scholarly journals Geopolitics of Catholic Pilgrimage: On the Double Materiality of (Religious) Politics in the Virtual Age

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Petr Kratochvíl
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Religious Politics ◽  
Sacred Sites ◽  
Virtual Age ◽  
Progressive Type ◽  
Three Phase

This article explores geopolitical aspects of Catholic pilgrimage in Europe. By exploring the representations of pilgrimage on Catholic social media, it shows that the increasing influence of the virtual is accompanied by a particular reassertion of the material aspects of pilgrimage. Two types of Catholic pilgrimage emerge, each with a particular spatial and political orientation. The first type of pilgrimage is predominantly politically conservative, but also spatially static, focusing on objects, be they human bodies or sacred sites. The second type is politically progressive, but also spatially dynamic, stressing pilgrimage as movement or a journey. The classic Turnerian conceptualization of a pilgrimage as a three-phase kinetic ritual thus falls apart, with liminality appropriated by the progressive type and aggregation almost entirely taken over by the conservative, apparitional pilgrimage. As a result, pilgrimage has once again become a geopolitical reflection of the broader ideological contestation both within Christianity and beyond.

scholarly journals Influencing the Conversation About Masculinity and Suicide: Evaluation of the Man Up Multimedia Campaign Using Twitter Data (Preprint)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisa Schlichthorst ◽  
Kylie King ◽  
Jackie Turnure ◽  
Suku Sukunesan ◽  
Andrea Phelps ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Promotion ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Performance Measure ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Traditional Health ◽  
Three Phase ◽  
Traditional Masculinity ◽  
Promotion Campaigns

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that some dominant aspects of traditional masculinity are contributing to the high suicide rates among Australian men. We developed a three-episode documentary called Man Up, which explores the complex relationship between masculinity and suicide and encourages men to question socially imposed rules about what it means to be a man and asks them to open up, express difficult emotions, and seek help if and when needed. We ran a three-phase social media campaign alongside the documentary using 5 channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr). OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine the extent to which the Man Up Twitter campaign influenced the social media conversation about masculinity and suicide. METHODS We used Twitter insights data to assess the reach of and engagement with the campaign (using metrics on followers, likes, retweets, and impressions) and to determine the highest and lowest performing tweets in the campaign (using an aggregated performance measure of reactions). We used original content tweets to determine whether the campaign increased the volume of relevant Twitter conversations (aggregating the number of tweets for selected campaign hashtags over time), and we used a subset of these data to gain insight into the main content themes with respect to audience engagement. RESULTS The campaign generated a strong following that was engaged with the content of the campaign; over its whole duration, the campaign earned approximately 5000 likes and 2500 retweets and gained around 1,022,000 impressions. The highest performing tweets posted by the host included video footage and occurred during the most active period of the campaign (around the screening of the documentary). The volume of conversations in relation to commonly used hashtags (#MANUP, #ABCMANUP, #LISTENUP, and #SPEAKUP) grew in direct relation to the campaign activities, achieving strongest growth during the 3 weeks when the documentary was aired. Strongest engagement was found with content related to help-seeking, masculinity, and expressing emotions. A number of followers tweeted personal stories that revealed overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the content of the documentary and strongly endorsed its messages. CONCLUSIONS The Man Up Twitter campaign triggered conversations about masculinity and suicide that otherwise may not have happened. For some, this may have been game-changing in terms of shifting attitudes toward expressing emotions and reaching out to others for help. The campaign was particularly effective in disseminating information and promoting conversations in real time, an advantage that it had over more traditional health promotion campaigns. This sort of approach could well be adapted to other areas of mental (and physical) health promotion campaigns to increase their reach and effectiveness.

