Changing Social Representations and Agenda Interactions of Gene Editing After Crises: A Network Agenda-Setting Study on Chinese Social Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 089443932199806
Author(s):  
Anfan Chen ◽  
Xing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Media ◽  
Chinese Social Media

By incorporating social representation theory with science communication and by using a critical milestone scientific crisis (i.e., the scandal of Chinese gene-edited human babies in 2018) as a dividing point, this study adopted a network agenda-setting approach to explore how various actors (i.e., scientists, the media, laypeople, and the government) engaged in the construction of social representations of the controversial issue of gene editing on Chinese social media (i.e., Sina Weibo). Based on large-scale social media data, supervised machine learning was employed to identify attribute categories, and semantic network analysis was used to construct attribute networks. Results reveal that after the 2018 crisis, gene editing received increasing social attention on Chinese social media. Further, two trends emerged in social representations of gene editing on social media: de-scientization and medialization. The following dynamic agenda interactions among various actors were found: On the one hand, the media and laypeople’s attribute network agendas converged while scientists and the media’s diverged after the scandal. This indicates a scientific crisis can serve as a trigger for agenda convergence and divergence among different actors online. On the other hand, there were constant agenda interactions, such as between the Chinese government and the media. This reveals a feature of Chinese science communication—the media not only mediates between scientists and the public, it also observes the government’s agenda closely when representing controversial scientific issues such as gene editing.

Who is Setting Emotions? A Comparative Study on Emotion Diffusion in Social Media among Public, Government and Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhuan Zhou ◽  
Yi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Time Point

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.

scholarly journals Using the president’s tweets to understand political diversion in the age of social media

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Lewandowsky ◽  
Michael Jetter ◽  
Ullrich K. H. Ecker
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Increased Activity

Abstract Social media has arguably shifted political agenda-setting power away from mainstream media onto politicians. Current U.S. President Trump’s reliance on Twitter is unprecedented, but the underlying implications for agenda setting are poorly understood. Using the president as a case study, we present evidence suggesting that President Trump’s use of Twitter diverts crucial media (The New York Times and ABC News) from topics that are potentially harmful to him. We find that increased media coverage of the Mueller investigation is immediately followed by Trump tweeting increasingly about unrelated issues. This increased activity, in turn, is followed by a reduction in coverage of the Mueller investigation—a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis that President Trump’s tweets may also successfully divert the media from topics that he considers threatening. The pattern is absent in placebo analyses involving Brexit coverage and several other topics that do not present a political risk to the president. Our results are robust to the inclusion of numerous control variables and examination of several alternative explanations, although the generality of the successful diversion must be established by further investigation.

scholarly journals Social representations of marketing work: advertising workers and social media

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 830-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cluley ◽  
William Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Representation Theory ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Marketing Managers ◽  
Social Representation Theory

Purpose Informed by social representation theory, the study aims to explore how marketing workers represent their activities on social media. Design/methodology/approach A naturalistic data set of 17,553 messages posted on Twitter by advertising workers was collected. A sample of over 1,000 unique messages from this data set, incorporating all external links and images, was analysed inductively using structured thematic analysis. Findings Advertising workers represent marketing work as a series of fun yet constrained activities involving relationships with clients and colleagues. They engage in cognitive polyphasia by evaluating these productive differences in both a positive and negative light. Research limitations/implications The study marks a novel use of social representation theory and innovative social media analysis. Further research should explore these relations in greater depth by considering the networks that marketing workers create on social media and establish how, when and why marketing workers turn to social media in their everyday activities. Practical implications Marketing workers choose to represent aspects of their work to one another, using social media. Marketing managers should support such activities and consider social media as a way to understand the lives and experiences of marketing workers. Originality/value Marketing researchers have embraced digital media as a route to understanding consumers. This study demonstrates the value of analysing digital media to develop an understanding of marketing work. It sheds new light on the ways marketing workers create social relationships and enables marketing managers to understand and observe the social aspects of effective marketing.

scholarly journals Saw It on Facebook: The Role of Social Media in Facilitating Science Issue Awareness

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512093041
Author(s):  
Julian M. Mueller-Herbst ◽  
Michael A. Xenos ◽  
Dietram A. Scheufele ◽  
Dominique Brossard
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Gene Editing ◽  
Network Heterogeneity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Final Sample ◽  
Communication Challenges ◽  
Information Landscape ◽  
The Impact

