Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel C. Woolley ◽  
Philip N. Howard
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Qualitative Work

Computational propaganda is an emergent form of political manipulation that occurs over the Internet. The term describes the assemblage of social media platforms, autonomous agents, algorithms, and big data tasked with manipulating public opinion. Our research shows that this new mode of interrupting and influencing communication is on the rise around the globe. Advances in computing technology, especially around social automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, mean that computational propaganda is becoming more sophisticated and harder to track. This introduction explores the foundations of computational propaganda. It describes the key role of automated manipulation of algorithms in recent efforts to control political communication worldwide. We discuss the social data science of political communication and build upon the argument that algorithms and other computational tools now play an important political role in news consumption, issue awareness, and cultural understanding. We unpack key findings of the nine country case studies that follow—exploring the role of computational propaganda during events from local and national elections in Brazil to the ongoing security crisis between Ukraine and Russia. Our methodology in this work has been purposefully mixed, using quantitative analysis of data from several social media platforms and qualitative work that includes interviews with the people who design and deploy political bots and disinformation campaigns. Finally, we highlight original evidence about how this manipulation and amplification of disinformation is produced, managed, and circulated by political operatives and governments, and describe paths for both democratic intervention and future research in this space.

Computational Propaganda

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Future Research ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Qualitative Work

Computational propaganda is an emergent form of political manipulation that occurs over the Internet. The term describes the assemblage of social media platforms, autonomous agents, algorithms, and big data tasked with the manipulation of public opinion. Our research shows that this new mode of interrupting and influencing communication is on the rise around the globe. Advances in computing technology, especially around social automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence mean that computational propaganda is becoming more sophisticated and harder to track at an alarming rate. This introduction explores the foundations of computational propaganda. It describes the key role that automated manipulation of algorithms plays in recent efforts to control political communication worldwide. We discuss the social data science of political communication and build upon the argument that algorithms and other computational tools now play an important political role in areas like news consumption, issue awareness, and cultural understanding. We unpack the key findings of the nine country case studies that follow—exploring the role of computational propaganda during events from local and national elections in Brazil to the ongoing security crisis between Ukraine and Russia. Our methodology in this work has been purposefully mixed, we make use of quantitative analysis of data from several social media platforms and qualitative work that includes interviews with the people who design and deploy political bots and disinformation campaigns. Finally, we highlight original evidence about how this manipulation and amplification of disinformation is produced, managed, and circulated by political operatives and governments and describe paths for both democratic intervention and future research in this space.

scholarly journals Refugee Crisis and the Role of NGO Lobbying

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
Vishnu Muraleedharan ◽  
Thomas Andrew Bryer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
The People ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Migrant Integration

Migration is a significant human phenomenon in which the people were moving across the globe in search of better living conditions. However, due to the violent political scenario between nations forced the displacement of millions of people for survival and currently, around 70.8 million people have been displaced across the world (UNHCR, 2019). It requires attention that even though there are various organisation’s to support migrants, NGO’s play a pivotal role in protecting humanitarian aspects of the migrants and their integration. About the NGO mechanisms, the significant measures are the lobbying and the mediatised political communication for effective policy changes. Therefore, it is significant to identify how NGO’s influence on political communication and policy decision making using social media platforms and lobbying mechanism in the state of Florida in the United States. The article aims to identify the role of NGO on addressing the migrant crisis and upholding of sanctuary policy in Florida which facilitates migrant integration. Research methods include a qualitative interview with the Florida Immigrant Coalition and their social media discourse. The finding could be useful for effective immigrant integration and the significant policy measures needed for facilitating migrant integration.

