Oriented around efficiency, civic technology primarily aims to remove barriers by automating and streamlining processes of government. While removing barriers is vital in many matters of governance, should it always be the aim of civic technology? In our ongoing ethnographic research to understand the work of community engagement performed by public officials in local government, we have observed how this orientation around efficiency in civic technology can inadvertently create distance in the relationships between citizens and governments. In this article, we discuss how an orientation around trust could open a space for civic technology that primarily aims to close distance in the relationships between citizens and public officials. We do so by first providing an account of how trust functions in the work of public officials performing community engagement, calling attention to where and when efficiency is at odds with the importance of relationship building between public officials and citizens. We build on ethnographic findings and a series of co-design activities with public officials to develop three strategies that operate under the logic of trust: historicizing engagement, focusing on experience, and mediating expectations. In all, by focusing on trust and the relational work of closing distance, civic technology can move towards addressing the growing crisis in confidence being faced in democracies.
Keywords: civic relationships; civic technology; community engagement; democracy; local government; trust Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:104-113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: AMEND: Open Source and Data-Driven Oversight of Water Quality in New England File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2136 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2136 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 91-103 Author-Name: Nathan Edward Sanders Author-Workplace-Name: Mystic River Watershed Association, USA Abstract: The advent of government transparency through online data publication should provide a transformative benefit to the information gathering practices of civic organizations and environmental advocates. However, environmental agencies and other reporters often disseminate this critical data only in siloed repositories and in technically complex, inconsistent formats, limiting its impact. We have developed a new open source web resource, the Archive of Massachusetts ENvironmental Data or AMEND, which curates information relating to federal, state, and local environmental stewardship in Massachusetts, focused on water quality. We describe the construction of AMEND, its operation, and the datasets we have integrated to date. This tool supports the development and advocacy of policy positions with published analyses that are fully reproducible, versioned, and archived online. As a case study, we present the first publicly reported analysis of the distributional impact of combined sewer overflows on Environmental Justice (EJ) communities. Our analysis of the historical geospatial distribution of these sewer overflows and block-level US Census data on EJ indicators tracking race, income, and linguistic isolation demonstrates that vulnerable communities in Massachusetts are significantly overburdened by this form of pollution. We discuss applications of this analysis to the state-level legislative process in Massachusetts. We believe that this approach to increasing the accessibility of regulatory data, and the code underlying AMEND, can serve as a model for other civic organizations seeking to leverage data to build trust with and advocate to policymakers and the public. Keywords: advocacy; databases; environmental data; environmental justice; Massachusetts; open source; policy; water quality Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:91-103 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Citizen Journalism and Public Participation in the Era of New Media in Indonesia: From Street to Tweet File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2094 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2094 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 79-90 Author-Name: Iswandi Syahputra Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University, Indonesia Author-Name: Rajab Ritonga Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Communication, Universitas Prof. Dr. Moestopo (Beragama), Indonesia Abstract: Citizen journalism was initially practiced via mass media. This is because citizens trusted mass media as an independent information channel, and social media like Twitter was unavailable. Following mass media’s affiliation to political parties and the rise of social media, citizens began using Twitter for delivering news or information. We dub this as citizen journalism from street to tweet. This study found that such process indicates the waning of mass media and the intensification of social media. Yet, the process neither strengthened citizen journalism nor increased public participation as it resulted in netizens experiencing severe polarization between groups critical and in support of the government instead. We consider this as a new emerging phenomenon caused by the advent of new media in the post-truth era. In this context, post-truth refers to social and political conditions wherein citizens no longer respect the truth due to political polarization, fake-news-producing journalist, hate-mongering citizen journalism, and unregulated social media activities. Primary data were obtained through in-depth interviews with four informants. While conversation data of netizens on Twitter were acquired from a Twitter conversation reader operated by DEA (Drone Emprit Academic), a big data system capable of capturing and analyzing netizen’s conversations, particularly on Twitter in real time. This study may have implications on the shift of citizen journalism due to its presence in the era of new media. The most salient feature in this new period is the obscurity of news, information, and opinions conveyed by citizens via social media, like Twitter. Keywords: citizen journalism; Indonesia; mass media; new media; public participation; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:79-90 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “This Is Shared Work:” Negotiating Boundaries in a Social Service Intermediary Organization File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2171 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2171 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 69-78 Author-Name: Mariam Asad Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Author-Name: Christopher A. Le Dantec Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Abstract: This article discusses the results from our fieldwork at a social service intermediary organization working to reform criminal justice institutions in a large city in the American South. Our findings focus on organizational staff’s relationships with information and communication technologies (ICTs), both in the course of their daily work of delivering care work to vulnerable participants, as well as the project’s broader political goals to reduce recidivism and repair community relationships with local police. The group needed to distinguish and negotiate the various—and often competing—needs and commitments of the civic actors involved. As on-site researchers, we were asked to design and deploy digital tools to support the organization in exchange for conducting research on organizational uses of technology. This work draws from our time with the group to ask: how might community-based researchers revisit and realign our research methods to better respond to the changing needs and practices of a research site? Our observations identified three recurring technological concerns expressed by staff that pointed to competing agendas and needs within the organization, specifically across different levels of scale: operational, proximal, and temporal. We then discuss these patterns around broader organizational concerns to reflect on how they impacted our own research methods and commitments. Finally, we reflect on the limitations of participatory methods in issue-oriented organizations that do progressive work across multiple scales and agendas. Keywords: civic engagement; community-based research; public sector; social service, social work Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:69-78 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Practice of Civic Tech: Tensions in the Adoption and Use of New Technologies in Community Based Organizations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2180 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2180 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 57-68 Author-Name: Eric Gordon Author-Workplace-Name: Engagement Lab, Emerson College, USA Author-Name: Rogelio Alejandro Lopez Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, USA Abstract: This article reports on a qualitative study of community based organizations’ (CBOs) adoption of information communication technologies (ICT). As ICTs in the civic sector, otherwise known as civic tech, get adopted with greater regularity in large and small organizations, there is need to understand how these technologies shape and challenge the nature of civic work. Based on a nine-month ethnographic study of one organization in Boston and additional interviews with fourteen other organizations throughout the United States, the study addresses a guiding research question: how do CBOs reconcile the changing (increasingly mediated) nature of civic work as ICTs, and their effective adoption and use for civic purposes, increasingly represent forward-thinking, progress, and innovation in the civic sector?—of civic tech as a measure of “keeping up with the times.” From a sense of top-down pressures to innovate in a fast-moving civic sector, to changing bottom-up media practices among community constituents, our findings identify four tensions in the daily practice of civic tech, including: 1) function vs. representation, 2) amplification vs. transformation, 3) grassroots vs. grasstops, and 4) youth vs. adults. These four tensions, derived from a grounded theory approach, provide a conceptual picture of a civic tech landscape that is much more complicated than a suite of tools to help organizations become more efficient. The article concludes with recommendations for practitioners and researchers. Keywords: civic sector; civic technology; community based organizations; community organizing; information communication technologies; innovation; youth media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:57-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Civic Organizations and Digital Technologies in an Age of Distrust File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2385 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2385 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 54-56 Author-Name: Eric Gordon Author-Workplace-Name: Engagement Lab, Emerson College, USA Abstract: How are civic organizations using new and emerging technologies to adapt to a new context of distrust? This editorial contextualizes new research on trust and organizations in civic life and identifies a number of key factors contributing to the urgency of the work. As publics grow increasingly suspicious of the institutions that mediate civic life, including news, government and civil society, organizations are adopting new tactics to accommodate this new reality. Keywords: civic organizations; distrust; fake news; information communication technology; innovation; social infrastructure Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:54-56 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Partisan Selective Exposure in Times of Political and Technological Upheaval: A Social Media Field Experiment File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2183 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2183 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 42-53 Author-Name: Cornelia Mothes Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany Author-Name: Jakob Ohme Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Abstract: Contemporary democracies are increasingly shaped by a surge of populism, posing serious threats to the idea of liberal democracy. Particularly in the run-up to elections, knowledge of such threats is essential for citizens to cast an informed vote. Against this background, the present study examined the likelihood of media users to engage with political news providing critical perspectives on populist movements in a 24-hour social media field experiment during the 2017 federal election campaign in Germany (N = 210). Based on two selective exposure measures, findings suggest that exposure to critical news is contingent upon the conceptualization of populist partisanship as a political orientation of either high commitment (i.e., voting intention) or high affinity (i.e., sympathy for a party). While high commitment triggered a rather classic confirmation bias, especially regarding click decisions, high affinity caused selection patterns to be more strongly guided by informational utility, particularly during newsfeed browsing, with counter-attitudinal information receiving more attention. When public sentiment cues were present, however, attitudinal patterns disappeared. These findings imply that partisan news use in times of political upheaval is best gauged by taking a closer look at the particular type of partisanship that guides selective exposure, as both types of partisanship caused contrary exposure patterns, and that today’s news environments potentially override attitudinal influences by providing additional social monitoring cues. Keywords: confirmation bias; incidental exposure; informational utility; online opinion; partisanship; populism; selective exposure; social endorsements; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:42-53 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Discussion Network Activation: An Expanded Approach to Selective Exposure File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2112 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2112 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 32-41 Author-Name: Benjamin A. Lyons Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Utah, USA / Department of Politics, University of Exeter, Exeter Abstract: Studies of selective exposure have focused on use of traditional media sources. However, discussion networks are an integral part of individuals’ information diets. This article extends the selective exposure literature by exploring the potential for networks to likewise be selectively accessed. A pre-registered experiment found that participants nominate denser, more ideologically coherent networks in response to congenial political news relative to uncongenial news, and express willingness to share it with more people. Analysis of open-ended data suggest shared political beliefs are more likely to motivate discussant selection in response to congenial, rather than uncongenial, news. Properties of networks generated in response to political and non-political news did not vary. These results provide nuance to our understanding of political information exposure. Keywords: discussion networks; information seeking; polarization; selective exposure; social identity Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:32-41 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Picture Power? The Contribution of Visuals and Text to Partisan Selective Exposure File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1991 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.1991 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 12-31 Author-Name: Thomas E. Powell Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Author-Name: Toni G. L. A. van der Meer Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Author-Name: Carlos Brenes Peralta Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Political Science, University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica