scholarly journals Digital media and misinformation: An outlook on multidisciplinary strategies against manipulation

Author(s):  
Danielle Caled ◽  
Mário J. Silva

AbstractThis review discusses the dynamic mechanisms of misinformation creation and spreading used in social networks. It includes: (1) a conceptualization of misinformation and related terms, such as rumors and disinformation; (2) an analysis of the cognitive vulnerabilities that hinder the correction of the effects of an inaccurate narrative already assimilated; and (3) an interdisciplinary discussion on different strategies for coping with misinformation. The discussion encompasses journalistic, educational, governmental and computational viewpoints on the topic. The review also surveys how digital platforms handle misinformation and gives an outlook on opportunities to address it in light of the presented viewpoints.

2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052110441
Author(s):  
Eran Fisher

This article explores the ontology of personal knowledge that algorithms on digital media create by locating it on two axes: historical and theoretical. Digital platforms continue a long history of epistemic media—media forms and practices, which not only communicate knowledge, but also create knowledge. As epistemic media allowed a new way to know the world, they also facilitated a new way of knowing the self. This historical perspective also underscores a key difference of digital platforms from previous epistemic media: their exclusion of self-reflection from the creation of knowledge about the self. To evaluate the ramifications of that omission, I use Habermas’s theory of knowledge, which distinguishes critical knowledge from other types of knowledge, and sees it as corresponding with a human interest in emancipation. Critical knowledge about the self, as exemplified by psychoanalysis, must involve self-reflection. As the self gains critical knowledge, deciphering the conditions under which positivist and hermeneutic knowledges are valid, it is also able to transform them and expand its realm of freedom, or subjectivity. As digital media subverts this process by demoting self-reflection, it also undermines subjectivity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 01144
Author(s):  
Liudmila Reshetnikova

The article is devoted to e-diplomacy (also known as digital diplomacy) which is a component of public diplomacy. Digital diplomacy is a one of the new tools of foreign policy that is aimed to solve the problems of international and interethnic relations. The article examines the concept and definition of digital diplomacy that concentrates on the use of social networks and digital media in the field of foreign policy. Some risks and threats of e-diplomacy are also considered. The use of opportunities of information and communication technologies for solving the problems of foreign policy and influence on mass consciousness by means of the Internet, social networks is analyzed.


Author(s):  
Sonia de Sa

Feminist movements are currently asserting themselves by the capacity of involvement and aggregation of activists and the public identified with the feminist cause, who have in common both the struggle for women's rights and the spaces where they create existence and attribute dimension to that struggle: digital social networks. The purpose of this article is to understand the communication strategies, supported by dialogue, that underlie this aggregation and sharing of meaning when it comes to feminism and its close connection with the fight for gender equality, the end of gender violence or the eradication of racism. Based on the theoretical review on networked PR (Grunig, 2009; Kent, 2017), networked dialogue (Theunissen & Wan Noordin, 2011; Smith & Taylor, 2017; and networked feminism (Fullagar, Parry and Johnson, 2019; Keller, Mendes & Ringrose, 2018; Araüna, Willem & Tortajada, 2019; Yang, Uysal & Taylor, 2017), we applied content analysis (Bardin, 2006) to publications and digital interactions on two Portuguese feminist platforms. Thus, in an adaptation of the model proposed by Lane and Kent (2018) - Dialogic Engagement Interaction - this exploratory study analyzes the dialogical involvement of Coletiva and INMUNE - Instituto da Mulher Negra de Portugal. The analysis results, however, shows a low level of dialogical involvement between organizations and their audiences and, consequently, a reduced collective force to stop online hate clusters with increasing protagonism and with highly technological and effective modus operandi. Thus, the outcomes indicate that the two platforms analyzed do not apply communication strategies through dialogue, limiting exchanges between the organization and the public to the classic top-down communication option, summarizing the practice of dialogical involvement in social digital media to the publication unidirectional content and openness to comments and other reactions. As for the hypotheses raised, only one of them was validated, taking into account that 1) there was no significant dialogical involvement in the content analysis of the two feminist platforms, and 2) although we were unable to verify in the content analysis of the two feminist platforms, the theoretical review validated the idea that online anti-feminist and hate clusters can be fought by online anti-feminist and anti-hate clusters with the same effectiveness in spreading messages as the former. And here, the networked PR must take the strategic and tactical leadership of the action. This work also proposes a model for the analysis of dialogical involvement in digital social networks based on the broader initial proposal of Lane and Kent (2018). The model we propose comprises six categories: 1) existence of comment(s), sharing(s) and / or emoji(s); 2) existence of comment(s) and answer(s); 3) existence of dialogue (with the five dialogical principles: mutuality, propinquity, empathy, risk and commitment; see in Kent, 2017).; 4) existence of freedom to choose the theme and the dialogical flow (when both parts – public and organization – are given freedom to choose the topic and flow of dialogue); 5) without agenda or manipulation (when there is no intention to put issues on the agenda, essentially, those that indicate manipulation); and 6) rhetorical (when a persuasion strategy is applied by both parts participating in the dialogue).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Guinau ◽  
Gloria Furdada

