scholarly journals The Need for Authenticity in Opinion Formation

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-423
Author(s):  
Antonio Amuza
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Silent Majority ◽  
The Public ◽  
Black Swans ◽  
The Impact

The need for authenticity is a latent manifesto of Romanians who seem overwhelmed by a constant wave of inauthenticity, prejudices, and stereotypes in an environment that makes it more difficult for us to adhere to a genuine development as individuals, but also as a society. Public opinion reveals itself under the impact of the desired authenticity to cope with galloping globalism, which turns us into bystanders of our own lives. More specifically, in a world where we have become accustomed to our ideas being very aesthetically packed, the characteristics of the products for which we show a certain interest, the quality of the services we want and the values we so ardently adhere to, the need to be sure that we receive exactly what we have been mentally longing for becomes a purpose in itself. Thus, the more common and plentiful the values we are exposed to, along with the risk that they may be prebuilt, the greater the possibility for people to develop the need for a guarantee of compliance with the promises made by these values – a need for authenticity. I hope that my paperwork can contribute to further research in terms of arousing the interest of those who are looking to better understand why globalism can affect both public opinion and authenticity. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in the position of talking about black swans whenever the public opinion is different from the minority that we are part of. In a world of social media, the article talks about vocal minorities and the silent majority.

scholarly journals How Elite Partisan Polarization Affects Public Opinion Formation

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES N. DRUCKMAN ◽  
ERIK PETERSON ◽  
RUNE SLOTHUUS
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Competition is a defining element of democracy. One of the most noteworthy events over the last quarter-century in U.S. politics is the change in the nature of elite party competition: The parties have become increasingly polarized. Scholars and pundits actively debate how these elite patterns influence polarization among the public (e.g., have citizens also become more ideologically polarized?). Yet, few have addressed what we see as perhaps more fundamental questions: Has elite polarization altered the way citizens arrive at their policy opinions in the first place and, if so, in what ways? We address these questions with a theory and two survey experiments (on the issues of drilling and immigration). We find stark evidence that polarized environments fundamentally change how citizens make decisions. Specifically, polarization intensifies the impact of party endorsements on opinions, decreases the impact of substantive information and, perhaps ironically, stimulates greater confidence in those—less substantively grounded—opinions. We discuss the implications for public opinion formation and the nature of democratic competition.

Sentiment Analysis as a Tool to Understand the Cultural Relationship between Consumer and Brand

2017 ◽  
pp. 202-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Capolupo ◽  
Gianpaolo Basile ◽  
Giancarlo Scozzese
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Product Launch ◽  
Consumer Sentiment ◽  
Specific Product ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Impact

One of the most relevant issues that companies, offices and marketing experts, sociologists and scholars must address studying a new brand or product launch is without any doubt the impact - in terms of feedback - on the consumer sentiment. The study of users' opinions on a specific product or brand has changed with the advent of Web 2.0, which has overcome the old surveys model leading consumers in a too complex and not genuine area, reaching more sophisticated research or even better tracking their opinions directly “on the field”, i.e. in the community where this exchange of views and information happens naturally and not artificially. The analysis of consumers' opinions on social media provides enormous opportunities for the public and the private spheres. Concerning the last on the reputation of a certain product/brand or firm is strongly influenced by the voices and negative opinions published and shared by users on social networks. Indeed, companies need to adapt their behaviour monitoring public opinion.

scholarly journals “Taking the Temperature of the Room”

2020 ◽  
Vol 84 (S1) ◽  
pp. 236-256
Author(s):  
Shannon C McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media System ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Development ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Data

Abstract For most of the twentieth century, public opinion was nearly analogous with polling. Enter social media, which has upended the social, technical, and communication contingencies upon which public opinion is constructed. This study documents how political professionals turn to social media to understand the public, charting important implications for the practice of campaigning as well as the study of public opinion itself. An analysis of in-depth interviews with 13 professionals from 2016 US presidential campaigns details how they use social media to understand and represent public opinion. I map these uses of social media onto a theoretical model, accounting for quantitative and qualitative measurement, for instrumental and symbolic purposes. Campaigns’ use of social media data to infer and symbolize public opinion is a new development in the relationship between campaigns and supporters. These new tools and symbols of public opinion are shaped by campaigns and drive press coverage (McGregor 2019), highlighting the hybrid logic of the political media system (Chadwick 2017). The model I present brings much-needed attention to qualitative data, a novel aspect of social media in understanding public opinion. The use of social media data to understand the public, for all its problems of representativeness, may provide a retort to long-standing criticisms of surveys—specifically that surveys do not reveal hierarchical, social, or public aspects of opinion formation (Blumer 1948; Herbst 1998; Cramer 2016). This model highlights a need to explicate what can—and cannot—be understood about public opinion via social media.

Trust in the Police: Cross-country Comparisons

2012 ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
V. Gimpelson ◽  
G. Monusova
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
The Public ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Police Activity

Using different cross-country data sets and simple econometric techniques we study public attitudes towards the police. More positive attitudes are more likely to emerge in the countries that have better functioning democratic institutions, less prone to corruption but enjoy more transparent and accountable police activity. This has a stronger impact on the public opinion (trust and attitudes) than objective crime rates or density of policemen. Citizens tend to trust more in those (policemen) with whom they share common values and can have some control over. The latter is a function of democracy. In authoritarian countries — “police states” — this tendency may not work directly. When we move from semi-authoritarian countries to openly authoritarian ones the trust in the police measured by surveys can also rise. As a result, the trust appears to be U-shaped along the quality of government axis. This phenomenon can be explained with two simple facts. First, publicly spread information concerning police activity in authoritarian countries is strongly controlled; second, the police itself is better controlled by authoritarian regimes which are afraid of dangerous (for them) erosion of this institution.

