The more you know, the less you like: A comparative study of how news and political conversation shape political knowledge and affective polarization

The contemporary communication ecology contributes to affective polarization by presenting us with extreme exemplars of disliked groups. News exposure that is associated with political discussion networks is related to greater political knowledge, yet unlike previous eras where political knowledge and tolerance went hand in hand, this is no longer the case. We employ a comparative design to examine this idea among two democracies with differing levels of journalistic professionalism and political system: Mexico and the United States. Results show that greater political knowledge is associated with affective polarization, especially for the United States. Furthermore, there was a significant indirect path between media use and affective polarization, mediated through homogeneous political talk and political knowledge, but not in Mexico.

Understanding Customer Motivation to Share Information in Social Commerce

The gradual emergence of social commerce is enhancing the development of businesses. The opinions exchanged and information shared by each consumer in the community affects consumers’ purchasing decisions and participation behaviors. This study established a consumer information sharing model in social commerce based on the theories of social exchange and communication ecology. Data were collected from 204 respondents and PLS technique was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that reciprocity and community participation exhibited a significantly positive effect on information sharing. Reciprocity and community participation also had partial mediation effects on the consumer–community and consumer–platform relationships.

Strategic Framing Matters But Varies: A Structural Topic Modeling Approach to Analyzing China’s Foreign Propaganda About the 2019 Hong Kong Protests on Twitter

Drawing upon the approach of strategic framing, this study investigated how China’s state-run media mobilize foreign propaganda machine and use specific patterns to describe the 2019 Hong Kong protests on Twitter. It also shed light on the heterogeneity of both production and reception of the strategic frames used by state media. Structural topic modeling was employed to analyze a large amount of Twitter content (i.e., 14,412 tweets) posted by 13 verified organizational accounts, and six strategic frames were identified as conflicts and violence, calling for stability and order, marginalizing protests, criticizing the West as accomplices, delegitimizing protests, and social and economic disruption. These frames highlighted insider–outsider and causes and consequences as two overarching communication strategies. The results also revealed that the bureaucratic rank of state media and the engagement rate of each tweet were closely associated with the content prevalence of various strategic frames. In addition to enhancing our understanding of the construction of “protest paradigm” against the social media context, these empirical findings uncover the often overlooked mobility and flexibility of China’s state media discourse as well as the communication ecology shaped and consolidated by the increasing importance state media communicators attach to online engagement metrics.

Wojcieszak et al No Polarization from Partisan News IJPP Forthcoming

Many blame partisan news media for polarization in America. This paper examines the effects of liberal, conservative, and centrist news on affective and attitude polarization. To this end, we rely on two studies that combine two-wave panel surveys (N1 = 303, N2 = 904) with 12 months worth of web browsing data submitted by the same participants comprising roughly 38 million visits. We identify news exposure using an extensive list of news domains and develop a machine learning classifier to identify exposure to political news within these domains. The results offer a robust pattern of null findings. Exposure to partisan and centrist news websites – no matter if it is congenial or cross-cutting – does not enhance polarization. These null effects also emerge among strong and weak partisans as well as Democrats and Republicans alike. We argue that these null results accurately portray the reality of limited effects of news in the “real world.” Politics and partisan news account for a small fraction of citizens’ online activities, less than 2% in our trace data, and are nearly unnoticeable in the overall information and communication ecology of most individuals.

DIGITAL PRESENTATION AND COMMUNICATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN THE POST-PANDEMIC ERA

In the post-pandemic era, coronaviruses will forge a long-term coexistence with humanity, and the fight against the pandemic will become the normal. With international social isolation and limited physical space for communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital communication of cultural heritage based on internet technology has not only proven the importance and necessity of cultural heritage digitalization, but will also greatly accelerate the digital transformation that has already begun. In the post-pandemic era, the accumulation of rich digital data on cultural heritage will form the basis for further cultural communication. However, the collection of digital data is not the final link in this digital chain. Effectively leveraging the advantages of the digital technology – which spreads rapidly and has a broad audience as well as vivid information presentation – to integrate and digitally process the existing and emerging cultural heritage data will continuously combine the cultural heritage with new communication technologies. We should use diversified media platforms to achieve further breakthroughs in the communication model, present the digital communication content of the cultural heritage showing the characteristics of the times, and form real and virtual interaction of cultural heritage in a converged media environment, in order to further ease interpersonal isolation and even space-time constraints brought about by the pandemic, reconstruct the communication ecology of cultural heritage, and inherit and utilize the precious wealth left to humanity by history.

