scholarly journals A Longitudinal Analysis of the Creation of Environmental Identity and Attitudes towards Energy Sustainability Using the Framework of Identity Theory and Big Data Analysis

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 647
Author(s):  
Dorota Domalewska

Embracing sustainability in the 21st century entails developing environmental identity, so that attitudes towards energy sustainability result from the core values of one’s individual and social identity. This study aims to explore the shift in the formation of environmental identity and attitudes towards energy sustainability throughout the course of the two-year study period (2018–2020). A dataset of 8,677,961 tweets, Facebook posts and comments and 325,228 news articles was collected to carry out quantitative analysis of the distribution of the posts, likes, and comments. A correlation with media coverage of energy and green topics was sought to establish the impact of the media on public debate. A qualitative analysis of posts and tweets was carried out to establish dominant themes. The findings of the study reveal that both positive attitudes towards energy sustainability and environmental identity have been consolidated throughout the two-year study period. Social media users are not only increasingly interested in green issues but also produce more reactions towards posts related to sustainability topics. The results also suggest that sustainable values and green behavior are independent from the media coverage of current events and the perceived threat to one’s health from COVID-19. Social networking sites provide a context in which users not only reinforce their beliefs and values, but also mimic the behavior of other users, which leads to the formation of a social media identity bubble that reinforces shared identity—in this case, environmental identity. This study offers a multidisciplinary perspective on sustainable development that will be able to drive equitable energy security and environmental security.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-123
Author(s):  
Cristiane Guilherme Bonfim ◽  
Márcia Vidal Nunes

This article aims to reflect on the impact that the campaign #PrimeiroAssédio [first harassment], created by the NGO Think Olga, in 2015, had on the perception of Facebook female users on the subject of harassment, drawing from the perspective of Cultural Studies. This hashtag encouraged the sharing of content and placed the feminist issue of combating sexual harassment on the agenda. We have used Martín-Barbero’s (1997) concept of mediation to investigate the context in which users published posts on Facebook and have conducted interviews with women who have published comments in the campaign’s posts. In a context of prolific content generation and intense participation, with many people speaking to many people, many authors see the emergence of politically driven action on social media, the so-called “digital activism”, as being relative, holding little expectations of radical social change. Our interviewees’ answers indicate that, in terms of tangible changes, they found that they were able to engage in dialogue about the topic with the people who were closest to them.         Este artigo tem como objetivo refletir sobre o impacto da campanha #PrimeiroAssédio, criada pela ONG Think Olga, em 2015, na percepção de leitoras no Facebook sobre o tema assédio, sob a perspectiva dos Estudos Culturais. A hashtag incentivou compartilhamento de conteúdo e agendou veículos de mídia sobre assédio, uma pauta que é bandeira de movimentos feministas. O conceito de mediações de Martín-Barbero (1997) é usado para investigar o contexto de postagens no Facebook e entrevistas com mulheres que comentaram em posts da campanha. No cenário de geração de conteúdo em profusão e da participação de muitos falando para muitos, a atuação política nas redes sociais, o chamado ativismo digital, é perpassada com alguma relativização, sem expectativa de mudança radical. As respostas das entrevistadas sinalizam que campanhas como essa podem  alcançar repercussão fora das redes, mas indicam que a mudança gerada foi o diálogo mais frequente sobre o tema com o círculo de pessoas mais próximo.Este artículo objetiva hacer una reflexión sobre el impacto de la campaña #PrimeiroAssédio (#Primeracoso), creada por la Organización no Gubernamental Think Olga el 2015, en la percepción de lectoras en Facebook sobre el tema acoso, bajo la perspectiva de los Estudios Culturales. La etiqueta incentivó que el contenido fuera compartido y generó agenda setting de medios de comunicación sobre acoso, una pauta que es bandera de los movimientos feministas. El concepto de mediaciones de Martín-Barbero (1997) es usado para investigar el contexto de publicaciones en Facebook y entrevistas con mujeres que comentaron en posts de la campaña. En el escenario de geración de contenido en profusión y de participación de muchos comunicando para muchos, la actuación política en las redes sociales, el llamado activismo digital, se puede identificar alguna relativización, sin expectativa de cambio radical. Las respuestas de las entrevistadas señalan que campañas como esa pueden alcanzar repercusión más allá de las redes, pero apuntan que el cambio generado ha sido el diálogo más a menudo sobre el tema con el círculo de personas más cercanas.


Author(s):  
Lotfi Ziadi

Our research sought to monitor, measure and analyze the opinions and positions of Saudi men and women regarding the use of traditional and electronic media and social networking sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed 477 Saudi men and women via an electronic questionnaire. The results show that Saudi respondents have increased their exposure to traditional media and that their use of social media has been intensified due to the pandemic. It was found that Saudis use social media to search for news and information that would help them understand the nature of the pandemic, how it spread, and what must be done to avoid, prevent, and respond to it. It was also found that social networking sites are the first sources used by Saudis to obtain news, although they consider these sites more likely to spread rumors about the pandemic. In general, most of the respondents consider the media coverage of the pandemic successful and think that most forms of news media are honest and reassuring.