Abstract: Today’s high-choice media environment allows citizens to select news in line with their political preferences and avoid content counter to their priors. So far, however, selective exposure research has exclusively studied news selection based on textual cues, ignoring the recent proliferation of visual media. This study aimed to identify the contribution of visuals alongside text in selective exposure to pro-attitudinal, counter-attitudinal and balanced content. Using two experiments, we created a social media-style newsfeed with news items comprising matching and non-matching images and headlines about the contested issues of immigration and gun control in the U.S. By comparing selection behavior of participants with opposing prior attitudes on these topics, we pulled apart the contribution of images and headlines to selective exposure. Findings show that headlines play a far greater role in guiding selection, with the influence of images being minimal. The additional influence of partisan source cues is also considered. Keywords: balanced content; experimental research; image; selective exposure; text; visual communication Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:12-31 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: From Selective Exposure to Selective Information Processing: A Motivated Reasoning Approach File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2289 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2289 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 8-11 Author-Name: Lindita Camaj Author-Workplace-Name: Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston, Houston Abstract: Literature suggests that while without doubt people engage in selective exposure to information, this does not entail that they also engage in selective avoidance of opinion-challenging information. However, cross-cutting exposure does not always lead to dispassionate deliberation. In this commentary I explore psychological conditions as they apply to attitude-based selection and make an argument that selectivity does not stop at exposure but continues as audiences engage with information they encounter and incorporate in their decision-making. I propose the theory of motivated reasoning as a rich theoretical underpinning that helps us understand selective exposure and selective information processing. Keywords: audience; information; information processing; media; motivated reasoning; selective exposure Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:8-11 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: A Third Wave of Selective Exposure Research? The Challenges Posed by Hyperpartisan News on Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2257 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2257 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 4-7 Author-Name: Matthew Barnidge Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism & Creative Media, The University of Alabama, USA Author-Name: Cynthia Peacock Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, The University of Alabama, USA Abstract: Hyperpartisan news on social media presents new challenges for selective exposure theory. These challenges are substantial enough to usher in a new era—a third wave—of selective exposure research. In this essay, we trace the history of the first two waves of research in order to better understand the current situation. We then assess the implications of recent developments for selective exposure research. Keywords: democracy; hyperpartisan news; political communication; populism; public sphere; selective exposure; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:4-7 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Selective Exposure in a Changing Political and Media Environment File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2351 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i3.2351 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 3 Pages: 1-3 Author-Name: María Luisa Humanes Author-Workplace-Name: Ciencias de la Comunicación y Sociología, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain Abstract: Currently, the transformations occurring in media systems (especially those relating to technologies, the Internet and social networks) have led to a renewed interest in analysing the conditions that potentially foster selective exposure and, specifically, politically-oriented selection. As a result, that theory is now among the 21st century’s top eight most used approaches (Bryant & Miron, 2004, p. 696). This thematic issue addresses some of the key questions about selective exposure and associated phenomena by means of two comment articles and three research articles. Keywords: hyperpartisan news; information processing; motivated reasoning; populism; selective exposure; visual communication Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:3:p:1-3 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Social Navigation and the Refugee Crisis: Traversing “Archipelagos” of Uncertainty File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2279 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.2279 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 300-302 Author-Name: Melissa Wall Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, California State University – Northridge, USA Abstract: This reflection considers the thematic issue “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes” through the lens of social navigation which takes into account the fluidity and uncertainty of the refugee and forced migrant condition whether in flight, emplaced, or at a temporary stopping point. Refugees who are able to “read” their social environment will be more successful in developing practices to navigate through unpredictable migration processes, including responding to information uncertainty. Yet even as some of the displaced adapt, other actors—particularly those part of the refugee regime—are also operating in unstable conditions such that the actions of refugees/forced migrants may in turn keep the circumstances of those purporting to help also in flux. Keywords: belonging; digital environment; information precarity; migrant; refugee; social navigation; uncertainty Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:300-302 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Business Support for Refugee Integration in Europe: Conceptualizing the Link with Organizational Identification File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1877 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1877 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 289-299 Author-Name: Yijing Wang Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Vidhi Chaudhri Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: The ongoing refugee crisis presents a plethora of challenges and requires systematic contributions from public and private entities—e.g., governments, non-governmental organizations, community organizations and businesses. Relative to the other three, (explicit) business efforts toward refugee (economic) integration are yet sporadic, limited to a few large organizations. While acknowledging that integration encompasses multiple spheres and is complicated by national and local variations across EU member states, this conceptual article treats business support of refugee (economic) integration as a manifestation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and contends that such efforts may enhance employee-organizational identification. Drawing on scholarship from CSR and organization–employee identification, we develop a conceptual model including propositions about mediating and moderating mechanisms of the relationship among refugee integration, CSR communication and employee-organizational identification. Our study offers a conceptual bridge between what is known about the importance, barriers and enablers of refugee labor market integration with the lesser-known organizational, specifically employee, perspectives on the issue. Leveraging on this conceptual framework, further research may focus on testing the relationship empirically through collecting field data from business firms which have made an explicit claim on refugee support. Keywords: business; company; corporate communication; corporate social responsibility; employees; organizational identification; refugee integration Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:289-299 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Narratives of the Refugee Crisis: A Comparative Study of Mainstream-Media and Twitter File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1983 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1983 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 275-288 Author-Name: Adina Nerghes Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Humanities Lab, KNAW Humanities Cluster, The Netherlands Author-Name: Ju-Sung Lee Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: The European refugee crisis received heightened attention at the beginning of September 2015, when images of the drowned child, Aylan Kurdi, surfaced across mainstream and social media. While the flows of displaced persons, especially from the Middle East into Europe, had been ongoing until that date, this event and its coverage sparked a media firestorm. Mainstream-media content plays a major role in shaping discourse about events such as the refugee crisis, while social media’s participatory affordances allow for the narratives to be perpetuated, challenged, and injected with new perspectives. In this study, the perspectives and narratives of the refugee crisis from the mainstream news and Twitter—in the days following Aylan’s death—are compared and contrasted. Themes are extracted through topic modeling (LDA) and reveal how news and Twitter converge and also diverge. We show that in the initial stages of a crisis and following the tragic death of Aylan, public discussion on Twitter was highly positive. Unlike the mainstream-media, Twitter offered an alternative and multifaceted narrative, not bound by geo-politics, raising awareness and calling for solidarity and empathy towards those affected. This study demonstrates how mainstream and social media form a new and complementary media space, where narratives are created and transformed. Keywords: mainstream-media; narratives, networks; refugee crisis; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:275-288 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: With a Little Help from My Friends: Peer Coaching for Refugee Adolescents and the Role of Social Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1876 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1876 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 264-274 Author-Name: Julia Kneer Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Anne K. van Eldik Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jeroen Jansz Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Susanne Eischeid Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Differential Psychology, Duisburg-Essen University, Germany Author-Name: Melek Usta Author-Workplace-Name: Peer2Peer, The Netherlands Abstract:This intervention study investigated how much impact a specific peer-coaching (Peer2Peer) for refugee adolescents has on different factors of well-being for both sides: refugee adolescents (peers, N = 16) and their local peer coaches (buddies, N = 16). Next to pre- and post-tests, four buddies reflected on the process via weekly media diaries. We found that higher peer-loneliness and lower self-esteem was reported for peers in the beginning but these differences disappeared. These results were confirmed by buddies’ media diaries: language and communication barriers reduced and friendships between buddies and peers grew. Buddies also reported high feelings of responsibilities in their media diaries which led to worries about their peer, but also to pride due to peers’ improvement. Online communication was used on an almost daily basis to stay in contact each other. Snapchat was found to influence emotional and affectionate support. In sum, Peer2Peer as a program showed positive effects for both sides. Future Peer2Peer programs should include trainings on social media as well, as most apps are able to be used independent of own language skills. Thus, social media can help to overcome language barriers and intensifies the feeling of being supported.
Keywords: adolescents; peer coaching; refugees; social inclusion; social media; well-being Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:264-274 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Board Games as Interview Tools: Creating a Safe Space for Unaccompanied Refugee Children File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1817 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1817 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 254-263 Author-Name: Annamária Neag Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University, UK Abstract: Since the emergence of the new sociology of childhood in the late 1980s, there has been an increasing expectation to engage children actively and to take their views seriously throughout the research process. This is even more important when it comes to unaccompanied refugee children, whose voice is seldom heard. In this article the author builds upon her project of exploring unaccompanied refugee children’s lived media experiences and argues that—in order to have meaningful results and to create safe spaces for those who need it most—we need to search beyond traditional research tools. Specifically, she proposes to bring into research the concept of “play”. The article presents the use of bespoke, artisanal board games in cross-national interview settings with unaccompanied refugee children. It is argued that these creative tools can help in collecting diverse and rich data that can successfully complement traditional research methods Keywords: unaccompanied refugee children; board games; interviewing; media literacy; qualitative methods Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:254-263 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Urban & Online: Social Media Use among Adolescents and Sense of Belonging to a Super-Diverse City File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1879 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1879 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 242-253 Author-Name: Anne K. van Eldik Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Julia Kneer Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Jeroen Jansz Author-Workplace-Name: Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: In a world of continuous migration, super-diverse cities consist of a multitude of migrants and non-migrants from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Yet one characteristic they all have in common is the place where they currently live. In addition, both groups are active users of social media, especially the young. Social media provide platforms to construct and negotiate one’s identity—particularly the identity related to where one lives: urban identity. This article presents the results of a survey study (N = 324) investigating the relationships between social media engagement and identity construction among migrant and non-migrant adolescents in the super-diverse city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was found that urban identity was significantly higher for migrants than non-migrants. Certain aspects of social media engagement predicted urban identity in combination with social identity. Finally, social media engagement was found to be positively related to group self-esteem. Keywords: adolescents; identity construction; migration; Rotterdam; self-esteem; social media; super-diversity; urban identity Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:242-253 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: In the Bullseye of Vigilantes: Mediated Vulnerabilities of Kyrgyz Labour Migrants in Russia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1927 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1927 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 230-241 Author-Name: Rashid Gabdulhakov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract:Hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz labour migrants seek opportunities in Russia where they fall target to retaliation of vigilante citizens who find offence in the presence of alien labourers in their homeland. Vigilantism also takes place within this migrant ‘community’ where male Kyrgyz labour migrants engage in retaliation on female migrants over perceived offences such as dating non-Kyrgyz men. On several occasions between 2011 and 2016 videos featuring honour beating of female labour migrants by fellow countrymen shook the internet. The selected case illustrates vulnerabilities experienced by migrants due to xenophobia and hostility of the host state, as well as additional layers of vulnerabilities linked to gendered biases that ‘travel’ across borders along with compatriots in migration. The study argues that offline structures, norms, biases, violence, and stigma not only reincarnate online, where they culminate in vigilante acts, but consequently, they re-enter the offline discourse and go through further normalization and justification.
