present, transmedia marketing as a landscape – what we call a transmediascape. Such transmediascapes, our results indicate, can be read as the perfect soil for free labor since they mobilize consumers in more than one respect: they assemble consumer affect and, at the same time, encourage physical as well as virtual fan movement. Thus, due to its multifaceted connotation, pointing towards both affectivity and mobility, we find that the term ‘mobilization’ serves as a fruitful link between spatial theory and labor theory and a key concept for analyzing the geographies of free labor.

    The era of transmediatization is marked by increased reliance, in all the more societal spheres, on content that transcend singular media platforms and, accordingly, by new modes of media consumption. Much research has recognized, confirmed, and explored this transformation, and ‘transmediality’ has hitherto been subjected to relatively extensive theorization. Nonetheless, the spatiality of transmediality remains largely undertheorized. As to correct for this shortage, this paper proposes transmediascape as an analytical tool for discerning the complex topographies of media ownership, technologies, texts, meanings, and practices that constitute today’s transmediatized culture. With inspiration from work in both the ‘spatial turn’ and ‘labor turn’ in media studies, we recognize the transmediascape as an arena of labour, where both paid and unpaid forms of work are carried out. Ultimately, we argue, the concept of transmediascape works as a tool for mapping geographies of free labour across institutional, technological, and textual levels. The present study illuminates current modes of ‘transmediascaping’ – or the practice of cultivating good “soil” for profitable consumer engagement – by focusing the transmedia marketing campaign that launched British/Irish boyband One Direction’s album ‘Made in the A.M’, in 2015.

  • 11.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Boundaries of Journalism: Professionalism, practices and participation2016In: Digital Journalism, ISSN 2167-0811, E-ISSN 2167-082X, Vol. 4, no 3, p. 401-403Article, book review (Refereed)
  • 12.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Camouflaging church as state: A study of journalism’s native advertising2015Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The conflicting powers that drive journalism are entangled within tensions between commercial and professional logics, trying to dictate the future of the trade. The professional logic, which regards audiences as citizens, is the driving force that nurtures the civic and ideal-typical values properties of journalism. The commercial logic, which regards audiences as consumers, addresses the fact that most news outlets are subjected to commercial urges in order to sustain the organization. Traditionally, the journalistic ideals have aimed to keeping editorial lines independent from commercial influences. This has been historically known as the separation of church and state.This paper examines the increasing trend of adopting native advertising in the digital fronts of traditional news media outlets. Native advertising defined here as a form of paid media where the commercial content is delivered within the design and form of editorial content with the attempt to recreate the user experience of reading news instead of advertising content. Methodologically, this study looks at news websites of 12 legacy newspapers from Sweden, Spain, the UK, and the USA, and analyses the adoption of native advertising during the span of a month. Subsequently, these advertisements are analyzed in terms of content, format, and the degree of transparency when linking each piece to the marketer who pays for the ad.Native advertising delivers commercial advertising as if it was real news. If this practice proves to be a lucrative one in the long term, the new commercial journalism might be based on camouflaging church as state.

  • 13.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Camouflaging Church as State: An exploratory study of journalism’s native advertising2016In: Journalism Studies, ISSN 1461-670X, E-ISSN 1469-9699, Vol. 17, no 7, p. 1-13, article id SIArticle in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper explores the increasing trend of adopting native advertising in the digital editions of traditional news media outlets. Native advertising is defined here as a form of paid media where the commercial content is delivered within the design and form of editorial content, as an attempt to recreate the user experience of reading news instead of advertising content. Methodologically, this study examines 12 news websites of legacy newspapers from Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and analyzes the adoption of native advertising during the span of January 2015. Subsequently, these advertisements are analyzed in terms of type, form, function, integration, measurement, disclosure, and authorship. The results show that while the degree of implementation is still modest, the way in which it is implemented is uneven across countries.

  • 14.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Feeding the RedCritter: The gamification of project management software2016In: The Business of Gamification: A critical analysis / [ed] Dymek, Mikolaj & Zackariasson, Peter, New York: Routledge, 2016, p. 21-39Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The narrative of this chapter focuses on the intersecting points between motivation and productivity, of fun and work, and the potential benefits and dangers of gamifying project management software. Since gamification is a new trend, a thorough look at the case study of Red Critter and their choice of gamification techniques to enhance employee engagement and motivation can bring a better and nuanced understanding of gamification of project management to academics, researchers, and industry practitioners.

  • 15.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Gamification in Virtual Organizations: Engaging with fun and play2014Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    There is a multiplicity of factors that can explain the ever-growing adoption of virtual organizations in the current international workplace. These factors are interwoven in a way that feeds each other in an ebb and flow of the trends of virtualization.

    Virtual teams, as groups that are geographically and organizationally dispersed, tend to feel alienated from the rest of the organization and team members. Organizations that used to depend on the synergies of team dynamics can no longer rely on the social aspects of work life. Accordingly, a new approach needs to be applied to effectively motivate teams that work in virtual environments. Managers must rely on a new set of tools and technologies to reach their teams. The rich and varied examples of applications of gamification techniques in various industries ask for further research the application of gamification within the framework of virtual organization management software.

    Gamification is loosely defined as a process that incorporates game design elements in non-game contexts. Applied to virtual organization management software, there is a vast opportunity to provide game elements in the systems that not only engage the team members, but also crystallizes a sense of progress, helping the members create the habit of using the software regularly. In addition, gamification provides the tools for other members to motivate their team members, or even applying automatized features where human-computer interaction (HCI) features motivate members automatically. This is particularly important, as it widens the sources from which an individual receives motivational inputs.

    This study aims to explore the role of gamification and gamified software as an outlet to re-route motivating strategies for virtual environments, as well as the characteristics of motivation in such project configurations, and its contribution to enhance the organization´s outcomes.

    The methodology follows a three-pronged. First, a in-depth literature review that lays out the major characteristics of gamification as a motivator, as well as the characteristics of virtual project management. Second, a qualitative study of gamified systems in real life virtual organization, with semi-structured interviews to a group of eight experienced virtual project managers. Third, a quantitative study of current software features aimed to manage virtual projects.

