The Online Media Landscape in the Focus of Disinformation Campaigns in the Western Balkans: Albania, Kosova, and North Macedonia

In the conditions of a technological transformation of the media, professional credibility and reliability in information are fading due to the manipulative role that the media have taken. This paper, among other things, highlights exactly the editorial lines of the media, which do not build them on principles based on professional cause, but rather on the causes of political-media oligarchies. The fake news industry in the world is currently the most profitable product, and this is the most serious threat to democracies, which cannot be properly consolidated without a regulation in the dense "traffic" of online communication. In this industry Russia leads with its Sputnik, which has created a widespread establishment in the media space of Central and Eastern Europe. Preventing of this media "pandemic" is extremely complicated and costly, because this type of information is camouflaged in various forms and the public needs a proper media education to identify and differentiate fake news from true ones. Therefore, it is very necessary to create a national strategy of each state, to prevent the spread of this media "pandemic", while the most effective "virus" is the professionalization of the media and its detachment from the influence of political oligarchies. False news is creating its bedrock of influence and this is especially evident in the division of society as a result of political tensions and inter-ethnic discontent. Moreover, this paper shows that in such a divided society, the disinformation that circulates incessantly in the public space, sows fear. If a disinformation protection strategy were to be developed, then public confidence would not be in crisis, as it is currently in the Western Balkans, and the media would return to its primary role: independent and objective information.

EXPRESS: Professional Credibility under Threat: Responses to Negative Social Evaluations in Newly Contested Professions

How do professionals attempt to restore their credibility when it has been tarnished by crises or scandals? To address this issue, we examined how banking professionals who testified during a government inquiry into the 2008 banking crisis in Ireland responded when confronted with negative social evaluations (NSEs) evidenced by personal criticism of their judgment, competence, or morality. We find that professional credibility is renegotiated through two processes: depersonalization and personalization. Testifiers distanced themselves from criticism through a depersonalization process by which they reoriented the unfolding narrative toward broader collectives such as their own profession, adjacent professions, and the macroeconomic environment. They also engaged in a personalization process by which they showcased individual efforts to improve their work processes and outcomes to bolster their professional credibility. Our work theoretically elaborates the view of NSEs as being socially constructed and brings the role of professional credibility of individuals to the fore of the NSE literature. In doing so, it offers a broader perspective on the repertoire of criticisms and responses associated with NSEs than that documented by prior studies, and it emphasizes how professionals seek to reassert their credibility. We also present a less deterministic view of public inquiries.

Navigating the awkward, challenging social context of evaluation

Evaluation practice takes place in a particularly awkward and challenging social context due to the fear, resistance and anxiety that is often associated with evaluation. Navigating this social context is taxing for evaluators and has the potential to negatively impact their well-being. This article begins with an exploration of the positioning of qualitative and relational approaches within the evaluation field over time, showing that they have been increasingly acknowledged and now widely accepted as crucial to the practice of evaluation. More recent literature is then used to identify six social competencies that are essential to on-the-ground evaluation practice. These competencies are in allaying fear and anxiety, establishing rapport, building and maintaining professional credibility, recognising tacit social dynamics, preventing and managing coercion attempts, and preventing and managing hostility. The article then explores the implications of working in this social context for evaluator well-being. Difficulties around self-assessing competency levels, contending with a poor reputation, emotional labour and self-care, and limited research specific to these matters are discussed. This article posits that practising evaluators should routinely reflect and take active steps to not only improve their social competence but also maintain their own well-being.

The effects of images posted to social media by orthodontists on public perception of professional credibility and willingness to become a client

Background Many patients choose health professionals using the Internet, whether through websites or social media. In orthodontics, an orthodontist’s relationship with active and potential patients can be affected by social media interactions, both as a marketing tool and as a tool for providing educational information. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the public perception of professional credibility and willingness to become a client, based on images posted by orthodontists on Instagram. Method This was a cross-sectional study performed using a digital self-administered questionnaire based on images from public Instagram profiles of orthodontists found using certain hashtags. The themes of the posts were analyzed through a qualitative analysis, and the results were expressed as categories. After analyzing 2445 images, 12 thematic categories emerged. A total of 446 individuals (225 laypeople, 66 dental students, and 155 dentists) evaluated the images in regard to the perception of professional credibility and willingness to become a client. One-way ANOVA and chi-square tests were applied, considering a 5% significance level. Results It was found that more than 95% of the participants used social media, primarily Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, and the social network most used to research health services was Instagram. Statistically significant differences were found in the mean value of perceived professional credibility between the groups (p < 0.05) for the following categories: “dental traction,” “mini-implant mechanics,” “before and after treatment,” “aesthetic brackets,” “metallic brackets,” and “clear aligners.” The categories “being a teacher” and “before and after treatment” had a higher impact on the participants’ perception of credibility and willingness to become a client, unlike the “social relationship” and “family relationship” categories. Conclusions Some of the themes found in the orthodontists’ social media posts were found to influence the perceptions around professional credibility and willingness to become a client, although there were differences among the participants in the present study.

