scholarly journals Don’t feed the trolls?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caryn Coatney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Professional Boundaries ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Interpretive Communities

This study applies the concepts of interpretive communities and conversational interactions to show how investigative journalists initiated a relatively new method of reporting and generated support among their colleagues for becoming anti-Nazi activists and troll hunters. It draws on a sample of journalistic reporting and related media items to examine investigative reporters’ self-reflexive acts and the responses of journalism communities in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States from 2015 to 2020. Investigative journalists initiated open conversations to show that they were enthusiastic activists in retweeting, confronting and quoting neo-Nazi trolling by interviewing the perpetrators. Other journalism communities signified they were pursuing activist-like agendas as they magnified this work through informal networks, social media and news commentaries. Journalists reconsidered their professional boundaries to allow for cooperative conversations about their experiences in a fresh effort to denounce hate speech and begin collective initiatives to enhance social cohesion in civil society.

Evolution of public sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic: Case comparisons of India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
May Oo Lwin ◽  
Anita Sheldenkar ◽  
Jiahui Lu ◽  
Peter Johannes Schulz ◽  
Wonsun Shin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Communication Space

BACKGROUND Public sentiments are an important indicator of crisis response, with the need to balance exigency without adding to panic or projecting overconfidence. Given the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, governments have enacted various nationwide measures against the disease with social media platforms providing the previously unparalleled communication space for the global populations. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine and provide a macro-level narrative of the evolution of public sentiments on social media at national levels, by comparing Twitter data from India, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the current pandemic. METHODS Over 67,363,091 million Twitter posts on COVID-19 from 28 January 2020 to 28 April 2021 were analyzed from the five countries with "wuhan", "corona", "nCov", and "covid" as search keywords. Change in sentiments ("very negative", " negative", "neutral or mixed", "positive”, “very positive”) were compared between countries in connection with disease milestones and public health directives. RESULTS Country-specific assessments show that negative sentiments were predominant across all five countries during the initial period of the global pandemic. However, positive sentiments encompassing hope, resilience, and support arose at differing intensities across the five countries, particularly in Asian countries. In the next stage of the pandemic, India, Singapore, and South Korea faced escalating waves of COVID-19 cases, resulting in negative sentiments, but positive sentiments appeared simultaneously. In contrast, while UK and US negative sentiments increased sharply and dramatically after the declaration of a national public emergency, strong parallel positive sentiments were slow to surface. CONCLUSIONS Our findings on sentiments across countries facing similar outbreak concerns suggest potential associations between government response actions both in terms of policy and communications, and public sentiment trends. Overall, a more concerted approach of government crisis communication appears to be associated with more stable public sentiments balanced between positives and negatives over the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The NetLab Network

2019 ◽  
pp. 441-454
Author(s):  
Dimitrina Dimitrova ◽  
Barry Wellman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Job Searches ◽  
The World ◽  
Scholarly Collaboration ◽  
Interdisciplinary Network

The authors discuss the NetLab Network – an interdisciplinary network studying the intersection of social networks, communication networks, and computer networks. It has developed since 2000 from an informal network of collaborators into a far flung virtual laboratory with members from across Canada and the United States as well as from Chile, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Connecting them is a shared sensibility of interpreting behavior from a social network perspective rather than seeing the world as composed of bounded groups, tree-like hierarchies, or aggregates of disconnected individuals. NetLab's researchers focus on the interplay between social and technological links, social capital in job searches and business settings, new media and community, internet and personal relations, social media, households, networked organizations, and knowledge transfer. NetLab has had two main achievements: first, its researchers make substantive contributions to the issues they study, and second, they demonstrate that this model of scholarly collaboration works.

Spotlight

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-108
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Young People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Text Line ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Crisis Counselors

In the darkest moments of their lives, young people are finding help through the Crisis Text Line (“text HOME to 741741”). 1 Now available in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, the resource provides access to trained crisis counselors who respond to texters around the clock, helping them to move beyond a crisis. Most people learn about the Crisis Text Line through social media....

Rumors on the Net: A Brackish Suspension of Speech and Hate

2019 ◽  
pp. 174387211988012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Wagner ◽  
Sarah Marusek
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Public Memory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Cyber Culture ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mob Mentality

The legitimacy of public memory and socially normative standards of civility is questioned through rumors that abound on online social media platforms. On the Net, the proclivity of rumors is particularly prone to acts of bullying and frameworks of hate speech. Legislative attempts to limit rumors operate differently in France and throughout Europe from the United States. This article examines the impact of online rumors, the mob mentality, and the politicization of bullying critics within a cyber culture that operates within the limitations of law.

Right-wing populism, social media and echo chambers in Western democracies

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 683-699 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Boulianne ◽  
Karolina Koc-Michalska ◽  
Bruce Bimber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
The United States ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Echo Chamber ◽  
Right Wing Populism

Many observers are concerned that echo chamber effects in digital media are contributing to the polarization of publics and, in some places, to the rise of right-wing populism. This study employs survey data collected in France, the United Kingdom and the United States (1500 respondents in each country) from April to May 2017. Overall, we do not find evidence that online/social media explain support for right-wing populist candidates and parties. Instead, in the United States, use of online media decreases support for right-wing populism. Looking specifically at echo chamber measures, we find offline discussion with those who are similar in race, ethnicity and class positively correlates with support for populist candidates and parties in the United Kingdom and France. The findings challenge claims about the role of social media and the rise of populism.

NetLab

2012 ◽  
pp. 42-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrina Dimitrova ◽  
Barry Wellman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Job Searches ◽  
The University

This chapter discusses NetLab -- an interdisciplinary scholarly network studying the intersection of social networks, communication networks, and computer networks. Although centered at the University of Toronto, NetLab members come from across Canada and the United States as well as from Chile, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. NetLab has developed since 2000 from an informal network of collaborators into a far-flung virtual laboratory. Its research focuses on the interplay between social and technological links, including the understanding of social capital in job searches and business settings, new media and community, Internet and personal relations, social media, households, networked organizations, and knowledge transfer in research networks.

Fighting for recognition: Online abuse of women bloggers in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1282-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stine Eckert
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Online Abuse ◽  
Social And Cultural Factors

Women who blog about politics or identify as feminist in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States face great risks of online abuse. In-depth interviews with 109 bloggers who write about feminisms, family, and/or maternity politics revealed that 73.4% had negative experiences due to blogging and/or social media use. Most of these negative experiences involved not only abusive comments but also stalking, trolls, rape threats, death threats, and unpleasant offline encounters. Response strategies included moderating comments, exposing abuse, adaptation, and solidarity. I argue that the democratic potential of social media in democracies remains haphazard because online abuse is not fully recognized as entangling online and offline communication, constituted and constructed through technological, legal, social, and cultural factors. Using the theoretical approaches of digital feminisms, I call for more systematic empirical work on global recognition of online abuse as punishable crime.

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