Understanding the Experiences of Anger in the Onset and Progression of Psoriasis: A Qualitative Study Using Social Media (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Hughes ◽  
Rachael Hunter
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Psychosocial Interventions ◽  
Skin Condition ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Chronic Skin ◽  
Skin Conditions ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition, which can be affected by stress. Living with psoriasis can trigger negative emotions, which may influence quality of life. OBJECTIVE This study explored the experiences of people with psoriasis with attention to the potential role of anger in the onset and progression of the chronic skin condition. METHODS Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve participants (n=5 females, n=7 males) recruited online from an advert on a patient charity’s social media platforms. Data were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS Four key themes were identified: (1) ‘I get really angry with the whole situation:’ anger at the self and others, (2) the impact of anger on psoriasis: angry skin, (3) shared experiences of distress, and (4) moving past anger to affirmation. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that anger can have a perceived impact on psoriasis through contributing to sensory symptoms and unhelpful coping cycles and point to a need for enhanced treatment with more psychological support. The findings also highlight the continued stigma which exists for people living with skin conditions and how this may contribute to, and sustain, anger for those individuals. Future research could usefully focus on developing targeted psychosocial interventions to promote healthy emotional coping with psoriasis.

“I Wish I Could Grow a Full Beard”: The Amateur Pogonotropher on the Beardbrand YouTube Channel

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-306
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Ideal

Pogonotrophy refers to beard cultivation including growth and grooming practices. This exploratory study contributes to the little understood role of beard culture on YouTube. Scholarship examining the relationship between social media platforms such as YouTube and beard culture is almost nonexistent. This gap in the research allows us to ask the following: What sorts of content do users circulate about beards on YouTube? And, how does this content contribute to how users interact and learn about beards? A total of 62,061 user-generated comments across 310 videos featured on the Beardbrand YouTube channel were collected and examined using qualitative media analysis. Three themes emerged from an analysis of these data: the yeard quest, the ideal type, and how to beard. The findings illustrate the important role that YouTube plays in fostering contemporary beard culture. Suggestions for future research are noted.

scholarly journals Logics of the Icelandic Hybrid Media System

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Birgir Guðmundsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Parliamentary Elections ◽  
Media System ◽  
Network Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Logic

AbstractThe increased importance of social media platforms and network media logic merging with traditional media logic are a trademark of modern hybrid systems of political communication. This article looks at this development through the media-use by politicians before the 2016 and 2017 parliamentary elections in Iceland. Aggregate results from candidate surveys on the use and perceived importance of different media forms are used to examine the role of the new platform Snapchat in relation to other media, and to highlight the dynamics of the hybrid media system in Iceland. The results show that Snapchat is exploited more by younger politicians and those already using social media platforms. However, in spite of this duality between old and new media, users of traditional platforms still use new media and vice versa. This points to the existance of a delicate operational balance between different media logics, that could change as younger politicians move more centre stage.

Visual Representations of Indigenous Tourism Places in Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Susanna Heldt Cassel ◽  
Cecilia De Bernardi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Visual Communication ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Media Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Indigenous Tourism

This article focused the analysis on social media representations of Sápmi using the hashtags #visitsápmi and #visitsapmi, which nuance official, top-down versions of the place communicated in other contexts, but simultaneously are more focused on visitors and their experiences. The results show that the making of the Sápmi region as a place and a tourism destination through social media content is an ongoing process of interpretation and reinterpretation of what indigenous Sámi culture is and how it connects to specific localities. Future research should look at the broader understanding of places that can be accessed through social media analysis. The main argument is that visual communication is a very important tool when constructing the brand of a destination. Considering the growing role of social media, the process of place-making through visual communication is explored in the case of the destination VisitSápmi, as it is coconstructed in online user generated content (UGC). From a theoretical viewpoint, we discuss the social construction of places and destinations as well as the production of meaning through coconstruction of images and brands in tourism contexts. The focus is on how places are created, branded, and made meaningful by visualizing the place in a framework of tourism experiences, in this case specifically examined through indigenous tourism. We use a content analysis of texts, photographs, and narratives communicated on social media platforms. Regardless of negotiated brand management's efforts at official marketing, branding, and tourism planning, the evolution of Sápmi as a place to visit in social media has its own logic, full of contradictions and plausible interpretations, related to the uncontrollable and bottom-up processes of UGC.

