“Enemies of the people”? Diverging discourses on sovereignty in media coverage of Brexit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Rone
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nayla Fawzi

A common feature among populist parties and movements is their negative perspective on the media’s role in society. This paper analyzes whether citizens with a populist worldview also hold negative attitudes toward the media. From a theoretical point of view, the paper shows that both the anti-elite, anti-outgroup and people centrism dimension of populism contradicts the normative expectations toward the media. For instance, the assumption of a homogeneous people and the exclusion of a societal outgroup is incompatible with a pluralistic media coverage. The results of a representative survey in Germany predominantly confirmed a relation between a populist worldview and negative media attitudes. However, the three populism dimensions influenced the evaluations not in a consistent way. A systematic relation could only be found for antielite populism, which is negatively associated with all analyzed media evaluations such as media trust or satisfaction with the media’s performance. This indicates that in a populist worldview, the media are perceived as part of a detached elite that neglects the citizens’ interests. However, the results confirm the assumption of a natural ally between populism and tabloid or commercial media. Individuals with people centrist and anti-outgroup attitudes have higher trust in these media outlets.


2003 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Slattery

The last few years have been an awakening time for the people, communities and governments of the global village. Escalating problems in the Middle East, global economic uncertainty and an increase in asylum seekers, refugees and migration worldwide have reignited tensions involving boundaries and borders, both geographical and cognitive. One event which highlighted these tensions in Australia, and which was given much media coverage, was the ‘children overboard’ event in October 2001. Utilising a selection of print news coverage of the event, this paper explores how the ‘children overboard’ event demarcated national identities and spaces through the construction and representation of ‘good’ Australian citizens and ‘bad’ asylum seeker ‘others’. Specifically referring to ‘children overboard’ as an ‘event’, I seek to highlight the constructed and representational nature of ‘children overboard’ as a media story and political tool, one which promoted a continuing threat of ‘others’ to the nation in order to gain support for government policy and legitimize national security, and in so doing creating a model of Australian citizenship and identity based upon fear.


Author(s):  
Kevin Begos

In 1970, Nobel Prize winner William Shockley made a dramatic declaration: that the average IQs of black people were significantly lower than those of whites, and that blacks of low intelligence should be paid by society to be sterilized. Shockley's Nobel was for work he conducted at Bell Telephone Labs that contributed to the discovery of the transistor. He was not an expert in genetics, biology, sociology, or anything to do with the human mind, behavior, or reproduction. Yet he was able to use his status as a “Nobel laureate” to get vast amounts of media coverage for his sterilization plan. Why did journalists give Shockley so much ink? Would they—or their editors—send a troubled child who needed help to a TV repair shop, or send a broken computer to the office of a psychologist at Harvard University? Why, then, would they quote a physicist like Shockley when writing about race and intelligence? The subject of the biology and genetics of behavior raises many questions like these. It is a fascinating field to write about, but it will take you into some pretty tricky terrain. You'll often find yourself (and your sources) moving back and forth across two vastly different scientific domains—the laboratory, which has traditionally been based on chemistry, biology, and experiments that can be duplicated and proven, and theoretical science, which aims to uncover and explain broad concepts about life. The people you encounter will have specific areas of expertise, but some may (consciously or not) attempt to make grand statements about how a particular idea or discovery may affect humanity. This is a huge, complicated, controversial subject just waiting to suck journalists into its hungry maw, from which it will spit us out in little pieces. Okay, I'm exaggerating (a little). But it can be overwhelming to figure out even how to begin. There's Darwin and cell biology, psychology, sociology, religion, and politics. There are historical figures such as B. F. Skinner and current stars such as Noam Chomsky at MIT and Harvard's E. O. Wilson and Steven Pinker. And there's the whole issue of racism at the edges.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-353
Author(s):  
V. A. Ovchinnikov