Relationship Between Movie Theaters and Audience During the Pandemic: “Beyoğlu 1989 E-Bulletin” as an Example

Covid-19, a disease that transformed into a pandemic at the beginning of 2020, caused catastrophic results in the world and Turkey. There have been some restrictions on trade, education, tourism, and art. Daily life was not interrupted but some services and events that they have not primary functions (for some people) like “art” were on the verge of stopping and carried to the digital platforms. In this context, some corporations opened their archives and sometimes actual events to the public free of charge or for a certain amount of money. Art, which has always had “healing”, “mediating” and “unifying” effects, was consumed by the billions of people through digital devices. Considering art is both a sector and an industry, the unexpected phenomenon of Covid-19, which is a kind of crisis that occurs one in a hundred years and takes longer than expected, led to the temporary or permanent closure of some art and culture institutions. Due to these results, some supportive programs have been organized by official or non-official institutions to solve financial problems. In Turkey, all the movie theaters closed down on the 16th of March 2020 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Some halls opened in July and August, however, because of lack of audience and of the increasing number of patients they have closed down again in November. 2019 was a bad year for the sector yet 2020 was even worse with the decline of the audience by the ratio of %90. Before the pandemic, there were some problems in terms of halls. In this context, some movie theaters tried to find solutions not to lose the audience and find financial support. Beyoğlu Movie Theater that began operating in 1989, had some financial problems before the pandemic. The managers of the hall created a project called “Beyoğlu 1989”, which was a kind of electronic bulletin, and started sending e-mails to the subscribers. This project, which was implemented for the first time in Turkey, has reached the 57th issue and 800 subscribers today and has turned into a kind of weekly electronic-digital cinema newspaper that is also promoted on the Instagram account of the Beyoğlu cinema with 45 thousand followers. The broadcast also follows the cinema agenda and undertakes the task of a written-visual archive. In conclusion, a movie theater that started operating in the analog age, today use all the possibilities and utilities of the digital age and also with the help of its owners and followers, creates a communication ecology to prevent the shutdown. The aim of this article is to examine an electronic bulletin (also a film magazine) “1989”, which is first in Turkey, with the qualitative method.

International Perspectives on COVID-19 Communication Ecologies: Public Health Agencies’ Online Communication in Italy, Sweden, and the United States

Communicating during a crisis can be challenging for public agencies as their communication ecology becomes increasingly complex while the need for fast and reliable public communication remains high. Using the lens of communication ecology, this study examines the online communication of national public health agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Sweden, and the United States. Based on content analysis of Twitter data ( n = 856) and agency press releases ( n = 95), this article investigates two main questions: (1) How, and to what extent, did national public health agencies coordinate their online communication with other agencies and organizations? (2) How was online communication from the agencies diversified in terms of targeting specific organizations and social groups? Our findings indicate that public health agencies relied heavily on internal scientific expertise and predominately coordinated their communication efforts with national government agencies. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that agencies in each country differed in how they diversify information; however, all agencies provided tailored information to at least some organizations and social groups. Across the three countries, information tailored for several vulnerable groups (e.g., pregnant women, people with disabilities, immigrants, and homeless populations) was largely absent, which may contribute to negative consequences for these groups.

COVID-19 Communication Ecologies: Using Interpersonal, Organizational, and Mediated Communication Resources to Cope With a Pandemic

Information and communication resources are needed for individuals to cope with a public health emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. These resources include interpersonal, organizational, and mediated communication, which collectively constitute a communication ecology. This interdisciplinary special issue of American Behavioral Scientist focuses on applications of a communication ecology perspective to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each article in this issue examines one or more specific aspect of COVID-19 communication ecologies to expand understanding of how a variety of communication resources can foster individual and collective coping with a global public health crisis. Insights from this issue can inform ongoing response to COVID-19 and planning for future public health crises.

Journalists on COVID-19 Journalism: Communication Ecology of Pandemic Reporting

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have the challenging task of gathering and distributing accurate information. Journalists exist as a part of an ecology in which their work influences and is influenced by the environment that surrounds it. Using the framework of disaster communication ecology, this study explores the discursive construction of journalism during the COVID-19 crisis. To understand this process in the field of journalism, we unpacked discourses concerning the coronavirus pandemic collected from interviews with journalists during the pandemic and from the U.S. journalism trade press using the Discourses of Journalism Database. Through discourse analysis, we discovered that during COVID-19 journalists discursively placed themselves in a responsible but vulnerable position within the communication ecology—not solely as a result of the pandemic but also from environmental conditions that long preceded it. Journalists found their reporting difficult during the pandemic and sought to mitigate the forces challenging their work as they sought to reverse the flow of misinformation.