How Do Chinese Media Frame Arab Uprisings: A Content Analysis

Employing content analysis, this study compares the coverage of the Arab uprisings by the <em>People’s Daily</em> (the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China) and <em>Caixin Net</em> (a typical commercial media) with statements from the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the last decade. It shows that the overall attention given to Arab uprisings in the <em>People’s Daily</em> and <em>Caixin Net</em> declined during the period, but there were shifts in the framing of the conflicts, presentation of issues, and positions. The article demonstrates and analyses how the approach and outline of the conflicts in the <em>People’s Daily</em> changed from disaster to criticism, and then to comparison—its position towards the events generally negative—and how <em>Caixin Net</em> moved from a disaster to a contextual framing of the events, its position tending to be neutral.

Book Review: Hate, Inc.: Why today's media makes us despise one another by Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi's “Hate, Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise Each Other” (OR Books 2021) might make you angry, but it will make you think. Taibbi's takedown of commercial media, now updated in a post-election edition, offers a striking critique of the news media's slow but steady slide toward polarization “…skewed by a toxic mix of political and financial considerations” (20). Taibbi convincingly argues, using both historical and modern examples along with personal experience, that the press sells people on a simplified worldview where the two political parties are in a constant and perpetual conflict about everything. While Taibbi does offer some advice for independent-minded journalists seeking to navigate the current media landscape, audiences are left with little in the way of solutions, other than to stop reading (and watching) the news.

Assessing the Viability of Commercial Media for the Mass Culture of Chaetoceros muelleri

The microalgae Chaetoceros muelleri is considered a highly nutritious feed for the cultured larvae of the tropical sea cucumber Holothuria scabra. Due to the cost of analytical grade culture media used in the production of C. muelleri, there is a need to evaluate cheap alternative commercial media to decrease the cost of producing quality live microalgal food. In this study, two different indoor batch culture systems (1 L glass bottles and 10 L plastic carboys) were used to evaluate the effectiveness of two conventional (modified F/2 and Walne’s) and one commercial (Epizyme AGP complete) microalgal culture media. Results of the 1 L glass bottle experiment showed that the peak cell density of C. muelleri in AGP (1,241 ± 116 x 104 cells ml-1) was not significantly different from the modified F/2 (1,584 ± 41 x 104 cells ml-1) and Walne’s medium (1,319 ± 162 x 104 cells ml-1) (Kruskal-Wallis test, p=0.78). Likewise, in the plastic carboy experiment, the maximum cell density of C. muelleri in Walne’s medium (750 ± 144 x 104 cells ml-1) and F/2 medium (653 ± 79 x 104 cells ml-1) were higher, but not significantly different from AGP (496 ± 184 x 104 cells ml-1) (Kruskal-Wallis test, p=0.43). The highest growth rate in the glass bottle cultures was the modified F/2 (0.38 div day-1), while AGP was the lowest (0.34 div. day-1). On the other hand, in carboy culture, AGP was higher (0.17 div.day-1) compared to modified F/2 (0.15 div. day-1) and Walne’s medium (0.13 div. day-1). The exponential growth phase was similar in the glass bottles, while in the carboy, the exponential phase was reached at a shorter time in the AGP treatment than those in the modified F/2 and Walne’s media. The findings showed that AGP medium is an adequate alternative to replace the conventional media (modified F/2 and Walne’s) during the secondary stock culture for C. muelleri. The viability of using cheaper and more readily available commercial AGP media for the indoor culture production of C. muelleri can contribute to cost-effective scaling-up of the hatchery production of quality H. scabra larvae and early juveniles.

National Radio in the Reform Era

After unification, the mission of Vietnamese state media was rewritten to incorporate southern voices. Broadcasters assimilated the technical and administrative apparatus of the former Republic of Vietnam and adapted their programming to appeal to new audiences. Since the early reform era (1986 onwards), broadcasters have had to become more responsive to listener demands by establishing phone-in shows and playing requests, and they now consciously engage listeners online in the diaspora. Chapter 4 examines how the VOV’s broadcasting and musical wings were restructured after unification and again following economic reforms. The research investigates the spaces allocated to southern and minority content from the late 1970s onwards, including a consideration of the styles of broadcasting in minority languages. The chapter also examines the history and contemporary role of the VOV’s sound archives to understand how the categorization of musical style in the Socialist Republic has shaped perceptions of place and locality. Request letters and audience surveys illustrate how listeners took greater ownership over content just as a proliferation of commercial media alternatives were being made accessible in the socialist-oriented market economy. The chapter concludes by examining the diversification of musical styles on air to understand how the public are engaging with popular culture beyond the communist bloc more intensely since the 1990s.

