scholarly journals Fake news and the Dutch YouTube political debate space

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Tuters
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Political Bias ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recommendation Algorithms

Fake news is a contested concept. In the wake of the Trump insurgency, it has been reclaimed by “hyperpartisan” news providers as a term of derision intended to expose perceived censorship and manipulation in the “mainstream media”. As patterns of televisual news consumption have shifted over the past several years, YouTube has emerged as a primary source for “alternative” views on politics. Current debates have highlighted the apparent role of YouTube’s recommendation algorithms in nudging viewers towards more extreme perspectives. Against this background, this chapter looks at how YouTube’s algorithms frame a Dutch “political debate space”. Beginning from Dutch political parties’ YouTube channels, we find the existence of an “alternative media ecology” with a distinctly partisan political bias, the latter which is resonant with the populist-right critique of the mainstream media as the purveyors of “fake news”.

scholarly journals Beyond “fake news”: The role of analytic thinking in the detection of inaccuracy and partisan bias in news headlines

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M Ross ◽  
David Gertler Rand ◽  
Gordon Pennycook
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Total N ◽  
Partisan Bias ◽  
News Content ◽  
Political Bias ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
News Headlines

Why is misleading partisan content believed and shared? An influential account posits that political partisanship pervasively biases reasoning, such that engaging in analytic thinking exacerbates motivated reasoning and, in turn, the acceptance of hyperpartisan content. Alternatively, it may be that susceptibility to hyperpartisan misinformation is explained by a lack of reasoning. Across two studies using different subject pools (total N = 1977), we had participants assess true, false, and hyperpartisan headlines taken from social media. We found no evidence that analytic thinking was associated with increased polarization for either judgments about the accuracy of the headlines or willingness to share the news content on social media. Instead, analytic thinking was broadly associated with an increased capacity to discern between true headlines and either false or hyperpartisan headlines. These results suggest that reasoning typically helps people differentiate between low and high quality news content, rather than facilitating political bias.

Countering misinformation and disinformation during contentious episodes in a divided society: Tweeting the 2014 and 2015 Ardoyne parade disputes

First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Reilly
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Minimal Impact ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Crisis Events ◽  
Public Demonstrations ◽  
Acute Crisis

Whereas there has been much research into the manufacture of ‘fake news’ to sow disunity within liberal democracies, little is known about how information disorders affect deeply divided societies. This paper addresses that gap in the literature by exploring how digital media are used to share misinformation and disinformation during contentious public demonstrations in Northern Ireland. It does so by reviewing the literature on social media information flows during acute crisis events, and qualitatively exploring the role of Twitter in spreading misinformation and disinformation during the 2014 and 2015 Ardoyne parade disputes. Results indicate that visual disinformation, presumably shared to inflame sectarian tensions during the parade, was quickly debunked in information flows co-curated by citizens and professional journalists. Online misinformation and disinformation appeared to have minimal impact on events on the ground, although there was some evidence of belief echoes among tweeters who distrusted the information provided by mainstream media.

Storytelling and Narrative Research in Crisis and Disaster Studies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Jerolleman
Keyword(s):  
Primary Source ◽  
Community Recovery ◽  
The Public ◽  
Advocacy Training ◽  
The Past ◽  
Planning Policy ◽  
Fundamental Part ◽  
Disaster Studies ◽  
The Public Sphere

Storytelling is a common and pervasive practice across human history, which some have argued is a fundamental part of human understanding. Storytelling and narratives are a very human way of understanding the world, as well as events, and can serve as key tools for crisis and disaster studies and practice. They play a tremendously important role in planning, policy, education, the public sphere, advocacy, training, and community recovery. In the context of crises and disasters, stories are a means by which information is transmitted across generations, a key strategy for survival from non-routine and infrequent events. In fact, the field of disaster studies has long relied on narratives as primary source material, as a means of understanding individual experiences of phenomena as well as critiquing policies and understanding the role of history in 21st-century levels of vulnerability. Over the past several decades, practitioners and educators in the field have sought to use stories and narratives more purposefully to build resilience and pass on tacit knowledge.

Party Patronage in Contemporary Europe

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Kopecký ◽  
Gerardo Scherlis
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
European Countries ◽  
European Politics ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Relevant Feature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Developments

Party patronage is generally associated with social, economic and political underdevelopment, and is hence seen as largely irrelevant in the context of contemporary European politics. In this article, we argue to the contrary, proposing that patronage reappears on the stage of European politics as a critical organizational and governmental resource employed by political parties to enhance their standing as semi-state agencies of government. In order to illustrate our main contention, we first define party patronage, disentangling it from other notions of political particularism that are often used synonymously in the literature. Second, we provide a brief overview of the literature on the past and present of patronage practices in Europe, arguing that rather than declining, patronage is still likely to be a relevant feature of contemporary party politics in Europe. Finally, we analyse the role of party patronage in the light of recent developments in several European countries, identifying three distinct patterns of patronage practices in the region.