scholarly journals When Social Media Doesn’t Determine All: The Topics and Narratives of Latvian Political Parties on Facebook During the 2019 European Parliament Elections Campaign

Tripodos ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 151-165
Author(s):  
Mārtiņš Pričins
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
European Parliament Elections ◽  
Research Period

Over the last decade, the implementation of campaigns by political parties and their candidates on social media platforms has become an integral part of political communication. Political communication studies have long indicated that elections are becoming personalized, with more focus on party leaders or individual candidates. But studies on communication by political parties to understand the identity of parties and their potential in communication with voters remain relevant. The aim of the paper is to analyse the visual election materials of the political parties from Latvia on the social network Facebook during the 2019 European Parliament (EP) election campaign. The research period is two weeks before elections. The subject of the study is election materials on Facebook accounts of the parties representing the national parliament of Latvia. A codebook for analysis has been developed, containing common and specific variables, designed to explore the verbal and visual dimensions. The results of the study allow us to draw conclusions about the changing success of new populist and traditional parties, as well as to look at the role of Facebook in elections in a little-studied country.

Ill-fitting suits and taped ties: Donald Trump’s politicosartorial style

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin A. Morrison
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
First Lady ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
The Press ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Because Donald Trump’s language and rhetoric attract so much attention and comment, discussions about the role of fashion and style in the Trump presidency are often limited to outfits worn by the First Lady or his daughter, Ivanka. When Trump’s style is analysed in the press and on social media platforms, it is frequently derided. This article argues for the importance of Donald Trump’s sartorial choices as forms of visual (political) communication. It suggests that Trump, whose appearance and taste are often subject to ridicule in popular culture, has actually cultivated an image of himself as anti-elite. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s lesser-known theory of the corporeal hexis to discuss Trump’s self-presentation, this article shows how, as both candidate and president, he has used sartorial codes to communicate with the different constituencies that were vital to his election and remain central to his bid for re-election in 2020.

The role of social media platforms in revolutionising the orthodox African electoral process and outcomes

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-23
Author(s):  
Joshua Ebere Chukwuere ◽  
Chijioke Francis Onyebukwa ◽  
Ifeanyi Mbukanma
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political News ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Voting Decisions

This research looks into social media platforms' role in revolutionising African electoral processes and outcomes in the digital era. The study applied the descriptive literature review research method through the lens of ―Uses and Gratifications Theory‖ and ―Media Ecology Theory‖. The usage of social media platforms keeps revolutionising human interactions and political communication in the digital age. Individuals, government, and non-governmental entities keep up with the trends presented by social media platforms in carrying out different political functions such as an election. The advent of social media platforms makes it easier for electorate, political actors, parties and electoral commissions to engage and exchange information, views and ideas during the pre and postelection periods. This study found that social media platforms positively and negatively influence the African continent's election processes and outcomes. It found that political news and information on social media influence people's voting decisions and the political actor/s and parties to follow. The study further shows that electorate behaviours keep changing due to information available on social media platforms. The platforms help them define their views about a particular party, political actors, and their reaction to an election outcome.

Public Administration in the Islamic World: Considering the Importance of Religion, its Values and Culture

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
Daniel Hummel
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Salient Region ◽  
The People ◽  
Comparative Public Administration

A small but growing area of public administration scholarship appreciates the influence of religious values on various aspects of government. This appreciation parallels a growing interest in comparative public administration and indigenized forms of government which recognizes the role of culture in different approaches to government. This article is at the crossroads of these two trends while also considering a very salient region, the Islamic world. The Islamic world is uniquely religious, which makes this discussion even more relevant, as the nations that represent them strive towards legitimacy and stability. The history and core values of Islam need to be considered as they pertain to systems of government that are widely accepted by the people. In essence, this is being done in many countries across the Islamic world, providing fertile grounds for public administration research from a comparative perspective. This paper explores these possibilities for future research on this topic.

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