Restoring Healthy Online Discourse by Detecting and Reducing Controversy, Misinformation, and Toxicity Online

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Dori-Hacohen ◽  
Keen Sung ◽  
Jengyu Chou ◽  
Julian Lustig-Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Online Discourse

scholarly journals Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seva Gunitsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Rapid Evolution ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Public Preferences ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Autocratic Regimes ◽  
Potential Tool

Non-democratic regimes have increasingly moved beyond merely suppressing online discourse, and are shifting toward proactively subverting and co-opting social media for their own purposes. Namely, social media is increasingly being used to undermine the opposition, to shape the contours of public discussion, and to cheaply gather information about falsified public preferences. Social media is thus becoming not merely an obstacle to autocratic rule but another potential tool of regime durability. I lay out four mechanisms that link social media co-optation to autocratic resilience: 1) counter-mobilization, 2) discourse framing, 3) preference divulgence, and 4) elite coordination. I then detail the recent use of these tactics in mixed and autocratic regimes, with a particular focus on Russia, China, and the Middle East. This rapid evolution of government social media strategies has critical consequences for the future of electoral democracy and state-society relations.

scholarly journals MALAYSIAN NETIZENS’ PERCEPTIONS OF 1MDB: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 351-372
Author(s):  
Nur Haniz Mohd Nor ◽  
Zaidel Baharuddin
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Phd Thesis ◽  
Political Scandal

Background and Purpose: This article analyses the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) political scandal as a case study to examine how an issue is discursively shaped online by netizens’ perceptions of the scandal. The study has two objectives: firstly, to explore netizens’ perceptions of 1MDB and how they reacted to the news reported based on the online exposés appearing throughout 2015. Secondly, it aims to examine whether the discourse regarding 1MDB among netizens on an online platform, The Malaysian Insider Facebook page, meets the characteristics of a practical discourse in an online context, as proposed by Jurgen Habermas.   Methodology: A total of 1950 Facebook comments related to 210 1MDB articles in 2015 were analysed. The articles were linked and published by The Malaysia Insider Facebook page. The analysis was conducted using thematic analysis via NVivo software to explore the perceptions of the selected netizens about 1MDB and how the online discourse on 1MDB matched the characteristics proposed by Jurgen Habermas for practical online discourse.   Findings: Four themes emerged, namely Najib as the Prime Minister, the 1MDB Debate Controversy, the Opposition position on 1MDB and the investigation of the 1MDB scandal. Based on the online discourse, it was evident that consumption of 1MDB news on Facebook led Malaysian netizens to form their own perceptions of the scandal. The emergent themes also illustrate that the online discourse met the characteristics of practical discourse suggested by Jurgen Habermas.   Contributions:  This empirical contribution fills a gap in the current knowledge as few studies have been conducted on the online discourse of the 1MDB political scandal among Malaysian netizens. Currently, no research is documented on the 1MDB political scandal from the netizens’ perspective other than the first author’s PhD thesis.  This research is, therefore, beneficial to new media studies as researchers normally investigate or explore a specific issue when it has a conclusion; here, a risk was taken to conduct the study while 1MDB was still under investigation.   Keywords: 1MDB, 2015, Najib Razak, netizens, Malaysia.   Cite as: Mohd Nor, N. H., & Baharuddin, Z. (2021). Malaysian netizens’ perceptions of 1MDB: A thematic analysis.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 351-372. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp351-372

How Twitter drives the global news agenda: Tweets from Brazil, Russia, India, China, the UK and US and online discourse about the 2016 US presidential election

2021 ◽  
pp. 174276652110399
Author(s):  
Jane O’Boyle ◽  
Carol J Pardun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Political Communications ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
The Uk ◽  
India And China

A manual content analysis compares 6019 Twitter comments from six countries during the 2016 US presidential election. Twitter comments were positive about Trump and negative about Clinton in Russia, the US and also in India and China. In the UK and Brazil, Twitter comments were largely negative about both candidates. Twitter sources for Clinton comments were more frequently from journalists and news companies, and still more negative than positive in tone. Topics on Twitter varied from those in mainstream news media. This foundational study expands communications research on social media, as well as political communications and international distinctions.

Black Online Discourse, Part 1

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-170
Author(s):  
André Brock
Keyword(s):  
Technological Literacy ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Cultural Critique ◽  
Online Discourse ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
Ritual Drama

Black digital practice reveals a complicated mix of technological literacy, discursive identity, and cultural critique. Taken together, it offers glimpses of the multivalent Black communities’ political, technocultural, and historical commonplaces to the outside world. These can be understood as three topoi shaping Black digital practice—ratchetry, respectability, and racism. This chapter examines ratchetry and racism as interlocking libidinal frames powering Black digital practice. Black digital practice, which the author once characterized as ritual drama and catharsis, can also be understood as digital orality—an online space encoded by folk culture and racial ideology, and undergirded by a libidinal discursive economy, producing pungent, plaintive commentary on matters political.

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