scholarly journals The role of journalism in combating fake news: the case of the last day of the 2019 election campaign in Portugal

Author(s):  
Tiago Lima Quintanilha ◽  
Gustavo Cardoso ◽  
Vania Baldi ◽  
Miguel Paisana

This article reflects on the role of journalism in the deconstruction of fake news propaganda that came out in the media on the last day of the 2019 parliamentary election campaign in Portugal. We collected news items carried by the Portuguese media and contextualised this media coverage with regard to the impact of disinformation on confidence in the news with the help of data collated as part of the Digital News Report project. We found that journalistic scrutiny, aided by the characteristics of the Portuguese media system, might have contributed to a zero effect of this fake news on the election results, unlike what happened in elections in other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Brazil.

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 243-249
Author(s):  
Limei Yang ◽  
Olga Degtyareva

This article explores the role of the media in covering the conflict potential of mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The aim of the study is to analyze the media’s influence on the transformation of public opinion on issues of ethnic or territorial identity. Based on Chinese and Western media coverage, the reasons for unbalanced coverage of intra-territorial conflicts as well as the impact of stereotypes on political behaviour are identified. On the basis of the analysis the role of specific media in neutralizing the intra-regional conflict potential is determined, as well as the peculiarities of the technology of public opinion molding on the part of mainland China.


1996 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUE MAHAN ◽  
RICHARD LAWRENCE

Three of the most infamous prison riots in the United States took place in Attica, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Lucasville, Ohio in 1971, 1980, and 1993, respectively. Although an examination of the three riots reveals differences in the uprisings, there are important similarities in the underlying conditions behind them. Analysis of the three riots shows the significant role played by representatives of the media both in negotiating with inmates and taking back the three institutions. In this article, the authors discuss the influence and effect of media coverage on prison riots based on what was learned from the participation of the media in the Attica, Santa Fe, and Lucasville uprisings.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhe Ouyang ◽  
Jiuchang Wei ◽  
Yu Xiao ◽  
Fei Wang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of media attention on corporate disaster relief. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a matched sample research design, which is considered more appropriate than a random sample design for studying events that have low-occurrence rates in general. For each donor firm in the Yushu earthquake, the authors matched the firm with a non-donor firm in the same industry and with a firm size of within ±30 percent of the total assets in the year prior to the year of the occurrence of the Yushu earthquake. Then, using the Baidu engine, which is the most popular Chinese search engine, the authors captured the online media attention to the donor firms and their disaster relief. Findings The authors found that media attention drove corporate disaster relief. Research limitations/implications Although the authors highlighted the role of the media as an important stakeholder in influencing corporate disaster relief, the authors did not fully explore the media’s influence. Future research should delve more deeply into the impact of the tenor of media coverage on corporate disaster relief. Originality/value This study reveals that the media, a particularly powerful stakeholder, can be a corporate disaster relief driver in China.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ifeanyichukwu Meek Eyisi

ABSTRACTHealthy behaviors remain important for staying safe during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study, therefore, explored the healthy behaviors of Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 related news on healthy behaviors. Thirty-three (17 females and 16 males) participants from the general Nigerian population with age range of 23-64 years were recruited via social media using the snowball technique. Responses were elicited using semi-structured questions and subjected to thematic analysis. The healthy behaviors identified included; “social distancing”, “changes in nutrition”, “hand washing or sanitizing”, “exercise”, “increased vigilance from those with comorbidities”, and “use of facemask”. In another analysis, the impacts of COVID-19 related news on healthy behaviors were; “behavior modification”, “anxious impacts”, and “fake news about COVID-19 caused people to stop listening to COVID-19 related news”. Findings generated practical implications for enhancing healthy behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The role of the media in strengthening healthy behaviors during the pandemic was also highlighted.


Dynamis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-347
Author(s):  
Kimberly Probolus

This paper explores how discourses of giftedness informed attitudes towards parenting in the United States from 1920 to 1960. Using psychologists’ studies of giftedness, media coverage of the topic, and guidebooks for parents of gifted children, I argue that giftedness emerged in the 1910s, and by the 1920s addressed a newly limited definition of intelligence and problems in urban public education, coinciding with the popularity of the culture and personality school. Scholarly debates about giftedness traveled from the academy to the wider public through the media and guidebooks for parents. Media coverage brought awareness of the problem of the neglected gifted student, and guidebooks offered parents practical suggestions about how to raise gifted children. I show that the discourse contributed to racial segregation in American schools and classrooms by using merit to determine access to educa- tional opportunity. Experts’ advice about giftedness also altered expectations about childrearing and encouraged parents to become more involved in their child’s educational development. This argument puts the history of psychology in conversation with histories of parenting, and it evidences how the discourse on giftedness impacted institutional inequality both through merit-based gifted and talented programs and by impacting ideologies of parenting. Thus, I provide a more comprehensive account of how and why giftedness profoundly shaped both the school and the home. This article considers the cultural work the discourse accomplished; it gave the public the impression that disparities in educational achievement between individuals and groups could be explained by the parenting a child received, putting significant pressure on all parents to make educational achievement a top priority for their child.


