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Open research questions in Media Studies and Communication

1,385 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 13,878 Media Studies and Communication papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • While prior research has mainly examined its effects on the audience, little is known about how constructively oriented media actually report – especially compared to traditional news outlets.

    How Constructive is Constructive Journalism? Investigating Balance, Matter-of-Factness, and Focus on Solutions in German Constructive vs. Traditional News Media · 2026 · DOI

  • As their role is generally understudied or treated as part of the wider field of journalism, they find themselves on the periphery of journalism studies.

    “Young snowflakes” and “Old Fogeys”: Two Generations of Czech Editors and Their Editorial Practices · 2026 · DOI

  • The study contributes to the limited literature on Arab media coverage of African conflicts and highlights how online news platforms shape representations of contemporary conflicts.

    Fractured lenses: A framing analysis of Sudan’s civil war in Pan-Arab media · 2026 · DOI

  • Most existing intermedia agenda studies rely on contemporaneous correlations or simple lag comparisons, which reveal synchronization but provide limited evidence of predictive precedence across heterogeneous media systems.

    Modeling cross-media agenda interactions in the international communication of Chinese culture using multi-source news time-series data · 2026 · DOI

  • Some journalists decide to post-edit automated news texts to improve their quality for the reader – a practice that, although essential to automated journalism, is still largely underexplored.

    Refining automated news? The role of journalistic post-editing in shaping reader perceptions · 2025 · DOI

  • the publication of While a study of the time periods included here provide revealing data, further study is needed to investigate the progression of these aspects of the news report between 1874 and 1905. What's right? There's no consensus: Journalists found in disagree- ment. Several research projects since then have distinguished among orientations of journalists as objective and activist or participant V — Downloaded by [] at 14:21 17 June 2016 Fall/Winter 1986-87 59 and observer (Johnstone, Slawski, & Bowman, 1972; Starck & Soloski, 1977) but study of the news report in this context is lacking.

    Development of the objectivity ethic in U.S. daily newspapers · 1986 · DOI

  • The activities of journalists need to be studied with this central concept in mind.

    A literature review of approaches to the professionalism of journalists · 1986 · DOI

  • Further studies can investigate the impact of social media on the credibility of broadcasting in Nigeria. Future research can explore the challenges faced by broadcasters in adopting social media for broadcasting.

    Assessing the Adoption of Social Media for Broadcasting at Armed Forces Radio Abuja and FRCN Precious FM Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the understanding of social media adoption in broadcasting in Nigeria. The adoption of social media for broadcasting is still evolving in Nigeria.

    Assessing the Adoption of Social Media for Broadcasting at Armed Forces Radio Abuja and FRCN Precious FM Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper suggests that future research should consider the implications of a new PSM organization for the media landscape in a reunified Ireland. The paper highlights the need for further study on the consociationalist model and its implications for PSM in a reunified Ireland.

    Public Service Media in Ireland following reunification? Comparative approaches and critical questions · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in scholarly work on reimagining PSM in the event of reunification. The paper highlights the need for thoughtful and responsible planning for a potential new PSM organization, considering the challenges and implications of a new PSM organization.

    Public Service Media in Ireland following reunification? Comparative approaches and critical questions · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the evolution of local journalism in the digital age. The study notes that local journalism is often overlooked in favor of national or international news.

    El periodismo local ante el espejo: evolución histórica y tendencias · 2026 · DOI

  • The field of solutions journalism is conceptually fragmented, methodologically heterogeneous, and geographically uneven. There is a lack of systematic reviews and synthesis of the existing literature. The impact of solutions journalism depends on identifiable mechanisms and contextual contingencies.

    Scaling solutions journalism: A systematic review of audience effects, narrative mediators, and organizational constraints · 2026 · DOI

  • The literature on solutions journalism is fragmented and lacks systematic reviews. There is a need for further research on the conditional nature of solutions journalism's impact. The field requires more studies on the effective implementation of solutions journalism in different contexts.

    Scaling solutions journalism: A systematic review of audience effects, narrative mediators, and organizational constraints · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of understanding of the impact of the state of emergency on digital investigative journalism. There is a need to study the conditions and routines of digital investigative journalism under the state of emergency.

    Conditions and routines of digital investigative journalism in El Salvador under a state of emergency · 2026 · DOI

  • The intensification and extensification of work. The need to manage the temporalities of news production in the digital age. The challenge of resolving tensions and conflicts in the digital workplace.

    Digitalizing Newspaper Journalism: Instituting and Negotiating New Temporalities in the Digital Workplace · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research can build on the findings of this study to explore the impact of digitalization on other industries and workplaces. The study highlights the need for further research on the temporalities of news production in the digital age.

    Digitalizing Newspaper Journalism: Instituting and Negotiating New Temporalities in the Digital Workplace · 2026 · DOI

  • To further develop the Living Newspaper method and its applications in various settings. To explore the effectiveness of the method in reaching out to people who are significantly different from the organizers. To investigate the long-term impact of the method on community theater and societal dynamics.

    Exploring the Matrix of Social Reflections: A New Model of the Living Newspaper · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for a new model of the Living Newspaper method that focuses on understanding society and its unconscious motivations. The existing methods, such as sociodrama and group analysis, have limitations in addressing societal issues.

    Exploring the Matrix of Social Reflections: A New Model of the Living Newspaper · 2026 · DOI

  • The study identifies a gap in the understanding of how news actors from small, non-EU member states can influence EU policy processes. The study highlights the need for more research on the challenges faced by small, non-EU member states in EU policy processes.

    News media lobbying and the EU’s Digital Services Act: Strategies and experiences from the small non-EU state of Norway · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research could explore the application of sustainable journalism frames to different media contexts. Future research could investigate the impact of sustainable journalism on public perceptions of sustainable development. Future research could develop new tools for conducting empirical analyses of sustainable journalism.

    Sustainable journalism redux: What are the “cornerstone” media frames of a sustainable future? · 2026 · DOI

  • The concept of sustainable journalism is in need of terminological precision. The paper identifies a gap in the literature on sustainable journalism, particularly in terms of its application to media reporting.

    Sustainable journalism redux: What are the “cornerstone” media frames of a sustainable future? · 2026 · DOI

  • The opacity of algorithmic systems in news media. The lack of transparency in datafied journalism practices. The impact of datafied journalism on news users' perceptions and behaviors.

    Transparency of datafied journalism: Finnish news users’ response profiles to an interventionist audience study · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore the responses of a larger and more diverse sample of news users. Future research should investigate the impact of datafied journalism on news users' perceptions and behaviors.

    Transparency of datafied journalism: Finnish news users’ response profiles to an interventionist audience study · 2026 · DOI

  • The literature on deliberative democracy has not fully addressed the kind of journalism that best suits it. The normative discussion of deliberative journalism is still scant. There is a need to clarify the distinctiveness of deliberative journalism from other normative theories of the press.

    Deliberative Journalism: The Press as an Institution of Public Reason · 2026 · DOI

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1,385 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 13,878 Media Studies and Communication papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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