On leadership: When activists speak with sound and fury

School board meetings have become increasingly contentious in recent months, but, as Josh Starr explains, the tactics activists are using are not new. During his career as a district leader, he saw parents and other members of the public approach school boards with constant demands that their particular concerns receive attention. When these issues are on the fringe or outside the board’s purview, yet activists engage in increasingly outrageous behavior, leaders develop the habit of tuning out public voices, which serves no one.

The Impact of the Online COVID-19 Infodemic on French Red Cross Actors’ Field Engagement and Protective Behaviors: Mixed Methods Study

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has been widely described as an infodemic, an excess of rapidly circulating information in social and traditional media in which some information may be erroneous, contradictory, or inaccurate. One key theme cutting across many infodemic analyses is that it stymies users’ capacities to identify appropriate information and guidelines, encourages them to take inappropriate or even harmful actions, and should be managed through multiple transdisciplinary approaches. Yet, investigations demonstrating how the COVID-19 information ecosystem influences complex public decision making and behavior offline are relatively few. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether information reported through the social media channel Twitter, linked articles and websites, and selected traditional media affected the risk perception, engagement in field activities, and protective behaviors of French Red Cross (FRC) volunteers and health workers in the Paris region of France from June to October 2020. Methods We used a hybrid approach that blended online and offline data. We tracked daily Twitter discussions and selected traditional media in France for 7 months, qualitatively evaluating COVID-19 claims and debates about nonpharmaceutical protective measures. We conducted 24 semistructured interviews with FRC workers and volunteers. Results Social and traditional media debates about viral risks and nonpharmaceutical interventions fanned anxieties among FRC volunteers and workers. Decisions to continue conducting FRC field activities and daily protective practices were also influenced by other factors unrelated to the infodemic: familial and social obligations, gender expectations, financial pressures, FRC rules and communications, state regulations, and relationships with coworkers. Some respondents developed strategies for “tuning out” social and traditional media. Conclusions This study suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the information ecosystem may be just one among multiple influences on one group’s offline perceptions and behavior. Measures to address users who have disengaged from online sources of health information and who rely on social relationships to obtain information are needed. Tuning out can potentially lead to less informed decision making, leading to worse health outcomes.

Staying Tuned or Tuning Out? A Longitudinal Analysis of News-Avoiders on the Micro and Macro-Level

European media landscapes have changed into high-choice environments. Additionally, research suggests an increasing number of people are staying away from the news (news-avoiders). In two studies, we approach the topic on the macro and micro-level. In Study 1, we analyze on the macro-level how news-avoiders in 18 EU countries have developed since the late 1980s and what role country variables play in this context. We use multilevel spline models to distinguish between two phases of technological advancement. Findings suggest an increase in news-avoiders in the phase when the Internet was available. The market share of public-service broadcasters is no discerning factor for the number of news-avoiders in different countries. Using German panel-data, Study 2 takes a closer look at the news-avoiders in the Internet phase. We also show the increase of news-avoiders on the micro-level, but do not identify an increasing impact of political interest on news avoidance over time.

Dealing With the Risks of Information Overload

While guests go on farm holidays in the hope of receiving authentic and memorable experiences, information overload is a factor that is increasingly detracting from such experiences. For instance, the steady stream of emails, text messages, and news received through social media channels tends to distract from the main experience. To cope with such overload, script theory suggests that guests are increasingly ‘satisficing' their information intake and subconsciously tuning-out much incoming stimuli from their surroundings. This subconscious satisficing makes it more difficult for farm holiday providers to win the guest's full attention in order to create memorable and authentic experiences. Therefore, this chapter synthesizes theories and empirical research from several disciplines with a view to gaining a better understanding of how this modern information overload serves as a formidable threat to farm holiday providers, who typically operate from small family farms. This synthesis is then employed as the basis for a number of practical and research recommendations.

Turning Out or Tuning Out?

This chapter begins to consider the implications of the shift toward base maximization in recent presidential campaign cycles by examining patterns in voter turnout among partisan subgroups in the electorate. The analyses show that persuadable voters are voting at lower rates while strong partisans are voting at higher rates in recent presidential elections. These patterns have fundamentally changed the nature of the electorate, which has been comprised increasingly of strong partisans in recent years, relative to independent, swing, or persuadable voters.