The Disappearing Turnout Gap between Native Americans and Non-Native Americans

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Skopek ◽  
Andrew Garner
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
American Indians ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Indian Gaming ◽  
The Past

Past research has consistently found that American Indians have traditionally turned out to vote at lower rates than do other citizens. Using two separate data sets, we examine this "turnout gap" over the past several decades. We find that not only has Native American turnout increased generally, but that the "gap" between Native Americans and non-Native Americans has declined substantially, and that in recent elections this "gap" has largely disappeared. We then provide a preliminary and tentative examination of possible causes for the decline, including the role of Indian gaming, mobilization by political parties and candidates, and shifting political values among Native Americans.

Fear of Islam in Greece: migration, terrorism, and “ghosts” from the past

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Sakellariou
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Rhetorical Tropes ◽  
Over Time

The article explores the “fear of Islam” through a specific series of political debates about Islam and the future of the Greek-Orthodox national identity. The analysis is based on the method of qualitative content analysis, which makes use of thematic categories and draws on the proceedings of the Greek parliament. The main questions the article will try to address are: How have Greek political parties reacted to public demand for the construction of a mosque? What have been the rhetorical tropes they use? How have they capitalized on current and old fears about Islam? What have been the implications of this discourse on state policies toward Islam? Have there been any differences in this discourse over time? The analysis highlights the role of historical interpretations of Greek national identity and contemporary problems related to new waves of migration due to Greece's place on the border with Turkey and with the broader Islamic world.

We Only Believe in News That We Doctored Ourselves

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Faragó ◽  
Anna Kende ◽  
Péter Krekó
Keyword(s):  
Political Orientation ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
Perceived Credibility ◽  
Political Bias

Abstract. In this research we aimed to explore the importance of partisanship behind the belief in wish-fulfilling political fake news. We tested the role of political orientation, partisanship, and conspiracy mentality in the acceptance of pro- and anti-government pipedream fake news. Using a representative survey ( N = 1,000) and a student sample ( N = 382) in Hungary, we found that partisanship predicted belief in political fake news more strongly than conspiracy mentality, and these connections were mediated by the perceived credibility of source (independent journalism vs. political propaganda) and economic sentiment. Our findings suggest that political bias can be more important in predicting acceptance of pipedream political fake news than conspiracy mentality.

The Whigs' America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph W. Pearson ◽  
Dick Gilbreath
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Collaborative Effort ◽  
Vast Array ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Role Of The State

This book is about politics, exploring the general outlook of a group of Americans called Whigs. The Whigs were one of the two great political parties in the United States between the years 1834 and 1856, battling their opponents the Jacksonian Democrats for offices, prestige, and power. This book explores how Whiggish Americans understood human nature, society, and the role of the state, and explains how they reflected on the past and anticipated the future. A Whig worldview resonated with a vast array of future-looking people in large cities and small villages, in factories and on farms, and in the varied state houses across the country, as well as the in halls of Congress. The Whig Promise attracted those Americans seeking middle-class achievement, community, and meaning through collaborative effort and self-control in a world growing more and more impersonal.

Spreadable Spectacle in Digital Culture: Civic Expression, Fake News, and the Role of Media Literacies in “Post-Fact” Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mihailidis ◽  
Samantha Viotty
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media Spectacle ◽  
The Media ◽  
Critical Theorist

This article explores the phenomenon of spectacle in the lead up and immediate aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Through the spread of misinformation, the appropriation of cultural iconography, and the willing engagement of mainstream media to perpetuate partisan and polarizing information, the proliferation of populist rhetoric, polarizing views, and vitriolic opinions spread. Revisiting the world of critical theorist Guy Debord, this article argues that the proliferation of citizen-drive spectacle is unique in its origination and perpetuation, and a direct result of an increasingly polarized and distrustful public spending an increasing amount of time in homophilous networks where contrarian views are few and far between. We apply the frame of spreadable media to explore how citizen expression online initiated, sustained, and expanded the media spectacle that pervaded the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The conclusion of this work argues that media literacies, as a popular response mechanism to help cultivate more critical consumers of media, must be repositioned to respond to an era of partisanship and distrust. We present a set of considerations for repositioning the literacies to focus on critique and creation of media in support of a common good, and that can respond meaningfully in an era of spreadability, connectivity, and spectacle.

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