Topic polarization and push notifications

First Monday ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo ◽  
Yafit Lev-Aretz

In the fake news era, a combination of politics, big technology, and fear and animosity are blamed for the media mistrust and filter bubbles that are entrenching fragmentation in the public sphere. A partisan divide in the media and extreme political disagreements are nothing new, but new technology, such as social media and mobile push notifications, influences these years-old phenomena and plays an important role in current concerns. This paper explores how stories are represented differently by topic and across platforms, examining representation, polarization, and objectivity. Specifically, this paper looks at those issues from a novel perspective: through sentiment analysis of push notifications generated and archived from the Breaking News App on disasters, gun violence, and terrorism. Results indicate that partisan news organizations (1) emphasize different stories; (2) label the same events as categorically different; (3) hyperbolize and emotionalize different types of stories; and, (4) represent different categories of breaking news stories to different degrees of subjectivity.

Author(s):  
Olga Smirnova ◽  
Mikhail Shkondin ◽  
Ekaterina Sivyakova

The study examined academic research dedicated to the understanding of conflictology as a field of knowledge in the context of the ongoing mediatization of society. We analyzed the key features of the process of mediatization that affect the communication processes in society and media content. The aspects of the presentation of social contradictions in the media space, including the axiological aspect, have been studied. The study identified the specific of the Russian context, in terms of the diagnosis and resolutions of conflicts in the public sphere. The study also analyzed the current trends in the development of social media as a factor of audience differentiation and intensification of conflicts including the phenomena of the “cancel culture”, “filter bubbles” and “echo chambers”. In the same context we examined how changes in media consumption influence the quality of public communication. We identified the features of communication in the public mediatized space that lead to social agreement. It has been found that solving conflicts between participants in current social practice is viewed as an integrative result of such interaction. Future studies should attempt to identify media role in resolving existing social contradictions as well as its role in this process. The current study has identified criteria for an interdisciplinary approach for further research of the subject. It has been found that the results of interdisciplinary research in this area can be considered in the context of the universities’ implementation of their mission to strengthen their expertise and intellectual influence in society, to strengthen the interaction between academics and society for the further achievement of social harmony.


MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052098831
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs

Humanity has experienced an explosion of anti-humanism in the form of authoritarian capitalism, postmodern filter bubbles, and global problems. Marxist/Socialist Humanism is the proper answer to the deep crisis of humanity. In this context, this article asks ‘How can Cornel West’s works inform a contemporary Marxist humanist theory of society?’ Taking West’s works as a starting point, what are the key elements of a Marxist humanist theory of society? Cornel West is one of the leading critical intellectuals today. His work has fused anti-racist theory, Black Liberation Theology, Marxist theory, pragmatism, and existentialism. This article especially focuses on West’s understanding of humanism and culture. It shows how his works and praxis can inform the reinvigoration of Marxist Humanism in the age of authoritarian capitalism as a socialist response. West’s thought can and should also inform the analysis of alienation, exploitation, domination, culture, the public sphere, the critique of ideology, and popular culture.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank van Vree

An Unstable Discipline. Journalism Studies & the Revolution in the Media An Unstable Discipline. Journalism Studies & the Revolution in the Media During the last decade media and journalism have got into turmoil; landslides have changed the traditional media landscape, overturning familiar marking points, institutions and patterns. To understand these radical changes journalism studies should not only develop a new research agenda, but also review its approach and perspective.This article looks back on recent development in the field and argues for a more cohesive perspective, taking journalism as a professional practice as its starting point. Furthermore a plea is made for a thorough research into the structural changes of the public sphere and the role and position of journalism.


