Enriching Conventional Ensemble Learner with Deep Contextual Semantics to Detect Fake News in Urdu

Increased connectivity has contributed greatly in facilitating rapid access to information and reliable communication. However, the uncontrolled information dissemination has also resulted in the spread of fake news. Fake news might be spread by a group of people or organizations to serve ulterior motives such as political or financial gains or to damage a country’s public image. Given the importance of timely detection of fake news, the research area has intrigued researchers from all over the world. Most of the work for detecting fake news focuses on the English language. However, automated detection of fake news is important irrespective of the language used for spreading false information. Recognizing the importance of boosting research on fake news detection for low resource languages, this work proposes a novel semantically enriched technique to effectively detect fake news in Urdu—a low resource language. A model based on deep contextual semantics learned from the convolutional neural network is proposed. The features learned from the convolutional neural network are combined with other n-gram-based features and are fed to a conventional majority voting ensemble classifier fitted with three base learners: Adaptive Boosting, Gradient Boosting, and Multi-Layer Perceptron. Experiments are performed with different models, and results show that enriching the traditional ensemble learner with deep contextual semantics along with other standard features shows the best results and outperforms the state-of-the-art Urdu fake news detection model.

#GirlGamers, Soldiers, and Public Relations: Analyzing Gender Representation in U.S. Army Esports

While interest in esports is widespread across demographic categories, the gendered norms surrounding video game play have been replicated, resulting in a male-dominated space. Scholars argue that broadening representations of gamers is necessary to normalizing women’s presence in esports. As nongaming organizations enter the space, they have a unique opportunity to disrupt established norms through their representations of esports competitors. This study analyzes the representation of U.S. Army Esports (USAE) team members via official social media channels. USAE was created as a public relations tool to engage with a younger audience, redefine the public image of the Army, and recruit soldiers. Using a critical public relations framework and critical discourse analysis, we examine the discourse around gender and esports constructed through USAE’s representation of team members and the role of public relations practice in reinforcing or disrupting existing norms.

Legal and psychological analysis of the peculiarities of interaction with citizens of employees of internal affairs bodies in conditions of provocative behavior

In a media-dominated society, all organizations have certain reputational risks. In recent years, the public image of the internal affairs bodies of the Russian Federation has been largely determined by the Internet environment. On the one hand, favorable images are created in it, on the other, the exposure of abuse and illegal actions. As a rule, the latter, on the basis of the action of the regularities of the formation of a conditioned reflex and the emergence of emotions and feelings, have a greater impact on the public. The authors note that the effectiveness of external communication of employees of internal affairs bodies is interconnected with its positioning in society, which ensures a positive or negative emotional attitude towards the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the part of others. In this regard, interaction with citizens in legal situations is an image-forming component. The article analyzes the acute conflict situation of interaction between an employee of the internal affairs bodies with citizens, which is posted on the video hosting You Tube (channel of the public project "Movement") in the form of videos about citizens visiting the Reception of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia ("Kneeling in front of the lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia! Sercons continued", " Serkons Bought the Police? Bloggers At the Reception of the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "). The main methods of psychological influence are highlighted, which made it possible to destabilize this situation, the regulatory legal framework is analyzed, which can be used by police officers in an acute crisis situation and in the process of performing operational and service actions.

SUBJECTIVE COMPONENTS OF THE LINGUISTIC IMAGE OF A WOMAN POLITICIAN: THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL AND SPEECH ACTIVITY

Statement of the problem. This work is devoted to the study of the linguistic image of a Russian woman politician – a special type of public image that attracts the attention of both the mass addressee and the professional expert community. The very concept of “linguistic image” is used in many social and scientific practices, being of great interest for modern humanitarian knowledge – imageology, linguistics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, advertising, public relations, etc. Within the field of linguistic image, as well as in the linguistic theory of linguistic personality, the aspect of the subjective component of public speech, the so-called “author in the text”, has always been highlighted as a separate aspect. This is interconnected not only with anthropocentrism as a universal scientific idea of ​​the 21st century, but also with the global process of mediatization of all spheres of human activity. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the subjective component of the linguistic image of a woman politician in the context of public social and speech activity. The methodology (materials and methods). The methodology of the analysis undertaken is based on the provisions and ideas of imageology, the theory of linguistic personality and linguistic semantics, in the context of which descriptive-analytical and comparative methods were used, as well as the method of semantic text analysis. The research material included the texts of public speeches and statements of 2016–2018, belonging to two representatives of modern Russian politics – Maria Zakharova and Natalia Poklonskaya. Research results. In the speeches of M. Zakharova and N. Poklonskaya, the description of social-speech communication corresponds to one language model and is presented in three aspects: 1) space (where?), 2) participants (who?), and 3) metascenarios of social-speech communication (what is happening?). In the texts of these women politicians, this semantic model is filled with its own content, which has general and specific elements that characterize their public images in different ways. Russia is described as a common communicative space for the activities of political subjects, despite the fact that for M. Zakharova the Ministry of Foreign Affairs turns out to be a specific medium of communication, and for N. Poklonskaya these are the State Duma, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Crimea. The common thing is that both speakers inscribe their own communicative activity in a threefold structure, where the main participants are a) the speaker himself, b) his associates and c) his opponents. In the contexts of M. Zakharova, the listed participants are embodied in roles: a) “Me” as “an intermediary” or “a moderator”, b) “We” as “diplomats”, as “teammates”, or a subject of the “conciliar” type (Russia, Moscow, diplomatic corps);in the contexts of M. Poklonskaya – a) “Me” as “a stateswoman” or “a prosecutor”, and also b) “We” as “prosecutors”, as “associates” and as “trustees”, respectively. As for the opponents, in both cases the set is practically the same: USA or the Ukrainian. The content of the described model is complemented by the so-called metascripts, which represent the social-speech situation in a new way and have a different functional purpose in every statement. Conclusion. The linguistic image of M. Zakharova is more objectified and restrained, in fact merging with the typical diplomatic image, while the image of N. Poklonskaya is more emotional and subjective, reinforced by the characteristic features of speech spontaneity and directness. At the same time, both images, framed by the modus of involvement and team goal-setting, organically fit into the space of the professional communication.