<p>The pandemic situation we are experiencing has forced us to transform face-to-face teaching into virtual teaching. Digital platforms hinder the interaction, discussion and feedback that naturally occur in a face-to-face class, but at the same time, they provide an opportunity to put the focus on the student’s learning rather than on content delivering. Learning include both, inductive and deductive processes; induction can be effectively acquired by using case studies; then, deduction can be achieved through comparison, analysis, generalisation and synthesis.  Digital platforms appear as an optimal resource to facilitate the individual and collaborative tasks and learning processes. In this work we present our experience on the landslide hazard subject (Master’s level) focussed on the student’s learning through the use of digital media.</p><p>Internet information of undeniable quality that can be easily accessed is basic: The Landslide Blog by Dave Petley (https://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/) in Blogosphere hosted by AGU (American Geophysical Union) provides valuable and updated information on landslide events occurring worldwide. The learning activities are structured around several cases selected by the lecturer from the blog to ensure the analysis of the most frequent landslide types. All activities are developed in 8 steps: 1) The teacher presents the learning action (objective, tasks, and assessment guide) using a Genially platform interactive image; 2) Each student selects one of the proposed cases and compile relevant information about it; 3) Each student analyses the landslide characteristics, identifies the landslide type  and classifies it according to Hungr et al., 2014 (available through the educational virtual platform), and recognises the control and triggering factors (one virtual session is programmed and a forum tool is provided to the students to discuss and to solve doubts); 4) Each student selects and organizes the significant information about each case by building an interactive image in Genially; 5) Each student presents each case using his/her interactive image in a virtual session, which is recorded and uploaded to the educational platform; 6) Students peer evaluate the content and design of the interactive images and oral presentations based on the provided assessment guide; 7) During a predetermined time, students collaboratively compile all the information in a Google sheet table to synthesize the geomorphological characteristics, materials involved, mobilization mechanisms and control and triggering factors of the different types of landslides; 8) the synthetic table is discussed and  completed during a virtual session.</p><p>All the knowledge and skills acquired by students with these activities are put into practice in a two-day field trip where students have to identify, characterize and classify different types of landslides as well as their control and triggering factors. The risk situation and the mitigation strategies are discussed in each case and compared to the ones studied through virtual learning. Furthermore, students get used and learn how to clearly present information through virtual tools, as Genially, useful for dissemination purposes.</p><p>Hungr et al. 2014. The Varnes classification of landslide types, an update. Landslides 11(2). DOI: 10.1007/s10346-013-0436-y</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Liang Luo

