scholarly journals Media Representations of Official Declarations and Political Actions in Brazil During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diogo Lopes de Oliveira ◽  
Erick Moreno ◽  
Bruce V. Lewenstein

Our case study situates science communication within the interaction of the COVID-19 disease, scientific research about the disease, public statements by relevant officials, media messages, political actions, and public opinion. By studying these interactions in the Brazilian context, we add to the understanding of science communication complexity by studying a context less easily available to the English-speaking research community. Methodologically, we identified key moments in Brazil during the pandemic using tools such as Google Trends, and content analysis of influencers' Twitter and Instagram accounts and digital newspapers. These episodes are then explored as case studies, using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis of messages to identify message emphasis frames and political agendas. The results introduce issues rarely explored in previous science communication research, especially ones associated with nationalism and political populism and national inequalities of privilege, income, and trust.

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 502-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Lavie

‘Reality’ television is a global and highly popular television phenomenon. Despite its public and academic critique as cultural ‘trash’, the genre enjoys great economic legitimacy. In recent years, other ‘trashy’ television genres, such as soap operas, have gained aesthetic-artistic legitimacy alongside their economic legitimacy. Taking a Bourdieusian approach and using the discourse about Israeli ‘reality’ shows as a case study, this article addresses the question of whether a similar process is evident in television critics’ attitudes towards reality television. Using quantitative and qualitative content analysis of reviews of ‘reality’ shows between 2003 and 2014, the article shows that the main question debated in such reviews is the genre’s morality rather than its aesthetic value: for Israeli critics, it is the moral attributes of these shows, not their aesthetic or artistic worth, which determine their ‘quality’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Alperin ◽  
Charles J Gomez ◽  
Stefanie Haustein

The growing presence of research shared on social media, coupled with the increase in freely available research, invites us to ask whether scientific articles shared on platforms like Twitter diffuse beyond the academic community. We explore a new method for answering this question by identifying 11 articles from two open access biology journals that were shared on Twitter at least 50 times and by analyzing the follower network of users who tweeted each article. We find that diffusion patterns of scientific articles can take very different forms, even when the number of times they are tweeted is similar. Our small case study suggests that most articles are shared within single-connected communities with limited diffusion to the public. The proposed approach and indicators can serve those interested in the public understanding of science, science communication, or research evaluation to identify when research diffuses beyond insular communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-263
Author(s):  
Nouf Alassaf ◽  
Sulaiman Bah ◽  
Fatima Almulhim ◽  
Norah AlDossary ◽  
Munirah Alqahtani

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine official healthcare informatics applications in Saudi Arabia in the context of their role in addressing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Methods: This is a case study of official healthcare informatics programs and applications (apps) developed in Saudi Arabia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative content analysis (QCA) method was used. Data collection consisted of two components: a desktop review of documents and actual testing of the programs. According to the QCA method, we developed a matrix for abstracting information on different apps and programs in order to categorize the data. The compilation of information and discussion were based on information summarized in the matrix.Results: Six apps in total were developed before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, three of the apps, SEHA, Mawid, and Sehaty were modified to address different aspects of the pandemic. Both SEHA and Mawid included information about COVID-19 awareness. During the COVID-19 pandemic, three official apps were developed: Tawakkalna, Tetamman, and Tabaud. The Tawakkalna app is mandatory for all citizens and residents to activate when visiting stores and institutions. It has a wide range of COVID-19 and other health-related functions. The Tetamman app provides COVID-19 test results and allows one to check his or her daily symptoms. It also has an educational content library and provides alerts. The Tabaud app notifies individuals if they have been exposed to COVID-19. The features, advantages, and disadvantages of all of the apps were examined.Conclusions: Overall, there were more strengths than shortcomings in the role played by healthcare informatics in the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-572
Author(s):  
Nadine Keller ◽  
Tina Askanius

An increasingly organized culture of hate is flourishing in today’s online spaces, posing a serious challenge for democratic societies. Our study seeks to unravel the workings of online hate on popular social media and assess the practices, potentialities, and limitations of organized counterspeech to stymie the spread of hate online. This article is based on a case study of an organized “troll army” of online hate speech in Germany, Reconquista Germanica, and the counterspeech initiative Reconquista Internet. Conducting a qualitative content analysis, we first unpack the strategies and stated intentions behind organized hate speech and counterspeech groups as articulated in their internal strategic documents. We then explore how and to what extent such strategies take shape in online media practices, focusing on the interplay between users spreading hate and users counterspeaking in the comment sections of German news articles on Facebook. The analysis draws on a multi-dimensional framework for studying social media engagement (Uldam & Kaun, 2019) with a focus on practices and discourses and turns to Mouffe’s (2005) concepts of political antagonism and agonism to operationalize and deepen the discursive dimension. The study shows that the interactions between the two opposing camps are highly moralized, reflecting a post-political antagonistic battle between “good” and “evil” and showing limited signs of the potentials of counterspeech to foster productive agonism. The empirical data indicates that despite the promising intentions of rule-guided counterspeech, the counter efforts identified and scrutinized in this study predominantly fail to adhere to civic and moral standards and thus only spur on the destructive dynamics of digital hate culture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (22) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Vidmantas Tutlys ◽  
Genute Gedviliene ◽  
Skaiste Vaiciukyniene

