scholarly journals Pacific media under siege: A review of the PINA Summit 2018

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-145
Author(s):  
Geraldine Panapasa ◽  
Shailendra Singh

The rapidly-changing technology and transforming political situation across the Pacific have seen a noticeable shift towards harsher media legislation as governments facing unprecedented scrutiny try to contain the fallout from social media, citizen journalism and fake news. These developments were at the heart of the discussions at the Pacific Islands Media Association’s PINA 2018 Summit in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, in May. The biannual event is the largest gathering of Pacific Islands journalists to contemplate issues of mutual concern, formulate collective responses and chart the way forward. This article reviews this year’s meeting, where discussions centred around the opportunities and challenges of the expanding social media sphere, as well as taking a fresh look at some perennial problems, such as corruption, political pressure and gender violence.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-368
Author(s):  
Vience Mutiara Rumata ◽  
◽  
Fajar Kuala Nugraha ◽  

Social media become a public sphere for political discussion in the world, with no exception in Indonesia. Social media have broadened public engagement but at the same time, it creates an inevitable effect of polarization particularly during the heightened political situation such as a presidential election. Studies found that there is a correlation between fake news and political polarization. In this paper, we identify and the pattern of fake narratives in Indonesia in three different time frames: (1) the Presidential campaign (23 September 2018 -13 April 2019); (2) the vote (14-17 April 2019); (3) the announcement (21-22 May 2019). We extracted and analyzed a data-set consisting of 806,742 Twitter messages, 143 Facebook posts, and 16,082 Instagram posts. We classified 43 fake narratives where Twitter was the most used platform to distribute fake narratives massively. The accusation of Muslim radical group behind Prabowo and Communist accusation towards the incumbent President Joko Widodo were the two top fake narratives during the campaign on Twitter and Facebook. The distribution of fake narratives to Prabowo was larger than that to Joko Widodo on those three platforms in this period. On the contrary, the distribution of fake narratives to Joko Widodo was significantly larger than that to Prabowo during the election and the announcement periods. The death threat of Joko Widodo was top fake narratives on these three platforms. Keywords: Fake narratives, Indonesian presidential election, social media, political polarization, post.


Author(s):  
Sahar Khamis

This chapter analyzes the role of new media, especially Internet-based communication, in accelerating the process of political transformation and democratization in Egypt. It analyzes the Egyptian media landscape before, during and after the 2011 revolution which toppled the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In the pre-revolutionary phase, the eclectic and paradoxical political and communication landscapes in Egypt, and the role that new media played in paving the way for the revolution, is discussed. During the 2011 revolution, the role of new media, especially social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is highlighted in terms of the multiple roles they play as catalysts for change, avenues for civic engagement, and platforms for citizen journalism. In the post-revolutionary phase, the multiple changes and challenges exhibiting themselves after the revolution are analyzed, especially the divisiveness between different players in the Egyptian political arena and how it is reflected in the communication landscape.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Ball

AbstractThe central thesis of this paper is that fake news and related phenomena serve as defeaters for knowledge transmission via journalistic channels. This explains how they pose a threat to democracy; and it points the way to determining how to address this threat. Democracy is both intrinsically and instrumentally good provided the electorate has knowledge (however partial and distributed) of the common good and the means of achieving it. Since journalism provides such knowledge, those who value democracy have a reason to protect it. Hostile agents, however, can undermine both the effectiveness of democratic decision-making and faith in democracy itself, by deliberately promulgating fake news and hyper-partisan views; moreover, these effects can come about unintentionally on social media. I conclude that we may need to change, not just the way we process information online, but also the informational environment in which we operate.


Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
David Blanco-Herrero ◽  
Javier J. Amores ◽  
Patricia Sánchez-Holgado

Although the phenomenon of disinformation and, specifically, fake news has become especially serious and problematic, this phenomenon has not been widely addressed in academia from the perspective of consumers, who play a relevant role in the spread of this content. For that reason, the present study focuses on determining how this phenomenon is perceived by citizens, as the strategies to counteract fake news are affected by such opinions. Thus, the main objective of this study was to identify in which media the perception and experience of fake news is greatest and thus determine what platforms should be focused on to counteract this phenomenon. A survey was conducted in October 2020, among the Spanish adult population and was completed by a total of 423 people (with 421 valid answers). Among its main findings, this study determined that social media platforms are the type of media in which the greatest amount of fake news is perceived, which confirms the suggestions of previous studies. Furthermore, the experienced presence of fake news seems to be primarily affected by age and gender, as there was a higher level of skepticism observed among young people and women. Additionally, the use of media seems to be positively correlated with the perceived and experienced presence of fake news.


2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-89
Author(s):  
Marianne Franklin

A number of empirical and conceptual lessons can be drawn from a closer look at atypical, non-western uses of the internet. Drawing on a study of two pioneering discussion forums, the Kava Bowl (KB) and the Kamehameha Roundtable (KR), maintained by diasporic Pacific Island communities, this article celebrates the existence of open, accessible cyberspaces in an increasingly privatised internet environment. The day to day operation of the KB/KR fora are argued to demonstrate the limitations of classical ‘public sphere’ thinking. In particular, the way in which power and influence is rendered in these online formations calls for a new conceptualisation of ‘public-ness’. Michel de Certeau’s concept of ‘everyday life’ is argued to provide a fertile link between Pacific Island internet practices and broader internet debates. In conclusion, it is argued that the way in which the ‘public’, the ‘private’, and ‘technology’ are construed in Western literatures, leaves non-western internet practices subsumed under ethnocentric and techno-determinist assumptions about the interrelationships between technology, culture and society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-224
Author(s):  
Francesca Dello Preite

2020 will be remembered as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2: a virus that suddenly spread worldwide affecting the health and the life of millions of people of all ages and putting a strain on welfare, economic, scientific and politic structures of all the Nations that have tried to respond to the multiple needs of their populations facing many obstacles and difficulties. Starting from a reflection about the new poverty lines that coronavirus produced in family context, this paper analyses the biggest difficulties that women faced during the “confinement” at home, when the housework and the children care multiplied, both in qualitative and in quantitative viewpoint, and gender violence registered an alarming increase. What happened in these months is a evident confirmation that women are still vulnerable people, and that the way to reach a significant gender equality is still fraught with obstacles.


2015 ◽  
pp. 1491-1504
Author(s):  
Sahar Khamis

This chapter analyzes the role of new media, especially Internet-based communication, in accelerating the process of political transformation and democratization in Egypt. It analyzes the Egyptian media landscape before, during and after the 2011 revolution which toppled the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In the pre-revolutionary phase, the eclectic and paradoxical political and communication landscapes in Egypt, and the role that new media played in paving the way for the revolution, is discussed. During the 2011 revolution, the role of new media, especially social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is highlighted in terms of the multiple roles they play as catalysts for change, avenues for civic engagement, and platforms for citizen journalism. In the post-revolutionary phase, the multiple changes and challenges exhibiting themselves after the revolution are analyzed, especially the divisiveness between different players in the Egyptian political arena and how it is reflected in the communication landscape.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document