Author(s):  
Lene Rimestad

Columns generally take up a lot of space in the media. But what can an employed journalist write in his column? How is this particular freedom managed and shaped? In this article the columns written by journalists working for Berlingske Tidende are analyzed. The analysis covers two months before and after substantial changes in the paper in 2003. Two parameters are used in the analysis: Political: Is the column pro-government, anti-government, apolitical or mixed. And what sphere does the column cover: Does the column take place in the private sphere or the public sphere? Finally the changes in the period are discussed. But initially the column as a genre is defined.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 289-305
Author(s):  
Leopold Ringel

Abstract Accounts of why rankings are pervasive features of the modern world focus mostly on their properties as valuation devices that, upon entering the public sphere, exert pressure on the ranked. In doing so, however, research tends to overlook the important role played by the different types of organizations that produce rankings. To remedy this, the article draws from a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with members of these organizations to show that they put a great deal of effort into addressing and responding to different kinds of criticism. Working towards building and maintaining the credibility of rankings is thus revealed to require constant attention by their producers, who devise multiple procedures and rhetorical strategies to this end.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Ayish

Communication has proven to be an integral component of the terrorism phenomenon. To unravel the opportunities and challenges embedded in employing the media during terrorism, this chapter draws on research findings and practical experiences around the world to identify prime actors associated with this issue and to describe their objectives, tactics, and channels of communication. It is argued here that media constitute a vital resource in the war on terror with both terrorist organizations and states harnessing communication to advance their causes in the public sphere. In this context, four categories of media users have been identified: media institutions, terrorist organizations, governments, and citizen groups. The chapter discusses enduring issues associated with each actor's use of media and calls for evolving new conceptual frameworks for understanding media use during terrorism. It concludes by arguing that while we seem to have a huge pool of research findings and practical experiences related to using the media during terrorism, we seem to have a critical shortage in how we conceptually account for the different variables that define the use of media in terrorism situations.


Author(s):  
Randal Marlin

Terrorist events are breaking news for the media whose ethical responsibility can be debatable. Tactics of terrorism vary from kidnapping, hostage-taking, hijackings, and others up to mass destruction, including the use of nuclear weapons. Media responses and coverage strategies of such tactics also vary, with some reluctant to provide terrorists with the “oxygen of publicity.” Some striking similarities have appeared recently between the build-up to the war on Iraq begun by U.S. President George W. Bush's administration in 2002, culminating with the start of war in 2003, and the 2012 push by current U.S. President Barack Obama for action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. In the earlier case, the presumption was established in the public mind, without adequate evidence, that Iraq possessed or was about to possess weapons of mass destruction, and had the will to use them against the United States. In the latter case, the background presumption is that Iran is actively seeking to produce a nuclear weapon, with Israel as a potential target. This claim also lacks solid evidence at the time of writing, but has come to be accepted in some media as an uncontroversial fact. This chapter looks at aspects of how different English and French Canadian newspapers, as examples, covered the push for war on Iraq. It includes reflections on the use of language in reporting on the war itself. The central concern is with the media role in fear-mongering and propaganda for war.


Author(s):  
Christian Leuprecht

This chapter reviews the literature of intelligence accountability, reviews different theories, and introduces readers to key terms such as oversight, review, control, and governance. This book complements the process of intelligence oversight—the practice of holding ISAs to account, whereby ISAs have to justify their activities—with other types and levels of accountability. Typologically, accountability bodies differ by ways and methods they use to hold ISAs accountable: they can review, oversee, or control Intelligence and Security Agencies (ISA), and/or accept and address complaints concerning actions or activities of an ISA. Although conventionally they assessed compliance within an intelligence community, as of late they have been performing additional functions, such as promoting innovation. The different types of accountability are complemented by various layers in which Intelligence and Security Agencies are held accountable: internal, managerial, and external. The chapter introduces readers to the institutional architecture of intelligence accountability: legislative committees, judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, bureaucratic and administrative bodies, and executive oversight. It goes on to review intelligence accountability frameworks: laws, legislatures, the executive, the judiciary, the media, the public, civil society, and the democratic interest. The chapter closes on developments in international and supranational accountability cooperation.


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