scholarly journals COUNTERING THE COUNTERPUBLIC? THE GERMAN #METOO NETWORK ON TWITTER

Author(s):  
Franziska Martini

Certain varieties of feminism have become more popular, and so have anti-feminist reactions to it with both sides competing for visibility. However, the (gendered) interplay between feminist and anti-feminist counterpublics is still uncharted. At the same time, research in the field of feminist media studies is beginning to address questions of power inequalities $2 feminist publics on social media platforms. This study sheds light on the networked structure of the German-language #MeToo protest on Twitter in order to reveal who succeeded in becoming visible and influential in this digital protest and in order to show differences in networking practices among those involved. Analyzing the Twitter interaction network around #MeToo over a period of three month, we find that – as expected – this network consists of some highly connected hubs and a majority of nodes with only few connections. The most central nodes, only 1.1 percent of the Twitter users involved, account for 35 percent of interactions within the network. Applying qualitative and quantitative content analyses, this study shows that Twitter accounts of traditional news media play a central role in the #MeToo network from the very beginning, indicating that protest networks are less equal and horizontal than often assumed. At the same time, k-core decomposition reveals that most Twitter users in the network’s core published mostly racist and anti-feminist content, indicating that few but very loud and well-connected voices used the #MeToo protest to strategically mobilize against migration in Germany and Austria.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-807
Author(s):  
Alexander Godulla ◽  
Daniel Seibert ◽  
Rosanna Planer

Initially founded in 1955 as a platform for Dutch photojournalists to increase international exposure, the World Press Photo competition has grown into the most prestigious contest of photojournalism worldwide, making it an important arena for journalism research. Using qualitative and quantitative content analyses, this study examines all photos shown in the competitions from 1960 to 2020 (N = 11,789) considering the origin of jury members (N = 686), participants (N = 132,800), placements (N = 2347) and the Human Development Index (HDI) of the countries. The topics displayed on the photos, their degree of negativity, and potential power structures in the photos are analysed over time both in terms of continental and HDI-related differences. Significant results show that Africa, Asia, and South America are more frequently depicted by the topic conflict and characterised by negative images than continents with industrialised nations (Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America). Participating European countries have a significantly higher average number of jury members, participants, and placements than participating countries from Africa, Asia, and South America, which seems to account for a dominant Eurocentric view. Implications and critical discussions are summarized in three interim conclusions at the end of this extended paper.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robsan Margo

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the multi-ethnic and multicultural characteristics of the diverse Ethiopian society are incorporated into the current secondary teacher education curricula of the country. To that end, both qualitative and quantitative content analyses were used as tools for data collection. The Ethiopian general national secondary teacher education curricula framework and three other specific secondary teacher education curricula were analysed based on Banksí (1993, 2001, 2006) four approaches to the integration of ethnic and multicultural contents into teacher education curricula. The study exhibited an increasing ambition to address issues of multicultural education into the Ethiopian general national secondary teacher education curricula framework. Nevertheless, elements of multi-ethnic and multicultural education are, to a great extent, missing in the specific secondary teacher education curricula. Implications which are assumed to improve fair representation of the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Ethiopian peoples into the entire secondary teacher education curricula are presented in the article.`


First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gastón Becerra

This paper analyzes the thematic and discursive construction of big data by the Argentine digital press. Using text mining techniques — topic modelling and enriched associative networks — together with qualitative and quantitative content analysis — in both discourse and images — over 2,026 articles, we sought to identify the topics wherein big data is treated, the promises and risks it addresses, its definition within the semantic field in which is explicitly expressed, and the pictures that illustrate it. Results herein presented compare how big data is portrayed in news about politics, business, and technological innovations, as well as in focal pieces targeted to a generic and massive audience, and critical reflections about its risks. Although in each of those thematic contexts big data is anchored differently, there is a common idea that associates big data with a socio-technological premise and an epistemic promise: because of the availability of large volumes of data, something new that will allow better decisions can be known. Our exploration contributes to a more detailed knowledge on how the news media social systems make sense of novel phenomena such as big data.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethan Kaji ◽  
Maggie Bushman

BACKGROUND Adolescents with depression often turn to social media to express their feelings, for support, and for educational purposes. Little is known about how Reddit, a forum-based platform, compares to Twitter, a newsfeed platform, when it comes to content surrounding depression. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to identify differences between Reddit and Twitter concerning how depression is discussed and represented online. METHODS A content analysis of Reddit posts and Twitter posts, using r/depression and #depression, identified signs of depression using the DSM-IV criteria. Other youth-related topics, including School, Family, and Social Activity, and the presence of medical or promotional content were also coded for. Relative frequency of each code was then compared between platforms as well as the average DSM-IV score for each platform. RESULTS A total of 102 posts were included in this study, with 53 Reddit posts and 49 Twitter posts. Findings suggest that Reddit has more content with signs of depression with 92% than Twitter with 24%. 28.3% of Reddit posts included medical content compared to Twitter with 18.4%. 53.1% of Twitter posts had promotional content while Reddit posts didn’t contain promotional content. CONCLUSIONS Users with depression seem more willing to discuss their mental health on the subreddit r/depression than on Twitter. Twitter users also use #depression with a wider variety of topics, not all of which actually involve a case of depression.


Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 985-993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion ◽  
Daniel Jackson

This introduction unpacks the eight articles that make up this Journalism special issue about election reporting. Taken together, the articles ask: How has election reporting evolved over the last century across different media? Has the relationship between journalists and candidates changed in the digital age of campaigning? How do contemporary news values influence campaign coverage? Which voices – politicians, say or journalists – are most prominent? How far do citizens inform election coverage? How is public opinion articulated in the age of social media? Are sites such as Twitter developing new and distinctive election agendas? In what ways does social media interact with legacy media? How well have scholars researched and theorised election reporting cross-nationally? How can research agendas be enhanced? Overall, we argue this Special Issue demonstrates the continued strength of news media during election campaigns. This is in spite of social media platforms increasingly disrupting and recasting the agenda setting power of legacy media, not least by political parties and candidates who are relying more heavily on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to campaign. But while debates in recent years have centred on the technological advances in political communication and the associated role of social media platforms during election campaigns (e.g. microtargeting voters, spreading disinformation/misinformation and allowing candidates to bypass media to campaign), our collection of studies signal the enduring influence professional journalists play in selecting and framing of news. Put more simply, how elections are reported still profoundly matters in spite of political parties’ and candidates’ more sophisticated use of digital campaigning.


2021 ◽  
pp. 004728162110078
Author(s):  
Shanna Cameron ◽  
Alexandra Russell ◽  
Luke Brake ◽  
Katherine Fredlund ◽  
Angela Morris

This article engages with recent discussions in the field of technical communication that call for climate change research that moves beyond the believer/denier dichotomy. For this study, our research team coded 900 tweets about climate change and global warming for different emotions in order to understand how Twitter users rely on affect rhetorically. Our findings use quantitative content analysis to challenge current assumptions about writing and affect on social media, and our results indicate a number of arenas for future research on affect, global warming, and rhetoric.


Journalism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 633-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Araujo ◽  
Toni GLA van der Meer

Since news circulation increasingly takes place online, the public has gained the capacity to influence the salience of topics on the agenda, especially when it comes to social media. Considering increased scrutiny about organizations, this study aims to understand what causes heightened activity to organization-related topics among Twitter users. We explore the extent to which news value theory, news coverage, and influential actors can explain peaks in Twitter activity about organizations. Based on a dataset of 1.8 million tweets about 18 organizations, the findings show that the news values social impact, geographical closeness, facticity, as well as certain influential actors, can explain the intensity of online activities. Moreover, the results advocate for a more nuanced understanding of the relation between news media and social media users, as indications of reversed agenda-setting patterns were observed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Rūta Sutkutė

In the 21st century media has become the dominant source of knowledge of Islam and Muslims and selectively decides what the West should know about Islam and what should be hidden. However, the underlying assumption is that, the media as an institution forming stereotypes depends on the local socio-cultural context. The goal of this paper – to find out how media (as the mediator) forms values, world view of a society, creates stereotypes in different cultural environments through analysis of Muhammad cartoons. The objectives are: to define the concepts of Neo-Orientalism, Muslimophobia and Islamophobia; to find out the connection between media representations and negative images of Islam and Muslims in the society; to reveal the main stereotypes of Muslims and Islam in online media in 4 different countries by analysing the case of Muhammad cartoons. The conducted qualitative and quantitative content analysis confirmed the hypothesis that in the specific cultures the same event is presented in different ways while forming value based orientation for a specific audience. Western media seeks to portray Muslims as terrorists / Islamists that are against West, their values and any possibility of integration in Western societies. Meanwhile, Lebanon and India (Kashmir) media does not portray orientalism and Islamophobic views, because audiences are dominated by Muslims. However there are noticeable manifestations of Occidentalism - resistance to the West and the Islamophobic portrayal of public in media. Moreover, information serves as a public mobilization function, so there are reasons to believe that violent protests in Kashmir and Lebanon could have been encouraged by the media.


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Buschow ◽  
Beate Schneider ◽  
Simon Ueberheide

Abstract“Social TV”, described as the use of social media such as Twitter or Facebook stimulated by TV programs, is highly topical in the television industry. Communication research has fallen behind in addressing this issue. In this paper we explore the simultaneous communication activities of Twitter users while watching TV. Additionally, we tested whether different TV programs stimulate different communication activities. The main findings of our quantitative content analysis of approximately 30,000 messages show that communication within the Twitter community as well as evaluations of shows and actors are the main subjects of the explored tweets. We also found that different TV programs evoke different communication activities. While talent shows produce expressions of fandom and critiques of the candidates in the show, live events evoke a critical debate about the show itself and what’s happening on screen. Political talk shows can stimulate a public discourse.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document