    There is an undeniable theoretical benefit from applying gamification into virtual team management software. It would automatically lift some of the responsibility of motivating a team off the manager's shoulders, and redirect it to the software and the interactions of the team, making it a much more tight and engaged team. It offers the potential to generate the stimuli to amplify small wins generating engagement, user habit, and enhanced motivation.

    This study shows the importance of motivation in new organizational settings as well as the special challenges that it poses when translated to virtual environments. It shows that managers can no longer rely on the traditional motivational strategies. It shows the lack of gamified features in the current software for manage virtual projects. Finally, the study explores the possibilities of gamification as an approach to bridge the gap of motivation within project software. 

  • 16.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Gamification in Virtual Project Management: a mixture of curiosity and reluctance2013Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    There is a multiplicity of factors that can explain the ever-growing adoption of virtual project management in the current international workplace. These factors are interweaved in a way that feeds each other in a ebb and flow of the trends of virtualization. This current increase of virtual projects and their economic importance has led to a new set of challenges that project managers need to overcome. The lack of face-to-face interaction has distorted the traditional ways in which motivation was fostered within project teams.

    Virtual teams, as groups that are geographically and organizationally dispersed, tend to feel alienated from the rest of the organization and team members. Projects that used to heavily depend on the synergies of team dynamics, can no longer rely on the social aspects of work life. With that in mind, a new approach needs to be applied to effectively motive teams that work in virtual environments. The current theories of motivation lead the way to a new paradigm where progress and inner work life are the major drivers of motivation. Project managers must rely on a new set of tools and technologies to reach their teams. The software industry has evolved to provide solutions to remotely manage and coordinate teams and projects, but it is still far from being a solution to the challenge of motivating a virtual project team. The rich and varied examples of applications of gamification techniques in various industries ask for further research the application of gamification techniques within the framework of virtual project management software.

    Gamification is loosely defined as a process that incorporates game design elements in non-game contexts, to improve the user experience.

    In other words, a gamified system is a system that has been adapted with the aid of components, mechanics and dynamics in order to engage and motivate users. There are several elements that can be used to gamify a system and the approaches are endless. Applied to virtual project management software, there is a vast opportunity to provide game elements in the systems that not only engage the team members, but also crystallizes a sense of progress, helping the members create the habit of using the software regularly without it being a tedious task. In addition, gamification provides the tools for other members to motivate their team members, or even applying automatized features where human-computer interaction (HCI) features motivate members automatically from the software.This is particularly important, as it widens the sources from which an individual receives motivational inputs. The potential of gamification is still new, but offers a promising alternative to actively engage and motivate virtual teams.

    However, adopting gamification blindly in order to boost workers motivation and engage them in particular routines can produce an effect completely opposite to the desired one. The suitability for a gamified experience within the realms of labor is still under scrutiny, as themes like reluctance, misrepresentations of the organizations goals, and enhanced motivation and engagement for extended periods of time, are still widely unclear.

    Departing from my master’s thesis Motivation in Virtual Project Management: On the Challenges of Engaging Virtual Teams and the Features of Project Software, this study aims to explore the role of gamification and gamified software as an outlet to re-route motivating strategies for virtual project environments, as well as the characteristics of motivation in such project configurations, and its contribution to enhance virtual project outcomes.

    This article follows a three-pronged approach with the aim of answering its research questions. First, a in-depth literature review that lays out the major characteristics of gamification as a motivator, as well as the characteristics of virtual project management. Second, a qualitative study of the expectations of gamified systems in real life virtual projects, done through semi-structured interviews to a group of eight experienced project managers. Third, a quantitative study of the features of current software aimed to manage virtual projects, by benchmarking their features and analyzing the motivational aspects in them.

    There is an undeniable theoretical benefit from applying gamification into virtual project software. It would automatically lift some of the responsibility of motivating a team off the manager's shoulders, and redirect it to the software and the interactions of the team, making it a much more tight and engaged team. It offers the potential to generate the stimuli to amplify small wins generating engagement, user habit, and finally feeding a progress loop that leads to enhanced motivation. However, there is risk, there is skepticism, and there is a whole lot to learn. These may be the key issues for such a low number of motivation features in projectware packages.

    The response of the interviewees is one of curiosity, anticipation, and veiled skepticism. Through the interviews, respondents argued in favor of the need of motivating teams, the importance of doing so, but also the challenge that it poses. There is a more than apparent difficulty to apply gamification or motivation techniques to a software that tackles such a broad topic as “virtual projects”. The implementation of successful strategies and techniques that could directly address the problems of motivation in virtual environments is not to be underestimated, but it could also cause serious repercussions to an organization. Thus, taking this approach is sensitive issue, and it is addressed with certain reluctance, while acknowledging that the positive effects of those features might be worth the try.

    This study shows the importance of motivation in project settings as well as the special challenges that it poses when translated to virtual environments. It shows that project managers can no longer rely on the traditional motivational strategies, due to the lack of physical interaction. The benchmarking of project software shows the lack of gamified features in the current software for manage virtual projects. Finally, the study explores the possibilities of gamification as an approach to bridge the gap of motivation within project software, providing an image of mixed feelings. Curiosity and reluctance towards gamification from the very same people that could benefit from it, the virtual project managers.

  • 17.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Gamified social media: User engagement and the individualization of online communities2014Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    A decade after the launch of Facebook, social media has expanded and established itself as one of the everyday life arenas for communication for millions of users. However, the standardized services such as communities without thematic approaches (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) have started to see a dip in user engagement.

    This paper examines the introduction of gamification techniques within new theme-oriented social media. Gamification, defined here as the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-gaming environments, adds a layer of game elements primarily in order to improving user engagement. Methodologically, this paper uses three gamified social media communities as case studies to analyze some of their functionalities and how they are implemented in order to promote user engagement. This paper deconstructs gamification into elements that can be implemented into an online community system. These elements are placed in three different categories: dynamics, which relate to the narrative and purpose of the gamified layer, providing the system with a sense of direction; mechanics, which relate to the processes aimed to create engagement and the strategies aimed to provide the system with momentum; and components, which relate to the visible game elements embedded in the system aimed to create flows of interaction with the users. These elements are then evaluated in terms of level of playfulness and the underlying intention of implementation, whether it is to motivate engagement, participation, or to promote social change.