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.

scholarly journals PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF INFODEMIC AND PERSONAL ATTITUDES TO DISINFORMATION ABOUT COVID-19 IN SOCIAL MEDIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-64
Author(s):  
Е.А. Михеев ◽  
Т.А. Нестик
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Prosocial Attitudes ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Relationship Of

В статье рассматривается проблема психологических механизмов, влияющих на распространение «фейковых» новостей и дезинформирование в цифровой среде в период пандемии COVID-19. На основании результатов отечественных и зарубежных исследований анализируются манипулятивные технологии, связанные с использованием дезинформационных стратегий. Обращается внимание на эффекты рамки и гемофильности, методы дискредитации, создание конспирологических теорий, троллинг, поляризацию интернет-сообществ, подражание, а также повышение эмоциональности сообщений. Обсуждаются личностные характеристики пользователей, связанные со склонностью к распространению ложной информации в социальных сетях, в том числе фейковых данных конспирологической и политической направленности. Приводятся результаты эмпирического исследования (N=287), в котором выявлена связь отношения личности к дезинформации о COVID-19 в социальных сетях с просоциальными установками, самоэффективностью и уровнем социального доверия. Показано, что уровень стресса и фаталистические установки в отношении исхода пандемии снижают способность пользователей социальных сетей распознавать ложные сообщения о COVID-19. Установлено, что игнорирование дезинформации в социальных сетях как социальной проблемы связано с низкими социальным доверием и выраженностью тревоги по поводу пандемии и ее последствий. Предпосылками готовности личности к действиям для защиты себя и общества от дезинформации являются доверие к другим социальным группам, а также интерес к новостям о пандемии и готовность оказывать помощь заболевшим. Признание необходимости государственных мер по защите общества от дезинформации, а также готовность к отказу от свободы общения в социальных сетях связаны не только с просоциальными установками, но и с конспирологической ориентацией личности и низким доверием к людям. Misinformation in the digital environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the results of domestic and foreign studies, manipulative technologies associated with the use of disinformation strategies are analyzed. Attention is drawn to the effects of the frame and hemophilicity, methods of discrediting, creating conspiracy theories, trolling, polarizing Internet communities, imitation, as well as increasing the emotionality of messages. The personal characteristics of users associated with the propensity to spread false information in social networks, including fake information of a conspiracy and political orientation, are indicated. The results of an empirical study of predictors of the individual's attitude to misinformation about COVID-19 (N=287) are presented. The relationship of the individual's attitude to disinformation in social networks with prosocial attitudes, self-efficacy and the level of social trust is revealed. Stress levels and fatalistic attitudes about the outcome of the pandemic have been shown to reduce the ability of social media users to recognize false reports about COVID-19. It was found that ignoring disinformation in social networks as a social problem is associated with low social trust and the severity of anxiety about the pandemic and its consequences. Trust in other social groups, as well as an interest in news about the pandemic and a willingness to help the sick, are prerequisites for the individual's readiness to act for protection themselves and society from misinformation. The recognition of the need for state measures to protect society from disinformation, as well as the willingness to abandon the freedom of communication in social networks, are associated not only with prosocial attitudes, but also with the conspiracy orientation of the individual and low trust in people.

scholarly journals Prediction of Election by Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 847-850
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Context Awareness ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Classification Model ◽  
The Political ◽  
Key Players

Nowadays social media like Twitter and Facebook etc. is one of the key players. Twitters are micro blogging sites by which users sent their opinions and views in brief. The information generated by one user can be seen by everyone. Therefore to analyze twitter sentiment can be a crucial task. For this task, we have used various approaches like novel based approach and machine learning and many other rules like context awareness are used for the detection of public opinion and prediction of results. We are studying the user tweets during elections. Meaningful tweets are collected on a definite period.The feasibility of the developed classification model is identified by our proposed work to identify the political orientation on the tweets and other user-based features. The technique for the collection of tweets in time has played an important role. When the outcome of applied technique competes with survey agencies result was published before elections result.

