scholarly journals The Zoom solution: Promoting effective cross-ideological communication online

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Binnquist ◽  
Stephanie Dolbier ◽  
Macrina Dieffenbach ◽  
Matthew Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
The Political ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ideological Polarization ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Society Research

Abstract The rise of ideological polarization in the U.S. over the past few decades has come with an increase in hostility on both sides of the political aisle. Although communication and compromise are hallmarks of a functioning society, research has shown that people overestimate the negative affect they will experience when viewing oppositional media, and it is likely that negative forecasts lead many to avoid cross-ideological communication (CIC) altogether. Additionally, a growing ideological geographic divide and online extremism fueled by social media audiences make engaging in CIC more difficult than ever. Here, we demonstrate that online video-chat platforms (i.e., Zoom) can be used to promote effective CIC among ideologically polarized individuals, as well as to better study CIC in a controlled setting. Participants (n = 122) had a face-to-face CIC over Zoom, either privately or publicly with a silent ingroup audience present. Participant forecasts about the interaction were largely inaccurate, with the actual conversation experience found to be more positive than anticipated. Additionally, the presence of an ingroup audience was associated with increased conflict. In both conditions, participants showed signs of attitude moderation, felt more favorable toward the outgroup, and felt more informed about the issue after the CIC. These results suggest that face-to-face CIC’s are generally positive and beneficial for partisans, and that greater effects may be achieved through private conversations, as opposed to more public social media interactions. Future researchers studying ideological conflict may find success using similar Zoom paradigms to bring together ideologically diverse individuals in controlled lab settings.

scholarly journals What if Classroom Instruction Becomes a Thing of the Past?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Mu
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Massive Open Online Courses ◽  
University Education ◽  
Massive Open Online ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Past ◽  
Virtual Instruction ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Latin American And Caribbean

Until recently, there was no doubt about what constituted a university education and how it was carried out. Suddenly, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, and in a few weeks, not only education, but the entire world changed. In the new normal, post-pandemic world, it is possible that teaching face-to-face courses will be the exception, not the rule, in the U.S. and the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Furthermore, this virtual instruction will possibly be at massive levels with tens or hundreds of thousands of students at a time, modeled after massive open online courses (MOOCs).

“We are the 99%”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Heldman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the contemporary era of consumer activism in the U.S. that started in the mid-2000s with the advent of social media. Contemporary consumer activism is distinct in its ease of use, transnational focus, effectiveness, and popularity. Americans have become more politically active through the marketplace in the past decade, and this has altered the way companies do business. The chapter concludes that the current era of marketplace activism strengthens democracy through higher rates of participation in the marketplace for political ends.

A Humanistic Approach to Outreach: Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
David Rymph ◽  
Linda Little
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
The United States ◽  
Illegal Immigrants ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Humanistic Approach ◽  
The U.S

Washington, D.C., like many major cities in the U.S., has experienced a large influx of illegal immigrants in the past decade. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics have entered the United States, many of them fleeing from the political violence in Guatemala and El Salvador. The Washington metropolitan area may have as many as 80,000 refugees from El Salvador alone.

scholarly journals Inappropriate Laughter: Affective Homophily and the Unlikely Comedy of #MeToo

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 205630511988342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Sundén ◽  
Susanna Paasonen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
The Political ◽  
Musical Comedy ◽  
Feminist Humor ◽  
Prestigious Institution

This article investigates the affective and ambiguous dynamics of feminist humor as an unexpected strategy of resistance in connection with #MeToo, asking what laughter may do to the sharpness of negative affect of shame and anger driving the movement. Our inquiry comes in three vignettes. First, we deploy Nanette—Hannah Gadsby’s 2018 Netflix success heralded as the comedy of the #MeToo era—arguing that the uniform viral warmth surrounding the show drives the emergence of networked feminisms through “affective homophily,” or a love of feeling the same. With Nanette, the contagious qualities of laughter are tamed by a networked logic of homophily, allowing for intensity while resisting dissent. Our second vignette zooms in on a less known feminist comedian, Lauren Maul, and her online #MeToo musical comedy riffing off on apologies made by male celebrities accused of sexual harassment, rendering the apologies and the men performing them objects of ridicule. Our third example opens up the door to the ambivalence of irony. In considering the unexpected pockets of humor within the #MeToo scandal that ripped apart the prestigious institution of the Swedish Academy, we explore the emergence of carnivalesque comedy and feminist uses of irony in the appropriation of the pussy-bow blouse as an ambiguous feminist symbol. Our examples allow us to argue for the political importance of affective ambiguity, difference, and dissent in contemporary social media feminisms, and to highlight the risk when a movement like #MeToo closes ranks around homogeneous feelings of not only shame and rage, but also love.

Social Communication

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Michael A. Brown Sr.
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Communication ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
George Santayana ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hybrid Approaches ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Computer Mediated Communications

Scholars continue to analyze the past, present and future of computer mediated communications (CMC) in an attempt to make sense of the pervasive social media environment in which people operate today. George Santayana said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Social media grew, in part, out of a need to overcome communication limitations of geographical distance and time. in the process, human connection has suffered and some may even long for a way to close the geographic distance or approximate face-to-face interactions. this examination looks at hybrid approaches to social communication.

