Quirky Neighbors or the Cult Next-Door?

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-211
Author(s):  
Bernard Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Television Programs ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Media Transformation

Beginning in 2005 the tiny Christian sect then known as the Exclusive Brethren suddenly underwent a media transformation from a virtually unknown or ignored group of quirky and old-fashioned Protestant sectarians to being touted as “Australia’s biggest cult” by tabloid television programs. This explosion of controversy came on the heels of media revelations about the involvement of Brethren members in providing financial donations to conservative political causes across the globe and a snowballing effect in response which brought forth a number of ex-members eager to expose their former group. This article looks at how this media transformation has been received by the wider Australian public. By studying the hitherto little utilized data contained in readers’ letters to Australia’s three mainstream broadsheet newspapers this article identifies which events or undertakings had the most impact on public perceptions of the Exclusive Brethren and which specific articles and issues struck the most responsive chord with readers. This content analysis found that Australian public opinion toward the Exclusive Brethren, while on the whole negative, was more indicative of their political involvement than their beliefs. The study also found that prior to what I call “The Brethren Controversy” the Exclusive Brethren had maintained a high degree of “sectarian tension” in Australia for almost four decades with little public outcry or media vilification.

A Comparative Content Analysis of Physician, General Public and Media Opinion Leader Posts Regarding Physician-patient Conflicts on Microblog (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanqi Gong ◽  
Qin Guo
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Objective Evidence ◽  
Comparative Content ◽  
Physician Patient

BACKGROUND Physician-patient conflicts have increased more than ten times from the 2000s to 2010s in China and arouse heated discussion on microblog. However, little is known about similarities and differences among views of opinion leaders from the general public, physician, and media regarding physician-patient conflict issues on microblog. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore how opinion leaders from physician, the general public, and media areas framed the posts on major physician-patient conflict issues on microblog. Findings will provide more objective evidence of trilateral (health profession, general public, and media) attitudes and perspectives on physician-patient conflicts. METHODS A comparative content analysis was conducted to examine the posts (N=545) from microblog opinion leaders regarding the major physician-patient conflicts in China from 2012 to 2017. RESULTS Media used significantly more conflict (M=0.16) and attribution frames (M=0.16) but least popularize medical science frame (M=0.03) than physician (M=0.06, p<0.001; M=0.06, p<0.001; M=0.08, p=0.035, respectively) and general public opinion leaders (M=0.06, p<0.001; M=0.09, p=0.003; M=0.12, p<0.001, respectively). There are no significant differences in the use of conflict, cooperation, negative and popular science frames between general public and physician opinion leaders. CONCLUSIONS This imbalanced use of frames by media would cultivate and reinforce the public perception of physician-patient contradiction. The physician and general public opinion leaders share some commons in post frames, implying that they do not have a fundamental discrepancy on physician-patient conflict issues. It is essential to guide and encourage media microbloggers to make every effort to popularize medical science and improve physician-patient relationships.

Constructing Public Opinion and Manipulating Symbols: China's Press Cover-age of the Student Movement in 1989

1995 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 412-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo-Qiang Zhang ◽  
Sidney Kraus
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Student Movement ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
Tiananmen Square ◽  
The Press ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military

This content analysis of Chinese newspapers before and after the Tiananmen Square protest examines the symbolic representation of the Student Movement of 1989 in China. The study reveals that top leaders manipulated symbols given to the media and that these symbols rigorously highlighted the dominant ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and isolated the movement participants. Officials attempted to legitimize the military suppression of the movement. The press construction of public opinion echoed the hegemonic process created and maintained by the party structure.

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.

Reality Asserts Itself: Public Opinion on Iraq and the Elasticity of Reality

2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Baum ◽  
Tim Groeling
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Support ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustained Change ◽  
Disaggregated Data ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Over Time

AbstractPrevailing theories hold that U.S. public support for a war depends primarily on its degree of success, U.S. casualties, or conflict goals. Yet, research into the framing of foreign policy shows that public perceptions concerning each of these factors are often endogenous and malleable by elites. In this article, we argue that both elite rhetoric and the situation on the ground in the conflict affect public opinion, but the qualities that make such information persuasive vary over time and with circumstances. Early in a conflict, elites (especially the president) have an informational advantage that renders public perceptions of “reality” very elastic. As events unfold and as the public gathers more information, this elasticity recedes, allowing alternative frames to challenge the administration's preferred frame. We predict that over time the marginal impact of elite rhetoric and reality will decrease, although a sustained change in events may eventually restore their influence. We test our argument through a content analysis of news coverage of the Iraq war from 2003 through 2007, an original survey of public attitudes regarding Iraq, and partially disaggregated data from more than 200 surveys of public opinion on the war.