Keywords: digital divides; digital vigilantism; layers of vulnerabilities; labour migrants Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:230-241 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Citizenship Islands: The Ongoing Emergency in the Mediterranean Sea File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1930 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1930 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 218-229 Author-Name: Alessandra Von Burg Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Wake Forest University, USA Abstract: I present the concept of “citizenship islands” to analyze the ongoing emergency in the Mediterranean Sea. Citizenship islands are based on the idea of “nonplaces” for noncitizens who are both constantly present and invisible. Citizenship islands are a test of what is to come, as noncitizens such as migrants and refugees continue to arrive, even as countries refuse their right of entry and of seeking asylum. Based on research in Lampedusa, I argue that as understandings of citizenship change, the ongoing emergency in the Mediterranean Sea forces a focus on noncitizens. What is happening around discourses of citizenship, mobility, and migration requires new language to describe and analyze what is already happening, and to theorize new research tools for the future. Nonplaces invite a paradox between visibility and invisibility, between in-dependence and inter-dependence, highlighting the importance of language in characterizing the experience of migrants and refugees and how that language shapes relationships between newcomers/noncitizens and already established residents/citizens. Keywords: citizenship; Mediterranean Sea; migrants; mobility; noncitizens; nonplaces; refugees Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:218-229 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: “We Demand Better Ways to Communicate”: Pre-Digital Media Practices in Refugee Camps File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1869 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1869 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 207-217 Author-Name: Philipp Seuferling Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden Abstract: This article provides a historical perspective on media practices in refugee camps. Through an analysis of archival material emerging from refugee camps in Germany between 1945 and 2000, roles and functions of media practices in the camp experience among forced migrants are demonstrated. The refugee camp is conceptualized as a heterotopian space, where media practices took place in pre-digital media environments. The archival records show how media practices of refugees responded to the spatial constraints of the camp. At the same time, media practices emerged from the precarious power relations between refugees, administration, and activists. Opportunities, spaces, and access to media practices and technologies were provided, yet at the same time restricted, by the camp structure and administration, as well as created by refugees and volunteers. Media activist practices, such as the voicing of demands for the availability of media, demonstrate how access to media was fought for within the power structures and affordances of the analogue environment. While basic media infrastructure had to be fought for more than in the digital era and surveillance and control of media practices was more intense, the basic need for access to information and connectivity was similar in pre-digital times, resulting in media activism. This exploration of unconsidered technological environments in media and refugee studies can arguably nuance our understanding of the role of media technologies in “refugee crises”. Keywords: communication history; forced migration; Germany; media activism; media practices; refugee camp Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:207-217 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Refugee Organizations’ Public Communication: Conceptualizing and Exploring New Avenues for an Underdeveloped Research Subject File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1953 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1953 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 195-206 Author-Name: David Ongenaert Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium Abstract: The world has faced a major increase in forced displacement and the theme has also become the subject of many public, media and political debates. The public communication of refugee organizations thereby increasingly impacts their operations, the public perception on forcibly displaced people and societal and policy beliefs and actions. However, little research has been conducted on the topic. Therefore, this conceptual article aims to (1) define refugee organizations’ public communication, (2) situate it within broader research fields, and (3) motivate the latter’s relevance as research perspectives. In order to be able to achieve these research objectives, the article first discusses the social and scientific relevance of the research subject and identifies important gaps within literature which both form an essential scientific base for developing the main arguments. Adopting a historical perspective, the article demonstrates that in recent decades the social and scientific relevance of research on strategic and non-profit communication in general and on refugee organizations’ public communication in particular have increased. Nevertheless, these fields remain underdeveloped and are mostly text-focused, while the production and reception dimensions are barely explored. Remarkably, however, little or no research has been conducted from an organizational communication perspective, although this article demonstrates that the subject can be adequately embedded in and examined from the fields of strategic, non-profit and public communication. Finally, the article highlights the relevance of the holistic Communicative Constitution of Organizations perspective and argues that future research can benefit by adopting multi-perspective, practice-oriented, multi-methodological, comparative and/or interdisciplinary approaches. Keywords: Communicative Constitution of Organizations; displacement crises; mediated humanitarianism; non-profit communication; public communication; refugee organizations; strategic communication Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:195-206 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Prospects of Refugee Integration in the Netherlands: Social Capital, Information Practices and Digital Media File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1955 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1955 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 184-194 Author-Name: Amanda Alencar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Author-Name: Vasilki Tsagkroni Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract: Integration is a highly contested concept within the field of migration. However, a well-established view of the concept draws from underpinning migration and refugee theories, in which integration is seen as a dynamic, multidimensional, and two-way process of adaptation to a new culture and that takes place over time. Most studies have focused on the integration perspective of host societies, in particular how governments’ understandings of belonging shape legal frameworks of rights and citizenship and their impact on the process of integration itself. With a focus on refugee migration to the Netherlands, this study analyzes the newcomers’ perspectives and experiences of integration and information in the host society, as well as the role of digital media technologies and networks in mediating this relationship. Building on policies and refugee migrant interviews, the article sketches out the ongoing dynamics of social capital during refugees’ adaptation processes in the country and puts forward a perception of the role of media in the integration act. Keywords: digital technologies; information practices; refugee integration; social capital Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:184-194 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Social Media and Forced Migration: The Subversion and Subjugation of Political Life File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1862 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1862 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 173-183 Author-Name: Jay Marlowe Author-Workplace-Name: School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work, University of Auckland, New Zealand Abstract: As social media platforms and the associated communication technologies become increasingly available, affordable and usable, these tools effectively enable forced migrants to negotiate political life across borders. This connection provides a basis for resettled refugees to interact with their transnational networks and engage in political activities in novel ways. This article presents a digital ethnography with 15 resettled refugees living in New Zealand and the role of social media and transnational networks for the maintenance and creation of political lives. Taking a broad interpretation of how political and political life are understood, this article focuses on how power is achieved and leveraged to provide legitimacy and control. In particular, it examines how refugees practise transnational politics through social media as they navigate both the subjugation and subversion of power. These digital interactions have the potential to reconfigure and, at times collapse, the distance between the resettled “here” and the transnational “there”. This article highlights how social media facilitates political lives as an ongoing transnational phenomenon and its implications for the country of resettlement and the wider diaspora. Keywords: digital communication; forced migration; politics; refugee; resettlement; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:173-183 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Introduction to “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes” File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2277 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.2277 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 169-172 Author-Name: Vasiliki Tsagkroni Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Amanda Alencar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands Abstract:This editorial serves as an introduction to the Media and Communication thematic issue on “Refugee Crises Disclosed: Intersections between Media, Communication and Forced Migration Processes”. This thematic issue presents an integrated look at forced migration through the spectrum of media studies and communication sciences. The eleven articles in this volume offer a comparative research approach on different focuses that involve cross-national, cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural frameworks, as well as multi-actor perspectives and methodologies. Altogether, the contributions featured in this thematic issue offer inspiring insights and promote innovative research on the way we perceive implications of media and communication in the field of migration. To conclude, a reflection on the presented research is also included.
Keywords: communications; digital media; forced migration; media; migration; refugees Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:169-172 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: (Un)Healthy Behavior? The Relationship between Media Literacy, Nutritional Behavior, and Self-Representation on Instagram File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1871 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1871 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 160-168 Author-Name: Claudia Riesmeyer Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Julia Hauswald Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Author-Name: Marina Mergen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany Abstract: The article examines the relationship between media (and health literacy), self-representation, and nutritional behavior of girls who receive nutrition-related content on Instagram. Analyzing this relationship is important because social networks like Instagram can be used as platforms to promote one’s nutritional behavior as expression of personality and to interact with others. Countless meal images are posted, and reach a large number of users. With its visual characteristics, Instagram seems predestined for nutrition-related self-representation. Media literacy, one way of raising young people’s awareness of the risks of media use, encompasses the skills knowledge, evaluation, and action. If media literacy is transferred to the field of health communication, intersections become apparent. Media literacy is understood as a necessary ability to distinguish credible health information from non-credible health information. Both media and health literacy include the skills knowledge, evaluation, and action. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with girls in the age of 13 to 19, results show the relevance of media and health literacy for nutritional behavior. The girls own background information to classify and evaluate received content. They know that content on Instagram is staged and they reflect about negative effects of staged images. However, these images inspire them for their self-representation and nutritional behavior. They adapt what they see into their own eating habits, adopt trends, and thus act against their knowledge of negative consequences to reach the socially expected body image. Keywords: health literacy; Instagram; media literacy; nutritional behavior; self-representation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:160-168 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Self-Efficacy in Multimodal Narrative Educational Activities: Explorative Study in a Multicultural and Multilingual Italian Primary School File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1922 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1922 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 148-159 Author-Name: Monica Banzato Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy Author-Name: Francesca Coin Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy Abstract: The international migration changed the situation in the Italian school system: it is asked to update educational practices with new pedagogical models of narration and expression (multiliteracies and multimodality) and to promote digital skills from childhood. Self-efficacy, more than the actual performance, influences the will to try again and not give up. Few studies are available on how narrative self-efficacy affects expressive development, especially in school contexts characterized by multilingualism and multiculturalism. This exploratory survey aims to investigate the narrative self-efficacy of eighteen 8-year-old children attending primary school, with a significant presence of international migrant children (two out of three). For three months, these students were involved in multimodal narrative learning activities through gestural/mime languages (theatre), visual languages (drawings), verbal languages (oral and written) and digital languages (digital video narration). The research questions were: (1) Does the multimodal workshop influence the self-efficacy beliefs of the narrative skills perceived by Italian students (L1) and international migrant students (L2)? (2) Does the most influence come from the mime/gestural, the digital video or the entire multimodal narrative activities? (3) In which aspects of the narrative is the self-efficacy most influenced by the multimodal workshop for L1 and L2 groups? Keywords: international migrant students; multicultural; multilingualism; multiliteracies; multimodality; narrative skills; primary school; self-efficacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:148-159 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: They Need More Than Technology-Equipped Schools: Teachers’ Practice of Fostering Students’ Digital Protective Skills File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1902 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1902 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 137-147 Author-Name: Priscila Berger Author-Workplace-Name: Department Empirical Media Research and Political Communication, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany Author-Name: Jens Wolling Author-Workplace-Name: Department Empirical Media Research and Political Communication, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany Abstract: The intense use of digital media among children and adolescents raises concerns about online risks. In response, digital literacy frameworks for formal education usually include a set of protective skills. Considering that teachers have the responsibility to implement such frameworks, this study investigates factors associated with teachers’ practices of fostering students’ digital protective skills. Therefore, data from a survey conducted with 315 teachers in the state of Thuringia, Germany, was analyzed. The findings indicate positive associations between the importance teachers attribute to digital protective skills, the knowledge they have about guidelines for media education, their formal media training, and their media and technology use in class. Besides, the analysis revealed associations with school type, subject taught, and teacher age. Conversely, the factors of human and technological resources did not yield significant effects in the regression model. The final model explained 48% of the variance in the teachers’ practices of fostering protective skills. Keywords: digital literacy; digital skills; media education; online risk; protection of the private sphere; protective skills; teaching Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:137-147 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Empowering English Language Learners through Digital Literacies: Research, Complexities, and Implications File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1912 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1912 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 128-136 Author-Name: Chang Yuan Author-Workplace-Name: Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, North Carolina State University, USA Author-Name: Lili Wang Author-Workplace-Name: Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, North Carolina State University, USA Author-Name: Jessica Eagle Author-Workplace-Name: Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, North Carolina State University, USA Abstract: In the context of an increasingly global society and rapidly changing technology, English Language Learners (ELLs) need support to develop digital literacies to prepare for a future in which learning new technology is an intuitive process. In the past few decades, technological advances have been shifting how information is produced, communicated, and interpreted. The Internet and digital environments have afforded a broader range of opportunities for literacy practices to take place. Technology has transformed the social practices and definitions of literacy, which leads to transformative implications for the teaching and learning environments facing ELLs. Despite immigrants’ attraction to the US, the tension between the public school system and emergent bilingual students has garnered broad attention. There is a need for a more appropriate teaching pedagogy that embraces the cultural identities of ELLs, and empowers ELLs as critical consumers and producers of information. Though complex, the authors advocate for examining this issue using an asset perspective rather than a deficit lens. Using the sociocultural perspective of learning and critical theory, this paper aims to define and conceptualize ELL learning, establish a shared vision of digital literacies, and review the literature on how practices of digital literacies empower ELLs to become active learners. In the final section, implications and future research directions are articulated in order to move the digital literacy field forward. Keywords: critical theory; digital divide; digital literacies; English language learners Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:128-136 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Literacies Learning in Contexts of Development: A Critical Review of Six IDRC-Funded Interventions 2016–2018 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1959 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1959 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 115-127 Author-Name: Michelle Schira Hagerman Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada Abstract: As global development agencies and governments seek to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4 for Universal Education, evidence of the real impacts of digital literacies interventions in local contexts are needed. This critical review of the designs, impacts and markers of quality of six literacies interventions offers new insights into the strengths and weaknesses of fixed and open approaches to literacies learning in contexts of development. Open interventions offered greater promise for learning a range of digital literacies practices than fixed interventions, even though fixed interventions, based on mobile and web-based apps were inherently digital. This raises important questions about the ways literacies have been conceptualised in development research. Keywords: digital learning; digital literacies; development; SDG4; Sustainable Development Goals; universal quality education Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:115-127 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Literacy Through Digital Citizenship: Online Civic Participation and Public Opinion Evaluation of Youth Minorities in Southeast Asia File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1899 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1899 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 100-114 Author-Name: Audrey Yue Author-Workplace-Name: Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore Author-Name: Elmie Nekmat Author-Workplace-Name: Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore Author-Name: Annisa R. Beta Author-Workplace-Name: Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore, Singapore Abstract: The field of critical digital literacy studies has burgeoned in recent years as a result of the increased cultural consumption of digital media as well as the turn to the production of digital media forms. This article extends extant digital literacy studies by focusing on its subfield of digital citizenship. Proposing that digital citizenship is not another dimension or axis of citizenship, but a practice through which civic activities in the various dimensions of citizenship are conducted, this article critically considers how the concept of digital citizenship can furnish further insight into the quality of online civic participation that results in claims to and acts of citizenship. Through interdisciplinary scholarship, drawing from critical media and cultural theory, and media psychology, and deriving new empirical data from qualitative digital ethnography and quantitative focus group and survey studies, it presents original case studies with young people in Southeast Asia, including young Muslim women’s groups in Indonesia and youth public opinion on LGBTs in Singapore. It argues that Southeast Asian youth digital citizenship foregrounds civic participation as emergent acts that not only serve to make society a better place, but also enacts alternative publics that characterise new modes of civic-making in more conservative, collectivistic Southeast Asian societies. Keywords: digital citizenship; digital literacy; Indonesia; online civic participation; Singapore; Southeast Asia Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:100-114 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Video Production in Elementary Teacher Education as a Critical Digital Literacy Practice File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1967 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1967 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 82-99 Author-Name: Diane Watt Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada Abstract: This article reports on a two-year, funded, qualitative inquiry into the challenges and possibilities of integrating video production into pre-service teacher education as a critical digital literacy practice. This includes the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that lead to ability to critique and create digital texts that interrogate the self, the other, and the world (Ávila & Zacher Pandya, 2013). Video making holds out enormous potential given our increasingly diverse classrooms and the growing need to have students connect and collaborate within their own communities and globally (Dwyer, 2016; Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015, 2016; Spires, Paul, Himes, & Yuan, 2018; Watt, 2017, 2018; Watt, Abdulqadir, Siyad, & Hujaleh, 2019). Video is especially significant in light of the fact that it is replacing print text as a dominant mode of communication (Manjou, 2018). Multimodal composing such as video production is, in fact, considered by some to be the essential 21st century literacy (Miller & McVee, 2012), but much remains to be done to bring digital technologies as literacy into the elementary classroom. Qualitative data includes a focus group, questionnaires, observations, and content analysis of teacher candidate videos and instructional plans. This study considers how video production can be integrated into teacher education programs to engage cross-curricular expectations and critical digital literacy perspectives. It responds to the pressing question of how to do teacher education differently in the digital age. Keywords: critical digital literacy; curriculum integration; new literacies; teacher education; technology; video production Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:82-99 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Reimagining Digital Literacies from a Feminist Perspective in a Postcolonial Context File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1935 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1935 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 69-81 Author-Name: Maha Bali Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Learning and Teaching, The American University in Cairo, Egypt Abstract: Although there are many intersecting but also conflicting definitions and understandings of digital literacy, for the most part, the majority allude to critical thinking in some form or another. This article attempts to imagine a conception of digital literacy and practice of teaching digital literacy that considers a different approach to being critical while using digital technology to consume, produce and communicate. The approach builds on the feminist work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule’s (1986) Women's Ways of Knowing. The author will also share from her own teaching experience as a postcolonial scholar teaching Egyptian students at an American liberal arts university. Keywords: critical thinking; digital literacies; digital platforms; empathy; fake news; feminist critical thinking Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:69-81 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Social Impact of Digital Youth Work: What Are We Looking For? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1907 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1907 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 59-68 Author-Name: Alicja Pawluczuk Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Author-Name: Gemma Webster Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Author-Name: Colin Smith Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social Informatics, Edinburgh Napier University, UK Author-Name: Hazel Hall Author-Workplace-Name: Edinburgh Napier University Abstract: Digital youth work is an emerging field of research and practice which seeks to investigate and support youth-centred digital literacy initiatives. Whilst digital youth work projects have become prominent in Europe in recent years, it has also become increasingly difficult to examine, capture, and understand their social impact. Currently, there is limited understanding of and research on how to measure the social impact of collaborative digital literacy youth projects. This article presents empirical research which explores the ways digital youth workers perceive and evaluate the social impact of their work. Twenty semi-structured interviews were carried out in Scotland, United Kingdom, in 2017. All data were coded in NVivo 10 and analysed using thematic data analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Two problems were identified in this study: (1) limited critical engagement with the social impact evaluation process of digital youth work projects and its outcomes, and (2) lack of consistent definition of the evaluation process to measure the social impact/value of digital youth work. Results of the study are examined within a wider scholarly discourse on the evaluation of youth digital participation, digital literacy, and social impact. It is argued that to progressively work towards a deeper understanding of the social value (positive and negative) of digital youth engagement and their digital literacy needs, further research and youth worker evaluation training are required. Recommendations towards these future changes in practice are also addressed. Keywords: adolescents; digital literacy; digital youth work; evaluation; social impact Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:59-68 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Expanding and Embedding Digital Literacies: Transformative Agency in Education File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1880 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1880 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 47-58 Author-Name: Andreas Lund Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Anniken Furberg Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway Author-Name: Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway Abstract: Socio-political, environmental, cultural, and digital changes require literacies that will be crucial for facing complex challenges. This article contributes to a notion of digital literacies as agentic and transformative and having epistemological implications. Although studies in digital literacies have examined diverse forms of understanding and relating to digitalization, we find that few studies have adopted a principled approach to transformative enactment of digital literacies. Our