The research featured the repressions of the 1930s, or the Great Purge. The article focuses on the case of the town of Leninsk-Kuznetskiy. The study was based on materials obtained from the press of that time (newspapers "Leninskiy Shakhter" and "Sovetskaia Sibir"), the State archive of the Kemerovo region, and scientific publications. The author highlighted the so-called Children’s Case and the trial of NKVD officers. Both events occurred in 1939 and marked the end of the Great Terror of 1937–1938. The repressions that took place in Leninsk-Kuznetskiy proved more severe than in the rest of Kuzbass. The author proposes several reasons for that fact. First of all, the town failed to meet the goals of industrial development during the first five-year plans, and the plans for coal mining industry were impossible. Second, the town owed its rapid increase in population to the categories that later would be called "enemies of the people". Third, the local NKVD desperately wanted to become the best in the West Siberia. The fact that the purges received abundant media coverage disproves the popular opinion that average public did not know about the repressions. The author developed an approach to newspapers as a historical source on the history of the Great Purge. If one factors in the specifics of this source, archival newspapers can be a reliable source about the Great Terror and the mechanisms of public opinion formation. However, newspapers alone cannot restore the full picture of local repressions, which requires a wide range of sources.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-123
Author(s):  
Cristiane Guilherme Bonfim ◽  
Márcia Vidal Nunes

This article aims to reflect on the impact that the campaign #PrimeiroAssédio [first harassment], created by the NGO Think Olga, in 2015, had on the perception of Facebook female users on the subject of harassment, drawing from the perspective of Cultural Studies. This hashtag encouraged the sharing of content and placed the feminist issue of combating sexual harassment on the agenda. We have used Martín-Barbero’s (1997) concept of mediation to investigate the context in which users published posts on Facebook and have conducted interviews with women who have published comments in the campaign’s posts. In a context of prolific content generation and intense participation, with many people speaking to many people, many authors see the emergence of politically driven action on social media, the so-called “digital activism”, as being relative, holding little expectations of radical social change. Our interviewees’ answers indicate that, in terms of tangible changes, they found that they were able to engage in dialogue about the topic with the people who were closest to them.         Este artigo tem como objetivo refletir sobre o impacto da campanha #PrimeiroAssédio, criada pela ONG Think Olga, em 2015, na percepção de leitoras no Facebook sobre o tema assédio, sob a perspectiva dos Estudos Culturais. A hashtag incentivou compartilhamento de conteúdo e agendou veículos de mídia sobre assédio, uma pauta que é bandeira de movimentos feministas. O conceito de mediações de Martín-Barbero (1997) é usado para investigar o contexto de postagens no Facebook e entrevistas com mulheres que comentaram em posts da campanha. No cenário de geração de conteúdo em profusão e da participação de muitos falando para muitos, a atuação política nas redes sociais, o chamado ativismo digital, é perpassada com alguma relativização, sem expectativa de mudança radical. As respostas das entrevistadas sinalizam que campanhas como essa podem  alcançar repercussão fora das redes, mas indicam que a mudança gerada foi o diálogo mais frequente sobre o tema com o círculo de pessoas mais próximo.Este artículo objetiva hacer una reflexión sobre el impacto de la campaña #PrimeiroAssédio (#Primeracoso), creada por la Organización no Gubernamental Think Olga el 2015, en la percepción de lectoras en Facebook sobre el tema acoso, bajo la perspectiva de los Estudios Culturales. La etiqueta incentivó que el contenido fuera compartido y generó agenda setting de medios de comunicación sobre acoso, una pauta que es bandera de los movimientos feministas. El concepto de mediaciones de Martín-Barbero (1997) es usado para investigar el contexto de publicaciones en Facebook y entrevistas con mujeres que comentaron en posts de la campaña. En el escenario de geración de contenido en profusión y de participación de muchos comunicando para muchos, la actuación política en las redes sociales, el llamado activismo digital, se puede identificar alguna relativización, sin expectativa de cambio radical. Las respuestas de las entrevistadas señalan que campañas como esa pueden alcanzar repercusión más allá de las redes, pero apuntan que el cambio generado ha sido el diálogo más a menudo sobre el tema con el círculo de personas más cercanas.