China's commercial media will recover from crackdown

Significance This is part of a broader wave of conservative moves against the country's freewheeling popular culture and entertainment industry, underlining President Xi Jinping's aspirations for greater social cohesion and 'common prosperity'. Impacts There will be stricter consumer protection rules related to television entertainment, particularly talent and reality shows. Some stars will be made into examples of misbehaviour, as highly visible, symbolic cases to scare the rest of the community into compliance. Like the broadcasting regulator, other parts of the bureaucracy will launch initiatives to demonstrate support for Xi's latest slogan.

ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE. FRUSTRATION EXPERIENCES WITH NETWORKED MEDIA AND THE ROLE OF SOCIAL SUPPORT

This proposal investigates experiences of frustration with networked media from a users’ perspective. It explores how these experiences are resolved and what role helping friends and family members play in this process. Experiences of frustrations refer to concrete problems in the use of networked media. The examination of their causes and elimination helps to better understand the socio-technical logics of commercial media technologies as well as their impact on everyday life. This study seeks to offer insights into societal power relations with regard to succeeding in and shaping the ongoing digital transformation process. It thus contributes to the wider field of digital inequalities research. Theoretically, my considerations are guided by the concept of media deconvergence which highlights the disorder and messiness of converging media environments. Furthermore, I am inspired by the domestication approach and by “broken world thinking" (Jackson 2014), which takes disruptions and failures as a starting point for analyzing socio-technical change. Insights into novel forms of expertise and changing constellations of support and neediness were gained on the basis of a qualitative study consisting of visualizations of support networks and their written reflection and explanation as well as guided interviews about expertise and mutual support in media usage.

Infodemic vs. Pandemic Factors Associated to Public Anxiety in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study in China

Introduction: Every outbreak of an epidemic or pandemic disease is accompanied by the tsunami of information, which is also known as the infodemic. Infodemic makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it, and causes social panic about health, widens the gaps between races and regions, and even brings the social chaos all over the world. While most researchers and related parties made efforts to control the inaccurate information spreading online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the infodemic influence caused by the overload of accurate information were almost or completely ignored, and this will hinder the control of infodemic in future public health crises. This study aims to explore the infodemic vs. pandemic influence on people's psychological anxiety across different media sources in the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.Methods: A cross-sectional study using online survey method was conducted by a data-collection service provider in April 2020. A total of 1,117 valid samples were finally collected from 5,203 randomly invited members via webpages and WeChat. The sample distribution covered the 30 provincial administrative divisions of mainland China.Results: Hierarchical regression analysis for the potential pandemic sources and infodemic sources of psychological anxiety showed that the infodemic factors of attention to the coronavirus information (β = 0.154, p &lt; 0.001) and commercial media exposure (β = 0.147, p &lt; 0.001) is positively related to the level of anxiety. Statistics indicated that influence of the infodemic factors is over and above that of the pandemic factors (ΔR2 = 0.054, F = 14.199, and p &lt; 0.001). Mediation analysis showed that information overload (B = 0.155, Boot SE = 0.022, and 95% Boot CI [0.112, 0.198]) mediates the link between attention to coronavirus information and anxiety; both information overload (B = 0.035, Boot SE = 0.014, and 95% Boot CI [0.009, 0.062]) and media vicarious traumatization (B = 0.106, Boot SE = 0.017, and 95% Boot CI [0.072, 0.140]) mediate the link between commercial media exposure and anxiety.Conclusion: This study suggested that the influence of infodemic with mixed accurate and inaccurate information on public anxiety does exist, which could possibly go beyond that of the pandemic. Information overload and vicarious traumatization explain how infodemic may be associated to public anxiety. Finally, commercial media could be a major source of infodemic in the Chinese media context. Implications for the related parties were discussed.

