scholarly journals Role of Social Media as a Soft Power Tool in Raising Public Awareness and Engagement in Addressing Climate Change

Climate ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavrodieva ◽  
Rachman ◽  
Harahap ◽  
Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Political Decision Making

Climate change has been one of the most debated topics in the past few decades, but a number of challenges have hindered the development of robust policies and strategies by nations. At the same time, social media platforms—such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—have given the opportunity for the general public to share opinions and engage with the issue of climate change like never before. This phenomenon is considered to be a new form of soft power which can provide input into the discussion and possibly affect the current international political mechanisms. The present paper aims to (1) define the forms and characteristics of social media as a soft power method, (2) analyze its influence on the awareness of societies, and (3) assess if increased public awareness could influence the official political and policy processes. In order to assess if social media has influence on people’s relative awareness, we have focused on analyzing the links between a few highly visible climate change related events and the trends in people’s searches on the Internet in connection to those events. The study finds that even though it is difficult to assess the effects of social media as a soft power tool with certainty, there are visible links between social media and changing public perceptions, with the possibility of public opinion influencing political decision-making.

scholarly journals Evidence of Climate Change Engagement Behaviour on a Facebook Fan-Based Page

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7038
Author(s):  
Kirtika Deo ◽  
Abhnil Amtesh Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Data Privacy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Small Islands ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Climate change has become one of the most debated topics in recent times. The social media platforms have given the general public the power and propensity to share and express concerns about climate change. However, climate change awareness created on social media depends on user engagement with the contents modulated by emotions. Much has been researched in this area using Twitter, but Facebook fan-based pages have not been extensively explored in the past. In this study, we investigate the engagement behaviour of users on a Facebook fan-based page titled “Global Climate Change Awareness” by analysing user insights data for two years starting from April 2018 to April 2020. Results show that the frequency of posts made to the page did not significantly promote engagement but improved visibility of the contents to the users. Overall, fan growth was attributed more to increased post visibility that enhanced post engagement. Hashtags associated with climate change had a significant reach amongst users, but those associated with disasters where the page expressed sadness and informed users about taking precautions had the highest engagement rate. Likewise, users from developing countries, especially from the small islands, were more engaged with climate change awareness. This study did not assess negative responses from users (possible deniers of climate change) and other Facebook fan-based pages due to data privacy and stringent Facebook policy.

scholarly journals Rebellious Priests? : The Catholic Clergy and the Diet, 1764-1765

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-95
Author(s):  
András Forgó
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Political Event ◽  
Parliamentary Debates ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Decision Making

The study of the eighteenth-century parliament has intensified in Hungary over the past decade and a half. This tendency is part of a larger European historiographical trend which has revalued the role of the Diets in the study of eighteenth-century political decision-making and political culture. The Hungarian Diet of 1764–1765 is traditionally seen as an outstanding political event in the century, and at the same time as a turning point of the reign of Maria Theresa. After the bitter experiences gained here, she did not convene the estates of Hungary during the remaining fifteen years of her reign, she rather ruled the country by decrees with the help of the institutions of the estates in Hungary. This study is looking for the answer to the question of how the clergy’s opposition to the politics of the court is represented in the sources and how the “change of sides” by the chapter representatives can be grasped in the parliamentary debates.

scholarly journals Please Like, Comment and Share our Campaign!

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Johan Farkas ◽  
Sander Andreas Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
National Elections ◽  
The Social ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Political Decision Making

Abstract Based on 18 qualitative interviews, this article explores how the social media managers for the nine parties in the Danish parliament articulate the role of social media during the 2015 national elections. The article finds that the interviewees emphasise Facebook as an important means for one-way political communication and the monitoring of public opinion. The majority of the interviewees articulate a sense of responsibility for facilitating public debate on Facebook through the moderation of user-generated content and/or interactions with users. Yet the social media managers do not systematically analyse political input from social media users, nor do they see Facebook and Twitter as viable means of citizen influence on political decision-making. This is explained by a perceived lack of voter representativeness among Facebook users, fear of appearing politically imprudent and scepticism towards social media’s participatory potential.

Coming out of the closet? Audience reactions to the heteronormative disruptive advertising

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-102
Author(s):  
Ramasela Semang L. Mathobela ◽  
Shepherd Mpofu ◽  
Samukezi Mrubula-Ngwenya
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media

An emerging global trend of brands advertising their products through LGBTIQ+ individuals and couples indicates growth of gender awareness across the globe. The media, through advertising, deconstructs homophobia and associated cultures through the use of LGBTIQ+s in commercials. This qualitative research paper centres the advancement of debates on human rights and social media as critical in the interaction between corporates and consumers. The Gillette, Chicken Licken‘s Soul Sisters and We the Brave advertisements were used to critically analyse how audiences react to the use of LGBTIQ+ characters and casts through comments posted on the brands‘ social media platforms. Further, the paper explored the role of social media in the mediation of significant gender issues such as homosexuality that are considered taboo to engage in. The paper used a qualitative approach. Using the digital ethnography method to observe comments and interactions from the chosen advertisement‘s online platforms, the paper employed queer and constructionist theories to deconstruct discourses around same-sex relations as used in commercials, especially in quasiconservative. The data used in the paper included thirty comments of the brands customers and audiences obtained from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The paper concludes there are positive development in human rights awareness as seen through advertisements and campaigns that use LGBTIQ+ communities in a positive light across the world.