analytic focus is on how agents turn to digital (and other) resources when faced with problems in order to make them manageable. We conceptualize this notion of digital literacies by drawing on the Vygotskian principle of double stimulation. To demonstrate how agentic and transformative literacies appear in technology-rich learning environments, we make use of an empirical setting in which lower secondary school students and their teacher face a conundrum in a science project. We use this case as an empirical carrier of the conceptual and analytical framework employed. The analysis shows how the teacher enacts digital literacies in the design and orchestration of student activities in technology-rich learning environments where unforeseen issues occur, and how the collaborating students enact digital literacies by drawing on resources that enable them to resolve their insufficient understanding of a problem to reach insights that are shared with their peers. Keywords: agency; digital literacies; double stimulation; education; transformation Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:47-58 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Multidimensional Approaches to Examining Digital Literacies in the Contemporary Global Society File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1987 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1987 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 36-46 Author-Name: Kewman M. Lee Author-Workplace-Name: Reading, Foundations and Technology, Missouri State University, USA Author-Name: Sohee Park Author-Workplace-Name: Chadwick School, USA Author-Name: Bong Gee Jang Author-Workplace-Name: Reading and Language Arts, Syracuse University, USA Author-Name: Byeong-Young Cho Author-Workplace-Name: School of Education, University of Pittsburgh, USA Abstract: Literacy scholars have offered compelling theories about and methods for understanding the digital literacy practices of youth. However, little work has explored the possibility of an approach that would demonstrate how different perspectives on literacies might intersect and interconnect in order to better describe the multifaceted nature of youth digital literacies. In this conceptual article, we adopt the idea of theoretical triangulation in interpretive inquiry and explore how multiple perspectives can jointly contribute to constructing a nuanced description of young people’s literacies in today’s digitally mediated global world. For this purpose, we first suggest a triangulation framework that integrates sociocultural, affective, and cognitive perspectives on digital literacies, focusing on recent developments in these perspectives. We then use an example of discourse data from a globally connected online affinity space and demonstrate how our multidimensional framework can lead to a complex analysis and interpretation of the data. In particular, we describe the substance of one specific case of youth digital literacies from each of the three perspectives on literacy, which in turn converge to provide a complex account of such literacy practices. In conclusion, we discuss the promise and limitations of our integrative approach to studying the digital literacy practices of youth. Keywords: Border-Crossing Discourse; digital literacies; epistemic cognition; self-determination theory; theoretical triangulation; youth digital literacies Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:36-46 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Digital Literacies or Digital Competence: Conceptualizations in Nordic Curricula File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1888 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1888 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 25-35 Author-Name: Anna-Lena Godhe Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Communication, and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Abstract: This article examines how the concepts of digital literacies and digital competence are conceptualized in curricula for compulsory education within the Nordic countries. In 2006, the European Union defined digital competence as one of eight key competences for lifelong learning. The terms digital literacies and digital competence have since been used interchangeably, particularly in policy documents concerning education and the digitalization of educational systems and teaching. However, whether these concepts carry similar meanings, and are understood in a similar way, across languages and cultures is not self-evident. By taking the curricula in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway as examples, this article attempts to clarify similarities and differences in how the concepts are interpreted, as well as what implications this has for the digitalization of education. The analyses reveal that different terms are used in the curricula in the different countries, which are connected to themes or interdisciplinary issues to be incorporated into school subjects. The conceptualizations of the terms share a common emphasis on societal issues and a critical approach, highlighting a particular Nordic interpretation of digital literacies and digital competence. Keywords: bildung; curricula; digital competence; digital literacies; education; literacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:25-35 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Assembling “Digital Literacies”: Contingent Pasts, Possible Futures File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1946 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1946 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 14-24 Author-Name: T. Philip Nichols Author-Workplace-Name: Curriculum and Instruction, Baylor University, USA Author-Name: Amy Stornaiuolo Author-Workplace-Name: Literacy, Culture, and International Education, University of Pennsylvania, USA Abstract: In this article, we examine the historical emergence of the concept of “digital literacy” in education to consider how key insights from its past might be of use in addressing the ethical and political challenges now being raised by connective media and mobile technologies. While contemporary uses of digital literacy are broadly associated with access, evaluation, curation, and production of information in digital environments, we trace the concept’s genealogy to a time before this tentative agreement was reached—when diverse scholarly lineages (e.g., computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy) were competing to shape the educational agenda for emerging communication technologies. Using assemblage theory, we map those meanings that have persisted in our present articulations of digital literacy, as well as those that were abandoned along the way. We demonstrate that our inherited conceptions of digital literacy have prioritized the interplay of users, devices, and content over earlier concerns about technical infrastructures and socio-economic relations. This legacy, we argue, contributes to digital literacy’s inadequacies in addressing contemporary dilemmas related to surveillance, control, and profit motives in connective environments. We propose a multidimensional framework for understanding digital literacies that works to reintegrate some of these earlier concerns and conclude by considering how such an orientation might open pathways for education research and practice. Keywords: digital literacy; information literacy; literacies; media literacy; new literacies Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:14-24 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: An Approach to Digital Literacy through the Integration of Media and Information Literacy File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1931 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.1931 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 4-13 Author-Name: Marcus Leaning Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Film, University of Winchester, UK Abstract: Digital literacy often serves as an ‘umbrella’ term for a range of distinct educational practices which seek to equip the user to function in digitally rich societies. This article explores two of these practices, information literacy and media literacy and through an examination of their histories and practices proposes a future direction for digital literacy. The article consists of three main sections. Section one considers the history of information literacy. The gradual development and refinement of information literacy is traced through a number of key texts and proclamations. Section two is concerned with media literacy. It is noted that media literacy education evolved in three broad strands with each pursuing differing political ends and utilising different techniques. The three approaches are still evident and differences in contemporary media education practices can be understood through this framework. The final section argues that while media and information literacy offer much there are deficiencies in both: media literacy lacks a full engagement with the nature of digital technology and how digital technology affords users new communicative practices while information literacy has not fully developed a critical approach in the way media literacy has. It is asserted that integrating and strategically revisiting both approaches offers a digitally aware and critically nuanced direction for digital literacy. Keywords: critical digital literacy; digital literacy; history; information literacy; media literacy Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:4-13 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Critical Perspectives on Digital Literacies: Creating a Path Forward File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2209 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i2.2209 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 2 Pages: 1-3 Author-Name: Hiller A. Spires Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, North Carolina State University, USA Abstract: This thematic issue of Media and Communication features a range of critical perspectives on digital literacies with the aim of shedding light on a path forward with respect to theory, research and practice. The issue hosts fourteen articles divided into four themes that address digital literacies in varying ways. The four themes are (a) defining digital literacies, (b) socio-cultural theories of digital literacies, (c) digital literacies in practice, and (d) digital skills and efficacy. The articles make a strong case for the continued exploration of the significance and (re)definition of digital literacies within our global communicative landscape. The authors have inspired new dialogue, research directions, innovative practices, and policy on digital literacies. As digital technologies continue to evolve so too will intellectual frameworks—generating nuance and scope for and by researchers as well as practitioners. Keywords: critical perspectives; digital literacies; digital media; socio-cultural theory Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:2:p:1-3 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Disintermediation in Social Networks: Conceptualizing Political Actors’ Construction of Publics on Twitter File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1825 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1825 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 271-285 Author-Name: Scott A. Eldridge II Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Lucía García-Carretero Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Author-Name: Marcel Broersma Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: While often treated as distinct, both politics and journalism share in their histories a need for a public that is not naturally assembled and needs instead to be ‘constructed’. In earlier times the role of mediating politics to publics often fell to news media, which were also dependent on constructing a ‘public’ for their own viability. It is hardly notable to say this has changed in a digital age, and in the way social media have allowed politicians and political movements to speak to their own publics bypassing news voices is a clear example of this. We show how both established politics and emerging political movements now activate and intensify certain publics through their media messages, and how this differs in the UK, Spain and the Netherlands. When considering journalism and social media, emphasis on their prominence can mask more complex shifts they ushered in, including cross-national differences, where they have pushed journalism towards social media to communicate news, and where political actors now use these spaces for their own communicative ends. Building upon this research, this article revisits conceptualizations of the ways political actors construct publics and argues that we see processes of disintermediation taking place in political actors’ social networks on Twitter. Keywords: journalism; networks; politics; public sphere; publics; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:271-285 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Dislocation of News Journalism: A Conceptual Framework for the Study of Epistemologies of Digital Journalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1763 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1763 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 259-270 Author-Name: Mats Ekström Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Author-Name: Oscar Westlund Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: This article focuses on news journalism, social media platforms and power, and key implications for epistemology. The conceptual framework presented is intended to inspire and guide future studies relating to the emerging sub-field of journalism research that we refer to as “Epistemologies of Digital Journalism”. The article discusses the dependencies between news media and social media platforms (non-proprietary to the news media). The authority and democratic role of news journalism pivot on claims that it regularly provides accurate and verified public knowledge. However, how are the epistemic claims of news journalism and the practices of justifications affected by news journalism’s increased dependency on social media platforms? This is the overall question discussed in this article. It focuses on the intricate power dependencies between news media and social media platforms and proceeds to discuss implications for epistemology. It presents a three-fold approach differentiating between (1) articulated knowledge and truth claims, (2) justification in the journalism practices and (3) the acceptance/rejections of knowledge claims in audience activities. This approach facilitates a systematic analysis of how diverse aspects of epistemology interrelate with, and are sometimes conditioned by, the transformations of news and social media. Keywords: digital journalism; dislocation; epistemology; news journalism; platform companies; power dependency; social media platforms Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:259-270 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Crossing the Line between News and the Business of News: Exploring Journalists’ Use of Twitter File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1772 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1772 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 248-258 Author-Name: Stephen Jukes Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media and Communication, Bournemouth University, UK Abstract: Anglo-American journalism has typically drawn a firm dividing line between those who report the news and those who run the business of news. This boundary, often referred to in the West as a ‘Chinese Wall’, is designed to uphold the independence of journalists from commercial interests or the whims of news proprietors. But does this separation still exist in today’s age of social media and at a time when news revenues are under unprecedented pressure? This article focuses on Twitter, now a widely used tool in the newsroom, analysing the