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.

Mediascape and Movement

2019 ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Francis L. F. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Protest Movements ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter reviews the relationship between the media and the Umbrella Movement. The mainstream media, aided by digital media outlets and platforms, play the important role of the public monitor in times of major social conflicts, even though the Hong Kong media do so in an environment where partial censorship exists. The impact of digital media in largescale protest movements is similarly multifaceted and contradictory. Digital media empower social protests by promoting oppositional discourses, facilitating mobilization, and contributing to the emergence of connective action. However, they also introduce and exacerbate forces of decentralization that present challenges to movement leaders. Meanwhile, during and after the Umbrella Movement, one can also see how the state has become more proactive in online political communication, thus trying to undermine the oppositional character of the Internet in Hong Kong.

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.

Media, Participation, and Public Opinion toward the Movement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis L. F Lee ◽  
Joseph M Chan
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Media System ◽  
Tear Gas ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Impact

This chapter discusses the role of the media in the formation and mobilization of the protest campaign under the concept of the partially censored public monitor. Embedded in the dominant political economic structure, the mainstream media were on the whole negative toward the Umbrella Movement. However, (self)-censorship was only partial, and the media system continued to play the role of the public monitor. The media played an important role in generating mediated instant grievances among the public when the police fired tear gas into the protesting crowd at the beginning of the occupation. They also helped monitor police violence throughout the protest campaign. Digital media strengthened the public monitor function of the media system as a whole by facilitating wider flows of media materials. As a result, the impact of the media on public opinion toward the Umbrella Movement was mixed and contradictory.

Nadir’s Intimate Biography

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathew Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Intimate Relations ◽  
Intimate Life ◽  
Digital Cultures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sociocultural Systems

In Beirut, gay hook-up and mobile apps have become popular among men who want to arrange sex. These apps generate a new means for men to explore possibilities in their intimate lives, impacting the ways they create fantastical imaginaries of self, others, and sexual and social encounters. Focusing on the intimate biography of Nadir, in this paper I examine the relationship between fantasy and information in these media. I examine how Nadir exchanges, consumes and arranges information via media to create fantastical imaginaries about possible sex and pleasure, and to control possible outcomes in his intimate life. Once Nadir moves his interactions offline, he relies on information flows to evaluate the strength of his intimate relations. This article contributes to debates on the role of fantasy in digital cultures by examining how fantasy in digital media becomes informational, grounded to sociocultural systems of signification and communications and is negotiated within imaginative horizons of intimate possibilities.

scholarly journals STRATEGI KOMUNIKASI POLITIK DIGITAL PASCA-KEBENARAN

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Andika Hendra Mustaqim
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Right

Post-truth in politics when it is warming up with various phenomena. The research objective revealed and explored in this study is how post-truth digital political communication strategies. The research method uses descriptive qualitative with a qualitative approach with critical paradigm and analysis. The post-truth political communication strategy that will be delivered is applicable and can be applied in the practice of political communication. The strategies are fake news: between facts and lies; near-lie: use the right words to form wrong impressions; deception with self delusion; spin: favorable interpretation of facts; euphemasia; repetition; personalization; and ignoring rationality, prioritizing emotions. The digital political communication strategy is more focused on how to use digital media for the benefit of political communication. The strategies are blogging; influencing public opinion; social media: building enggage and closeness; and mainstream media; focusing entertaining and attractive. These three strategies are based on digital media that are fully utilized in terms of digital political communication post-truth.

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”.