The eARTISTS Media and Information Literacy Model for Managing Access to Quality Information

Information is necessary for eliminating uncertainty and facilitating decision-making. Quality of decisions depends upon the quality of information available to the stakeholders. But to manage access to quality information, information seekers have to depend upon different sources of information, media, and other information providers. Unfortunately, the commercial media is controlled by corporate tycoons, governments, politicians and various non-government organisations (NGOs). These information providers have some motive behind the stories flashed by them. Hence, media and information literacy (MIL) skills are necessary for ascertaining truth behind the story. Earlier, information literacy and media literacy were used as separate concepts but now UNESCO is using (MIL) as a composite concept, appreciating the symbiosis between media and information. This article gives an overview of a few MIL related developments and describes the e-ARTISTS MIL Model developed by Jagtar Singh and Alton Grizzle. Differentiating the e-ARTISTS Model from the Big6 Model and the Empowering 8 Model of Information Literacy, it justifies the need for e-ARTISTS MIL Model for managing timely access to quality information for facilitating quality decision-making.

Beyond ‘fake news’?

This article longitudinally analyses how Australian politicians engage with, and attack, journalists and the media more generally on Twitter from 2011–2018. The article finds that attacks on journalists have increased significantly since 2016 when Trump came to power, but this is largely the preserve of populist and far-right politicians. These politicians rarely call the media fake, instead alleging bias or questioning the veracity or standards of reporting and production. Many politicians have a functional relationship with the media, rarely criticising the media. Attacks are largely focused on the national public service broadcaster, the ABC, with limited attacks on commercial media.

Hyperlokaalin median rooli kansalaiskeskustelussa Venäjällä

Hyperlokaalista mediasta on tullut tärkeä osa paikallisen median kenttää eri puolilla Venäjää. Sitä edustavat kaupunkikohtaiset julkiset keskusteluryhmät sosiaalisen median alustoilla. Tämän kaltaiset ryhmät tarjoavat alustan yhteiskunnallisille keskusteluille, tukevat paikallisia yhteisöjä ja erilaisia kansalaisaloitteita sekä informoivat asukkaita kaupungin tapahtumista. Hallinnon edustajien aktiivinen osallistuminen tekee näistä ryhmistä tärkeitä foorumeita ja kommunikaatiokanavia paikallisen hallinnon ja asukkaiden välillä. Artikkelissa käytetään esimerkkinä paikkakuntakohtaisia julkisia ryhmiä ja analysoidaan, missä määrin ruohonjuuritason aloitteet voivat mahdollistaa viestinnän viranomaisten ja kansalaisten välillä ja kuinka tämänkaltainen asukkaiden osallistuminen kaupunkia koskevien asioiden käsittelyyn vaikuttaa paikallishallintoon. Tutkimuksessa haastateltiin sosiaalisessa mediassa toimivien ryhmien ylläpitäjiä ja moderaattoreita seitsemästä venäläisestä kaupungista. Tutkimus osoitti, että hyötyjen lisäksi hyperlokaalin median kasvuun liittyy myös riskejä: vallanpitäjien mielipiteisiin mukautuminen ja näennäinen osallistuminen saattavat heikentää kansalaisten todellisia vaikuttamismahdollisuuksia. Siinä, miten kansalaiset osallistuvat päätöksentekoon sosiaalisessa mediassa, ja siinä, miten he todellisuudessa osallistuvat paikallishallintoon, on huomattava ero. Kaupunkiryhmien kehitykseen viestintäkanavana vaikuttaa niiden epävakaus ja omistajan halu kaupallistaa projekti, mikä tuottaa viihteellistä, neutraalia ja harmitonta sisältöä. Hyperlocal media as a communication channel between state and society in Russia’s regions Hyperlocal media in Russia, represented mainly by city public groups on social network websites, have recently become important elements of local media ecosystems in Russia’s regions. Along with the dissemination of information on local news and affairs, these groups act as platforms for public discussions and support community initiatives and local activism. The active involvement of local state bodies in these groups has made these sites important spaces of public participation as well as a communication channel between city administrations and local society. Taking the example of city public groups, this article explores to what extent non-professional and non-commercial media initiatives can enhance public engagement and citizen participation in local governance, as well as to what extent these digital media can serve as communication channels between state bodies and citizens in the Russian regions. The empirical data include eighteen interviews with owners and moderators of public city groups, conducted during the author’s fieldwork in seven Russian cities in 2017-2018. Based on the empirical evidence, I explore how grassroots digital media shows growing potential for public engagement. Compared to professional local newsrooms, these groups demonstrate higher freedom in the selection of topics and issues for public discussion. Moreover, hyperlocal media offer wider opportunities for local citizens to express their opinions by commenting and publishing their own materials. Constraining factors include co-optation strategies of state bodies, evidence of “pseudo-participation” and a significant gap between the share of people involved in “information engagement” and in offline activities.