Seeking Justice on the Web: How News Media and Social Norms Drive the Practice of Cyber Vigilantism

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 655-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella C. Chia
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Acceptance ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Survey ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Web

Cyber vigilantism, in particular crowdsourced vigilantism, is a newly emerging practice whereby people expose misconducts and identify culprits through collaboratively searching and publicizing information using the Internet. This study proposes a theory-oriented framework with which we demonstrate that individuals’ media exposure and perceived social norms may interact and jointly predict their reception of and reactions to the practice. We tested the framework with web survey data of 800 adults in Taiwan. Results showed that the frequency and the ways in which the press covers cyber vigilantism were both directly and indirectly associated with individuals’ acceptance of or resistance to cyber vigilantism. The indirect associations were mediated by individuals’ evaluations and perceived social acceptance of the practice. We suggest that obtaining favorable news coverage is essential for cyber vigilantism to gain acceptance and attract crowds. When modeling or predicting the structure and evolving process of this newly emerging cyber practice, researchers may want to consider the overall media environment, social context, and personal evaluations.

scholarly journals Santé sexuelle et usages du Web : que cherchent à savoir les jeunes femmes sur Internet?

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Eve Lang
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Young Women ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Searches ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Santé Sexuelle ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
The Web

Background Despite a growing number of studies on young people, the internet, and sexuality, not much is known on young women’s Web searches regarding sexuality, and even less so on the context of their queries.Analysis Based on an innovative “private” blog method combined with in-depth interviews, our study sought to determine what teenage girls and young women ages 17 to 21 are searching for on the Web—as well as their motivations. Conclusions and implications  Results show that the participants use the internet to gather information on a wide variety of sexual topics, often to calm their anxiety about social norms—especially when the nature of their worries is taboo.Contexte  Malgré l’effervescence des études portant sur les jeunes, le Web et la sexualité, nous ne connaissons encore que très peu ce que cherchent les jeunes femmes sur internet et, surtout, le contexte dans lequel s’inscrivent ces recherches. Analyse  Par une méthode originale misant sur l’écriture de blogues « privés » et sur des entretiens individuels, 30 participantes âgées de 17 à 21 ans ont témoigné de leurs recherches en lien avec la sexualité sur le Web et des motivations menant à ces recherches. Conclusions et implications  Les résultats montrent qu’elles utilisent le Web pour répondre à une multitude de questions, qui sont souvent motivées par des craintes liées à la norme, surtout lorsque le sujet de leurs inquiétudes est tabou.

Online Versus Offline Strategies in Comparative Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 903-924
Author(s):  
Tiago Silva
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Electoral Campaigns ◽  
The Press

The Internet has undoubtedly become, in this last decade, an important new arena for political communication. Nonetheless, during electoral campaigns, the use of this medium poses both challenges and advantages for the institutional communication made by political parties and candidates. An often-overlooked advantage is the possibility, particularly on social media, for parties and candidates to bypass journalists and communicate directly to a large and varied audience. This aspect is particularly relevant since the literature has been noting, in the last decades, a decline in the salience of substantive political information in the mainstream news coverage of political events. By comparing the political actors’ campaigns on social media with press news coverage of those campaigns, this chapter examines the role and impact of the Internet on modern political communication. An extensive content analysis of four electoral campaigns in four different countries (United States, Italy, Brazil, and Portugal) shows that candidates’ and parties’ online campaigns, compared to news articles in the press, tend to be more frequently framed in terms of substantive political issues. Even though there are differences between political actors and the social media platforms used (Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube), the results suggest that, overall, candidates and parties do actually try to convey substantive political information when communicating directly to the electorate. Furthermore, compared to articles in the press, social media campaigns also tend to be less frequently framed in terms of conflict, political scandals, and strategy aspects.

Reaching the Base

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
George C. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
White House ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Media ◽  
The People ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
The Press ◽  
Use Of The Internet

This chapter examines how the president harnesses the technological advances of new forms of media to reach and potentially mobilize supporters. The White House has embraced the latest technology to take its case to the people. At its core, the new modes of communication offer an opportunity to bypass the press and communicate directly with the public. The chapter first considers the fragmentation of the modern media environment before discussing the potential for the president to exploit the new media to signal likely supporters and reinforce their predispositions to back his initiatives. In particular, it cites Barack Obama’s use of the Internet, and more specifically social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr, as well as his mobilization of supporters via Organizing for America and Organizing for Action. It also evaluates some of the challenges the new communications environment presents for the White House and the president.

scholarly journals News Media Regulation: A Mixed Membership Model Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mudalige Chamika Gajanayaka
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
First Principles ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media Regulation ◽  
The Press ◽  
Voluntary Membership ◽  
Distinct Line ◽  
Law Commission ◽  
Model Approach

<p>The traditional platform-centric approach to media regulation is no longer tenable with the distinct line between broadcast and print media being blurred by mainstream media combining text and video via the internet. To address platform convergence, the Law Commission recommends a universal news media regulator, the News Media Standards Authority, which encompasses broadcasters, the press and onlineonly providers. The Commission endorses a voluntary membership model with a range of incentives to entice entities to join. This paper will critique the efficacy of the Commission’s incentives before undertaking a first principles analysis of news media regulation to illustrate the need for an element of compulsion in the membership model of the News Media Standards Authority. This paper argues that a mixed membership model, whereby a matrix of factors is used to determine the entities that will be required to join, is more appropriate for the News Media Standards Authority.</p>

Freedom of the Press

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-92
Author(s):  
William F. Baker
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Rapid Rate ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
Entire Nation ◽  
Dramatic Fall ◽  
The Web

The US media are undergoing a massive transformation, approaching a crisis in journalism, which may portend similar issues in Europe and the rest of the world. Historically, most professional journalism has been done by the print media, especially newspapers. Today, American newspapers are in a state of collapse with circulation dropping at a rapid rate and profitability going to nil or negative. This business is leading to an information crisis that is already having effects on the society and will likely become even more profound, polarizing and perhaps misinforming an entire nation. Print journalists have been the primary suppliers to the electronic media, including television and the internet. This article supplements a speech given at the American Academy in Berlin in May, 2008. It summarizes US media metrics and raises issues of concern about the sustainability of serious journalism in America. While the internet has been the cause of this dilemma, the author sees no economic model that will allow the web in the short term to support major, serious reporting at a large scale. Is the rest of the world about to experience a similar crisis or are media models different enough to avoid such a dramatic fall? This article reflects Baker’s view as a longtime media executive and an academic.