    Gamification has shown to be an effective method to attract the attention and engagement of users in various domains, and it has been widely implemented in digital communities as an attempt to increase user engagement, by individualizing social media and placing the user at the center of the service and providing tools for self-reflection and interactions with users that share similar interests. Theoretically, this paper focuses on the motivational aspects of games and discusses the approaches on which they can be incorporated in social media systems.

    With the aim of contributing to a fairly under researched topic in academia, but with large implications for the industry, this paper ends with a discussion on the potentialities of this new approach of social media in terms of positive ideals and dangerous abuses, as well as the shift of focus from the social aspect of communities to an individualized user-centric view, and what it represents for the digital public sphere.

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  • 18.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Gamifying the news: Exploring the introduction of game elements into digital journalism2018Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    For over a century, crosswords, puzzles, and quizzes have been present in newspapers. Digital journalism has only increased the trend of integrating game elements in news media, often blurring the traditional boundaries between news and games.

    This dissertation aims to explore and understand how and why news organizations and newsworkers use gamification in digital news websites and to analyze the objectives behind its implementation in news production. The importance of trying to understand this development stems from the different roles that digital games and news have in contemporary democratic societies. While journalism is often regarded as the main source of information for the public to act as citizens, digital games predominantly remain considered as entertainment media.

    Drawing from media sociology and new institutionalism, this study engages with the literature on converging processes of popularization and professionalization of journalism, and how different institutional logics of gamification and journalism interact. Methodologically, this qualitative multiple case study analyzes four diverse news organizations (the Guardian, Bleacher Report, the Times of India, and Al Jazeera), interviewing 56 newsworkers, and conducting game-system analysis of their respective gamified systems.

    The findings suggest that while news organizations often frame their motivations within the celebratory rhetoric of gamification, a deeper look into the material manifestations of gamified news systems tend to problematize the empowering claims of gamification. Instead, a complex interplay between the professional and commercial logics of journalism and the hedonic and utilitarian logics of gamification shapes how news organizations and newsworkers implement gamified systems. This dissertation contributes to a larger debate on the friction professionalism and the market, on institutional interaction, and the increasing transgression of journalistic institutional borders.

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  • 19.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Going Mobile: Gamifying Digital News in Mobile Devices2014In: Persuasive Technology: Persuasive, motivating, empowering videogames. Adjunct proceedings. / [ed] Gamberini, L., Spagnolli, A., Chittaro, L., & Zamboni, L., Padova, Italy, 2014, p. 86-89Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    My PhD research examines the application of gamification techniques in the distribution and consumption of news in the emerging mobile society. The focus is placed on persuasive design and game mechanics in order to motivate, engage, and create new habits of news consumption in the mobile audiences.

    New efforts are needed in order to capture the emerging individual structures of the self, through the engagement with technological personalized systems that turn life towards short term, fragmented information, on-the-go life styles. New techniques designed to overcome the challenges of going mobile and to empower and engage audiences that are arising, such as persuasive design and gamification.

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  • 20.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Hierarchical channels: Conflicts of communication in crisis environments in Ghana2013In: Why should I trust you? Challenges for communication in times of crisis, 2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The concept of trust is of vital importance in crisis environments. In developing countries, where vulnerabilities, threats, and risks are higher, establishing proper channels of communication that can generate trust in the population are even more important. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the channels of communication during a crisis situation in Ghana, and to assess the degree of trust generated while transmitting the information. To address this call, this study examines the role of trust in citizens in the social structures and hierarchical settings through a series of interviews with crisis managers from the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). The results of this study show that while government officials convey information to the public through all means possible, a large amount of the population decide not to follow the recommendations, and large communities need to be addressed through their chiefs, and not individually. The trust in the local chief as communities feel reluctant to follow a distant governmental agency, makes the relationship with the chiefs of outmost importance, as they become the sole channel of communication with communities and settlements in some developing countries.