Spreading issue awareness about increasingly interdisciplinary scientific discoveries faces progressively larger communication challenges due to the complexity, innovation pace, and broad applicability of these innovations. Traditionally, the public relies on legacy media for information and discussion of science topics. In face of a changing information landscape, however, legacy media struggle with decreasing funding for their science desks, and science journalists turn to more specialized outlets, often online. Given these developments, it is important to understand which platforms besides legacy media serve as facilitators of science issue awareness. In this study, we analyzed the impact of social media on the awareness of gene editing. We used a representative survey administered by professional survey firm YouGov between December 2016 and January 2017, yielding a final sample of 1,600 US adults with a 41.7% response rate. The regression analysis findings suggest that social media is a significant avenue through which awareness of gene editing, and subsequently other scientific issues, is spread. Using the example of Facebook, we were able to demonstrate that how, rather than if, one uses social media is the determining factor in spreading issue awareness. Awareness was positively predicted by the length of social media sessions and network heterogeneity, while pure amount of sessions actually negatively predicted awareness. Legacy media remain an important predictor of gene editing awareness. These results demonstrate that social media functions as an important information space for science issues and should receive individual attention along with legacy media outlets when examining science communication.

The hardware and software of Trumpism: A figure/ground analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Miroshnichenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Media Effects ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Communication Studies ◽  
Instrumental Approach ◽  
News Industry ◽  
The Media

This article probes into Trumpism using McLuhan’s idea of figure/ground analysis. To make visible the hidden ground behind a salient figure (or figures), the dichotomy of instrumental and environmental approaches to media effects is introduced. The widely used instrumental approach is rooted in the long-standing Lasswellian tradition of communication studies (‘who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect?’). The instrumental explanations of Trumpism are unavoidably reductionist, as they focus on figures and, therefore, overemphasize rationality and agency in media use. On the contrary, the environmental approach focuses on hidden ground and explores what environmental forces originate from new media’s proliferation and how these forces reshape habitat and inhabitants. To apply this view, the article examines the environmental factors within the news industry and social media that are favourable to Trumpism: the commodification of Trump by the media, the morphological conflict between broadcasting and engaging modes of agenda-setting, the built-in polarization of social media and others.

scholarly journals Microblog credibility indicators regarding misinformation of genetically modified food on Weibo

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0252392
Author(s):  
Jiaojiao Ji ◽  
Naipeng Chao ◽  
Shitong Wei ◽  
George A. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Genetically Modified Food ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gm Food

The considerable amount of misinformation on social media regarding genetically modified (GM) food will not only hinder public understanding but also mislead the public to make unreasoned decisions. This study discovered a new mechanism of misinformation diffusion in the case of GM food and applied a framework of supervised machine learning to identify effective credibility indicators for the misinformation prediction of GM food. Main indicators are proposed, including user identities involved in spreading information, linguistic styles, and propagation dynamics. Results show that linguistic styles, including sentiment and topics, have the dominant predictive power. In addition, among the user identities, engagement, and extroversion are effective predictors, while reputation has almost no predictive power in this study. Finally, we provide strategies that readers should be aware of when assessing the credibility of online posts and suggest improvements that Weibo can use to avoid rumormongering and enhance the science communication of GM food.

scholarly journals China vaccine scandal rattles public's confidence and tests government

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Chen ◽  
Liang Gao
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Regulation System ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese Physicians ◽  
First Time ◽  
Chinese Social Media

In July 2018, two of the China’s largest vaccine makers had been revealed providing defective children vaccines, which induce great outrage sweeping Chinese social media in last month. 650,000 doses of diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccines and 110,000 doses of rabies vaccines did not reach the potency standard and sold in at least 10 provincial areas. This is not the first time for this kind of vaccine scandal and the Chinese government has now been investigating the involved companies. As Chinese physicians and surgeons, we DO hope to supervise and witness the government to improve the health regulation system and restore the public’s confidence.

scholarly journals A visibilidade e representação social das religiões nos selos postais brasileiros (The visibility and social representations of religions in Brazil postage stamps).DOI: 10.5752/P.2175-5841.2012v10n25p233

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (25) ◽  
pp. 233-254
Author(s):  
Diego Andres Salcedo ◽  
Karla Patriota Bronsztein
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Close Relation ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Post Offices ◽  
Postage Stamps ◽  
Catholic Religion ◽  
Religious Speech ◽  
The Media ◽  
Religious Theme