Effects of network heterogeneity on social media on opinion polarization among South Koreans: Focusing on fear and political orientation

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiyoung Lee ◽  
Yunjung Choi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Network Heterogeneity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Moderation Effects ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Threatening Situation ◽  
The Relationship

Recent studies have shown mixed findings regarding the relationship between network heterogeneity on social media and opinion polarization. Focusing on individual-level variables (i.e., individuals' political orientation, fear of a risky situation, and fear of an out-group), the objective of this study was to investigate opinion polarization over North Korean issues that have brought out threats to South Koreans and tangled with political orientations in the nation. Our analysis indicated that network heterogeneity on social media could decrease polarization. Moderation effects of political orientation and fear of political opponents in the relationship between network heterogeneity and polarization were also found. Findings of this study extend previous discussions regarding the relationship between network heterogeneity and polarization in the context of social media by concentrating on North Korea's threatening situation.

Reaching Down and Finding Humanity

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 321-342
Author(s):  
Myra F. Taylor ◽  
Julie Ann Pooley ◽  
Mary Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Phase Content ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Three Phase ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

It is conservatively estimated that 12% of all American soldiers who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan fields of engagement have returned home with psychological problems. Research that investigates the psychological underpinnings of these problems is pertinent to meeting the mental health needs of serving and returned soldiers. This study was used to investigate the psychological needs of combat soldiers who adopted strays dog while on deployment, and the impact that ending that bonded relationship had on their actions as they neared the end of their deployments. A triangulated three-phase content analysis was conducted to study the narratives of 22 dog adopting soldiers whose experiences were reported in the popular media, the comments of 24 journalists reporting these stories, and 83 social media responses to the journalists’ reports. The soldiers’ dog adopting-related behaviors reflected needs for nurturance, normalcy, recognition, esteem, and control during the periods of their deployments.

scholarly journals Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Mothes ◽  
Jakob Ohme
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Selective Exposure ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Political News ◽  
High Affinity ◽  
Social Monitoring ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
Exposure Patterns ◽  
Run Up

Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (<em>N</em> = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues.

Digital and Virtual Age

2013 ◽  
pp. 255-268
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Virtual Age ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
The World ◽  
Educational Trend

Chapter 11 serves as another expository to readers. In this chapter, readers are enlightened on the digital and virtual age as they relate to the educational trend and online education. In addition, the chapter provides some insights to social media as they relate to education at higher educational institutions and how connecting to the world in terms of education and doing business is at the fingertips with the aid of mobile computing and social media. While social media and mobile devices create an ease of reaching information and networking, their careless usage and lack of monitoring in the classroom exacerbate and defeat their intended good purpose of enhancing the learning process, failing to render the desired results.

scholarly journals Analysis of Social Media Discussions on (#)Diet by Blue, Red, and Swing States in the U.S.

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 518
Author(s):  
Amir Karami ◽  
Alicia A. Dahl ◽  
George Shaw ◽  
Sruthi Puthan Valappil ◽  
Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Dietary Preferences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Political Orientations ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Analyze Data

The relationship between political affiliations and diet-related discussions on social media has not been studied on a population level. This study used a cost- and -time effective framework to leverage, aggregate, and analyze data from social media. This paper enhances our understanding of diet-related discussions with respect to political orientations in U.S. states. This mixed methods study used computational methods to collect tweets containing “diet” or “#diet” shared in a year, identified tweets posted by U.S. Twitter users, disclosed topics of tweets, and compared democratic, republican, and swing states based on the weight of topics. A qualitative method was employed to code topics. We found 32 unique topics extracted from more than 800,000 tweets, including a wide range of themes, such as diet types and chronic conditions. Based on the comparative analysis of the topic weights, our results revealed a significant difference between democratic, republican, and swing states. The largest difference was detected between swing and democratic states, and the smallest difference was identified between swing and republican states. Our study provides initial insight on the association of potential political leanings with health (e.g., dietary behaviors). Our results show diet discussions differ depending on the political orientation of the state in which Twitter users reside. Understanding the correlation of dietary preferences based on political orientation can help develop targeted and effective health promotion, communication, and policymaking strategies.

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