The Year of Intelligence Begins

2019 ◽  
pp. 134-157
Author(s):  
David P. Hadley
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Blue Ribbon ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the investigations that began following the revelation that the Central Intelligence Agency operated an illegal domestic surveillance system. Three investigations emerged: a blue-ribbon presidential commission chaired by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a Senate Select Committee chaired by Frank Church (D-ID), and a House Select Committee chaired by Otis Pike (D-NY). The investigations were quickly sidetracked by stories about the CIA’s involvement in assassinations; ultimately, a main area of focus for the Church Committee in particular would be assassinations. The media environment reflected the tremendous controversy over the CIA and the increasingly partisan nature of politics and news coverage, as some commentators were divided between supporting the CIA and criticizing the investigations, whereas others were ambivalent and uncertain about what should be done. Even during this tumultuous period, the press was still willing to cooperate with the CIA when Director of Central Intelligence William Colby requested their cooperation in suppressing a story about the CIA’s efforts to raise a sunken Soviet submarine.

Careful What You Say

2012 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Katherine Ognyanova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
State Control ◽  
Information Culture ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Press ◽  
Existing Data ◽  
The Web

This paper outlines the practices of state control over Internet content in Russia, explaining their grounding in the information culture and media environment of the country. Building on existing data on freedom of the press and online censorship, the present work provides a socio-cultural context expanding the understanding of Kremlin’s influence on the Web. To this end, three relevant planes of power relations are explored. The first one involves censorship and self-censorship routines embedded in Russian information traditions. The second pertains to the state-controlled traditional media, where news goes through a political filter and Internet gets framed in a particular restricted manner. The third domain is that of legislative frameworks and their selective application. The paper suggests that the tools used to control objectionable materials on the Russian Web are not Internet-specific. Rather, they should be seen as an extension of the censorship mechanisms used in traditional media.

scholarly journals News Media Regulation: A Mixed Membership Model Approach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Mudalige Chamika Gajanayaka
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
First Principles ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media Regulation ◽  
The Press ◽  
Voluntary Membership ◽  
Distinct Line ◽  
Law Commission ◽  
Model Approach

<p>The traditional platform-centric approach to media regulation is no longer tenable with the distinct line between broadcast and print media being blurred by mainstream media combining text and video via the internet. To address platform convergence, the Law Commission recommends a universal news media regulator, the News Media Standards Authority, which encompasses broadcasters, the press and onlineonly providers. The Commission endorses a voluntary membership model with a range of incentives to entice entities to join. This paper will critique the efficacy of the Commission’s incentives before undertaking a first principles analysis of news media regulation to illustrate the need for an element of compulsion in the membership model of the News Media Standards Authority. This paper argues that a mixed membership model, whereby a matrix of factors is used to determine the entities that will be required to join, is more appropriate for the News Media Standards Authority.</p>

scholarly journals Breaking bad news without breaking trust: The effects of a press release and newspaper coverage on perceived trustworthiness

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen ◽  
Femke De Vries ◽  
Wilte Zijlstra
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Press Release ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Baseline Survey ◽  
The Press ◽  
Negative News ◽  
Negative Effect

Can a government agency mitigate the negative effect of "bad new" on public trust? To answer this question, we carried out a baseline survey to measure public trust five days before a major press release involving bad news about an error committed by an independent regulatory agency in the Netherlands. Two days after the agency's press release, we carried out a survey experiment to test the effects on public trust of the press release itself as well as related newspaper articles. Results show that the press release had no negative effect on trustworthiness, which may be because the press release "steals thunder" (i.e. breaks the bad news before the news media discovered it) and focuses on a "rebuilding strategy" (i.e. offering apologies and focusing on future improvements). In contrast, the news articles mainly focused on what went wrong, which affected the competence dimension of trust but not the other dimensions (benevolence and integrity). We conclude that strategic communication by an agency can break negative news to people without necessarily breaking trust in that agency. And although effects of negative news coverage on trustworthiness were observed, the magnitude of these effects should not be overstated.

Afghanistan in Americans’ Imagination

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-50
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Brown
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
News Media ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Washington Post ◽  
White House ◽  
Print News ◽  
The Press ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
The U.S

This chapter examines how the American public was reintroduced to Afghanistan after the events of 9/11 and how the U.S. broadcast and print media began to frame this “good war” in October 2001. It analyzes the American news media’s relationship with Afghanistan beginning in the 1980s and the reality it has constructed since 2001 about Afghanistan and the conflict. It also reviews U.S. officials’ perceptions about their responsibilities to the press. During these 15 years, the news coverage, especially that of the broadcast news media, was tightly indexed to the degree of White House attention to the war and the intensity of conflict for American soldiers. Yet some American print news agencies, especially the Associated Press, New York Times, and Washington Post, have stayed committed to covering Afghanistan despite decreased American presidential attention.

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