  • 21.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Incorporating native advertising: Assessing journalism’s new trend of camouflaging church as state2015Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Journalism has several gears for motivating its existence, alongside with information, entertainment, and advertisement (McQuail, 1994). The conflicting powers that drive journalism are entangled within tensions between commercial logics and professional logics (Altheide & Snow, 1991; Karlsson & Clerwall, 2013), trying to dictate the future of the trade.The professional logic, which regards audiences as citizens, is the driving force that nurtures the civic and democratic properties of journalism (Bennet, 1993; McNair, 2009; Merrill, 2011) and establishes the ideal-typical values of journalism as public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics (Kovack & Rosenstiel, 2001). The commercial logic, which regards audiences as consumers, addresses the fact that most news outlets are subjected to commercial urges in the need for funding that help sustain the organization. This logic is widely regarded as the responsible for the decline within several fronts of the journalist profession such as work practices, output quality, and norms, leading to tabloidization, popularization, and commodification of news (Lewis, Williams, & Franklin, 2008; Bird, 2009; Örnebring & Jönsson, 2011, Reese and Lee, 2012).Traditionally, even within the confines of commercial-oriented news outlets, journalists adopt the ideals of what journalism is supposed to be with more ease than the institutions they work for (Stensaas, 2005) calling for autonomy, keeping editorial lines independent from commercial influences. This has been historically named as the separation of church and state. While the general trend has been of keeping advertising and other forms of revenue separate from journalism, the attempt to keep these concepts on separate lanes has suffered a fluctuating degree of success, influenced by the conflicts outlined above. These tensions intensify within the current context of media convergence, digital and new journalism formats, audience reconfigurations, and sets the context on which legacy news media address the balance between editorial autonomy and funding sources (Deuze, 2004).This paper examines the increasing trend of adopting native advertising in the digital fronts of traditional news media outlets. Methodologically, this study looks at news websites that are digital counter parts of 12 legacy newspapers from Sweden, Spain, the UK, and the USA, and analyses the adoption of native advertising during the span of a month. Consequently, these advertisements are analyzed in terms of content, format, and the degree of transparency when linking each piece to the marketer who pays for the ad. The study finishes with a brief comparison of the results in terms of country, specifically, in light of Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) media systems composition.For the purpose of this study, native advertising is defined as a form of paid media where the commercial content is delivered within the design and form of editorial content with the attemptto recreate the user experience of reading news instead of advertising content. In terms of form native advertising matches the visual design of the main outlet they are placed in, and are meant to look and feel like natural content. In terms of function, it behaves consistently within the native modes of consumption while addressing themes and issues that are related to the paying advertiser. In other words, native advertising camouflages commercial advertising content as real news and editorial content in order to entice the user to read the news without becoming apparent that this is indeed a paid for commercial.As regular digital advertising revenues plummet, and drawing from new configurations of digital journalism, where popularized news services and aggregators have found viable sources of revenue in in-feed and recommended content features within the frame of native advertising, legacy media started adopting paid inclusion of commercials within their own formats. One of the first cases, the inclusion in the news site of the Atlantic a native ad feature the Church of Scientology, raised controversy and concerns about placing advertising formatted and distributed in the same fashion as regular news (Carlson, 2014). Since then, several other major legacy media outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times have adopted similar strategies that blur the boundaries between advertising and editorial content.Digital revenue has been growing steadily during the last years, and these new forms of advertising formats are in part responsible for this rise, especially because they are created by marketers, aiming to persuade consumers, but disguised as legitimate content (Tutaj & Van Reijmersdal, 2012; Cole II & Greer, 2013). Thus, the communicative ethos of journalism is immersed in a constant formative process similarly affected by technological configurations, institutional and organizational dispositions, professional practices, and economic and societal contexts (Ekström & Djerf-Pierre, 2013). A single factor cannot explain the meanderings of journalism practice. This constant re-conceptualization of journalism is what limits the formation of a common idea of what journalism is, and what journalism is supposed to be (Conboy, 2010).It is clear that since the beginning of commercial journalism, news media have a dual goal to serve and satisfy both citizens and the entrepreneurs who own the media (Schudson, 1997). However, the preliminary results of this study show a steady increase of native advertising, tipping the scales towards a re-formulation of journalism that adopts commercial actors and marketers within the arena that used to be run by journalists. The unique economic and technological context of online news could lead to a compromised autonomy, independence and credibility for journalistic practice as the economic urges to attract revenue transcend the editorial lines incorporating advertising that looks just like news. If this practice proves to be a lucrative one in the long term, the new commercial journalism might be based on camouflaging church as state.

  • 22.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT, Department of Media and Communication Studies.
    Knowledge societies: Empowering through ICT4E2013In: Student Interaction Design Research Conference SIDeR'13, 2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Within a framework of development, this paper discusses the current estate of education access as well as some of the current challenges for the implantation and design of ICT initiatives in developing countries, and reflects on the new shift of paradigm in the field of ICT4E. These challenges can be overcome by applying methods that merge their implementation model with local ownership. Technological literacy from a local context perspective is presented as an effective model to foster social stability, sustainable development and socio-economic growth.

    Through an examination of the goals and initiatives undertaken by the GeSCI, the idea of a new framework for collective empowerment and social change is presented. To better understand the dynamics between local context and ICT4E, the socioeconomic background of the digital divide is analyzed. Finally, the article establishes the links between empowerment education and the creation of knowledge societies that turn physical networks into digital human interaction.

  • 23.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Locative and augmented journalism: Towards a new framework to researching the use of geoposition to deliver space-bound news2015Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    As digital technology has been embedded in journalism practice, the notion of space seemed to transcend physical barriers. However, during the last years, mobile technology and augmented reality (AR) have allowed reformulating the bind between news and space. Locative journalism has emerged as a novel source of news services delivering news according to the users’ geolocation, providing hyper-local and context-aware news. When combined with AR, locative news transforms the digital storytelling virtually merging media and place.

    This paper discusses the intersecting points between mobile technology, geolocation, and AR in order to provide hyper-local news. By benchmarking a large series of locative and augmented news apps and websites, and by doing a content analysis of their features and storytelling techniques, this paper introduces a new framework to researching space-bound journalism.  

  • 24.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT, Department of Information Systems and Project Management.
    Mobile Accessibility in Disaster Environments: Assessing the role of Mobile Technology in Crisis Management in Ghana2013Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 80 credits / 120 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    In the age of the risk society, when several actors at an international, national, and local level converge in order to find solutions that help mitigate the global effects of natural disasters, there is a need to study the patterns for communicating and interacting with the public that eventually feel the impact of crises.

    In the richer parts of the world ICTs have facilitated a framework for having instant information regarding threats that make crisis management a discipline that is centered more in preparing and planning, rather than mitigating actual crises.  In developing countries, the contextual idiosyncrasies of each nation provide a fragmented array of settings that prevents a rapid flow of information in the event of natural disasters. The phenomenal growth of mobile telephony use and its rapid diffusion in developing countries offers a game changing scenario where crisis managers could benefit from new applications and functionalities of mobile devices.

    In a confluence of multidisciplinary nature, this study aims to explore the role of mobile technology and internet in crisis management, as well as the state of accessibility of mobile technology when addressing the general public in Ghana.

    This study follows a three-pronged approach with the aim of answering its research questions. First, a qualitative study of the communication processes between crisis managers and the public and the role of mobile technologies during those processes. Second, a quantitative study of the uses of mobile internet and the current mobile internet infrastructure. Finally, a study on the accessibility level of Ghana’s national crisis management organization’s website.

    Several conclusions can be drawn from this study. Mobile technologies have an important role in the communication process of crisis managers and the public, however the use of internet still has no part in the flows of communication due to deficits in infrastructure and socio-economic factors, leading to a disconnection between international risk policy requirements and local needs. The lack of resources is seen as the biggest challenge for crisis managers; a challenge that leads to issues of trust in the public and non-compliance. Finally, while there have been improvements in accessibility efforts, there is still a wide gap between international web accessibility best practices and the one provided by authorities in Ghana.