The ‘disenchantment’ of traditional acupuncturists in higher education

Efforts of traditional acupuncturists in the UK to regulate their practice and standardise their training, led, from the mid-1990s, to the launch of acupuncture undergraduate programmes within, or validated by, universities. It appeared as if by so doing acupuncturists were on course to align themselves with ‘scientifically plausible’, state-regulated, allied health professionals, a remarkable development considering the marginality of acupuncture practice outside East Asia, and its paradigmatic tensions with biomedicine. But was it really to be? Based on in-depth interviews with higher education acupuncture educators and an analysis of educational documents published by the leading professional body, we explore the way in which this paradigmatic tension is negotiated within a framework that is dominated by biomedicine. By critically revisiting sociology of professions and anti-colonial analysis, we examine an over two decades long journey of acupuncture educators in academic institutions in the UK. Based on this analysis, we point at some of the challenges that acupuncturists faced in higher education that may have restricted the academic legitimisation of acupuncture and that left them in a position of academic marginality and greater exposure to scrutiny, leading to their academic and mainstreaming ‘disillusionment’. At the same time, by positioning themselves as ‘professional academics’ within higher education institutions and demonstrating professionalism, acupuncture educators were able to demonstrate academic and professional ‘credibility’ and therefore distance themselves from the continuous scrutiny over their ‘biomedical fragility’.

Communicating COVID-19 Pandemic

In February 2020 Croatia was affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic. A challenging task of communicating the pandemic was assumed by the people associated with the Headquarters of Civil Protection of the Republic of Croatia. The goal of this study was to examine how three of them were covered in the media and to test if and how they were using pandemic-related strategies of persuasion to achieve public compliance. The findings indicate that the coverage of the key communicators during the first three months of the pandemic was overwhelmingly positive. Moreover, in the early stages of the pandemic none of the examined news sites was really pushing issues or angles that questioned pandemic-related policies or actions of the Headquarters. Examination of the rhetoric of the key coronavirus communicators has established that they have embraced persuasive strategies that are typical of pandemic communication, most notably the use of fear appeals, military metaphors and insistence on messages of 'togetherness' and conversely, 'pandemic shaming'. The article concludes that professional credibility and favorable media representation of Croatian coronavirus envoys, along with adopted persuasive strategies, have probably encouraged people to trust their decisions and comply with restrictive measures that have suspended their freedoms and changed their life routines almost overnight.

The bad expert

We focus on two cases in which participants narrate and perform a new culture of expertise by constructing a bad expert, a reviled or dangerous figure of scientific credibility gone wrong. We show that a key mechanism in the construction of expertise cultures is the use of antithesis performances, which are performances of scientific and professional credibility that rely on telling stories about a scientific enemy or ostracized Other. By performing the antithesis of the bad expert, actors help generate turning points in expertise, allowing new cultures of expertise to emerge. Our two case studies are: (1) feminist therapeutic expertise related to domestic violence, and (2) the revival of psychedelic medicine. In explicating these cases, we link the jurisdictional model of expertise (from the sociology of professions) with the network model of expertise (from science and technology studies): Cultural factors such as scientific narratives and embodied performances link together expert domains and forge new boundaries around expert practice.

Promoting leadership and quality improvement through external inspections of management of sepsis in Norwegian hospitals: a focus group study

ObjectiveInspections and other forms of external assessment may contribute to positive changes in the health services, but the mechanisms of such change remain unclear. We did a study to explore how external inspections may foster clinical improvement in hospitals.DesignFocus group study.SettingStatutory inspections of sepsis treatment in hospital emergency departments in Norway.ParticipantsClinicians, managers and inspection teams involved with the inspections of sepsis treatment in emergency departments at four different hospitals. Twelve focus group interviews were carried out, with a total of 47 participants.ResultsThree themes emerged as central for understanding how the inspections could contribute to clinical improvement in the emergency departments: (1) increasing awareness about the need to improve the quality of care by providing data on clinical performance, (2) building acceptance for improvement through professional credibility and focus on clinical practice, and (3) fostering leadership commitment.ConclusionOur findings suggest that the inspections have the potential to enhance hospital management and staff’s understanding of complicated care processes and help strengthen the organisational commitment to bring about systemic quality improvements.

Mediatization and journalistic agency: Russian television coverage of the Skripal poisonings

The 2018 Skripal poisonings prompted the heavy securitisation of UK-Russian relations. Despite the ensuing tight coordination between the Russian government and state-aligned television, this article argues that in today’s mediatised environment – in which social and political activities fuse inextricably with their own mediation – even non-democracies must cope with the shaping of global communications by media logics and related market imperatives. With a range of media actors responding to events, and to each other, on multiple digital platforms, no state could assert full narrative control over the Skripal incident. Counterintuitively, Russian journalists’ journalistic agency was enhanced by mediatisation processes: their state sponsors, seeking to instrumentalise reporting, delegated agency to journalists more attuned to such processes; yet commercial imperatives obliged them to perform independence and professional credibility. These competing forms of agency clashed with one another, and with that of the audiences engaging in real time with the journalists’ outputs, ultimately undermining the Russian state’s efforts to harness news coverage to its political and security goals. The article concludes that in today’s global communications environment, mediatisation substantially constrains the ability of non-democracies to micro-manage journalists’ treatment of major events relating to national security.