A Networked Perspective on the Evolution of News Media

Wednesday, August 6AEJMC 2014

Matthew S. Weber

Tracing the Emergence of Organizational Forms

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Environment: Organizations compete for scare resources; during rapid periods of

disruption, new entrants seek “protected” niches (Weber & Monge 2014)

Population: In digital spaces, online connections provide communicative representations of

information flows (Weber & Monge, 2012)

Formation of ties (e.g. hyperlinks) can positively impact long-term likelihood of organization survival (Weber, 2012)

Organization: Organizations adapt internally, reconfiguring team structures and

developing new routines for knowledge sharing (Ellison, Gibbs & Weber, 2015; Weber & Kim, Under Review)

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evolution happens.

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why hyperlinks?

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Partnerships & interorganizational linkages facilitate transformation and survival (Baum and Oliver, 1991)

Partnerships provide economic and reputational benefits (Ruef & Scott, 1991)

Hyperlinks: a digital form of interorganizational linkage (Halavais, 2008; Park, 2003)

establish a formal public relationship between two organizations (Halavais, 2008)

Institutional hyperlinks should lower newspaper mortality rates

© Internet Archive 2013

archive.org

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Source | Destination | Date | Frequency | Content Type | Bytes | Descriptive Text

Link Data:

http://gawker.com/5953665/mitt-romneys-staff-played-the-media-covering-them-in-a-friendly-game-of-flag-football

Mitt Romney's Staff Played the Media Covering Them in a Friendly Game of Flag

http://gawker.com

2012-10-22

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Linking Matters

• Hyperlinks are more than information sharing; can impact organizational longevity (Weber 2012; Weber & Monge, 2014)– Linking behavior signals a deeper shift in organizational mentality– Impact is moderated by a host of factors, but aggressive shifts to digital can

impact survival over time

• Hyperlinks are not as significant for new entrants– New entrants benefit more from traditional mechanisms of legitimacy – media

attention, legal rulings, etc.– Hyperlinking moderates the effect

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Implications

• Longitudinal studies of digital behavior promise to reveal significant insight into the cumulative impact of digital strategies– Lessons learned provide insight into potential impact of social media

• Strategy is an important factor for understanding how existing organizations transform during periods of rapid change– Particularly in an online environment, organizational strategy can have a notable

impact of over time survival• Understanding the true value of a link/social link economy is critical

for both information-based organizations and individuals engaged with news media

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http://archivehub.rutgers.edu

• Want data?– Email me! matthew.weber@rutgers.edu– ArchiveHub: http://archivehub.rutgers.edu

• The Team– Kris Carpenter, Vinay Goel: Internet Archive – David Lazer, Katherine Ognyanova: Northeastern University – Allie Kosterich, Hai Nguyen: Rutgers University– Peter Monge, Ayushman Datta, Kristen Guth: USC

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Research supported by NSF Award #1244727 and the NetSCI Lab @ Rutgers

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