The Diffusion of Ignorance in On-Line Communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selene Arfini ◽  
Tommaso Bertolotti ◽  
Lorenzo Magnani

This article aims to investigate how information-sharing mechanisms in online communities favor activities of ignorance distribution on their platforms, such as fake data, biased beliefs, and inaccurate statements. In brief, the authors claim that online communities provide more ways to connect the users to one another rather than to control the quality of the data they share and receive. This, in turn, diminishes the value of fact-checking mechanisms in online news-consumption. The authors contend that while digital environments can stimulate the interest of groups of students and amateurs in scientific and political topics, the diffusion of false, poor, and un-validated data through digital media contributes to the formation of bubbles of shallow understanding in the digitally informed public. In brief, the present article is a philosophical research that applies the virtual niche construction theory to the cognitive behavior of internet users, as it is described by the current psychological, sociological, and anthropological literature.

Author(s):  
Selene Arfini ◽  
Tommaso Bertolotti ◽  
Lorenzo Magnani

This article aims to investigate how information-sharing mechanisms in online communities favor activities of ignorance distribution on their platforms, such as fake data, biased beliefs, and inaccurate statements. In brief, the authors claim that online communities provide more ways to connect the users to one another rather than to control the quality of the data they share and receive. This, in turn, diminishes the value of fact-checking mechanisms in online news-consumption. The authors contend that while digital environments can stimulate the interest of groups of students and amateurs in scientific and political topics, the diffusion of false, poor, and un-validated data through digital media contributes to the formation of bubbles of shallow understanding in the digitally informed public. In brief, the present article is a philosophical research that applies the virtual niche construction theory to the cognitive behavior of internet users, as it is described by the current psychological, sociological, and anthropological literature.


Author(s):  
Bill Ag. Drougas

Internet today is one of the most useful tools for information, education and business or entertainment. It is one of the modern technology tools giving us many applications world wide in various fields. One of the most important applications of the Internet is the e-commerce for quality health and medical products. There are an enormous number of Web sites offering health products with the method of E-commerce but still there are many problems with the quality of these products. To the other side many individuals are not able to choice and to know about the quality of these health products that offered today on line with the Internet companies. There are many serious proposals today in to the direction of the quality of the products in health. In this paper summarized many informations about the on line commerce for health products, some of the most popular products and the methodology to train individuals in to the direction to buy and choose quality products. In this paper also presented and analyzed the characteristics and criteria of one serious Internet health company and its Web site. Also how the different scientific organizations can help people and the electronic health commerce to be more effective in to various fields in the division of the popular health. This will be more effective after training and giving criteria and or educating Internet users for a serious choice in to their on line commerce with the E-Health Commerce Web Organizations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482198997
Author(s):  
Frank Mangold ◽  
Sebastian Stier ◽  
Johannes Breuer ◽  
Michael Scharkow

Recent research by Taneja et al. suggested that digital infrastructures diminish the generational gap in news use by counteracting preference structures. We expand on this seminal work by arguing that an infrastructural perspective requires overcoming limitations of highly aggregated web tracking data used in prior research. We analyze the individual browsing histories of two representative samples of German Internet users collected in 2012 ( N = 2970) and 2018 ( N = 2045) and find robust evidence for a smaller generational gap in online news use than commonly assumed. While short news website visits mostly demonstrated infrastructural factors, longer news use episodes were shaped more by preferences. The infrastructural role of social media corresponded with reduced news avoidance and more varied news repertoires. Overall, the results suggest that research needs to reconsider commonly held premises regarding the uses of digital media in modern high-choice settings.


Author(s):  
Stefania Graikousi ◽  
Maria Sideri

Purpose: In post-modern society, Internet and social media mediate between daily life processes such as death, establishing new forms of social interaction among social actors and creating new norms. The creation of digital cemeteries and the usage of the services they offer by Internet users, the conversion of a deceased person’s Facebook profile into a profile “Remembering” or the replacement of a user's profile photo by a black background in cases of grieving, demonstrate emphatically the new dimensions that the event of death takes on Internet and social media, leading to the building of a public experience, despite the fact that in Western societies death is considered to be a private affair.Methods: This paper based on an in-depth review of the literature deals with death as an event mediated by new technologies, since Internet and social media have given the opportunity for new narratives about the experience of death and have contributed to the emergence of new social practices.Conclusions: Users’ interaction in digital environments, on the account of death, generates new broader social relationships, while the operating terms of digital media enable the emergence of new death-related practices that probably substitute traditional rituals, having though the same purpose. At the same time, the continuing presence of the deceased in the digital world ensures a form of "immortality" for him/her, even if not preselected, while at the same time it seems to contribute to the maintenance of a relationship between the living and the deceased.