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    RFC_MasterThesis
  • 25.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT, Department of Information Systems and Project Management.
    Motivation in Virtual Project Management: On the Challenges of Engaging Virtual Teams and the Features of Project Software2013Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
    Abstract [en]

    As global markets transcend nationalities in search for key advantages in cost,quality and flexibility, the once unbridgeable limit of geographical location isovercome by faster Internet speed lines, online services and tools that allowindividuals and businesses to interact regardless of space and time.

    This thesis studies the transition from traditional project management to virtualenvironments and the impact that this new paradigm has over dispersed teamsand their interactions among themselves and the project manager.

    The focus of the study lays on the concept of motivation within virtual projectmanagement and the role of the project manager to overcome the specificchallenges of this new working scenario. Additionally, parallels are drawn on themotivation features that virtual project management systems offer to projectmanagers as well as team members.

    This study shows the importance of bridging the difficulties of motivatingdispersed teams and how traditional techniques of motivation have a muchlesser impact on team members. The idea of progress and self accomplishmentare brought forth as the strongest motivators for dispersed teams.

    Finally, this study exposes the shortcomings of current projectware as a tool tomotivate teams and explores the idea of applying gamification techniques tothese software packages to lift the motivation responsibilities off the shoulders ofproject managers.

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    Motivation in Virtual Project Management
  • 26.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Native advertising in digital journalism: An explorative study of the blurring boundaries between editorial and commercial content2016Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 27.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Playbour and the gamification of work: Liminal spaces of empowerment and exploitation2017Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In recent years, the trend of incorporating playful thinking and game elements within working processes has gained popularity among organizations and businesses. The rhetoric behind this phenomenon is anchored in newfound sources of worker empowerment, self-realization for employees and turning labour into a fun and enjoyable experience. This paper aims to critically analyze the practical and theoretical outcomes of gamifying labour by contextualizing such celebratory claims vis à vis technological opaque assemblages grounded in exploitation, surveillance and control.

    While the appropriation of play for working and commercial purposes is nothing new, the rise of networked technologies used to automatically track, quantify and analyze worker behavior bring to the fore concerns about increasingly blurring of work and play, and the way in which productivity, motivation and labour politics are understood. But the instrumentatlization of play and games disrupts their “proper place” in society, generating liminal spaces that pack logics of empowerment and exploitation at the same time. By using several practical cases, this paper exemplifies the balance between the utilitarian and hedonic logics of gamification and the contradictory tensions between the empowering and exploitative motives behind its use. 

  • 28.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Points, badges, and news: A study of the introduction of gamification into journalism practice2015Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    As the use of mobile phones spreads through society, traditional news consumption is steadily being substituted by innovative environments and behaviors, sparking new ritual forms of media consumption. Additionally, video games have become a pervasive type of media that attracts the big majority of youth, sometimes displacing news consumption. For this reason, several news platforms have started to introduce game mechanics into their web-based systems or mobile apps creating a new storytelling format for news consumption. Since habit strength is the most powerful predictor of news consumption, the goal is to not only engage news consumers, but also provide a personalized news experience, a sense of relatedness, and persuade users to foster the habit of consuming news regularly.

     

    While digital news media outlets have already started using gamification techniques within their services, there is a large research gap in the intersection of journalism and news, and gamification and persuasive technologies.

     

    This paper aims to discern how digital news media have introduced gamification within their online platforms in order to re-invent several fronts of the journalistic practice. This assessment is primarily done through four case studies of gamified news: The Guardian, The Times of India, the Bleacher Report, and Al-Jazeera.

     

    These case studies provide the room for discussion on the potential use of game mechanics within journalism, and gamification of news can potentially re-invent journalism, with an ambivalent set of results. On the one hand a gamified news service has the potential to engage users to read news and most importantly, to foster an intrinsic motivation to consume news while creating a habit out of it. Additionally, introducing game mechanics to news websites could introduce a profitable business model, by increasing readership, making it a service much more attractive to advertisers. On the other hand news outlets could use a gamified experience to exploit their users, either by manipulating their reading choices through game mechanics, or by monetizing the content and data they generate while they interact with the system. This could become a serious privacy risk involved with tracking the users’ every move and owning such data. It is at least ethically dubious. Furthermore, the interface and storytelling format could become the central aspect, relegating news to a secondary role, or delivering only the news that fit the narratives shaping the gamified system.

     

    Theoretically, the gamification process is meant to deliver a new format of storytelling creating a news experience with relevant, targeted news, embedded in a social environment, while keeping the quality of the news intact, and always aiming for a broadening of views, avoiding selective exposure, and emphasizing improvement of the users’ knowledge. Ultimately, the goal is to generate a feeling of competence, autonomy, and relatedness to generate the intrinsic motivation of consuming news in the user through persuasive design and game mechanics. However, as this paper will demonstrate, the current way of implementing gamification within journalism points to ambivalent results, where the driving forces of the implementation process are a mixture of an attempt to engage users and a set of commercial motivations.

  • 29.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Points, badges, and news: A study of the introduction of gamification into journalism practice2016In: Comunicació: Revista de Recerca i d’Anàlisi [Societat Catalana de Comunicació], ISSN 2014-0304, Vol. 33, no 2, p. 45-63Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Several news media have started to introduce gamification techniques into their digital platforms as a new storytelling format for news consumption. Since habit strength is the most powerful predictor of news consumption, the goal is to not only engage news consumers, but also to provide a personalized news experience and to persuade users to foster the habit of consuming news regularly. However, there is a large research gap in the intersection of journalism and gamification. This article aims to discern how digital news media have introduced game mechanics into their online platforms, and the logic which it serves. This assessment is primarily based on four case studies of gamified news: The Guardian, The Times of India, Bleacher Report, and Al Jazeera. The results are ambivalent since the driving forces of the implementation process combine an attempt to engage users and a set of commercial motivations.

