Data exchanges behind the curtain: the case of news apps for smartphones
The news media have traditionally operated in a two-sided market model (Picard,
2002), exchanging journalistic content for money from audiences and the same
audiences’ attention for money from advertisers. In the digital age, however, the
entrance of a body of new actors means that a new type of exchange has emerged,
namely that between the news media and third-party actors who offer audience
metrics, visibility on social media, improved performance of digital news media, etc.,
in exchange for data on audiences and their online behavior. Earlier research has
shown that the trade with such data constitutes a component of various media firms’
web-based business models (Bechmann, Bilgrav-Nielsen & Jensen, 2016; Evens &
Van Damme, 2016; Gerlitz & Helmond, 2013; Lindskow, 2016), suggesting that a
more complex theoretical model for understanding media economics in the digital
age is needed.
This paper presents the results of a quantitative study of the exchanges between news organizations, audiences, and third-party actors in connection with
the use of news apps for smartphones. While a modest amount of research has been
conducted into the phenomenon on news websites, almost no systematic scrutiny of
it exist with reference to mobile news use even though this platform is becoming
increasingly popular (Newman, Levy & Nielsen, 2015) Mapping the networks of
exchanges, the paper asks which types of third-party actors are involved in these
exchanges, what characterizes the involved actors as well as exchanges, and how it
challenges the established theoretical framework for understanding the fundamentals of media financing. How has the model of the analogue/electronic era adapted
to the digital age?
The paper studies 22 news apps across different legacy media (television, quality newspaper, tabloid newspaper, specialist newspaper, and digital pureplayer) and countries with different media systemic characteristics (cf. Hallin &
Mancini, 2004; the countries are Denmark, Germany, the USA, the UK, Italy, and
Portugal). This variation allows for nuanced insights into the position of third-party
actors in the circuit of exchanges connected to the funding of news media. The data
collection has taken place over two rounds in 2016, using the Debookee tool to track
all in and out-going calls from a smartphone where the news apps are in use.
As the analysis is still on-going when this abstract is written, no final
results can be presented here. The analysis will, however, be finished in January,
2017, and whatever the results, the study of this type of data exchanges contributes
to the existing knowledge repertoires of media management and business studies in
different ways: first, it offers the opportunity to update one of the fundamental
building blocks of the theories of media economics to the digital age, namely that of
the two-sided market model; second, it offers knowledge about an largely unmapped
field that few are aware of but which has potentially profound implications for news
media and their business models as well as audiences and their privacy. In a media
business that is increasingly digital and will be even more so in the future, the role of
third-party actors and the implications of their presence will continue to be subjected to closer scrutiny.
References
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