The European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy calls for the enhancement the attractiveness of vocational education and training. This article aims to disclose and critically discuss the requirements defined in legislation of Lithuania for advertising VET services with reference to the context of the improvement of the VET image in society. It seeks to determine the requirements stipulated in legislation of Lithuania for advertising VET services and to evaluate the information on admissions to institutions of vocational education and training on their web pages according to the criterion of truthfulness of advertising. The article may be useful for professionals who work or will work with marketing communication in the future. It can be used as a manual of how to inform customers about VET services properly. The methods applied in this research are content analysis of scientific literature and legal documents, linguistic, comparative, systematic and logical interpretation methods of law, and a qualitative content analysis used for the case study. The content of the training service and not the subjective image is the actual marketing object, because the content provides an advantage that ensures good market positions in increasingly competitive market of VET provision. The image of initial vocational education is determined not so much by the actions of society, but by the vocational training systems themselves, or more specifically by the targeted efforts of its participants to improve the quality of initial vocational education, responding to the public challenges and communicating this message to the interested audiences in the communication process.


First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro R. Marcon ◽  
Timothy Caulfield

The COVID-19 pandemic has created communication challenges exacerbated by the circulation of misinformation and the politicization of science. The case of hydroxychloroquine is an illustrative example, with the drug being aggressively promoted as a cure even while emerging evidence demonstrated the contrary. This research analyzed how hydroxychloroquine discussions took place on Twitter from 21 to 28 April 2020, a key period in developments around the drug. We collected, in real time, tweets with “hydroxychloroquine” over this period, which resulted in a dataset of nearly one million tweets from over 350,000 Twitter accounts. Our content analysis provides specific details of how hydroxychloroquine was promoted and critiqued, and which accounts were tweeting. Findings showed a highly polarized environment with active bots and conspiracy propagators, where political perspectives dominated the Twittersphere in the place of science-focused discussions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derya Yorgancıoglu ◽  
Sevinç Tunalı

This article explores the tools and processes of effective learning in the design studio with a special emphasis on the pedagogic roles of the tutors and the students in desk critique and peer critique. It aims to identify the ways that pedagogical roles of the tutor and the student change due to the nature of their communication and the degree of their engagement in learning processes. The inquiry is based on the findings of a qualitative case study involving tutors, students and graduates from a bachelor of architecture degree programme. Data were gathered via focus group and in-depth interviews, studio observations and analysed through qualitative content analysis. The findings indicated that the pedagogic identity of a tutor could help scaffold the formation of a community of learners in the design studio. However, the lack of negotiation and trust between a tutor and students in the feedback processes weakens the students’ effective learning experiences.


Author(s):  
Karthick Swaminathan ◽  
Lalitha Ramakrishnan ◽  
C. S. G. Krishnamacharyulu

India is grappling with the problem of controlling tuberculosis nearly for the past 50 years. The problem of nonadherence to treatment regimen has also worsened the situation of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in India. This article explores the factors behind nonadherence among erstwhile TB defaulters in a rural district in India. In-depth interviews with seven chronic defaulters and with healthcare professionals were conducted at a government-run Chest Clinic. In addition to in-depth interviews with defaulters and healthcare professionals, medical records and government orders related to TB control were examined extensively. Participants were also observed to understand their interaction with healthcare professionals and fellow patients, especially during drug delivery time. Qualitative content analysis is the most appropriate method to analyze the transcribed text and archival records. Qualitative content analysis brought out five major themes responsible for their past nonadherence behavior, namely, (a) Awareness about tuberculosis and treatment, (b) Symptom recognition and self-medication, (c) Family support, (d) Accessibility, and (e) Stigma. Findings are documented according to the major themes and documenting direct quotes from participants and with healthcare professionals wherever appropriate. This case study also provided context-specific recommendations to the healthcare professionals as regards the nonadherence behavior among TB patients. It is hoped these focused recommendations, albeit known to the healthcare professionals, would be extremely useful in making modifications to the existing program to tackle the nonadherence behavior.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Flavin

This article analyses students’ thoughts and feelings about online assessment. This article uses Disruptive Innovation theory as a lens through which to analyse students’ responses to online assessment, in a case study of a Leadership course. The sources of data for this article comprise annual course evaluation surveys, a one-off assessment survey and a focus group. Qualitative content analysis with a directed approach is used to analyse the data. The results show students are capable of undertaking a range of online assessments but are, in general, reluctant to utilise the innovative possibilities of different forms of online assessment. This article adds to our understanding of online assessment by placing it within a distinct theoretical framework, offering explanations for why students may not be seeking-out innovative forms of assessment.


Author(s):  
Kishwar Munir

A voting cluster is a connotation that denotes party loyalty rather than ethnic and social cleavages. The theory of voting cluster surfaces when the units of analysis are characterized by political parties and the voter instead of their nomenclatures. This makes this study significant and different given that it highlights the value of shifting the primary focus away from the nomenclature. With the nomenclature changing in every election, it is likely that political parties, their features, and trajectories are misconstrued. Thus, looking at the voting cluster of each political party and analyzing of these clusters data, gathered from different surveys and reports, provide a deeper and accurate understanding of voting patterns.  This approach of voting cluster provides us an additional platform for analysis along with the conventional focus on nomenclatures of political parties. The focus of study is to evaluate the changing pattern of voting clusters and their shift from one party to another. The qualitative content analysis research method has been used to understand the cluster pattern and why a voting cluster make or break from one party to other. The study maintains that there is no standalone factor that helps a political party to sustain a voting cluster.


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