There is a long oral tradition and written record for the legend of the White Snake. As a woman, her “original sin” is being a snake. She is a snake who has cultivated herself for hundreds, if not thousands, of years to attain the form of a beautiful woman. Living as a resident “alien” (yilei) in the “Human Realm” (renjian), the White Snake has always been treated with suspicion, fear, exclusion, and violent suppression/exorcism. The White Snake is an immigrant to the human world, whose serpentine identity made her a “resident alien,” the legal category given to immigrants in the United States before they receive their “Green Card” and become a “permanent resident.” The implication of being a snake woman in the human world took on new meanings when the COVID-19 pandemic worsened the existing xenophobia, fear, and suspicion toward minority populations in the contemporary United States and throughout the world. Inspired by the Chinese White Snake legend, the three Anglophone opera, film, and stage projects from Cerise Lim Jacobs, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, and Mary Zimmerman, energetically engage with issues relevant to minority activism in the United States and more broadly, through digital media and digital platforms.


Author(s):  
Angela Krewani

In this chapter, I explore the media coverage of the Arab Spring and the reactions of Western media communities. Focusing on interactive documentaries and websites, this chapter clearly demonstrates to what extent media bring about individualized coverage to major events. Digital media especially have merged with cartographic competencies to provide topical information. Compared to the informational range of classic print media and television, these digital platforms and digitally distributed art forms create new and interactive forms of media participation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Graves ◽  
CW Anderson

News organizations have adapted in various ways to a digital media environment dominated by algorithmic gatekeepers such as search engines and social networks. This article dissects a campaign to actively shape that environment led by professional fact-checking organizations. We trace the development of the Share the Facts “widget,” a device designed to give fact-checks greater purchase in algorithmically governed media networks by driving adoption of a new data standard called ClaimReview. We show how “structured journalism” gave journalists a language for the social and technical challenges involved, and how this infrastructural technology mediates between fact-checkers, audiences, and platform companies. We argue that this standard-setting initiative exhibits both promotional and disciplining facets, offering greater distribution and impact to journalists while also defining their work in specific ways. Crucially, in this case, this disciplining influence reflects internal professional-institutional agendas in an emerging subfield of journalism as much as the demands of platform companies.


Author(s):  
Ana Pérez-Escoda ◽  
Carlos Jiménez-Narros ◽  
Marta Perlado-Lamo-de-Espinosa ◽  
Luis Miguel Pedrero-Esteban

An increased use of social networks is one of the most far-reaching consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from the traditional media, as the main drivers of social communication in crisis situations, individual profiles have emerged supported by social networks, which have had a similar impact to the more specialized communication media. This is the hypothesis of the research presented, which is focused on health communication and based on a virtual ethnography methodology with the use of social metrics. The aim is to understand the relationship established between the population in general and digital media in particular through the measurement of engagement. In this regard, a comparative study was carried out that describes this phenomenon over a period of six months on three social networks: YouTube, Twitter and Instagram, with a sample composed of specialized health media versus healthcare professionals. The results point to a new communications model that opens up a new space for agents whose content has a degree of engagement comparable to and even exceeding that of digital media specialized in health communication. The conclusions show that the crisis of the pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the communication sector, creating new challenges for the communication industry, media professionals, and higher education institutions related to market demands.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (24) ◽  
pp. 5418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomáš Boros ◽  
Rastislav Bencel ◽  
Ivan Kotuliak

In today’s age of digital media and social networks, delivering content to a massive scale of recipients became one of the main challenges. Load Balancers and Content Delivery Networks are used to distribute content to multiple locations, which increase the scalability of services and decrease the load on content origins. Both technologies rely on redirections. Redirections have not received a significant amount of attention in the recent years; however, they do impose some limitations. In this article, we propose a transparent redirection mechanism, which exploits the versatility of Software Defined Networking. The redirection method is achieved by handing off existing TCP sessions without any required modifications to the endpoints. This article demonstrates how the proposed redirection mechanism can be adopted in Content Delivery Networks and Load Balancing scenarios. The performance of the solution is thoroughly tested and compared to existing legacy solutions.


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