scholarly journals Shaping the ‘inexplicable’: A social constructionist analysis of news reporting of familicide-suicide

Journalism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146488492110632
Author(s):  
Audrey Galvin ◽  
Fergal Quinn ◽  
Yvonne Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Social ◽  
Objective Representation ◽  
Journalistic Practice ◽  
Discursive Patterns

Media framing helps to shape our understanding of the meaning of news events, often problematically. This study examines how this process interacts with the phenomenon of familicide-suicide, where a person kills one or more family members before taking their own life. A social constructionist analysis of the print media coverage of three high-profile cases in Ireland highlights framing and discursive patterns, contributing to an explanatory framework that is misleading and lacking in an evidence base. As well as a tendency towards broad and poorly supported claims-making, several primary causal frames are prevalent: mental health; financial debt; fall from grace; and ‘out of the blue’, whilst a domestic violence frame is notable in its absence. Coverage is found to be episodic in character, linked to dramatisation and more simplistic explanatory frames, rather than evidence-based analysis of potential causal factors for these incidents. Findings raise important questions for journalistic practice, regarding processes of selection and salience of sources contributing to overall coverage that is partial and biased, rather than an ‘objective’ representation of the social world.

scholarly journals Changing Media Framings of School Shootings: A Case Study of the Parkland School Shooting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer LaRose ◽  
Jose Torres ◽  
Michael Barton
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
School Shootings ◽  
School Shooting ◽  
Front Page ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Coping ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Coping Model

The Parkland school shooting that occurred on February 14, 2018, ranks among the deadliest high school shootings in recorded history with 17 injuries and 17 casualties. Like other mass school shootings, this event garnered extensive media coverage, but little research has been conducted to examine how media framing for this event compares with previous school shootings. This study examines the framing of the Parkland school shooting by location over time using the Social Coping Model, which describes how collectives cope with and heal from traumatic events. Specifically, this study compares frames of front-page news articles from three local news outlets and three national outlets across three time periods in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. The results indicate the coverage of the Parkland shooting was similar to previous shootings, but the results also suggest a shift in media coverage. The implications for this shift are explored in the context of a changing media landscape while also noting the importance of the Social Coping Model towards understanding the dynamic process of framing school shootings.

scholarly journals Alternative media framing of COVID-19 risks

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212110061
Author(s):  
Martin Rooke
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Alternative Media ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Social Amplification Of Risk ◽  
The Social ◽  
Online Audiences ◽  
Risk Framework ◽  
Risk Amplification

Early media coverage of COVID-19, between 1 January and 31 March 2020, provided Alternative Media Personalities (AMPs) an opportunity to provide conspiratorial misinformation to their online audiences. Far-right AMPs may reframe sociopolitical aspects of risk to produce ‘fake-news’, amplifying future risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF) to define factors of risk amplification, this study conducted a framing analysis upon 1,895 minutes of streamed video content from a popular, far-right, AMP regarding COVID-19. Significant differences in frame expression suggested that AMPs hold greater value in specific frames when providing infotainment based upon authentic interpretations of risk. A lack of significant change in frame expression over time suggests that AMPs may rely upon media templates when communicating risk to their audience. Qualitative data suggest that different aspects of risk amplification work in concert to provide discursive contexts for far-right AMPs to define risks from their ideological standpoint. The data provided by this study better outline some of the complexities facing scientific communications strategies which seek to directly address misinformation online.

scholarly journals Hating in plain sight: The hatejacking of brands by extremist groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-26
Author(s):  
Bond Benton ◽  
Daniela Peterka-Benton
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Social ◽  
Extremist Groups ◽  
The Right ◽  
Extremist Group