Twitter output of 10 UK political correspondents during the busy party conference season. It examines how they promote their own stories or ‘personal brand’ and whether they are stepping over a once forbidden line, blurring the boundary between news and the business. The research is complemented by interviews with political correspondents and analysis of editorial codes of practice on the use of social media. It draws on a conceptual framework of boundary work (Carlson & Lewis, 2015) to pose the question whether such practice has now become accepted and normalised. The findings suggest that the 10 political correspondents are highly individualistic in their use of Twitter but all have embraced its use to promote their own work plus that of colleagues both inside their own organisation and those working for rival news outlets. Their acceptance of Twitter as a tool for self-promotion and branding suggests that in this area of reporting the practice has become normalised and the wall has been breached. Keywords: boundary work; business; journalism; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:248-258 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Role of Journalism on YouTube: Audience Engagement with ‘Superbug’ Reporting File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1758 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1758 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 235-247 Author-Name: Monika Djerf-Pierre Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden / School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Australia Author-Name: Mia Lindgren Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Australia Author-Name: Mikayla Alexis Budinski Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash University, Australia Abstract: Journalism has gradually become ‘normalized into social media’, and most journalists use social media platforms to publish their work (Bruns, 2018). YouTube is an influential social media platform, reaching over a billion users worldwide. Its extensive reach attracts professional and amateur video producers who turn to YouTube to inform, entertain and engage global publics. Focusing on YouTube, this study explores the place for journalism within this media ecology. This study uses a mixed-method approach to examine forms of audience engagement to YouTube videos about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), or so called “superbugs”, caused by overuse and misuse of antibiotics. The analysis focuses on the most viewed YouTube videos about AMR between 2016 and 2018, and compares engagement themes expressed in comments to journalistic videos with popular science videos. The most viewed videos about AMR on YouTube are professionally produced educational popular science videos. The qualitative analysis of 3,049 comments identifies seven main forms of high-level engagement, including expressions of emotions, blame and calls for action. This study shows that journalism plays an important role on YouTube by generating audience discussions about social and political accountability. Our findings demonstrate that journalism videos were associated with propositions for political, economic and social/lifestyle actions, while popular science videos were associated with medicines, scientific or pseudo-scientific, and medical practice changes. Keywords: antibiotic resistance; antimicrobial resistance; audience engagement; popular science; social media; superbugs; user comments; video journalism; YouTube Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:235-247 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Mapping Political Discussions on Twitter: Where the Elites Remain Elites File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1764 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1764 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 225-234 Author-Name: Chrysi Dagoula Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: This article compares digital arenas such as Twitter with the principles prescribed by the bourgeois public sphere, to examine how close or far these arenas are from Habermas’ original concept. By focusing on one of the criteria, the current influence of elites on political debate, it discusses the Habermasian principles of general accessibility and non-dominance of the elites as prerequisites for a functioning public sphere. This study finds that even though there are few access restrictions on Twitter and despite the fact that no one, in principle, is excluded from the platform, there is no apparent elimination of privileges and the elites maintain their elite status within its borders. Methodologically, the article relies on empirical research of hashtagged exchanges on Twitter during the General Elections in the United Kingdom in 2015. Through the mapping of Twitter as a synthesis of dialogic arenas, it explores the elite-focused discourse and the vocal actors in the stream, underscoring that the presence of the elites, even in an indirect way. Drawing on these elements, the article argues for a reconceptualization of the normative perception of the public sphere, suggesting the notion of exclusion is a complex issue that includes expanding notions of publics to also include those topics being discussed. Finally, it focuses on the significance of journalism in relation to political dialogue and argues that the move towards less elite-centered arenas largely depends on journalism. Keywords: democracy; digital public sphere(s); elites; Habermas; journalism; political arenas; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:225-234 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Exploring Political Journalism Homophily on Twitter: A Comparative Analysis of US and UK Elections in 2016 and 2017 File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1765 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1765 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 213-224 Author-Name: Kelly Fincham Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Public Relations and Media Studies, Hofstra University, USA Abstract: The tendency of political journalists to form insular groups or packs, chasing the same angles and quoting the same sources, is a well-documented issue in journalism studies and has long been criticized for its role in groupthink and homogenous news coverage. This groupthink attracted renewed criticism after the unexpected victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election as the campaign coverage had indicated a likely win by the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. This pattern was repeated in the 2017 UK election when the Conservative party lost their majority after a campaign in which the news coverage had pointed to an overall Tory victory. Such groupthink is often attributed to homophily, the tendency of individuals to interact with those most like them, and while homophily in the legacy media system is well-studied, there is little research around homophily in the hybrid media system, even as social media platforms like Twitter facilitate the development—and analysis—of virtual political journalism packs. This study, which compares Twitter interactions among US and UK political reporters in the 2016 and 2017 national elections, shows that political journalists are overwhelmingly more likely to use Twitter to interact with other journalists, particularly political journalists, and that their offline tendencies to form homogenous networks have transferred online. There are some exceptions around factors such as gender, news organizations and types of news organization—and important distinctions between types of interactions—but overall the study provides evidence of sustained homophily as journalists continue to normalize Twitter. Keywords: elections; groupthink; homophily; political journalism; Twitter, UK; US Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:213-224 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Political Journalists and Their Social Media Audiences: New Power Relations File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1759 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1759 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 198-212 Author-Name: Axel Bruns Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Author-Name: Christian Nuernbergk Author-Workplace-Name: Media Studies, Trier University, Germany Abstract: Social media use is now commonplace across journalism, in spite of lingering unease about the impact the networked, real-time logic of leading social media platforms may have on the quality of journalistic coverage. As a result, distinct journalistic voices are forced to compete more directly with experts, commentators, sources, and other stakeholders within the same space. Such shifting power relations may be observed also in the interactions between political journalists and their audiences on major social media platforms. This article therefore pursues a cross-national comparison of interactions between political journalists and their audiences on Twitter in Germany and Australia, documenting how the differences in the status of Twitter in each country’s media environment manifest in activities and network interactions. In each country, we observed Twitter interactions around the national parliamentary press corps (the Bundespressekonferenz and the Federal Press Gallery), gathering all public tweets by and directed at the journalists’ accounts during 2017. We examine overall activity and engagement patterns and highlight significant differences between the two national groups; and we conduct further network analysis to examine the prevalent connections and engagement between press corps journalists themselves, and between journalists, their audiences, and other interlocutors on Twitter. New structures of information flows, of influence, and thus ultimately of power relations become evident in this analysis. Keywords: Australia; interactions; Germany; network analysis; political journalism; press corps; social media; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:198-212 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Journalism and Social Media: Redistribution of Power? File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2048 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.2048 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 193-197 Author-Name: Marcel Broersma Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Author-Name: Scott A. Eldridge II Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Abstract: This thematic issue sets out to explore the power relationships between journalism and social media. The articles here examine these relationships as intersections between journalistic actors and their audiences, and between news media, their content, and the functions of social media platforms. As the articles in this issue show, the emergence of social media and their adoption by news media and other social actors have brought about a series of changes which have had an impact on how news is produced, how information is shared, how audiences consume news, and how publics are formed. In this introduction, we highlight the work in this issue in order to reflect on the emergence of social media as one which has been accompanied by shifts in power in journalism and its ancillary fields, shifts which have in turn surfaced new questions for scholars to confront. Keywords: journalism; news ecology; normalization; power; social media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:193-197 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Conducting Research on the World’s Changing Mediascape: Principles and Practices File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1982 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1982 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 189-192 Author-Name: John V. Pavlik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, The School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA Author-Name: Everette E. Dennis Author-Workplace-Name: Northwestern University in Qatar, Qatar Author-Name: Rachel Davis Mersey Author-Workplace-Name: Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University, USA Author-Name: Justin Gengler Author-Workplace-Name: Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI), Qatar University, Qatar Abstract: As digital technology sweeps across the globe, bringing far-reaching changes to the media environment and beyond, international research on the nature and impact of these changes is essential. This commentary situates media research within the broader flow of knowledge and offers a critical perspective on the principles and practices that should guide that research to maximize its potential contribution to both knowledge and to the public. Keywords: engaged scholarship; ethics; international; media research; mobile media; social media; social networking Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:189-192 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Insularized Connectedness: Mobile Chat Applications and News Production File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1802 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1802 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 179-188 Author-Name: Colin Agur Author-Workplace-Name: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota ‒ Twin Cities, USA Abstract: Focusing on recent political unrest in Hong Kong, this article examines how mobile chat applications (e.g., WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, Facebook Messenger and others) have permeated journalism. In Hong Kong, mobile chat apps have served as tools for foreign correspondents to follow stories, identify sources, and verify facts; they have also helped reporting teams manage large flows of multimedia information in real-time. To understand the institutional, technological, and cultural factors at play, this article draws on 34 interviews the author conducted with journalists who use mobile chat apps in their reporting. Building on the concept of media logic, the article explores technology-involved social interactions and their impact on media work, while acknowledging the agency of users and audiences within a cultural context. It argues that mobile chat apps have become hosts for a logic of connectedness and insularity in media work, and this has led to new forms of co-production in journalism. Keywords: chat apps; Hong Kong; journalism; media logic; mobile communication Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:179-188 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Invisible Locative Media: Key Considerations at the Nexus of Place and Digital Journalism File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1766 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1766 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 166-178 Author-Name: Ivar John Erdal Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, Norway Author-Name: Kjetil Vaage Øie Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, Norway Author-Name: Brett Oppegaard Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communications, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA Author-Name: Oscar Westlund Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway / Faculty of Media and Journalism, Volda University College, Norway / Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Abstract: Mobility and location-awareness are pervasive and foundational elements of contemporary communication systems, and a descriptive term to synthesize them, “locative media”, has gained widespread use throughout mobile media and communication research. That label of “locative media”, though, usually gets defined ad hoc and used in many different ways to express a variety of related ideas. Locative features of digital media increasingly have changed from visible location-driven aspects of user interfaces, such as check-in features and location badges, toward more inconspicuous ways of relating to location through automated backend processes. In turn, locative features—whether in