OPINI PUBLIK TERHADAP PENERAPAN NEW NORMAL DI MEDIA SOSIAL TWITTER

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
AWAD BIN MUHAMMAD ALKATIRI ◽  
ZHAFIRA NADIAH ◽  
ADINDA NADA S. NASUTION
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
New Normal ◽  
Quantitative Content ◽  
The Social

Social media is popular with all ages, people in young and old age groups can access social media. Social media is a place for information and opinion exchange. Twitter is one of the social media that is actively used in Indonesia. The new normal phenomenon that is currently being applied is wanted to be further known by researchers by referring to the hashtag #newnormalindonesia on Twitter. Researchers want to find out how public opinion is formed based on the hashtag #newnormalindonesia on Twitter. This research uses the concept of public opinion which is categorized into positive, negative, and neutral. In the research method, researchers use quantitative content analysis, the analysis unit uses thematic analysis units with the operationalization of concepts using the concept of public opinion. Coding sheets are used as instruments in data collection techniques, then in testing the validity and reliability using inter-coder reliability. The results showed that the twitter posts with the #newnormalindonesia hashtag tendto be negative by not supporting the implementation of new normal.

Public Perceptions of Child Sexual Exploitation Abroad: A Vignette Experiment on the Influence of Social Distance

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872110647
Author(s):  
Anneke Koning
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Spatial Distance ◽  
Crime Severity ◽  
Child Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Vignette Experiment ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the impact of social and spatial distance on public opinion about sexual exploitation of children. A randomized vignette experiment among members of a Dutch household panel investigated whether public perceptions of child sexual exploitation were more damning or more lenient when it occurred in a country closer to home, and explored theoretical explanations. The results show that offenses committed in the Netherlands or U.S. are overall perceived as more negative than those committed in Romania or Thailand. Social distance affects public perceptions about crime severity, and victims are attributed more responsibility in socially close than socially distant conditions. The study concludes that public perceptions are contingent upon the crime location, even when applied to child sexual exploitation.

Role of Images in Constructing Public Opinion About Environmental Matters in Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-130
Author(s):  
Mohamad Saifudin Mohamad Saleh ◽  
Harald Heinrichs ◽  
Nik Norma Nik Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Environmental Information ◽  
Quantitative Content Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Quantitative Content

This paper provides a discussion on the perception of Malaysian media and environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) on the role of images in shaping the public's mind about environmental matters. Two methods were employed for this study. First, a total of 24 participants from the Malaysian media and ENGOs were interviewed. Second, a total of 2,050 environmental articles on media newspapers and ENGOs newsletters from the period of 2012 to 2014 were collected for the quantitative content analysis. The findings from interview confirmed that pictures were labelled by journalists and ENGOs staff as the most important tool in presenting the reality of the environmental problems to the public. This is because, upon seeing the pictures accompanying environmental articles, readers will gain more trust of the environmental information. This was in harmony with the results of the quantitative content analysis, where more than 60% of pictures were found on environmental articles.

scholarly journals Demystifying Social Bots: On the Intelligence of Automated Social Media Actors

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512093926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Assenmacher ◽  
Lena Clever ◽  
Lena Frischlich ◽  
Thorsten Quandt ◽  
Heike Trautmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Supportive Nature ◽  
Shed Light

Recently, social bots, (semi-) automatized accounts in social media, gained global attention in the context of public opinion manipulation. Dystopian scenarios like the malicious amplification of topics, the spreading of disinformation, and the manipulation of elections through “opinion machines” created headlines around the globe. As a consequence, much research effort has been put into the classification and detection of social bots. Yet, it is still unclear how easy an average online media user can purchase social bots, which platforms they target, where they originate from, and how sophisticated these bots are. This work provides a much needed new perspective on these questions. By providing insights into the markets of social bots in the clearnet and darknet as well as an exhaustive analysis of freely available software tools for automation during the last decade, we shed light on the availability and capabilities of automated profiles in social media platforms. Our results confirm the increasing importance of social bot technology but also uncover an as yet unknown discrepancy of theoretical and practically achieved artificial intelligence in social bots: while literature reports on a high degree of intelligence for chat bots and assumes the same for social bots, the observed degree of intelligence in social bot implementations is limited. In fact, the overwhelming majority of available services and software are of supportive nature and merely provide modules of automation instead of fully fledged “intelligent” social bots.

scholarly journals To Credit or to Blame? The Asymmetric Impact of Government Responsibility in Economic News

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyt Damstra ◽  
Mark Boukes ◽  
Rens Vliegenthart
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Government Responsibility ◽  
Asymmetric Effects ◽  
Economic News ◽  
Blame Attributions ◽  
Asymmetric Impact ◽  
The Government

Abstract This article studies the asymmetric effects of credit and blame attributions in economic news on government evaluations. We rely on a dataset combining a manual content analysis of Dutch economic news (print, television, online; N = 5,630) with a three-wave panel survey (N = 3,240) that was fielded in 2015. Results show that people who are exposed to news in which the government is blamed for the economy tend to adopt this frame by assigning responsibility to the government for the economic crisis. In addition, exposure to blame attributions leads to more negative government evaluations. This effect is partly mediated through the attribution of crisis responsibility. Credit attributions in the news do not have any effect on public opinion.

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