Este trabalho analisa a forma com a qual o selo postal brasileiro contribuiu para a construção de representações da religião católica em relação a outras práticas religiosas. Foi considerado, para isso, a concepção deste artefato enquanto media, texto semiótico e sua estreita relação com o discurso religioso. O corpus é composto por selos postais comemorativos brasileiros emitidos durante o século XX. A sua identificação e análise foi feita a partir do catálogo RHM. Entre o ano de 1900 e 2000, os Correios emitiram 2354 selos postais do tipo comemorativo. A partir da observação e identificação de recorrências religiosas foram compilados 222 selos postais comemorativos. O estudo correlacionou a recorrente temática religiosa com o contexto histórico brasileiro, considerando o declínio do catolicismo como maioria religiosa no país e às representações das práticas religiosas nas mídias. A conclusão indica a influência da Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil, junto ao Ministério das Comunicações e dos Correios do Brasil, consagrando e enaltecendo a visibilidade de personalidades, eventos e a práxis católica, como um discurso único e superior às demais práticas religiosas. AbstractThis paper analyses the way in which postal Brazilian stamps have contributed to the construction of representations of the catholic religion regarding other religious practices. In this sense, the conception of these stamps was taken into account as media, semioptical texts in close relation with the religious speech. The corpus is composed by postal commemorative Brazilian stamps issued during the twentieth century. The identification and analyzes of the stamps were made through RHM catalogue.  Between the year of 1900 and 2000, the Brazilian post offices issued 2.354 commemorative postage stamps. From the observation and identification of religious recurrences 222 commemorative stamps were compiled. The study correlated the recurring religious theme with the historical Brazilian context, taking into account the decline of the Catholicism as the major religion in Brazil and also the representations of the religious practices in the media. The conclusion of this paper indicates the influence of the National Conference of the Bishops of Brazil regarding the Ministry of the Communications, establishing and enforcing the visibility of Brazilian personalities, events, and also of catholic practices taken as special and superior in comparison with other religious practices.Key-words: Brazil; Religion; Postage Stamps; Social Representation; Visibility.

scholarly journals ENTRE O CRIME E A PANDEMIA: REFLEXÕES EM REPRESENTAÇÕES SOCIAIS

polemica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 063-076
Author(s):  
João Gilberto Silva Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Limited Period

Resumo: O texto tinha por objetivo uma pesquisa e se tornou um ensaio. De início, o objetivo era dar continuidade à perspectiva de aproximação da teoria das representações sociais aos fenômenos do cotidiano em estudos pontuais ou preliminares. E o fio condutor escolhido foi um crime bastante noticiado nos meios de comunicação, sendo o ponto de partida, portanto, de uma análise preliminar sobre a representação social do crime hediondo. Assim, a partir de dados veiculados pelos meios eletrônicos de comunicação, em prazo curto e delimitado, foram extraídos elementos que apontassem a possibilidade de uma pesquisa sobre a representação social do crime hediondo. Ainda que em caráter inicial, as análises respaldaram a perspectiva de uma abordagem recortada e bem próxima ao calor dos acontecimentos. Entretanto, de forma fulminante e paradoxal, a pandemia provocada pelo novo coronavírus confirmaria de forma radical a tal hipótese de trabalho, alterando completamente o escopo original do texto: escrever sobre o crime hediondo tornou-se secundário em relação ao caos provocado pelo vírus. O presente ensaio, escrito durante o período crítico da pandemia, expressa essa trajetória.Palavras-chave: Representações sociais. Crime hediondo. Cotidiano. Psicologia Social.Abstract: The text was intended for research and became an experience report. At first, the objective was to continue the perspective of bringing the theory of social representations closer to everyday phenomena in specific or preliminary studies. And the chosen guideline was a crime that was widely reported in the media, being the starting point, therefore, of a preliminary analysis on the social representation of heinous crime. Thus, from data transmitted by electronic means of communication, in a short and limited period, elements were extracted that point to the possibility of research on the social representation of heinous crime. Although in an initial character, the analyzes supported the perspective of a cut approach and very close to the heat of events. However, in a fulminating and paradoxical way, the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus would radically confirm this working hypothesis, completely changing the original scope of the text: writing about the heinous crime has become secondary to the chaos caused by the virus. The present essay, written during the critical period of the pandemic, expresses this trajectory.Keywords: Social representations. Heinous crime. Everyday life. Social psychology.

6. The Media and Agenda-Setting

2021 ◽  
pp. 181-203
Author(s):  
Peter John
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
The Media ◽  
Broad Overview ◽  
Internet And Social Media

This chapter addresses media in politics, including newspapers, television, the internet, and social media. It seeks to answer the question of how influential the media is over politics, in areas such as voting behaviour. This discussion gives a broad overview of politics and the media, about the agenda of politics and its framing, and what shapes it. The chapter then covers the classic question of the influence of the media in British politics. It also considers the importance of social media, and how it is now part of all media today, especially in relation to elections and referendums. Finally, the chapter looks at media and social media campaigning in elections. It introduces the concept of chaotic pluralism as a way of characterizing today's social media-dominated and fluid political environment.

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