Suicidologi ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Benson ◽  
Niall McTernan ◽  
Fenella Ryan ◽  
Ella Arensman

Internationally, there are indications of an increasing trend in suicide contagion and clustering, which has been associated with contemporary communication technology and continuous communication across jurisdictions. Research has indicated varying effects related to different types of media and media contents in terms of impacts on suicidal behaviour. A comprehensive literature search was conducted into research addressing different types of media and media contents and the impact on suicide contagion and clustering, covering January 2003 - February 2021. Across the 41 selected studies, we identified consistency in terms of both increased quantity of media reports and portrayal of specific details of suicide cases, including celebrities and fictional cases, to be significantly associated with suicide contagion and increased suicide rates or mass clusters, with significant impacts on increased risk of suicide contagion within the first days up to the first three monthsfollowing the media coverage. The impact of potentially harmful content and the portrayal of suicide and self-harm via internet sites and social media on suicide contagion and clustering was largely consistent with research into impacts involving traditional media. The findings underline the need to prioritise implementation and adherence to media guidelines for reporting suicide for media professionals, online and social media outlets.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-49
Author(s):  
Katie Seaborn ◽  
Deborah I. Fels ◽  
Rob Bajko ◽  
Jaigris Hodson

Gamification, or the use of game elements in non-game contexts, has become a popular and increasingly accepted method of engaging learners in educational settings. However, there have been few comparisons of different kinds of courses and students, particularly in terms of discipline and content. Additionally, little work has reported on course instructor/designer perspectives. Finally, few studies on gamification have used a conceptual framework to assess the impact on student engagement. This paper reports on findings from evaluating two gamified multimedia and social media undergraduate courses over the course of one semester. Findings from applying a multidimensional framework suggest that the gamification approach taken was moderately effective for students overall, with some elements being more engaging than others in general and for each course over time." Post-term questionnaires posed to the instructors/course designers revealed congruence with the student perspective and several challenges pre- and post-implementation, despite the use of established rules for gamifying curricula.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Hoffman

Battle terminology such as “fight,” “conquer,” and “hero” and imagery that compares doctors and patients to superheroes, soldiers and athletes have become increasingly prevalent in hospital foundation communications. The use of these metaphors has been highly controversial. While some audiences have praised foundation campaigns that use this type of messaging for emphasizing the strength of patients and hospital staff, encouraging patient families, and motivating patients to be resilient, others argue that these campaigns marginalize those who are unable to overcome their health conditions, positioning them as failures or losers. While the use of battle metaphors in hospital communications has been a heated topic in online discussion, little is known about the impact of this language on the media coverage and financial support that they generate for hospitals. This paper presents a multimodal discourse analysis of the communications of six hospital foundations in Toronto, Canada followed by a quantitative and sentiment analysis of the media coverage each foundation has received within the last fiscal year. The aim of this paper is to determine if there is a relationship between the use of battle metaphors in hospital foundation communications and the amount and sentiment of media coverage. According to agenda setting theory, media coverage has a palpable impact on public action. Therefore, the findings of this research may assist hospital foundations in developing useful communications practices they can employ to increase media exposure and, consequently, attract more donations to support their institutions.


Author(s):  
MD Saiful Alam Chowdhury ◽  
Monira Begum ◽  
Shaolin Shaon

The past decade has seen an armorial growth of the influence of social media on many aspects of people’s lives. Social networking sites, especially Facebook, play a substantial role in framing popular view through its contents. This article explores the impact of visuals, especially photos and videos, published in social media during social movements. Importantly that some visuals received attention in social media during agitations which later got featured or become news in print, electronic and online news portal media as well. Some of the visuals later proved to be edited or fabricated contents which created confusion among participants in this research and beyond. The confusion has contributed to the acceleration or shrinkage of the movement in question in many cases. The center of this article is to examine how social media visuals influence people’s visual communication during social movements. Additionally, it digs out the user’s activity on social media during movements.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benny Nuriely ◽  
Moti Gigi ◽  
Yuval Gozansky

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the ways socio-economic issues are represented in mainstream news media and how it is consumed, understood and interpreted by Israeli young adults (YAs). It examines how mainstream media uses neo-liberal discourse, and the ways YAs internalize this ethic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome its limitations. Design/methodology/approach This was a mixed methods study. First, it undertook content analysis of the most popular Israeli mainstream news media among YAs: the online news site Ynet and the TV Channel 2 news. Second, the authors undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews with 29 Israeli YAs. The analysis is based on an online survey of 600 young Israelis, aged 18–35 years. Findings Most YAs did not perceive mainstream media as enabling a reliable understanding of the issues important to them. The content analysis revealed that self-representation of YAs is rare, and that their issues were explained, and even resolved, by older adults. Furthermore, most of YAs' problems in mainstream news media were presented using a neo-liberal perspective. Finally, from the interviews, the authors learned that YAs did not find information that could help them deal with their most pressing economic and social issue, in the content offered by mainstream media. For most of them, social media overcomes these shortcomings. Originality/value Contrary to research that has explored YAs’ consumerism of new media outlets, this article explores how YAs in Israel are constructed in the media, as well as the way in which YAs understand mainstream and new social media coverage of the issues most important to them. Using media content analysis and interviews, the authors found that Young Adults tend to be ambivalent toward media coverage. They understand the lack of media information: most of them know that they do not learn enough from the media. This acknowledgment accompanies their tendency to internalize the neo-liberal logic and conservative Israeli national culture, in which class and economic redistribution are largely overlooked. Mainstream news media uses neo-liberal discourse, and young adults internalize this logic, while simultaneously finding ways to overcome the limitations this discourse offers. They do so by turning to social media, mainly Facebook. Consequently, their behavior maintains the logic of the market, while also developing new social relations, enabled by social media.


