scholarly journals Countering the New Media Podia: Youth and ‘Fake News’ in Kenya

Author(s):  
Oloo Ong’ong’a

The rise of fake news into the new media platform has raised significant concern in Africa and Kenya in recent years. The new media has embedded itself with fake news, which sometimes has led to the misunderstanding and misinformation of particular events that might be of the public interest. The general public, policymakers, and scholars, as well as the media, have found this as a very challenging issue. The upsurge of the new technologies, mainly social media, has posed challenges as youth immerse themselves in utilizing these social media for their own benefits. This is coupled with the creation and spreading of fake news, which sometimes when it goes viral; they lead to stress, panic and uncertainty to the individuals that come across them. The ability of users’ exceptional capacity to produce, reproduce, and distribute their information to a broad audience makes social media, an essential tool in the information age. The article critically reviews the literature on fake news and recommends for media literacy, strengthening the legal structures and use of sophisticated technologies as a strategy to fight fake news in the social media in Kenya.

Author(s):  
Giandomenico Di Domenico ◽  
Annamaria Tuan ◽  
Marco Visentin

AbstractIn the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedent amounts of fake news and hoax spread on social media. In particular, conspiracy theories argued on the effect of specific new technologies like 5G and misinformation tarnished the reputation of brands like Huawei. Language plays a crucial role in understanding the motivational determinants of social media users in sharing misinformation, as people extract meaning from information based on their discursive resources and their skillset. In this paper, we analyze textual and non-textual cues from a panel of 4923 tweets containing the hashtags #5G and #Huawei during the first week of May 2020, when several countries were still adopting lockdown measures, to determine whether or not a tweet is retweeted and, if so, how much it is retweeted. Overall, through traditional logistic regression and machine learning, we found different effects of the textual and non-textual cues on the retweeting of a tweet and on its ability to accumulate retweets. In particular, the presence of misinformation plays an interesting role in spreading the tweet on the network. More importantly, the relative influence of the cues suggests that Twitter users actually read a tweet but not necessarily they understand or critically evaluate it before deciding to share it on the social media platform.


Author(s):  
Farahana Binti Nadzri

In this era of information or also known as Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age, the public is not only able to access information with a stroke of their fingers but also create vast information for others. The newer generations of smartphones, computers, and tablets have made information omnipresent and easily accessible through the social media platform. But are the authorities and experts using this platform effectively to reach out to the public and dispel misinformation and pseudoscience? With citizen journalists in the rise, there is a greater demand for experts to make their voice heard. Social media has become an “official” source of information on science for many. These include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tick Tock, LinkedIn, YouTube and many more. According to a survey done by Global Web Index, internet users are spending an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media. It influences public opinion and decision making process. Organic food, alternative treatment for cancer and other diseases, genetically modified foods, slimming products and vaccination are some of the trending science news in social media. It is time health and medical experts step up and use the social media platform to provide science-based information to the public and dispel fake news, misinformation and fear mongering. This talk will present the different types of social media platforms, their demographics and distinct characters of each platform. The different strategies to maximize the media impression will also be discussed.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue: 2019 Page: 27


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athapol Ruangkanjanases ◽  
Shu-Ling Hsu ◽  
Yenchun Jim Wu ◽  
Shih-Chih Chen ◽  
Jo-Yu Chang

With the growth of social media communities, people now use this new media to engage in many interrelated activities. As a result, social media communities have grown into popular and interactive platforms among users, consumers and enterprises. In the social media era of high competition, increasing continuance intention towards a specific social media platform could transfer extra benefits to such virtual groups. Based on the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), this research proposed a conceptual framework incorporating social influence and social identity as key determinants of social media continuous usage intention. The research findings of this study highlight that: (1) the social influence view of the group norms and image significantly affects social identity; (2) social identity significantly affects perceived usefulness and confirmation; (3) confirmation has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and satisfaction; (4) perceived usefulness and satisfaction have positive effects on usage continuance intention. The results of this study can serve as a guide to better understand the reasons for and implications of social media usage and adoption.