Revolutionizing Mental Health with Social Media

2019 ◽  
pp. 259-284
Author(s):  
Munmun De Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Linguistic Expression ◽  
Ethical Considerations ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Vulnerable Communities ◽  
Tailored Interventions ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms have emerged as rich repositories of information relating to people’s activities, emotions, and linguistic expression. This chapter highlights how these data may be harnessed to reason about human mental and psychological well-being. It also discusses the emergent role of social media in providing a platform of self-disclosure and support to distressed and vulnerable communities. It reflects on how this new line of research bears potential for informing the design of timely and tailored interventions, provisions for improved personal and societal well-being assessment, privacy and ethical considerations, and the challenges and opportunities of the increasing ubiquity of social media.

scholarly journals Public Awareness: What Climate Change Scientists Should Consider

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8369
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Connected Network ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Design Solutions ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

In this Opinion, the importance of public awareness to design solutions to mitigate climate change issues is highlighted. A large-scale acknowledgment of the climate change consequences has great potential to build social momentum. Momentum, in turn, builds motivation and demand, which can be leveraged to develop a multi-scale strategy to tackle the issue. The pursuit of public awareness is a valuable addition to the scientific approach to addressing climate change issues. The Opinion is concluded by providing strategies on how to effectively raise public awareness on climate change-related topics through an integrated, well-connected network of mavens (e.g., scientists) and connectors (e.g., social media influencers).

scholarly journals Quantified Nostalgia: Social Media, Metrics, and Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Benjamin N. Jacobsen ◽  
David Beer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The Past ◽  
Group Data ◽  
Focus Group Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Memory Practices ◽  
The Relationship

As social media platforms have developed over the past decade, they are no longer simply sites for interactions and networked sociality; they also now facilitate backwards glances to previous times, moments, and events. Users’ past content is turned into definable objects that can be scored, rated, and resurfaced as “memories.” There is, then, a need to understand how metrics have come to shape digital and social media memory practices, and how the relationship between memory, data, and metrics can be further understood. This article seeks to outline some of the relations between social media, metrics, and memory. It examines how metrics shape remembrance of the past within social media. Drawing on qualitative interviews as well as focus group data, the article examines the ways in which metrics are implicated in memory making and memory practices. This article explores the effect of social media “likes” on people’s memory attachments and emotional associations with the past. The article then examines how memory features incentivize users to keep remembering through accumulation. It also examines how numerating engagements leads to a sense of competition in how the digital past is approached and experienced. Finally, the article explores the tensions that arise in quantifying people’s engagements with their memories. This article proposes the notion of quantified nostalgia in order to examine how metrics are variously performative in memory making, and how regimes of ordinary measures can figure in the engagement and reconstruction of the digital past in multiple ways.

A market-based rationale for the privacy paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110158
Author(s):  
Opeyemi Akanbi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Market Structures ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Privacy Paradox ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Privacy Risks ◽  
Social Collective

Moving beyond the current focus on the individual as the unit of analysis in the privacy paradox, this article examines the misalignment between privacy attitudes and online behaviors at the level of society as a collective. I draw on Facebook’s market performance to show how despite concerns about privacy, market structures drive user, advertiser and investor behaviors to continue to reward corporate owners of social media platforms. In this market-oriented analysis, I introduce the metaphor of elasticity to capture the responsiveness of demand for social media to the data (price) charged by social media companies. Overall, this article positions social media as inelastic, relative to privacy costs; highlights the role of the social collective in the privacy crises; and ultimately underscores the need for structural interventions in addressing privacy risks.

scholarly journals The microbial world in a changing environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Vicuña ◽  
Bernardo González
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Complete Evaluation ◽  
Microbial World ◽  
Sustainable Environment ◽  
Entire Planet ◽  
New Strategies

Abstract Background In this article we would like to touch on the key role played by the microbiota in the maintenance of a sustainable environment in the entire planet. For obvious reasons, this article does not intend to review thoroughly this extremely complex topic, but rather to focus on the main threats that this natural scenario is presently facing. Methods Recent literature survey. Results Despite the relevance of microorganisms have in our planet, the effects of climate change on microbial communities have been scarcely and not systematically addressed in literature. Although the role of microorganisms in emissions of greenhouse gases has received some attention, there are several microbial processes that are affected by climate change with consequences that are presently under assessment. Among them, host-pathogen interactions, the microbiome of built environment, or relations among plants and beneficial microbes. Conclusions Further research is required to advance in knowledge of the effect of climate change on microbial communities. One of the main targets should be a complete evaluation of the global microbial functional diversity and the design of new strategies to cope with limitations in methods to grow microorganisms in the laboratory. These efforts should contribute to raise a general public awareness on the major role played by the microbiota on the various Earth ecosystems.

Public perceptions of who counts as a scientist for controversial science

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 797-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky ◽  
Asheley Landrum ◽  
Natalie Jomini Stroud
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Genetically Modified Organisms ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Science Media

In an era where expertise is increasingly critiqued, this study draws from the research on expertise and scientist stereotyping to explore who the public considers to be a scientist in the context of media coverage about climate change and genetically modified organisms. Using survey data from the United States, we find that political ideology and science knowledge affect who the US public believes is a scientist in these domains. Our results suggest important differences in the role of science media attention and science media selection in the publics “scientist” labeling. In addition, we replicate previous work and find that compared to other people who work in science, those with PhDs in Biology and Chemistry are most commonly seen as scientists.

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