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  • 30.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Quantifying journalism: A critical study of big data within journalism practice2015Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The irruption of digital journalism introduced several opportunities and challenges to journalism. Roughly two decades after the introduction of the internet, big data has started to transform the way we understand information and how to use it. The quantification of visitors, readers, and users’ interactions has become the de facto analytic tool for digital newspapers analysis. Accordingly, robot journalism and new storytelling techniques, such as gamification, have started to use and apply the data in order to create a personalized news experience, to suggest specific content, and to enhance interpersonal interactions within the system.

    But what happens when big data is targeted to the journalists themselves? How is the quantification of journalistic output received by journalists when the data is used to assess their own quality? This paper aims to answer these questions by looking at the case of the sports news website Bleacher Report. B/R turns journalists into users by awarding them with points according to their writing career statistics regarding their contribution to the site. Number of reads, number of comments, number of lead stories, and other metrics keep adding points defining each author’s reputation level. This quantification becomes an important factor to assess the journalist capacities.

    When data is used to turn work into play and quantity into quality the values and norms upon which traditional journalism is built seem to be under threat. This case study provides the room for a critical discussion on the potential use of big data through game mechanics targeting news-workers.

  • 31.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Quantifying Journalism?: A Study on the Use of Data and Gamification to Motivate Journalists2017In: Television and New Media, ISSN 1527-4764, E-ISSN 1552-8316, Vol. 18, no 8, p. 706-720Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    According to previous research, contemporary journalism is undergoing a quantitative turn. The uses of data and metrics have started to permeate digital news websites in various ways. However, there is a lack of research on how gamification is applied to journalism practice. This article examines how the quantification of news production, readers’ interactions, and use of game mechanics have started to permeate journalism practice in digital outlets. Methodologically, this article focuses on the sports news website Bleacher Report as case study, drawing data from an analysis of the gamified system in which journalists are quantified and rewarded with points and badges according to their writing metrics, and a set of interviews with journalists who work for Bleacher Report. The results show that while data and metrics become the main component to assess journalists’ capacities, the process of automated quantification and the competitive playfulness of leaderboards are perceived as motivating affordances.

  • 32.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    The datafication of newswork: The use metrics and gamification to motivate journalists2017Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 33.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    The Gamification of Mobile News: Adapting Traditional Journalism to the Challenges and Opportunities of Mobile Devices2015Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 34.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Communication and IT, Department of Information Systems and Project Management.
    The gamification of news: Towards a new framework for researching game mechanics in journalism2014Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The traditional newspaper is declining and journalism has embraced digital media in its struggle to survive. New models of delivering news to the public are being explored in order to increase the levels of readership and user engagement.

    This paper introduces a new framework for researching the application of gamification techniques in journalism. Gamification, defined here as the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-gaming environments, adds a layer of game elements for the main purpose of improving user engagement. The proposed framework will allow for a simple analysis of news websites in the search of gamified elements. The concept of gamification is deconstructed into elements that can be introduced on top of an online news service. These elements are placed in three different categories: dynamics, which relate to the narrative and purpose of the gamified layer, providing the system with a sense of direction; mechanics, which relate to the processes aimed to create engagement and the strategies aimed to provide the system with momentum; and components, which relate to the visible game elements embedded in the system aimed to create flows of interaction with the readers. These elements are then evaluated in terms of level of playfulness and the underlying intention of implementation, whether it is to motivate readership, participation, or to broaden the level of knowledge of the reader.

    Gamification has shown to be an effective method to attract the attention and engagement of users in various domains, and it has been slowly implemented in digital journalism as an attempt to increase the number of readers, by stimulating the intrinsic motivation, and creating and/or maintaining the habit of consuming news in the audience. It has the potential to affect the way journalists write the news, to shift the topics that are introduced in the production pipeline, as well as to shape new patterns of consumption.  However, current research on the intersecting points between gamification and news is practically non-existent. This papers aims to contribute to this new area of research within journalism studies and to suggest some tools to analyze and understand the new iteration of digital journalism.

    Theoretically, this paper focuses on the motivational aspects of games and discusses the approaches on which they can be incorporated in the distribution channels of digital news. Finally, it analyzes some of the current examples of gamified digital newspapers and discusses why certain mechanics, such as unlocking content, progression, status, and the social graph are particularly suited to journalism, and to tap into the emotional drive of the emerging mobile audience.

  • 35.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    The metricated news media: Journalistic intuition meets informed decisions2017Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 36.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    The users formerly known as the audience: Revisiting the participatory culture in the era of convergence2016Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In 2006 Jay Rosen penned an article in which the shift of power relations between the audience and the media is addressed as a ground breaking change that would lead to an emancipated status for the people formerly known as the audience. Rosen’s article would spark a long-standing debate on audience participation, favoring an understanding of audiences as active and empowered, rather than passive and subjected.

    Ten years later, the media landscape offers a much less optimistic panorama, calling for revisiting Rosen’s argument. In an age of information hyper-saturation, dichotomous terms like audiences and publics, producers and consumers, professionals and amateurs have been blurred into indistinguishable roles that often coexist. Terms like prosumer, produser, and pro-am flood the media debates as scholars try to make sense of the tensions between the new roles of traditional actors: consumers and producers. The celebratory rhetoric of participation has been met with reluctance from scholars who denounce issues of surveillance, free labor, and exploitation of user generated data.

    This paper revisits and analyzes the current state of the participation literature drawing from the terminology that several authors in the fields of media, information systems, and interaction design, use to name the people who ultimately consume and produce media. Departing from the polarized continuum of technological approach this paper analyzes the relations within the new media landscape where several overlapping audience-oriented fields have started to adopt the term user as a predominant alternative for the people formerly known as the audience. The agency provided by affordances of technological convergence allows for widespread participatory action. However the so-called democratization of the new digital masses, as well as the enslavement of media literate citizens, are extremes that hardly depict reality. This paper argues that the only reality on the new media landscape is that the interaction between humans and algorithmic entities bases its roots on the interaction of both actor-types. Whether exploited or liberated, active or passive, users and interfaces are the main topic of discussion within the literature. The issues of living with technologies that enable every user to participate in both local and global debates as an everyday life activity leads to a crisis of traditional models of public engagement.  