Analisis Kualitas Pelayanan Penerbitan Rekomendasi Izin Usaha Mikro Pada Kantor Camat Lae Parira Kabupaten Dairi

The purpose of the study was to determine and analyze the quality of service for issuing micro business license recommendations and their constraints at the Lae Parira sub-district office, Dairi Regency. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method, which is a method that only describes situations and events that aims to systematically describe the characteristics of a population or certain fields in a factual and accurate manner without looking for or explaining a relationship. The results of the study found that the quality of service for issuing recommendations for micro business licenses at the Lae Parira District Office of Dairi Regency was still not good. This can be seen from the complaints of the public or micro business actors who require licensing recommendations so that the general public has a negative view or picture of the agency. The constraint factors faced in improving the quality of services for issuing recommendations for micro business licenses are: the presence of officers who seek to obtain personal benefits from the licensing recommendation service process, employees do not try to avoid a negative public image of the institution so that many people are reluctant to deal with business administration, and lack of employee commitment to improving service quality so that employees tend to prioritize personal matters over service work to the community

Analysis of Some Common Misconceptions Regarding the Profession of Liaison Interpreting

The aim of the article is to present some of the problems related to the professionalisation of interpreting from the perspective of the public misconceptions about this occupation. An analysis of three press releases published online shows, that the terms “interpreting” and “translation” are used quite often to describe any form of communication occurring between two languages, rather than a profession, even if no third, mediating party is present. This may suggest low social consciousness regarding liaison interpreting and a need to consider the public image during the professionalisation process of this occupation.

“A Nondescript Monster”: Fanny Fern in Transatlantic Print Culture

Fanny Fern (real name Sara Payson Willis Parton) was one of the most profitable American columnists and novelists of the mid-nineteenth century. Fern sustained her celebrity status largely through unauthorised reprints of her articles in American and British papers. Consequently, her public image was for the most part constructed through those reprinted articles, which were usually framed by speculations about her private life. This article examines the implications and limitations of Fern’s efforts to stabilise the dissemination of her public image in periodicals by using the relatively more stable form of the book. As a celebrity, she had limited control over the way she was publicly represented. As a woman in the public sphere, she was particularly vulnerable to slander and libel. The circulation of a spurious biography entitled The Life and Beauties of Fanny Fern (1855), alongside her sanctioned autobiographical novel Ruth Hall, profited from her literary brand while simultaneously undermining it. Examining how these competing narratives about Fern’s private life – one fictionalised, one unauthorised – shaped her literary reputation at home and in England, this paper argues that textual representations as well as material market choices, including book bindings and advertising techniques, shaped authorship in the increasingly commercialised transatlantic literary market of the mid-century in ways that both benefited and imperilled the female writer.

Germany’s coalition faces division on several fronts

Significance The three parties successfully negotiated a coalition agreement with a strong emphasis on modernising Germany’s economy. Throughout the negotiations, the parties presented a public image of stability and harmony, yet several divisive issues will test the new government's stability and effectiveness. Impacts The composition of the new government will make it harder for Berlin to win approval for the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement. Chancellor Olaf Scholz will seek to prioritise more unity at the EU level when it comes to foreign policy decision-making. The spread of the Omicron variant will slow economic recovery and potentially delay the transition to a greener economy.

(In)Visible (a)sexuality? Media discourses and representations on asexuality in Portugal

This article presents the result of a multimodal analysis of the representation of asexuality in Portuguese mainstream media. In Portugal, the media played a pivotal role in the relationship between the newly formed Portuguese asexual community and the wider audience. Media attention on asexuality in Portugal generated a discussion on how asexual people are represented, but also on social representations of sexual diversity in general. As a result, the Portuguese asexual community and LGBTQI+ movement were impelled to reflect on their activity and on the public image they wanted to send out. Therefore, the community had to make choices: which media to participate in; who participates; whose faces the message is associated to; to what extent the allies are to be taken into consideration; which types of discourses get privileged, and which become excluded. Amongst other public effects, the Portuguese LGBTQI+ movement started to acknowledge asexuality in documents produced by them. The corpus of materials on the subject grew, and asexuality left a significant footprint. The major tendency points towards a positive portrayal of asexuality that puts asexual people centre stage, owning narratives about themselves.

‘Eastern Criminals’ and Moral Panic: On Lithuanian Offenders in Danish Prison Facilities

This chapter analyses an increased number of arrests made on young Lithuanian burglars in Denmark. Following the newspaper hype and political reactions to the burglaries, a distorted picture of the ‘devils’ is produced, letting the public believe that the Lithuanian lawbreakers are particularly inhumane, ruthless and violent. Despite the police reporting that they never have had any violent incidents with Lithuanians, the public image prevails. This negative image ends up affecting their treatment and their rights in Danish detention centres, as prison guards act in accordance with the image, rather than in accordance with their own experience. This makes Lithuanians a particularly vulnerable group of inmates in Denmark.