2021 ◽  
Vol 00 (00) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jayeon Lee

The role of the media in informing the public has long been a central topic in journalism studies. Given that social media platforms have become today’s major source of news, it is important to understand the impact of social media use on citizens’ knowledge of current affairs. While people get news from multiple platforms throughout the day, most research treats social media as a single entity or examines only one or two major platforms ignoring newer social media platforms. Drawing on news snacking framework, this study investigates how using some of today’s most popular social media platforms predicts users’ current affairs knowledge, with particular attention to Snapchat and its news section Discover. A survey conducted in the United States (N=417) demonstrated that each of the platforms is distinct: Twitter is a strongly positive predictor of knowledge, Facebook a marginally significant negative predictor, Reddit a significantly negative predictor and Instagram not a significant predictor. Overall Snapchat use has no significant association with users’ knowledge of current affairs, whereas Discover use has a negative relationship. Further analysis revealed that mere exposure to Snapchat is positively related to soft-news knowledge and attention to Discover is negatively related to hard-news knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuhuan Zhou ◽  
Yi Wang

BACKGROUND During the COVID-19 outbreak, social media served as the main platform for information exchange, through which the Chinese government, media and public would spread information. At the same time, a variety of emotions interweave, and the public emotions would also be affected by the government and media. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the types, trends and relationships of emotional diffusion in Chinese social media among the public, the government and the media under the pandemic of COVID-19 (December 30,2019, to July 1,2020) . METHODS In this paper, Python 3.7.0 and its data crawling framework Scrapy 1.5.1 are used to write a web crawler program to search for super topics related to COVID-19 on Sina Weibo platform of different keywords . Then, we used emotional lexicon to analyze the types and trends of the public, government and media emotions on social media. Finally cross-lagged regression was applied to build the relationships of different subjects’ emotions. RESULTS The highlights of our study are threefold: (1) The public, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic in China; (2) Emotional diffusion shows a certain change over time, and negative emotions are obvious in the initial phase of the pandemic, with the development of the pandemic, positive emotions surpass negative emotions and remain stable. (3)The impact among the three main emotions with the period as the time point is weak, while the impact of emotion with the day as the time point is relatively obvious. The emotions of the public and the government impact each other, and the media emotions can guide the public emotions. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study of comparing pubic, government and media emotions on the social media during COVID-19 pandemic in China. The pubic, the government and the media mainly diffuse positive emotions during the pandemic. And the government and the media have better effect on short-term emotional guidance. Therefore, when the pandemic suddenly occurs, the government and the media should intervene in time to solve problems and conflicts and diffuse positive and neutral emotions. In this regard, the government and the media can play important roles through social media in the major outbreaks. At the theoretical level, this paper takes China's epidemic environment and social media as the background to provide one of the explanatory perspectives for the spread of emotions on social media. At the some time, because of this special background, it can provide comparison and reference for the research on internet emotions in other countries.


Glimpse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-130
Author(s):  
Sarah Lwahas ◽  

Journalism like many other professions is facing a crucial phase with the emergence of Coronavirus pandemic. The impact of Coronavirus phenomenon is enormous on social and cultural relationships of many communities who depend on the media for information to connect with each other and participate in governance freely. Journalists globally are facing enormous crisis of managing the infodemic of the pandemic streaming particularly from social media; as well as controversies of the media perpetuating disinfodemic or disinformation and distrust in the society. Besides arrests and restrictions of movement, journalists are also under intense threats of losing their jobs, and exacerbated psychological and physical pressures owing to the devastating effects of COVID-19. Using the Social Responsibility theory, that emphasises improved standards of journalism, safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalists among others, and the Agenda setting theory, that controls access to news, information, and entertainment; this research interrogates how journalists from selected states in Northern Nigeria are responding to the challenges of reportage of COVID-19. This research sampled the views of journalists using structured questionnaire administered online and interviewed seven senior journalists holding managerial positions. Findings revealed that journalists are embracing fact checking of the avalanche of information even within familiar sources to verify reports on COVID-19. Similarly, they are deploying digital and multimedia strategies to provide a continuum of media services and sensitive reporting to engage this new infodemic of COVID-19, now globally considered the “new normal”. This research recommends that, since COVID-19 is a novel disease, professionals across countries need to talk with each other, and journalists particularly from Africa and indeed Nigeria; need to put some structure and some science in place, especially in the performance of their jobs, so that professionalism can be sustained without compromising the future of the journalism.


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