Comunicar ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (59) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
María-del-Pilar Martínez-Costa ◽  
Javier Serrano-Puche ◽  
Idoia Portilla ◽  
Cristina Sánchez-Blanco

This research aims to portray the way young adult people interact with news and how their consumption is affected by advertising and personal data sharing. 'Digital News Report Spain 2018', a questionnaire on the consumption of digital media undertaken by a national panel of 2,023 Internet users, is used as a main source. Among the users mentioned, there were 293 young people from 25 to 34 years old who belong to the Millennial generation. Data from this report was completed with a qualitative study in which two focus groups were held, featuring people of that age frame residing in Navarre. The paper concludes that young adult people are generally interested in news, which they access mainly via mobile devices. Their interest grows when the content affects them directly, but also if they empathize with the topic. On the other hand, their familiar background and social routines shape the way they receive information. Young adult people still make use of traditional media, although they consider it ideologically biased. Advertising is something annoying, although they generally have little knowledge and even less intention to use ad-blockers. Finally, their review of the personalized services is negative, but they tend to give away personal data to media if this facilitates their news access. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo caracterizar cómo interactúan los jóvenes adultos con las noticias, en qué medida su consumo se ve condicionado por la presencia de publicidad y si se preocupan por la cesión de datos personales. Para ello, se toma como punto de partida el «Digital News Report Spain 2018», informe elaborado a partir de un cuestionario sobre consumo de medios digitales a un panel nacional de 2.023 internautas; de ellos, 293 son jóvenes de 25-34 años, que pertenecen a la generación «millennials». Estos datos se completaron con un estudio cualitativo, realizando dos grupos de discusión con personas de esa franja de edad residentes en la Comunidad Foral de Navarra. Entre las conclusiones de la investigación se señala que los jóvenes adultos se interesan por las noticias, a las que acceden de manera prioritaria por dispositivos móviles. Este interés es mayor cuando el contenido les afecta directamente o si empatizan con la temática de la noticia. Por otra parte, el entorno familiar y las rutinas sociales condicionan su manera de informarse. Siguen accediendo a medios tradicionales, aunque los consideran ideologizados. La publicidad la perciben como molesta, si bien no hay conocimiento ni un uso generalizado de bloqueadores. Finalmente, valoran negativamente los servicios de personalización actuales, aunque ceden algunos datos personales a los medios si le facilita el acceso a la información.


2020 ◽  
pp. 69-87
Author(s):  
K.S. Teteryatnikov ◽  
S.G. Каmolov ◽  
D.A. Blashkina

The article is meant to analyze current problems and prospects for the development of effective tax policy as part of digital transformation of Russian economy. Introduction of a digital tax and the consequences of the digital tax reforms in the EU, the USA and OECD countries are highlighted. The necessity of qualitative transformation of the tax system of the Russian Federation in response to modern challenges is substantiated, taking into account the changes of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation adopted at the end of July 2020. The authors suggested their own concept of a digital tax and the prospects for its adoption in Russia, and consider it inappropriate to impose taxes on Internet users who do not use the Internet for business. Today, the main focus should be made on creating and testing effective technologies that allow on-line monitoring the tax basis of digital economy entities, taking into account the cross-border movement or use of digital products (goods and services). In addition, it would be extremely important to provide for a potential tax exemption for part of the profits of international ICT companies that are received on the territory of the Russian Federation and reinvested in joint with Russian companies projects in the high-tech for civil purposes area.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
L. Van Vooren ◽  
P. Willems ◽  
J. P. Ottoy ◽  
G. C. Vansteenkiste ◽  
W. Verstraete

The use of an automatic on-line titration unit for monitoring the effluent quality of wastewater plants is presented. Buffer capacity curves of different effluent types were studied and validation results are presented for both domestic and industrial full-scale wastewater treatment plants. Ammonium and ortho-phosphate monitoring of the effluent were established by using a simple titration device, connected to a data-interpretation unit. The use of this sensor as the activator of an effluent quality proportional sampler is discussed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110096
Author(s):  
Vikas Menon ◽  
Sujita Kumar Kar ◽  
Ramdas Ransing ◽  
Ginni Sharma ◽  
Jigyansa Ipsita Pattnaik ◽  
...  

Objective: Little is known about changes in quality of media reporting of suicide in the community following a celebrity suicide. Our objective was to compare trends in quality of media reporting of suicide, before and after the suicide of an Indian entertainment celebrity, against the World Health Organization suicide reporting guidelines. Method: Online news portals of English and local language newspapers, as well as television channels, were searched to identify relevant suicide-related news articles. Comparison of reporting characteristics before and after the celebrity suicide was performed using chi-square test or Fisher’s exact test. Results: A total of 3867 eligible news reports were retrieved. There was a significant increase in harmful reporting characteristics, such as reporting the name, age and gender of the deceased ( p < 0.001 for all comparisons), mentioning the location ( p < 0.001) and reason for suicide ( p = 0.04) and including photos of the deceased ( p = 0.002) following the celebrity suicide. Helpful reporting practices were less affected; there was a significant rise in inclusion of expert opinion ( p = 0.04) and mention of suicide-related warning signs ( p = 0.02). Conclusion: Following a celebrity suicide, significant changes in the quality of media reporting of suicide were noted with an increase in several potentially harmful reporting characteristics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 205630512098445
Author(s):  
Nora Kirkizh ◽  
Olessia Koltsova

Availability of alternative information through social media, in particular, and digital media, in general, is often said to induce social discontent, especially in states where traditional media are under government control. But does this relation really exist, and is it generalizable? This article explores the relationship between self-reported online news consumption and protest participation across 48 nations in 2010–2014. Based on multilevel regression models and simulations, the analysis provides evidence that those respondents who reported that they had attended a protest at least once read news online daily or weekly. The study also shows that the magnitude of the effect varies depending on the political context: surprisingly, despite supposedly unlimited control of offline and online media, autocratic countries demonstrated higher effects of online news than transitional regimes, where the Internet media are relatively uninhibited.


2009 ◽  
Vol 103 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Mouazen ◽  
M.R. Maleki ◽  
L. Cockx ◽  
M. Van Meirvenne ◽  
L.H.J. Van Holm ◽  
...  

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