2021 ◽  
pp. 51-53
Author(s):  
Niranjana Niranjana ◽  
Ren Feng

The worldwide pandemics are the common enemy of all mankind.When faced with the global pandemics, it becomes necessary for all nations to strengthen cooperation.Although India and China are close neighbors in Asia,their media coverage of each other in 2020 was extremely asymmetrical.Nonetheless,this media coverage should be strengthening communication and cooperation.Only in this way can it benefit the people of the two nations and ultimately realize a coprosperity and collaborative development.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (26) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Charles Che Fonchingong

Political cronyism has been flagged up as a trigger for state dysfunction in post-independence Africa, resulting in escalating social inequality. This paper lays out elite (mostly elderly) dislocation of political space; polarizing communities with constituents feeling distant from governmental machinery with constituency representation under siege. Using case studies, backed up with documentary analysis, framed in conjunction with the conceptual thinking of deliberative democracy; this study engages with the elements of dislocation. Constituency misrepresentation is laid out through a triangulation of case study material drawn from newspaper reports, discourses and counter narratives, amplified by process tracing and inferential analysis. Elite manipulation of political spaces exacerbates social inequality, creates fractured communities; undermines democratic mandate, social advancement and broad citizen consensus. From media coverage of glib slogans, elite pledge generic support for the regime in place whilst constituents are giving false expectations that seldom materialize into concrete development. There are no clear-cut manifestos that reflect the voices of constituents against bogus claims to state institutions with the political elite purportedly speaking on behalf of their constituents -‘the people’. The ensuing inertia creates a false sense of representative governance as projects promised are rarely delivered. Slogans should usefully channel the development needs of constituents, permitting government to calibrate a robust development portfolio and citizen assemblies factored into policy design and service delivery. Developing a stakeholder approach and building the capability of social development professionals, in order to filter through pressing concerns with measurable outcomes, bolstering youth employment and fostering social protection would remove the lock jams in constituencies. Strategic spending in public services and essential infrastructure such as health, roads, transport, water, power supply and education are crucial in reducing inequality.


2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 39-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Lambertus

I have recently completed a research project that examined the media coverage of the 1995 Gustafsen Lake standoff in British Columbia. This standoff marked the largest Royal Canadain Mounted Police (RCMP) operation in the history of Canada—and the top national news story for nearly a month. The resolution of the conflict did not alter the British Columbia treaty process, or result in changes of ownership of contested land. However, the media coverage was extreme in its misinformation about the conflict and the characterizations of the people involved. In order to make policy recommendations I had to get "insider knowledge" of the media event. I did this by tracing the media processes and their relations with their most important source of information during the event, the RCMP.


2006 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Debouzy

Since 9/11 an enormous amount of literature and media coverage has been devoted to anti-Americanism in France. Yet the American model seems to be overwhelmingly present in French life and culture. There is a fascination for it among all classes, from disadvantaged suburban youths who try to imitate African Americans, follow American clothing fashions, and have Power Rangers as heroes, to political elites who never tire of recommending to us the American model (pension funds, the two-party system, education, etc.) and propose adapting it to the French setting. Nothing illustrates this paradox better than the controversial and popular institution of McDonald's in France, which is loved and hated to the point of occasionally provoking a national crisis as well as a number of social conflicts in recent years. After retracing briefly the expansion of McDonald's in France, I will examine the opposition it has aroused, making a distinction between political opposition and opposition in the workplace, which takes the form of a struggle against working conditions, the conception of Mcwork and McManagement. I will look at the people who carry on this struggle and what it all means in terms of resistance to “Americanization.”


Author(s):  
Harshal B Sonekar ◽  
Manickam Ponnaiah

ABSTRACT With the ongoing coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, SARS-CoV-2), the entire community of health professionals is working to control disease and investing crores in vaccine development. The present discussion is to bring the focus on various social issues that emerge during outbreak and calls for equal attention as that of other health-care interventions. These issues are summarized in three categories: first, stigmatization due to lack of knowledge about the source of infection; second, speculations and their consequences around lack of knowledge about transmission; and finally, the concern regarding miscommunication during such a crisis. Most of these concerns emerge from press and social media coverage of the episode. The Ebola outbreak response is an example of how social scientists and anthropologists can work with other experts to solve questions of public health importance. Their approach toward the community with the objective to understand the sources, reasons, and circumstances of the infection will help to manage the current outbreak. In this context, we suggest collaboration of diverse scientific community to control and sensitize the people to tackle the misinformation in the affected and non-affected community during the outbreaks.


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