journalism or other formats and content types—are now increasingly algorithmic and hidden “under the hood”, so to speak. Part of the problem with existing classifications or typologies in this field is that they do not take into account this practical shift and the rapid development of locative media in many new directions, intertwining ubiquitous digital integration with heterogeneous content distinctions and divergences. Existing definitions and typologies tend to be based on dated practices of use and initial versions of applications that have changed significantly since inception. To illustrate, this article identifies three emerging areas within digital journalism and mobile media practice that call for further research into the locative dimensions of journalism: the situational turn in news consumption research, platform-specific vis-a-vis platform-agnostic mobile news production, and personalised news. Keywords: digital journalism; locative media; mobile journalism; mobile media; mobile news; mobile technology; place-based media Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:166-178 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Audience-Centric Engagement, Collaboration Culture and Platform Counterbalancing: A Longitudinal Study of Ongoing Sensemaking of Emerging Technologies File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1760 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1760 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 153-165 Author-Name: Sherwin Chua Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Author-Name: Oscar Westlund Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway Abstract: Digital journalism studies have done little in terms of studying longitudinally the interrelationships between emerging technology and convergent news practices. This study addresses that void by using a sensemaking approach to examine how emerging technology was appropriated and enacted in the convergent news activities of newsworkers, and how they made sense of the emerging technologies over two and a half years. Our study analyzes two newsrooms in Singapore: 1) a digital-first legacy newspaper, and 2) an independent digital-only news startup. This article employs the Infotendencias Group’s (2012) analytical framework and its four dimensions of news convergence: i) business, ii) professional, iii) technological, and iv) contents. Additionally, it proposes and employs a fifth dimension: v) audience-centric engagement. The fifth dimension is based on the concept of “measurable journalism” (Carlson, 2018), analyzing how its actors influence the relationship between newsrooms and their audiences. This study builds on two rounds of in-depth interviews conducted from end-2015 to mid-2016, and again in 2018. Our findings show that audience-centric-engagement practices are observed in all four dimensions of convergent news activities of each news organization, and leads to three main conclusions: 1) the growing significance of audience-centric engagement, 2) an emergence of a collaboration culture, and 3) the salience of platform counterbalancing. Keywords: audience engagement; collaboration; convergence; digital journalism; emerging technology; measurable journalism; sensemaking; social media platforms Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:153-165 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Social Television Viewing with Second Screen Platforms: Antecedents and Consequences File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1745 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1745 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 139-152 Author-Name: Miao Guo Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Telecommunications, Ball State University, USA Abstract: This study investigates the causal relationship between antecedents and consequences of social television viewing combining the television screen and concurrent use of a mobile, “second screen” media platform. The results indicate that social television viewing is a complex process driven by the viewers’ program affinity, motives, interpersonal interaction, and the perceived media characteristics of alternative platforms. The social television viewing behavior also has a positive influence on loyalty to television programs, time-shifted viewing, and product purchase intention. The implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed. Keywords: mobile media; second screen platforms; social TV; viewer behavior Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:139-152 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Does Fear of Isolation Disappear Online? Attention-Seeking Motivators in Online Political Engagement File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1761 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1761 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 128-138 Author-Name: KyuJin Shim Author-Workplace-Name: School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia Author-Name: Klive (Soo-Kwang) Oh Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Division, Pepperdine Seaver College, USA Abstract: This study investigated the effects of fear of isolation (FOI) on political content consumption and creation in the context of online communication. Using more than 1,000 respondents from South Korea, the study empirically tested a theoretical model of FOI on political content consumption and expressions with two mediators (i.e., attention/status-seeking, and anonymity-seeking). Results indicated that FOI is related to seeking attention and status in political outlets also connected to anonymity-preference that leads to political expression. Implications for political communication scholarship and for practitioners are that voters’ political participations can be understood in a framework different from traditional focus on persuasion, political ideology, or demographics because—in today’s virtual and interactive media environment—users are more content consumers or community participants. Keywords: attention-seeking; anonymity-seeking; fear of isolation; political communication; social media; status-seeking Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:128-138 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Optimizing Content with A/B Headline Testing: Changing Newsroom Practices File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1801 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1801 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 117-127 Author-Name: Nick Hagar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, USA Author-Name: Nicholas Diakopoulos Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, USA Abstract: Audience analytics are an increasingly essential part of the modern newsroom as publishers seek to maximize the reach and commercial potential of their content. On top of a wealth of audience data collected, algorithmic approaches can then be applied with an eye towards predicting and optimizing the performance of content based on historical patterns. This work focuses specifically on content optimization practices surrounding the use of A/B headline testing in newsrooms. Using such approaches, digital newsrooms might audience-test as many as a dozen headlines per article, collecting data that allows an optimization algorithm to converge on the headline that is best with respect to some metric, such as the click-through rate. This article presents the results of an interview study which illuminate the ways in which A/B testing algorithms are changing workflow and headline writing practices, as well as the social dynamics shaping this process and its implementation within US newsrooms. Keywords: audience metrics; content optimization; digital media; headline testing; headlines Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:117-127 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Advancing Engaged Scholarship in the Media Field File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1984 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1984 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 114-116 Author-Name: John V. Pavlik Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Media Studies, The School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA Abstract: Policy makers, industry leaders, and concerned citizens alike all face vexing questions about the changing nature of emerging technology and its impact on journalism, media and society. Research on this topic has never been more critical in the U.S. and around the world. The need is especially acute for engaged scholarship in this domain. By bringing their research into the broader public arena, engaged media scholars can contribute to policy debates, shape industry practices and policies, and enrich public understanding. Keywords: engaged scholarship; journalism; media; technological change Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:114-116 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: The Cancer’s Margins Project: Access to Knowledge and Its Mobilization by LGBQ/T Cancer Patients File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1718 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1718 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 102-113 Author-Name: Evan T. Taylor Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Mary K. Bryson Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Lorna Boschman Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Canada Author-Name: Tae Hart Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Canada Author-Name: Jacqueline Gahagan Author-Workplace-Name: School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Canada Author-Name: Genevieve Rail Author-Workplace-Name: Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, Canada Author-Name: Janice Ristock Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Manitoba, Canada Abstract: Sexual and/or gender minority populations (LGBQ/T) have particular cancer risks, lower involvement in cancer screening, and experience barriers in communication with healthcare providers. All of these factors increase the probability of health decisions linked with poor outcomes that include higher levels of cancer mortality. Persistent discrimination against, and stigmatization of, LGBQ/T people is reflected in sparse medical curriculum addressing LGBQ/T communities. Marginalization makes LGBQ/T persons particularly reliant on knowledge derived from online networks and mainstream media sources. In what is likely the first nationally-funded and nation-wide study of LGBQ/T experiences of cancer, the Cancer’s Margins project (www.lgbtcancer.ca) conducted face-to-face interviews with 81 sexual and/or gender minority patients diagnosed and treated for breast and/or gynecological cancer in five Canadian provinces and the San Francisco Bay area (US). With specific attention to knowledge access, sharing, and mobilization, our objective was to document and analyze complex intersectional relationships between marginalization, gender and sexuality, and cancer health decision-making and care experiences. Findings indicate that cancer care knowledge in online environments is shaped by cisnormative and heteronormative narratives. Cancer knowledge and support environments need, by contrast, to be designed by taking into account intersectionally diverse models of minority identities and communities. Keywords: biographical knowledge; biomedical knowledge; cancer; cancer care; gender; health disparities; health equity; information access; LGBT health; minority cancer patients; transgender; treatment Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:102-113 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: We Live Here, and We Are Queer!: Young Gay Connected Migrants’ Transnational Ties and Integration in the Netherlands File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1686 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1686 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 90-101 Author-Name: Jeffrey Patterson Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate Gender Programme, Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Author-Name: Koen Leurs Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate Gender Programme, Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Abstract: Upon arrival to Europe, young migrants are found grappling with new language demands, cultural expectations, values, and beliefs that may differ from global youth culture and their country of origin. This process of coming-of-age while on-the-move is increasingly digitally mediated. Young migrants are “connected migrants”, using smart phones and social media to maintain bonding ties with their home country while establishing new bridging relationships with peers in their country of arrival (Diminescu, 2008). Drawing on the feminist perspective of intersectionality which alerts us socio-cultural categories like age, race, nationality, migration status, gender and sexuality impact upon identification and subordination, we contend it is problematic to homogenize these experiences to all gay young adult migrants. The realities of settlement and integration starkly differ between desired migrants – such as elite expatriates and heterosexuals – and those living on the margins of Europe – forced migrants and lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) migrants. Drawing on 11 in-depth interviews conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with gay young adult forced and voluntary migrants, this paper aims to understand how sexual identification in tandem with bonding and bridging social capital diverge and converge between the two groups all while considering the interplay between their online and offline entanglements of their worlds. Keywords: bonding social capital; bridging social capital; connected migrants; digital diaspora; digital migration studies; forced migrants; gay; inter-ethnic social contact; sexuality; voluntary migrants Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:90-101 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Immigrant, Nationalist and Proud: A Twitter Analysis of Indian Diaspora Supporters for Brexit and Trump File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1629 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1629 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 77-89 Author-Name: Eviane Cheng Leidig Author-Workplace-Name: Center for Research on Extremism, University of Oslo, Norway Abstract: The Brexit referendum to leave the EU and Trump’s success in the US general election in 2016 sparked new waves of discussion on nativism, nationalism, and the far right. Within these analyses, however, very little attention has been devoted towards exploring the transnational ideological circulation of Islamophobia and anti-establishment sentiment, especially amongst diaspora and migrant networks. This article thus explores the role of the Indian diaspora as mediators in populist radical right discourse in the West. During the Brexit referendum and Trump’s election and presidency, a number of Indian diaspora voices took to Twitter to express pro-Brexit and pro-Trump views. This article presents a year-long qualitative study of these users. It highlights how these diasporic Indians interact and engage on Twitter in order to signal belonging on multiple levels: as individuals, as an imaginary collective non-Muslim diaspora, and as members of (populist radical right) Twitter society. By analysing these users’ social media performativity, we obtain insight into how social media spaces may help construct ethnic and (trans)national identities according to boundaries of inclusion/exclusion. This article demonstrates how some Indian diaspora individuals are embedded into exclusivist national political agendas of the populist radical right in Western societies. Keywords: Brexit; diaspora; Indian; integration; multiculturalism; populism; radical right; Trump; Twitter Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:77-89 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Diversity in Western Countries: Journalism Culture, Migration Integration Policy and Public Opinion File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1632 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1632 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 66-76 Author-Name: Stefan Mertens Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Olivier Standaert Author-Workplace-Name: Louvain School of Journalism, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium Author-Name: Leen d'Haenens Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Rozane De Cock Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: Earlier research has shown that public opinion and policy lines on the topic of immigrant integration are interrelated. This article investigates a sample of 24 countries for which data are available in the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), the World Values Survey (WVS), as well as in the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS). To our knowledge, this is the first time that these data are connected to one another to study journalists’ views on their role to promote tolerance and cultural diversity in societies with diverging immigration policies. The WJS presents an analysis of the role conceptions of professional journalists throughout the world, including a variable measuring the extent to which journalists conceive promoting tolerance and cultural diversity as one of their tasks. Our findings show that journalists (as measured in the WJS) mostly tend to promote tolerance and cultural diversity in countries with more restrictive immigration policies (measured by MIPEX) and less emancipative values (measured by the WVS) Promoting tolerance and cultural diversity is associated with a so-called interventionist approach in journalism culture. Furthermore, we used cluster analyses to attribute the countries under study to meaningful, separate groups. More precisely, we discriminate four clusters of the press among the 24 countries under investigation. Keywords: cultural diversity; immigration; integration policy; journalism culture; public opinion; tolerance Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:66-76 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Immigrant Children and the Internet in Spain: Uses, Opportunities, and Risks File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1478 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1478 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 56-65 Author-Name: Miguel Angel Casado Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of the Basque Country, Spain Author-Name: Carmelo Garitaonandia Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, University of the Basque Country, Spain Author-Name: Gorka Moreno Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of the Basque Country, Spain Author-Name: Estefania Jimenez Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of the Basque Country, Spain Abstract: This article describes the use made of the Internet by immigrant children living in Spain and the opportunities and risks it involves. Specifically, it deals with children from the Maghreb, Ecuador, and Sub-Saharan Africa, three regions which account for a quarter of Spain’s foreign-born population. A qualitative methodology was used, based on in-depth interviews with 52 children from these countries and educators from their support centres. Immigrant minors usually access the Internet via their smartphones rather than via computers. They have a very high rate of smartphone use and access the Internet over public Wi-Fi networks. However, they make little use of computers and tablets, the devices most closely associated with education and accessing information. Internet usage is fairly similar among immigrant and Spanish teens, although the former receive more support and mediation from their schools and institutions than from their parents. The Internet helps them to communicate with their families in their countries of origin. As one educator puts it, “they have gone from sending photos in letters to speaking to their families every day on Skype”. Some teens, particularly Maghrebis, sometimes suffer from hate messages on social networks. Keywords: children; cyber-bullying; immigrant; Internet; media risks; Spain; youth Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:56-65 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Unpacking Attitudes on Immigrants and Refugees: A Focus on Household Composition and News Media Consumption File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1599 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1599 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-55 Author-Name: David De Coninck Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Koen Matthijs Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Marlies Debrael Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Rozane De Cock Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Leen d'Haenens Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: This study examines how household composition and news media consumption and trust are related to attitudes towards two minority groups—immigrants and refugees—in a representative sample of the adult population (n = 6000) in Belgium, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands. We find that Swedes hold the most positive attitudes towards both groups, while the French are found to be most negative. The Belgians and Dutch hold moderate attitudes. There is also evidence that attitudes on refugees are more negative than attitudes on immigrants in Sweden and France, but not in Belgium and the Netherlands. Using structural equation modeling, we find that household composition is not directly related to attitudes, but indirect effects through socio-economic status and media consumption indicate that singles hold more negative attitudes than couples. Public television consumption, popular online news consumption, and trust in media are positively related to attitudes, whereas commercial television consumption is negatively associated with them. Keywords: attitudes; household composition; immigrant; news media consumption; media trust; refugees; socio-economic status Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:43-55 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Risk and Culture of Health Portrayal in a U.S. Cross-Cultural TV Adaptation, a Pilot Study File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1489 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1489 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 32-42 Author-Name: Darien Perez Ryan Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA Author-Name: Patrick E. Jamieson Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, USA Abstract: Because media portrayal can influence adolescents’ health, we assessed the health-related content of a popular telenovela—a Spanish-language TV soap opera genre—and its widely watched English adaptation. To test our “culture of corruption” hypothesis, which predicts that the English-language adaptation of telenovelas will “Americanize” their content by increasing risky and reducing healthy portrayal on screen, we coded the depictions of five risk variables and five culture of health ones in ten episodes each of “Juana la Virgen” (2002) and its popular English-language counterpart, “Jane the Virgin” (2014). A significant increase was found between the Spanish and English-language shows in the risk category of sexual content and a marginally significant increase was found in violence. “Jane” also had larger numbers of characters modeling alcohol consumption, sex, or violence. Across culture of health variables, “Juana” and “Jane” did not exhibit significant differences in the amounts of education-related content, social cohesion, and exercise at the episode level. However, “Jane” had significantly more unhealthy food content (specifically, fats, oils, and sweets and takeout food) and more pro-health messaging than did “Juana.” “Jane” also had a larger amount of modeled food/beverage consumption. While “Juana” modeled several instances of characters involved in exercise, “Jane” had no exercise content across the sample. Overall, “Jane” portrayed more problematic health content than “Juana.” The increase in worrisome content in “Jane” may adversely affect the health of adolescent Hispanics, who make up a large part of the show’s audience. Keywords: adolescent; content analysis; health; Hispanic; media; risk; telenovela; television Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:32-42 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: ICT Use and Digital Inclusion among Roma/Gitano Adolescents File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1624 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1624 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 22-31 Author-Name: Maialen Garmendia Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Social work, University of the Basque Country, Spain Author-Name: Inaki Karrera Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Didactics and School Organization, University of the Basque Country, Spain Abstract: This article analyses the way in which the digital divide affects Roma/Gitano minors. This ethnic group is a paradigmatic case among socially underprivileged groups in Spain; excluded from industrial society, they appear to be facing a similar situation in the post-industrial era. We, therefore, sought to explore the digital experiences of minors from this group in order to study social and digital exclusion/inclusion among them. The research strategy took a comprehensive approach, covering both offline and online behaviour. We focused on the results of fieldwork undertaken in Spain during 2017. In all, interviews were conducted with 17 adolescents (aged 11 to 18) as well as with several social workers who were providing support to the minors. Given that the use of technology has become a prerequisite for the welfare of children and for the development of their rights, the issue tends to centre on three main areas, commonly known as the three Ps: provision, participation, and protection. As such, the analysis of inequality was based on these areas. The findings presented in this article illustrate that the use of ICTs can contribute to empowering Roma/Gitano adolescents to improve the position they occupy as a group in the social structure. Keywords: adolescents; development; digital divide; Gitano; ICT; Roma; social inclusion; Spain Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:22-31 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Managing Super-Diversity on Television: The Representation of Ethnic Minorities in Flemish Non-Fiction Programmes File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1614 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1614 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-21 Author-Name: Koen Panis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium Author-Name: Steve Paulussen Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium Author-Name: Alexander Dhoest Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium Abstract: This study examines and evaluates the representation of ethnocultural diversity in non-fiction TV programmes broadcasted by the Flemish (Belgian Dutch-speaking) public service broadcaster VRT in the 2016–2017 TV season. A qualitative content analysis of a sample comprising 36 clips and episodes of 14 non-fiction programmes was supplemented by four focus group interviews with a total of 12 participants belonging to different ethnocultural minorities. The findings suggest that despite several measures undertaken by the VRT, the representation of ethnocultural minorities is still unbalanced and biased in at least three ways: first, in presenting minorities as homogeneous groups rather than highlighting intragroup differences; second, in ‘typecasting’ people with a migration background thematically, i.e., for items on topics and issues related to their ethnocultural identity; and, third, in portraying and approaching minorities from a dominant group perspective. The article ends with the recommendation for public service media to further improve ethnocultural diversity in the workforce and to encourage their journalists and TV producers to reconsider their ‘professional pragmatics’ in order to increase their ethnocultural sensitivity and better manage the representation of super-diversity in their programmes. Keywords: ethnic minorities; ethnocultural diversity; super-diversity; media representation; public service media; television; non-fiction programmes Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:13-21 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Representation of Women in the News: Balancing between Career and Family Life File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1627 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1627 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 4-12 Author-Name: Hanne Vandenberghe Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: An in-depth literature review showed that women, despite their increasingly prominent roles worldwide, continue to be persistently underrepresented and stereotyped in news media. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the representation of women changed over time in two Dutch-speaking Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws. An automated quantitative content analysis revealed that there is no increase of the number of women in the newspapers between 2005 and 2015. On the contrary, women are significantly less represented over time in the popular newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. A qualitative analysis on two cases about women stepping into a leadership position—in 2012 (Catherine De Bolle as head of the Federal police) and in 2014 (Dominique Leroy as CEO of a Belgian telecom company)—showed that the press emphasised their femininity, their being a role model for other women, their being part of a family and having certain looks. Moreover, these women are clearly portrayed as ‘the best candidate’ pointing at the selection procedures and their capabilities to perform professionally. Probably, this strong emphasis is a way of justifying that these women are not selected because of positive discrimination. Further analysis of cases of both men and women stepping into top positions across countries and media platforms is recommended. Keywords: content analysis; Dutch-speaking press; gender; news; representation; stereotyping; women Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:4-12 Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Title: Introduction to Communicating on/with Minorities File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1985 File-Format: text/html DOI: 10.17645/mac.v7i1.1985 Journal: Media and Communication Volume: 7 Year: 2019 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-3 Author-Name: Leen d’Haenens Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Author-Name: Willem Joris Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium Abstract: This editorial delivers an introduction to the Media and Communication thematic issue on “Communicating on/with Minorities” around the world. This thematic issue presents a multidisciplinary look at the field of communicating on and with different members of minority groups who, based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or a background in migration, experience relative disadvantage and marginalization compared to the dominant social group. The contributors to this thematic issue present a variety of professional contexts (i.e., portrayals in journalistic content, in fiction and non-fiction audiovisual content, on social media platforms and in health care). Taken together, the contributions examine various theoretical angles, thereby adopting new research directions through the use of quantitative, qualitative or mixed methodologies. Keywords: communication; ethnic minorities; gender; immigrants; intersectionality; media; refugees; sexualities Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v7:y:2019:i:1:p:1-3