2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  

Bertijn van der Steenhoven The media coverage of fake news, a hype? This article provides insight into the intensified media attention for fake news in Dutch newspaper articles between May 2016 and April 2017 from the perspective of Vasterman’s (2005) theory of media hypes. It was found that speculations about the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States as a result of the spread of fake news caused a news wave. This news wave consists mainly of meta news and contains few news articles about the disclosure of fake news. The news production is mainly driven by meta news and by news about qualifications of the media as ‘fake news’. This article calls for further research into the media attention for fake news in other media than newspapers in the Netherlands as well as in other countries. Keywords: fake news, media hype, news wave, key event, hoax


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-396
Author(s):  
James M Scott ◽  
Charles M Rowling ◽  
Timothy M Jones

Abstract Late in the twentieth century, the United States embraced democracy promotion as a foreign policy priority, a central component of which involved allocating democracy aid to governments, political parties, and nongovernmental organizations around the world to support and encourage democratization. Nonetheless, as a scarce resource, democracy assistance is allocated selectively: some states receive substantial commitments while others receive none. As previous studies have concluded, democracy aid allocations are, in part, strategic bets placed on the likelihood of progress toward and consolidation of democracy, as donors consider cues that identify situations where democracy aid is likely to be most successful. We introduce the role of media coverage as a key factor in democracy aid allocations and argue that a shift toward democracy within a potential recipient state interacts with media attention to that state to generate cues for aid allocators. To gauge the agenda-setting and cueing effects of media coverage on democracy aid allocations, we examine US democracy assistance from 1975 to 2010, weighing the impact of media attention, democratic openings, and other factors related to recipient characteristics and US political, strategic, economic, and ideational interests on democracy assistance. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Tosatto

This paper investigates the conditions which led the United States to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade agreement. The funnel of causality framework is used to determine whichcauses were mostly predominant in leading to this foreign policy decision. The paper will examine the impact of societal sources, specifically public opinion, media coverage, Congressional approvalprocesses, and interest groups. The role of each group is analysed within the context of the 2016 Presidential elections. The paper concludes that public opinion, amplified by media, is the source ofCongress’ opposition, and having trumped major interest groups, public opinion has evidently contributed to US’ withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.


10.2196/19611 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e19611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Sousa-Pinto ◽  
Aram Anto ◽  
Wienia Czarlewski ◽  
Josep M Anto ◽  
João Almeida Fonseca ◽  
...  

Background The influence of media coverage on web-based searches may hinder the role of Google Trends (GT) in monitoring coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Objective The aim of this study was to assess whether COVID-19–related GT data, particularly those related to ageusia and anosmia, were primarily related to media coverage or to epidemic trends. Methods We retrieved GT query data for searches on coronavirus, cough, anosmia, and ageusia and plotted them over a period of 5 years. In addition, we analyzed the trends of those queries for 17 countries throughout the year 2020 with a particular focus on the rises and peaks of the searches. For anosmia and ageusia, we assessed whether the respective GT data correlated with COVID-19 cases and deaths both throughout 2020 and specifically before March 16, 2020 (ie, the date when the media started reporting that these symptoms can be associated with COVID-19). Results Over the last five years, peaks for coronavirus searches in GT were only observed during the winter of 2020. Rises and peaks in coronavirus searches appeared at similar times in the 17 different assessed countries irrespective of their epidemic situations. In 15 of these countries, rises in anosmia and ageusia searches occurred in the same week or 1 week after they were identified in the media as symptoms of COVID-19. When data prior to March 16, 2020 were analyzed, anosmia and ageusia GT data were found to have variable correlations with COVID-19 cases and deaths in the different countries. Conclusions Our results indicate that COVID-19–related GT data are more closely related to media coverage than to epidemic trends.


Author(s):  
Bernardo Sousa-Pinto ◽  
Aram Anto ◽  
Wienia Czarlewski ◽  
Josep M Anto ◽  
João Almeida Fonseca ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The influence of media coverage on web-based searches may hinder the role of Google Trends (GT) in monitoring coronavirus disease (COVID-19). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess whether COVID-19–related GT data, particularly those related to ageusia and anosmia, were primarily related to media coverage or to epidemic trends. METHODS We retrieved GT query data for searches on <i>coronavirus</i>, <i>cough</i>, <i>anosmia</i>, and <i>ageusia</i> and plotted them over a period of 5 years. In addition, we analyzed the trends of those queries for 17 countries throughout the year 2020 with a particular focus on the rises and peaks of the searches. For <i>anosmia</i> and <i>ageusia</i>, we assessed whether the respective GT data correlated with COVID-19 cases and deaths both throughout 2020 and specifically before March 16, 2020 (ie, the date when the media started reporting that these symptoms can be associated with COVID-19). RESULTS Over the last five years, peaks for <i>coronavirus</i> searches in GT were only observed during the winter of 2020. Rises and peaks in <i>coronavirus</i> searches appeared at similar times in the 17 different assessed countries irrespective of their epidemic situations. In 15 of these countries, rises in <i>anosmia</i> and <i>ageusia</i> searches occurred in the same week or 1 week after they were identified in the media as symptoms of COVID-19. When data prior to March 16, 2020 were analyzed, <i>anosmia</i> and <i>ageusia</i> GT data were found to have variable correlations with COVID-19 cases and deaths in the different countries. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that COVID-19–related GT data are more closely related to media coverage than to epidemic trends.


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