Fake News and Journalism Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Information Environment ◽  
Journalism Education ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Fourth Estate ◽  
Mainstream Media

In a contested information environment, the phrase ‘fake news’ represents the existential challenge to journalists dealing with an audience losing its faith in what journalism does. The traditional role of the Fourth Estate and the responsibilities to inform and keep those in power accountable, are now constantly undermined by a determined counter-offensive that purports to show ‘truth’ and ‘accuracy’ are pliable concepts in the hands of the mainstream media. Journalism educators have to confront this dilemma head-on and affirm within the classroom the priority of the basic tenets of the job – not just reporting accurately and capturing balance, but committing to a process of verification that shows the rigour behind the best kind of journalism. This embrace of traditional journalism’s foundation skills is at the heart of re-establishing the credibility of the job, initially with students, and then, with the community.

scholarly journals Quantifying Media Effects, Its Content, and Role in Promoting Community Awareness of Chikungunya Epidemic in Bangladesh

Epidemiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Mst. Marium Begum ◽  
Osman Ulvi ◽  
Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic ◽  
Mallory R. Walsh ◽  
Hasan Tarek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Vector Borne ◽  
Media Outlet ◽  
And Control

Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease, mostly present in tropical and subtropical regions. The virus is spread by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos and symptoms include high fever to severe joint pain. Dhaka, Bangladesh, suffered an outbreak of chikungunya in 2017 lasting from April to September. With the goal of reducing cases, social media was at the forefront during this outbreak and educated the public about symptoms, prevention, and control of the virus. Popular web-based sources such as the top dailies in Bangladesh, local news outlets, and Facebook spread awareness of the outbreak. Objective: This study sought to investigate the role of social and mainstream media during the chikungunya epidemic. The study objective was to determine if social media can improve awareness of and practice associated with reducing cases of chikungunya. Methods: We collected chikungunya-related information circulated from the top nine television channels in Dhaka, Bangladesh, airing from 1st April–20th August 2017. All the news published in the top six dailies in Bangladesh were also compiled. The 50 most viewed chikungunya-related Bengali videos were manually coded and analyzed. Other social media outlets, such as Facebook, were also analyzed to determine the number of chikungunya-related posts and responses to these posts. Results: Our study showed that media outlets were associated with reducing cases of chikungunya, indicating that media has the potential to impact future outbreaks of these alpha viruses. Each media outlet (e.g., web, television) had an impact on the human response to an individual’s healthcare during this outbreak. Conclusions: To prevent future outbreaks of chikungunya, media outlets and social media can be used to educate the public regarding prevention strategies such as encouraging safe travel, removing stagnant water sources, and assisting with tracking cases globally to determine where future outbreaks may occur.

scholarly journals Perceived truth of statements and simulated social media postings: an experimental investigation of source credibility, repeated exposure, and presentation format

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Nadarevic ◽  
Rolf Reber ◽  
Anne Josephine Helmecke ◽  
Dilara Köse
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Source Credibility ◽  
Repeated Exposure ◽  
Presentation Format ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Additive Effects ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Source Information ◽  
Internet Age

Abstract To better understand the spread of fake news in the Internet age, it is important to uncover the variables that influence the perceived truth of information. Although previous research identified several reliable predictors of truth judgments—such as source credibility, repeated information exposure, and presentation format—little is known about their simultaneous effects. In a series of four experiments, we investigated how the abovementioned factors jointly affect the perceived truth of statements (Experiments 1 and 2) and simulated social media postings (Experiments 3 and 4). Experiment 1 explored the role of source credibility (high vs. low vs. no source information) and presentation format (with vs. without a picture). In Experiments 2 and 3, we additionally manipulated repeated exposure (yes vs. no). Finally, Experiment 4 examined the role of source credibility (high vs. low) and type of repetition (congruent vs. incongruent vs. no repetition) in further detail. In sum, we found no effect of presentation format on truth judgments, but strong, additive effects of source credibility and repetition. Truth judgments were higher for information presented by credible sources than non-credible sources and information without sources. Moreover, congruent (i.e., verbatim) repetition increased perceived truth whereas semantically incongruent repetition decreased perceived truth, irrespectively of the source. Our findings show that people do not rely on a single judgment cue when evaluating a statement’s truth but take source credibility and their meta-cognitive feelings into account.

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