    With the aim to map the current expansion and diffusion of academic terminology, this paper concludes that new media, by acknowledging the public as a user, provide alternative models of public engagement by continuously re-patterning interaction design between the systems and the users, thus redefining and reshaping the public sphere into new digital social environments.  

  • 37.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Cheruiyot, David
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    De-Westernizing Data Journalism: Mapping the use of data in African news media2017Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In order to conceptualize the ways in which data is permeating journalism practice, practitioners and researchers often focus on the instrumental value of data and its incorporation in existing journalistic processes. Data journalism and its many manifestations attempt to make use of databases – usually open data but also large sets of leaked documents – as a form of reporting by applying data analysis and new forms of data visualization as a storytelling technique. However, while the need for more 'scholarly narratives' of data journalism is being acknowledged, literature on the subject still focuses on models and examples in the West.

    Indeed the focus on data-driven practices in North America and Europe are valid and illuminating on the new developments in journalism today, but they confine this emerging area to the old problematic of Western-centricism. Accordingly, the role of cross-cultural research, especially in the neglected Global South, is increasingly being acknowledged. We therefore argue here that there is need to integrate fresher perspectives and a broader overview of the wide range of uses of data by news organizations in journalistic cultures beyond the West.

    This paper aims to map emerging data-driven practices and evaluate how they are shaping news journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Departing from the theoretical epistemological and emotional implications of the datafication and affective turn of journalism, we conceptualize the context-specific underpinnings of data journalism while mapping the use of data in African nations. To do so this paper draws its empirical data from two case studies of 'continent-wide' data-driven projects: Code for Africa and Africa Check; as well as several ‘country-specific’ examples of data journalism. Here we study the instrumental uses of data, the actors that participate in the process of acquiring and selecting data, as well as the interactions and output within the media systems in Africa.

    Our preliminary results show that while data journalism in African nations is still at its infancy, there are examples of sophisticated and widespread use of data journalism in some English-speaking countries in Africa. Additionally, we see a salient participation of Western third-party organizations offering data services to news media organizations, heralding a celebratory rhetoric of data as an empowering tool to hold to account those in power. Hence, apart from the visualization of data and the storytelling techniques, the most prominent use of data in journalism is that of a “watchdog” function. An activist approach to data, serving as a fact-checking tool against governments and other media organizations, seems to be context-specific. Data however are seldom problematized in terms of origin, quality, or degrees of openness.

    This paper contributes to the existing body of literature on data journalism by expanding the study of data journalism beyond the Western perspective. We do so by mapping how data journalism manifests in Sub-Saharan African countries while taking into account the context-specific socio-cultural media system. Furthermore we conceptualize the notion of activist data journalism that advocates for the use of data as a fact-checking device and an empowering tool against the ruling power structures.

  • 38.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Cheruiyot, David
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Fact-checking Africa: Searching for truth through data journalism2017Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 39.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Foxman, Maxwell
    University of Oregon, USA.
    Jones, Janet
    London South Bank University, UK.
    Sihvonen, Tanja
    University of Vaasa, Finland.
    Siitonen, Marko
    University of Jyväskylaä, Finland.
    Playful approaches to news engagement2020In: Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, ISSN 1354-8565, E-ISSN 1748-7382, Vol. 26, no 3, p. 457-469, article id 1354856520923964Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    From crossword puzzles and quizzes to more complex gamification strategies and serious newsgames, legacy media has long explored ways to deploy playful approaches to deliver their content and engage with the audience. We examine how news and games fit together when news organizations, game creators and news audiences welcome gameful forms of communication and participation. Moreover, we reflect on the theoretical and empirical significance of merging news with games as a way to reformulate normative assumptions, production practices and consumption patterns. As a result, the boundaries between journalism and game's logics start to erode, and they begin to find new ways of converging.

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    fulltext
  • 40.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Handler, Reinhard
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Open data, crowdsourcing and game mechanics: A case study on civic participation in the digital age2016Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 41.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Handler, Reinhard
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    The Gamification of Society: The use of game mechanics as an expression of mediatization2016Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 42.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Centre for HumanIT (from 2013).
    Klyftor mellan utbud och efterfrågan?: Trafiksiffror, interaktionsspiraler, och den förändrade relationen mellan journalister och publik2019In: Nyheter – allt mer en tolkningsfråga?: Mediestudiers innehållsanalys 2007–2018 / [ed] Lars Truedson, Michael Karlsson, Stockholm: Institutet för mediestudier , 2019, p. 32-46Chapter in book (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
  • 43.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Centre for HumanIT (from 2013).
    Native advertising and the appropriation of journalistic clout2018In: The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies / [ed] Bob Franklin, Scott Eldridge, London: Routledge, 2018, p. 463-474Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The use of native advertising has sparked a heated debate within traditional news media. While similar formats have a long history within journalism, this new iteration furthers the blurring of boundaries between news and ads by producing ads that look and feel like news but that are clearly labeled as advertising. The novelty of native advertising is that it advocates for openly merging commercial and editorial content, aggravating an existing tension between the professional and commercial logics of journalism. This open relationship between journalists and marketers calls for revisiting the traditional narrative that sustains journalistic autonomy.

  • 44.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication.
    The Gamification of Journalism2015In: Emerging Research and Trends in Gamification / [ed] Harsha Gangadharbatla & Donna Z. Davis, Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2015, p. 356-383Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Traditional news outlets are on the decline and journalism has embraced digital media in its struggle tosurvive. New models of delivering news to the public are being explored in order to increase the levelsof readership and user engagement.The narrative of this chapter focuses on the future of journalismand media, and the potential benefits and dangers of gamifying journalism. Since gamification is a newtrend, a thorough look at the intersection between the enhancements of public mobility, the digitalizationof news services, and the engagement of gamified systems can bring better understanding of futurechannels of reading news to the users, to researchers, and to the industry. This chapter aims to bridgethe gap between gamification as an emerging practice in news distribution and yet a vastly unchartedarea or research.