The adoption of brands as an identity marker for hate groups has been extensively noted for decades. The use of specific brands, often covertly, allows hate groups to have identity markers without the social stigma ascribed to historical hate symbols. With high-profile events such as the ‘Unite the Right’ march in Charlottesville, hate groups have utilized media coverage to increase their visibility and, by extension, the brands that they have co-opted. Such unwanted associations for organizations are defined by this research as a hatejack, whereby an extremist group publicly presents linkage to a brand, typically to claim legitimacy by the association. The covert, hide-and-seek nature of the hatejack also allows extremist groups to identify with each other without public or legal scrutiny. The dangers of a hatejack have been exacerbated by two-way symmetrical models of public relations that focus on online and social media. Popular press books such as Brand Hijack seem to suggest that organizations would do well to cede ownership of their identity and allow the construction of brands by external publics. This emphasis, however, has allowed for hate groups to more readily adopt brands and publicly proclaim a connection to the organization that does not exist. This research examines cases of hatejacks in which brands become unwitting instruments of extremist groups and seeks to identify emerging and consistent themes across cases that merit further investigation by researchers and actions by practitioners.

Reporting ‘African gangs’: Theorising journalistic practice during a multi-mediated moral panic

2021 ◽  
pp. 174165902199120
Author(s):  
Gregory Koumouris ◽  
Jarrett Blaustein
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Technological Transformation ◽  
Reporting Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Journalistic Field ◽  
Journalistic Practice

This article uses Bourdieusian field theory to examine how journalistic practices contributed to a multi-mediated moral panic about ‘African gangs’ in Melbourne, Australia. Empirical insight is supplied via interviews with journalists who identified traditional media outlets as ‘secondary definers’ that amplified and legitimised this racialised threat construction. Participants attributed the intense and sensationalised media coverage to the political climate, the newsworthiness of racialised ‘folk devils’, and the economic and technological transformation of the journalistic field. These transformations were perceived to have negatively influenced journalistic standards by incentivising the efficient production of commodifiable content. Participants described how these structural changes were filtered through the social personalities of different news outlets; they shaped, and were reproduced through, distinct managerial cultures, editorial routines and journalistic habitus. The emergent nomos (‘rules of the game’) was perceived to constrain the autonomy of journalists, particularly those lacking cultural capital, and limit opportunities for contestation of the ‘African gangs’ narrative. Journalists seemingly adapted by engaging in practices which reflected their attempts to negotiate these conditions and establish coherent narrative identities. In some cases, this entailed the neutralisation of what journalists recognised as ethically questionably reporting practices.

Reality Negotiation

2009 ◽  
pp. 474-482
Author(s):  
Raymond L. Higgins ◽  
Matthew W. Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Negotiation Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Coping Processes

This chapter presents an overview of the development and status of the reality negotiation construct and relates it to a variety of coping processes. The reality negotiation construct follows from the social constructionist tradition and first appeared in discussions of how excuses protect self-images by decreasing the causal linkage to negative outcomes. The reality negotiation construct was later expanded to include a discussion of how the process of hoping may be used to increase perceived linkage to positive outcomes. In the two decades since these constructs were first introduced, four individual differences measures have been developed, and the effects of these reality negotiation techniques have been studied extensively. Reality negotiation techniques can be both maladaptive and adaptive and have been shown to be associated with coping and social support in a variety of populations. The chapter concludes by highlighting a few areas in which reality negotiation research could expand to further its relevance and applicability to the field of positive psychology.

scholarly journals The Construction and Sustainability of Teachers’ Positive Emotions toward STEM Educational Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5769
Author(s):  
Yi Lian ◽  
Kwok-Kuen Tsang ◽  
Ying Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Stem Education ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Administrative Support ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Educational Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Important Approach ◽  
Whole Person Education

STEM education is an important approach for preparing students for a competitive workforce with essential skills in the 21st century. However, successfully implementing STEM education in primary and secondary schools presents a variety of challenges. The study suggests that a neglected challenge in the literature is how to sustain teachers’ positive emotions toward STEM educational work, which may cause teachers to be more engaged in, motived by, and committed to STEM education. Therefore, the study aims to contribute to the literature by investigating the mechanism of the construction and suitability of teachers’ emotions toward STEM educational work based on a single case study conducted in Hong Kong from the social constructionist perspective. The major findings of the study indicate that (1) positive emotions toward STEM educational work may be constructed by the teacher’s positive interpretation of the work, i.e., STEM educational work as the facilitator of students’ overall development and that (2) positive emotions toward STEM educational work may be sustained by enabling school institutions to have the elements of shared power, administrative support, and the value of a whole-person education.