TUNING OUT HATE SPEECH ON REDDIT: AUTOMATING MODERATION AND DETECTING TOXICITY IN THE MANOSPHERE

Over the past two years social media platforms have been struggling to moderate at scale. At the same time, they have come under fire for failing to mitigate the risks of perceived ‘toxic’ content or behaviour on their platforms. In effort to better cope with content moderation, to combat hate speech, ‘dangerous organisations’ and other bad actors present on platforms, discussion has turned to the role that automated machine-learning (ML) tools might play. This paper contributes to thinking about the role and suitability of ML for content moderation on community platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. In particular, it looks at how ML tools operate (or fail to operate) effectively at the intersection between online sentiment within communities and social and platform expectations of acceptable discourse. Through an examination of the r/MGTOW subreddit we problematise current understandings of the notion of ‘tox¬icity’ as applied to cultural or social sub-communities online and explain how this interacts with Google’s Perspective tool.

Improving the Efficiency of Measurements of Combustible Gases Concentration by a Thermocatalytic Sensor

Thermocatalytic sensors are widely used in gas analysis systems and have high reliability and low cost. However, errors in measuring the concentration of combustible gases related to the non-linearity of the conversion characteristic and the influence of ambient temperature fluctuations significantly limit the scope of their application.Purpose of reseach. Development of a method for measuring gas concentration by thermocatalytic sensors, which allows reducing measurement errors by tuning out due to ambient temperature influence and linearization of the conversion characteristic.Problems. They are as follows: to develop a method for temperature stabilization of a thermocatalytic sensor; to make a structural and functional scheme for the sensor activation; to obtain a mathematical description of the method and substantitation for tuning out as a result of temperature influence; to experimentally confirm the possibility of linearization of the sensor conversion function in the thermal stabilization mode.Methods. The mathematical description of the method applies the theory of heat transfer and the theory of electrical circuits with discrete signals. When analyzing existing solutions and synthesizing the device, methods for calculating circuits with nonlinear elements and the theory of measurement systems have been used. The real conversion function has been obtained through an experimental method.Results. A method for measuring gas concentration by a thermocatalytic sensor with the use of a microcontroller and PWM has been developed. It allows reducing errors due to tuning out as a result of ambient temperature influence. A mathematical description of the method has been given. An experiment has been performed. It demonstrates the effectiveness of using temperature stabilization to linearize the conversion characteristic.Conclusion. The paper proposes a method for temperature stabilization of thermocatalytic gas sensors. The method makes it possible to increase the accuracy of measurements by tuning out due to the influence of temperature fluctuations and linearization of the conversion function. The possibility of linearization of the sensor function has been experimentally confirmed. It characterizes the dependence of the output signal on the concentration of combustible gas. Using this method allows you to reduce the cost of the sensor, improve the quality factors of the sensor, such as the reliability and stability of parameters.

Tuning out tone errors? Native listeners do not down-weight tones when hearing unsystematic tone errors in foreign-accented Mandarin

Listeners can adapt to errors in foreign-accented speech, but not all errors are alike. We investigated whether exposure to unsystematic tone errors in second language Mandarin impacts responses to accurately produced words. Native Mandarin speakers completed a cross-modal priming task with words produced by foreign-accented talkers who either produced consistently correct tones, or frequent tone errors. Facilitation from primes bearing correct tones was unaffected by the presence of tone errors elsewhere in the talker's speech. However, primes bearing tone errors inhibited recognition of real words and elicited stronger accentedness ratings. We consider theoretical implications for tone in foreign-accent adaptation.

‘I stopped reading newspapers because of the internet!’: News consumption behaviour of youth in Greece and Turkey

Digitalization of news organizations and other traditional media presents an ongoing struggle. Although there is a general decline in news consumption in all ages, youth in particular seems to be ‘tuning out’ of news globally. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report published in 2016 by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, announced that news accessed via social media sites increased in Europe (average 46 per cent) where Greece and Turkey were high adoption countries with 74 and 73 per cent usage rates, respectively. These numbers dropped in the 2018 report to 66 per cent in Turkey and 71 per cent in Greece. This research explores the factors that influence college students’ news consumption behaviour in Greece and Turkey through an interpretative approach. Data collection was done in 2017 in Athens and Istanbul with voluntary participation of 40 college students who study in public and private universities.