Making mirrors, making albums and making documentaries: the music of Gotye and negotiating Bourdieu's field of cultural production

Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 669-684
Author(s):  
Pat O'Grady
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Music Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Equipment Production ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Independent Musicians

AbstractRecent popular music and film studies have revealed the political functions of documentaries about musicians. These studies suggest that such documentaries make powerful interventions into the field of music production as they construct the value of their subjects and their work. Owing to the expense and complexity of broadcast equipment, production companies have tended to favour documentaries about artists and work considered to be popular and historically significant. Over the past 15 years, however, new technologies have allowed musicians to make documentaries themselves, which they can release at the same time as their song or album. Using the example of Gotye and his album Making Mirrors, this article argues that these developments have led to powerful and distinct interventions into debates and themes within home music production for independent musicians. It also argues that the use of this technology on social media platforms challenges the relationships between text and process.

scholarly journals Left- and Right-Leaning News Organizations' Negative Tweets are More Likely to be Shared

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bellovary ◽  
Nathaniel A. Young ◽  
Amit Goldenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Political ◽  
News Content ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Left And Right

Negativity has historically dominated news content; however, little research has examined how news organizations use affect on social media, where content is generally positive. In the current project we ask a few questions: Do news organizations on Twitter use negative or positive language and which type of affect garners more engagement on social media? Does the political orientation of new organizations impact the affect expressed and engagement tweets receive on social media? The goal of this project is to examine these questions by investigating tweets of 24 left- and 20 right-leaning news organizations (140,358 tweets). Results indicated that negative affect was expressed more than positive affect. Additionally, negativity predicted engagement with news organizations’ tweets, but positivity did not. Finally, there were no differences in affect between left- and right-leaning political orientations. Overall, it appears that for news organizations, negativity is more frequent and more impactful than positivity.

The Friday Effect: Firm Lobbying, the Timing of Drug Safety Alerts, and Drug Side Effects

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 3677-3698
Author(s):  
Luis Diestre ◽  
Benjamin Barber ◽  
Juan Santaló
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Healthcare Management ◽  
Drug Side Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Safety Alert ◽  
Day Of The Week ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The U.S

Safety alerts are announcements made by health regulators warning patients and doctors about new drug-related side effects. However, not all safety alerts are equally effective. We provide evidence that the day of the week on which the safety alerts are announced explains differences in safety alert impact. Specifically, we show that safety alerts announced on Fridays are less broadly diffused: they are shared 34% less on social media, mentioned in 23% to 66% fewer news articles, and are 12% to 51% less likely to receive any news coverage at all. As a consequence of this, we propose Friday alerts are less effective in reducing drug-related side effects. We find that moving a Friday alert to any other weekday would reduce all drug-related side effects by 9% to 12%, serious drug-related complications by 6% to 15%, and drug-related deaths by 22% to 36%. This problem is particularly important because Friday was the most frequent weekday for safety alert announcements from 1999 to 2016. We show that this greater prevalence of Friday alerts might not be random: firms that lobbied the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the past are 49% to 56% more likely to have safety alerts announced on Fridays. This paper was accepted by Stefan Scholtes, healthcare management.

Web-Based Child Sexual Exploitation

2020 ◽  
pp. 533-546
Author(s):  
Lacey Nicole Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Child Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Child Victimization ◽  
Youth And Young Adults ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The U.S

Use of social media and other technologies like phone- and computer-based cameras is widespread among both youth and young adults in the U.S. Yet, these technologies also present opportunities for child victimization and exploitation. Unlike forms of exploitation that occur in a face-to-face context, these crimes are difficult to detect and more so to prosecute. Offenders and victims may not even reside in the same country. This chapter defines online child sexual exploitation, describes the law regarding these activities, details what is known about victims and offenders, and highlights current efforts towards prevention and intervention. Challenges in detection and prosecution are also discussed.

scholarly journals When is the “Racist” Designation Truly Applicable? News Media’s Contribution to the Debatability of Racism

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-204
Author(s):  
Danielle K. Kilgo
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Media Audiences ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Facebook Pages ◽  
The U.S

Since the U.S. 2016 presidential election, journalists and news organizations have been forced to confront shifting racial, social and political climates, and re-evaluate practices and norms. However, news coverage of racism is complex, especially because the conceptualization of racism in society is discordant, and the parameters of racism are heavily debated. News coverage can contribute to this debatability, specifically when it presents issues of racism with certain linguistic and topical features. In a content analysis of social media posts from six of the Facebook pages maintained by national broadcast and newspaper organizations, the present study explores contextual and linguistic representations of racism, and how social media users on Facebook engage with news posted by these organizations. Results suggest representations in news coverage signal a public debate about what is and is not racism. Coverage heavily emphasized prominent figures, while social media audiences amplified Trump’s presence in social networks.

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