Conversations About Opioids: Impact of the Opioid Overdose Epidemic on Social Interactions for People Who Live With Chronic Pain

2021 ◽  
pp. 104973232110030
Author(s):  
Lise Dassieu ◽  
Angela Heino ◽  
Élise Develay ◽  
Jean-Luc Kaboré ◽  
M. Gabrielle Pagé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Pain ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

The objective of this study was to understand the impact of the opioid overdose epidemic on the social lives of people suffering from chronic pain, focusing on interactions within their personal and professional circles. The study was based on 22 in-depth interviews with people living with chronic pain in Canada. Using thematic analysis, we documented three main impacts of the opioid overdose epidemic: (a) increased worries of people in pain and their families regarding the dangers of opioids; (b) prejudices, stigma, and discrimination faced during conversations about opioids; and (c) stigma management attempts, which include self-advocacy and concealment of opioid use. This study represents important knowledge advancement on how people manage stigma and communicate about chronic disease during everyday life interactions. By showing negative effects of the epidemic’s media coverage on the social experiences of people with chronic pain, we underscore needs for destigmatizing approaches in public communication regarding opioids.

The Social Construction of Corporate Violence: Media Coverage of the Imperial Food Products Fire

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Wright ◽  
Francis T. Cullen ◽  
Michael B. Blankenship
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
White Collar Crime ◽  
Food Products ◽  
White Collar ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Processing Plant ◽  
Criminal Convictions ◽  
Safety Regulations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media

Although investigative reports have contributed to the social movement against white-collar crime, few studies assess the extent to which the media socially construct corporate violence as a “crime.” We examine this issue through a content analysis of newspaper coverage of the fire-related deaths of 25 workers at the Imperial Food Products chicken-processing plant, which resulted in the company's owner pleading guilty to manslaughter. The analysis revealed that newspaper reports largely attributed the deaths to the lax enforcement of safety regulations but did not initially construct the deaths as a crime or subsequently publicize the criminal convictions.

Sport Reporting in an Era of Activism: Examining the Intersection of Sport Media and Social Activism

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans C. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sport Media ◽  
High Profile ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

While there is a longstanding connection between sports and politics, this past year has seen a surge of social activism in the world of sport, and numerous high-profile athletes have used their positions of prominence to raise awareness of social or political issues. Sport media, in turn, have faced questions regarding how best to cover such activism. Given the popularity of sport media, such decisions can have real implications on the views held by the public. This scholarly commentary discusses how sport media cover the social activism of athletes and presents the results of a content analysis of popular news and sports television programs, newspapers, and magazines. Overall, results indicate that sport media are giving significant and respectful coverage to athletes who advocate for social or political issues.

Kindergarten children’s perceptions of the social unrest in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
pp. 1476718X2110627
Author(s):  
Caroline Cohrssen ◽  
Nirmala Rao ◽  
Puja Kapai ◽  
Priya Goel La Londe
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Children's Drawings ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
Children's Perceptions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children’S Drawings ◽  
The World

Hong Kong experienced a period of significant social unrest, marked by protests, from June 2019 to February 2020. Media coverage was pervasive. In July 2020, children aged from 5 to 6 years attending kindergartens in areas both directly and less directly impacted by the protests were asked to draw and talk about what had taken place during the social unrest. Thematic analysis of children’s drawings demonstrates the extent of their awareness and understanding and suggests that children perceived both protestors and police as angry and demonstrating aggression. Many children were critical of police conduct and saw protestors as needing protection from the police. Children around the world have been exposed to protest movements in recent times. The implications for parents, teachers and schools are discussed.

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