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International Conference on Data and Information in Online

DIONE 2020: Data and Information in Online Environments pp 133–146Cite as

Examining the Linking Patterns and Link Building Strategies of Mainstream and Partisan Online News Media in Central Europe

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Part of the Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering book series (LNICST,volume 319)

Abstract

The presence of external links or sources in the articles are considered as one of the indicators for assessing their quality by a librarian and information community. In this article, we explore linking patterns of the most popular traditional and “alternative” (partisan) digital news media in two V4 countries of Central Europe: Czech and Slovak Republic. Alternative/partisan news media are understood as media that protest against traditional or mainstream media. Fake news as articles containing disinformation can appear in traditional media (e.g. in tabloids) as well as in alternative media. Eighteen most popular mainstream news media and fifteen most popular partisan media in Slovakia and Czech Republic were selected for quantitative and qualitative analysis of links. With this method, more than 171 million of unique domains of hyperlinks from and to the selected online media were collected and analyzed. The argument to conduct this type of research is that partisan news media are gaining popularity in the countries of Central Europe and the linking patterns of these media were rarely examined or compared with traditional media. Quantitative analysis and visualization of hyperlinks was performed using two software systems: Ahrefs and Gephi. We concluded that there are some differences between the linking patterns of mainstream and partisan digital news media that need the research attention not only to follow the communication patterns of digital media, but also to be able to detect the type of the news media automatically.

Keywords

  • Fake news
  • Online news media
  • Alternative media
  • Partisan media
  • Mainstream media
  • Traditional media
  • Link building
  • Hyperlink network analysis

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://ahrefs.com/.

  2. 2.

    https://gephi.org/.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the contract No. APVV SK-IL-RD-18-0004 (MISDEED) and APVV-17-0267 (REBELION).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Andrea Hrckova, Robert Moro, Ivan Srba & Maria Bielikova

Authors
  1. Andrea Hrckova
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  2. Robert Moro
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  3. Ivan Srba
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  4. Maria Bielikova
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Hrckova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Rogério Mugnaini

Appendix

Appendix

Overview and scope of Slovak partisan online news media analyzed in this article:

  • www.dolezite.sk - News hub

  • www.hlavnespravy.sk - Politics, army, interesting facts from technologies and popculture. Conservative targeting

  • www.infovojna.sk - Politics, army

  • www.parlamentnelisty.sk - Politics

  • www.protiprud.sk - Politics, health, spiritual, conspiracies

  • www.slobodnyvysielac.sk - Politics, conspiracies, culture

  • www.zemavek.sk - Health, spiritual, “science”, society

Overview and scope of Slovak mainstream online news media analyzed in this article:

  • www.dennikn.sk - Politics, science, culture, sport, environmental issues

  • www.hnonline.sk - Finance, politics

  • www.pluska.sk - Showbusiness, politics, sport. Tabloid

  • www.pravda.sk - Politics, finance, sport, culture, auto-moto, health and cooking

  • www.sme.sk - Politics, economy, sport, culture, technologies, health, environmental issues

  • www.topky.sk - Politics, showbusiness, leisure. Tabloid

  • www.webnoviny.sk - Politics, finance, sport

  • www.aktuality.sk - Politics

  • www.cas.sk - Showbusiness, politics, sport. Tabloid

Overview and scope of Czech partisan online news media analyzed in this article:

  • www.ac24.cz - Politics, army, “science”

  • www.aeronet.cz - Politics, technologies

  • www.ceskoaktualne.cz - Politics, health, culture, finance, army, conspiracies and factoids

  • www.cz.sputniknews.com - Politics

  • www.parlamentnilisty.cz - Politics

  • www.pravyprostor.cz - Politics, society

  • www.protiproud.cz - Politics, health, spiritual, conspiracies

  • www.svobodnenoviny.eu - Anti-migrant, conspiracies, mysteries, health

  • www.svobodny-vysilac.cz - Politics, spiritual, conspiracies, culture

  • www.zvedavec.org - Politics, army, society, anti-LGBTI and migrants

Overview and scope of Czech mainstream online news media analyzed in this article:

  • www.ahaonline.cz - Leisure, showbusiness. Tabloid

  • www.blesk.cz - Leisure, showbusiness, politics. Tabloid

  • www.ct24.ceskatelevize.cz - Politics, finance, culture, science, sport

  • www.idnes.cz - Politics, finance, culture. Tabloid

  • www.ihned.cz - Politics, finance, culture, technologies

  • www.lidovky.cz - Politics, finance, culture, leisure

  • www.pravo.cz - Politics, leisure, finance

  • www.reflex.cz - Politics, interesting facts, culture

  • www.respekt.cz - Politics, culture, society

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Hrckova, A., Moro, R., Srba, I., Bielikova, M. (2020). Examining the Linking Patterns and Link Building Strategies of Mainstream and Partisan Online News Media in Central Europe. In: Mugnaini, R. (eds) Data and Information in Online Environments. DIONE 2020. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 319. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50072-6_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50072-6_11

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