  • 45.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). University of Stavanger, NOR.
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Haim, Mario
    University of Leipzig, DEU.
    Kammer, Aske
    Danish School of Media and Journalism, DNK.
    Elgesem, Dag
    University of Bergen, NOR.
    Sjovaag, Helle
    University of Stavanger, NOR.
    Toward 'Cultures of Engagement'?: An exploratory comparison of engagement patterns on Facebook news posts2023In: New Media and Society, ISSN 1461-4448, E-ISSN 1461-7315, Vol. 25, no 1, p. 95-118Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Information production, dissemination, and consumption are contingent upon cultural and financial dimensions. This study attempts to find cultures of engagement that reflect how audiences engage with news posts made by either commercial or state-owned news outlets on Facebook. To do so, we collected over a million news posts (n = 1,173,159) produced by 482 news outlets in three Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and analyzed over 69 million interactions across three metrics of engagement (i.e. comments, likes, and shares). More concretely, we investigate whether the patterns of engagement follow distinct patterns across national boundaries and type of outlet ownership. While we are skeptical of metrics of engagement as markers of specific cultures of engagement, our results show that there are clear differences in how readers engage with news posts depending on the country of origin and whether they are fully state-owned or private-owned outlets.

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  • 46.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Haim, Mario
    University of Leipzig, GERMANY.
    Kammer, Aske
    Danish School of Media and Journalism, DENMARK.
    Sjøvaag, Helle
    University of Stavanger, NORWAY.
    Losing the Hyperlink?: Studying the Role of Websites Connecting National Online Networks2022Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 47.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Karlsson, Michael
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Van Couvering, Elizabeth
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Native advertising and the negotiation of autonomy, transparency, and deception2021In: The Routledge Companion to Journalism Ethics, Taylor & Francis, 2021, p. 390-398Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Fueled by a narrative of crisis, managers and editors have openly advocated for merging commercial and editorial content that is distributed following the same journalistic visual design. As native advertising has become a prominent format used by many news organizations globally, this transgression of the traditional wall that is supposed to separate commercial and editorial content challenges two of journalism's fundamental ethical principles: transparency and autonomy. This chapter offers a critical overview of native advertising in journalism. First, we unpack the appeal of native advertising for news media and how this practice actively blurs the line between disclosure and deception as the mechanism by which advertisers appropriate the publishers' influence and trust. Second, we discuss the ethical considerations of incorporating native advertising. From a production perspective, passing commercial content for news is a threat to journalistic authority. The open advocacy for native advertising from within the industry is, however, nothing short of alarming because it symbolizes the surrender of public service ideals to market forces. Failing to adhere to conventional journalism ethics could lead to the potential alienation of the people who gave journalism its legitimacy and to further dismantling news media's journalistic authority, but this time, from within.

  • 48.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Knudsen, Erik
    Bergen university, NOR.
    Lauerer, Corinna
    LMU Munich, DEU.
    Barnoy, Aviv
    LMU Munich, DEU.
    The Visual Boundaries of Journalism: Native Advertising and the Convergence of Editorial and Commercial Content2021In: Digital Journalism, ISSN 2167-0811, E-ISSN 2167-082X, Vol. 9, no 7, p. 929-951Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This study investigates the visual objects that are used to either disclose or disguise the commercial nature of native advertising as news articles. We adopt a “material object” approach to explore the potential implications for journalism regarding transparency, trust, and credibility. Methodologically, this study used content analysis covering 21 publications in five countries: Germany, Israel, Norway, Spain, and Sweden. We analysed 373 individual native ads. The findings show that news outlets do not follow a consistent way to disclose native ads visually, negotiating the balance between transparency and deception. In this balance, news organizations do not boldly push for transparency and instead remain ambiguous. Our analyses show that both national and organizational characteristics matter when shaping the visual boundaries of journalism.

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  • 49.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013). University of Stavanger, Norway.
    Sjovaag, Helle
    University of Stavanger, Norway.
    Olsen, Ragnhild Kr.
    Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
    Datafied Societies: Digital Infrastructures, Data Power, and Regulations2023In: Media and Communication, E-ISSN 2183-2439, Vol. 11, no 2, p. 291-295Article in journal (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The datafication and platformization of social processes further the overall shift from an open, public, and decentralized internet towards a private and siloed realm that establishes power asymmetries between those who provide data and those who own, trade, and control data. The ongoing process of datafying societies embraces the logics of aggregation and automation that increasingly negotiate transactions between markets and social entities, informing governance systems, institutions, and public discourse. This thematic issue presents a collection of articles that tackle the political economy of datafication from three main perspectives: (a) digital media infrastructures and its actors, data structures, and markets; (b) the articulation of data power, public access to information, data privacy, and the risks of citizens in a datafied society; and (c) the policies and regulations for effective, independent media institutions and data sovereignty. It concludes with a reflection on the role of media and communication scholarship when studying sociotechnical processes controlled by giant technological companies.

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  • 50.
    Ferrer Conill, Raul
    et al.
    Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Geography, Media and Communication (from 2013).
    Tandoc, Edson C., Jr.
    Singapore.
    The Audience-Oriented Editor: Making sense of the audience in the newsroom2018In: Digital Journalism, ISSN 2167-0811, E-ISSN 2167-082X, Vol. 6, no 4, p. 1-18Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Spurred by the increasingly central role of audience metrics in the editorial process, a new set of roles is being introduced in the newsroom primarily focused on navigating audience data. This paper aims to understand these emerging audience-oriented roles and to what extent considerations of the audience figures in editorial choices. This paper draws from a set of 15 in-depth interviews with engagement editors, social media editors and audience editors from different media systems around the world. Three major findings emerge: First, the definition of engagement is almost entirely centered on different types of metrics. Second, while audience-oriented editors take part in the editorial process, their role is to help journalists negotiate between the information obtained by their metrics and their journalistic intuition to make editorial decisions. Third, there is a lack of cohesiveness regarding what these newsroom positions are and how they operate. The paper contributes to the growing literature on the pervasiveness of metrics and quantification of journalistic processes by offering a more nuanced understanding of a new set of editorial roles.

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    Ferrer_et_al_2018
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