Author(s):  
Ruth Grüters ◽  
Knut Ove Eliassen

AbstractTo understand the success of SKAM, the series’ innovative use of “social media” must be taken into consideration. The article follows two lines of argument, one diachronic, the other synchronic. The concept of remediation allows for a historical perspective that places the series in a longer tradition of “real time”-fictions and media practices that span from the epistolary novels of the 18th century by way of radio theatre and television serials to the new media of the 21st century. Framing the series within the current media ecology (marked by the connectivity logic of “social media”), the authors analyze how the choice of the blog as the drama’s media platform has formed the ways the series succeeded in affecting and mobilizing its audience. Given the long tradition of strong pedagogical premises in the teenager serials of publicly financed Norwegian television, the authors note the absence of any explicit media critical perspectives or didacticism. Nevertheless, the claim is that the media-practices of the series, as well as the actions and discourses of its followers (blogposts, facebook-groups, etc.), generate new insights and knowledge with regards to the series’ form, content, and practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eni Maryani ◽  
Preciosa Alnashava Janitra ◽  
Reksa Anggia Ratmita

The fast-growing social media in Indonesia has opened up opportunities for spreading feminist ideas to a wider and more diverse audience. Various social media accounts especially Instagram that focus on gender advocacy and feminism such as @indonesiafeminis, @lawanpatriarki, and @feminismanis have developed in Indonesia. However, the development of the social media platform also presents groups that oppose feminists. One of the accounts of women’s groups that oppose feminists is @indonesiatanpafeminis.id (@indonesiawithoutfeminist.id). The research objectives are namely to analyze the diversity of issues and reveal the discourse contestation that developed in the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id, and dynamic relationships on the online and offline spaces between groups of feminists and anti-feminists or the other interest. This research employed the digital ethnography method that utilized observation, interview, and literature study as data collection techniques. This study found that the online conversations at @indonesiatanpafeminis.id revealed misconceptions on feminism from a group of women with a religious identity. Furthermore, the conversation also tends to strengthen patriarchal values with religious arguments that are gender-biased. However, the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id serves as a public space for open debates and education on feminist issues. The anti-feminist group behind the @indonesiatanpafeminis.id are women who identify themselves in a certain Muslim circle that has political, cultural, and religious agendas. One of the agendas is to influence the public to reject the Sexual Violence Eradication Bill. This study also noted the Muslim supporters of anti-feminism in Indonesia are less popular compared to progressive religious-based Muslim women organizations such as Aisyiyah (Muhammadiyah), Muslimat NU (Nahdlatul Ulama), and Rahima (Center for Education and Information on Islam and Women’s Rights). The study also evokes discussion on how the feminist and anti-feminist discourses can be utilized to criticize and develop the women’s movement or feminism in a multicultural context.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482093354
Author(s):  
Tero Karppi ◽  
David B Nieborg

This article investigates the public confessions of a small group of ex-Facebook employees, investors, and founders who express regret helping to build the social media platform. Prompted by Facebook’s role in the 2016 United States elections and pointing to the platform’s unintended consequences, the confessions are more than formal admissions of sins. They speak of Facebook’s capacity to damage democratic decision-making and “exploit human psychology,” suggesting that individual users, children in particular, should disconnect. Rather than expressions of truth, this emerging form of corporate abdication constructs dystopian narratives that have the power shape our future visions of social platforms and give rise to new utopias. As such, and marking a stark break with decades of technological utopianism, the confessions are an emergent form of Silicon Valley dystopianism.


Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 146488491987032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shixin Ivy Zhang

Inspired by the concepts of Arrested War and actor–network theory, this study has traced and analyzed four main actors in the wars and conflicts in the social media age: social media platform, the mainstream news organizations, online users, and social media content. These four human and nonhuman actors associate, interact, and negotiate with each other in the social media network surrounding specific issues. Based on the case study of Sino-Indian border crisis in 2017, the central argument is that social media is playing an enabling role in contemporary wars and conflicts. Both professional media outlets and web users employ the functionalities of social media platforms to set, counter-set, or expand the public agenda. Social media platform embodies a web of technological and human complexities with different actors, factors, interests, and relations. These actor-networks and the macro social-political context are influential in the mediatization of conflict in the social media era.


Author(s):  
هيثم عبد الرحمن أحمد السامرائي

The study attempted to reveal the role of the media in forming awareness and knowledge among members of society about the crisis 0f virus COVID-19. It aimed to get acquainted with the role of traditional and new media in dealing with this pandemic and assess its credibility in the Arab countries to deliver the correct news and information about this crisis to the public. In this study, the researcher used the descriptive analytical method through the method of surveying the media and electronic platforms used by the public in the Arab world to communicate with state agencies to obtain various information related to the crisis 0f virus COVID-19. The researcher designed a questionnaire to collect data for this study consisting of 7 axes and includes 50 questions. The study sample reached 1060 community members, male and female, from the age of 20 to 60 years, representing 19 Arab countries. The study concluded a number of results, the most important of which are: the success of media briefings and press conferences held by Arab governments during the Corona crisis, as well as the emergence of a spokesperson in this crisis in a convincing and logical manner In addition to the success of the media in educating society about preventive and preventive measures through TV and radio programs and social media sites, The study also found that 60% of the respondents were concerned during the crisis, following up on news related to the country's efforts to combat the virus Finally, it was noted that the doctors seized the media as the first line of defines, unlike celebrities of social media who lost their credibility and pulled the rug from under their legs due to the lack of confidence among members of the public in their information and that some were a source of spreading remorse.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Lacassin ◽  
Maud Devès ◽  
Stephen P. Hicks ◽  
Jean-Paul Ampuero ◽  
Remy Bossu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Twitter is an established social media platform valued by scholars as an open way to disseminate scientific information and to publicly discuss research results. Scientific discussions on Twitter are viewed by the media, who can then pass on information to the wider public. Social media is used widely by geoscientists, but there is little documentation currently available regarding the benefits or limitations of this for the scientist or the public. Here, we use the example of two 2018 earthquake-related events that were widely commented on by geoscientists on Twitter: the Palu Mw 7.5 earthquake and related tsunami in Indonesia and the long-duration Mayotte island seismovolcanic crisis in the Indian Ocean. We built our study on a content and contextual analysis of selected Twitter threads about the geophysical characteristics of these events. From the analysis of these two examples, we show that Twitter promotes a very rapid building of knowledge in the minutes to hours and days following an event via an efficient exchange of information and active discussion between the scientists themselves and the public. We discuss the advantages and potential pitfalls of this relatively novel way of making scientific information accessible to scholarly peers and lay people. We argue that scientific discussion on Twitter breaks down the traditional “ivory tower” of academia, contributes to the growing trend towards open science, and may help people to understand how science is developed and, in turn, to better understand the risks related to natural/environmental hazards.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (SI1) ◽  
pp. 47-51
Author(s):  
Hadiono Afdjani ◽  
Daniel Simanjuntak

This study aims to find out how the promotion strategy of television drama series "India Lonceng Cinta" through Twitter conducted by social media team ANTV. The focus of the problem is on the use of social media twitter @seriesANTV and @whatsonANTV in promoting the Indian drama series "Lonceng Cinta" to the public. The development of twitter today, not only as a social media, but ANTV use it as a media promotion of impressions to the people of Indonesia. Theories used are New Media theory and Marketing Communication theory. The paradigm of the research is the postpositivism paradigm, the qualitative approach and the method used is the interistic approach, that is expressing how the social media team strategy in promoting drama series "Lonceng Cinta" using twitter.    Keywords: Promotion, Social Media, Twitter, Television Program, Marketing Communications.     eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2296


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