#INCLUSION – THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION ON THE LEGITIMACY OF ARMED FORCES

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
EVA MOEHLECKE DE BASEGGIO ◽  
OLIVIA SCHNEIDER ◽  
TIBOR SZVIRCSEV TRESCH
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Legitimation ◽  
Social Media Communication ◽  
The Impact

The Swiss Armed Forces (SAF), as part of a democratic system, depends on legitimacy. Democracy, legitimacy and the public are closely connected. In the public sphere the SAF need to be visible; it is where they are controlled and legitimated by the citizens, as part of a deliberative discussion in which political decisions are communicatively negotiated. Considering this, the meaning of political communication, including the SAF’s communication, becomes obvious as it forms the most important basis for political legitimation processes. Social media provide a new way for the SAF to communicate and interact directly with the population. The SAF’s social media communication potentially brings it closer to the people and engages them in a dialogue. The SAF can become more transparent and social media communication may increase its reputation and legitimacy. To measure the effects of social media communication, a survey of the Swiss internet population was conducted. Based on this data, a structural equation model was defined, the effects of which substantiate the assumption that the SAF benefits from being on social media in terms of broadening its reach and increasing legitimacy values.

New Wars and Their Visual Representation: Dead Bodies without Graves/Mourne

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Tuncay Şur ◽  
Betül Yarar
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Public ◽  
Photographic Images ◽  
War Photography ◽  
New Wars ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This paper seeks to understand why there has been an increase in photographic images exposing military violence or displaying bodies killed by military forces and how they can freely circulate in the public without being censored or kept hidden. In other words, it aims to analyze this particular issue as a symptom of the emergence of new wars and a new regime of their visual representation. Within this framework, it attempts to relate two kinds of literature that are namely the history of war and war photography with the bridge of theoretical discussions on the real, its photographic representation, power, and violence.  Rather than systematic empirical analysis, the paper is based on a theoretical attempt which is reflected on some socio-political observations in the Middle East where there has been ongoing wars or new wars. The core discussion of the paper is supported by a brief analysis of some illustrative photographic images that are served through the social media under the circumstances of war for instance in Turkey between Turkish military troops and the Kurdish militants. The paper concludes that in line with the process of dissolution/transformation of the old nation-state formations and globalization, the mechanism and mode of power have also transformed to the extent that it resulted in the emergence of new wars. This is one dynamic that we need to recognize in relation to the above-mentioned question, the other is the impact of social media in not only delivering but also receiving war photographies. Today these changes have led the emergence of new machinery of power in which the old modern visual/photographic techniques of representing wars without human beings, torture, and violence through censorship began to be employed alongside medieval power techniques of a visual exhibition of tortures and violence.

Correcting Misperceptions About Genetically Modified Food on Social Media: Examining the Impact of Experts, Social Media Heuristics, and the Gateway Belief Model

2020 ◽  
pp. 107554702098137
Author(s):  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Emily K. Vraga ◽  
Melissa Tully
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Genetically Modified Food ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
Gm Food ◽  
Belief Model ◽  
The Impact

We experimentally test whether expert organizations on social media can correct misperceptions of the scientific consensus on the safety of genetically modified (GM) food for human consumption, as well as what role social media cues, in the form of “likes,” play in that process. We find expert organizations highlighting scientific consensus on GM food safety reduces consensus misperceptions among the public, leading to lower GM misperceptions and boosting related consumption behaviors in line with the gateway belief model. Expert organizations’ credibility may increase as a result of correction, but popularity cues do not seem to affect misperceptions or credibility.

Public Sector Employment, Quality of Government, and Well-Being: A Global Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 223386592110117
Author(s):  
Robert Davidson ◽  
Alexander Pacek ◽  
Benjamin Radcliff
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Employment Quality ◽  
The Impact

While a growing literature within the study of subjective well-being demonstrates the impact of socio-political factors on subjective well-being, scholars have conspicuously failed to consider the role of the size and scope of government as determinants of well-being. Where such studies exist, the focus is largely on the advanced industrial democracies of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. In this study, we examine the size of the public sector as a determinant of cross-national variation in life satisfaction across a worldwide sample. Our findings strongly suggest that as the public sector grows, subjective well-being increases as well, conditional on the extent of quality of government. Using cross-sectional data on 84 countries, we show this relationship has an independent and separable impact from other economic and political factors.

scholarly journals Determinants of Social Media Impact in Local Government

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Hisham Mohd Sharif ◽  
Indrit Troshani ◽  
Robyn Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Media Impact ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceived Security ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

Limited attention has been directed towards understanding the impact of social media in the public sector, particularly in local government organisations. Although social media offer substantial benefits and opportunities to local government, research into the impact of social media remains scant. To address this gap, the authors draw on the technology, organisation, and environment (TOE) framework and propose a model of the determinants of social media impact in local government. The model is tested with data collected via a survey with 173 Australian local government organisations using social media. Data were analysed using the partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results indicate that TOE factors including perceived benefits, perceived security risks, compatibility, and degree of formalisation are important predictors of social media impact in local government.

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