Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Mapping the Inclusion of Children and Youth With Disabilities in Media Literacy Research
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5769
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5769
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 400-410
Author-Name: Carla Sousa
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal
Author-Name: Conceição Costa
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University, Portugal
Abstract: The way we communicate and make meaning in a complex socio-technical infrastructure demands multiple literacies. Media-literate citizens must be able to create, evaluate and effectively use information, media, and technology. The pandemic context demanded increased online learning and work, highlighting the importance of media literacy in citizens’ lives. Although in recent years, crucial reforms have happened in education for children with disabilities, media education for them is residual and framed on medical concepts neglecting how disability is socially constructed. Aiming to map recent research (2015–2021) in the field of media literacy and children with disabilities, a systematic literature review was conducted. The number of articles obtained from a search for “media literacy and children” in the scientific databases (<em>N</em> = 1,175) supports the relevance of media literacy in research. Filtering these data for “children with disabilities” reveals an inexpressive sample, with 12 articles included in the study after the eligibility phase. The overall results indicate that this population is significantly underrepresented in media literacy research, explained by a low prevalence of studies with disabled children as an audience. Moreover, research designs have shown a greater focus on conceptual approaches, highlighting a deficit of fieldwork and tangible interventions. Strong ableist media discourses emerged as a barrier to the promotion of media literacy in this population, with a clear mismatch between media representations and the current disability paradigms, besides all the positive aspects of the actions registered in the sample.
Keywords: children; disabilities; inclusion; media education; media literacy; youth
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:400-410

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Including the Experiences of Children and Youth in Media Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5709
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5709
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 391-399
Author-Name: Markéta Supa
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Lucie Römer
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic
Author-Name: Vojtěch Hodboď
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic
Abstract: This article explores how the concepts of inclusion and experience can be approached and applied in educating children and youth about the media. Using a multiple-case study approach, we present three cases where media education programs were delivered to students in the Czech Republic. The first case is a three-month-long program aimed at nurturing students’ media literacy and encouraging their civic participation. It involved 17 vocational school students (ages 17–19) at risk of social exclusion. The second case is a three-hour workshop promoting children’s cooperation with their peers and civic engagement with media in a diverse society tested with 60 children (ages 10–11) in three classrooms in two public elementary schools. The third is a year-long media education program based on students’ guided self-reflection on their media experiences, attended by eight students (ages 15–17) at a private high school. Despite numerous differences in the programs (goals, activities, duration, context, student demographics, etc.) and their varied approaches to promoting inclusivity and the whole student experience, we argue that each one has the potential to contribute to creating a more inclusive society that respects diversity. We also believe that longer programs would be more successful in supporting children and youths’ immediate and future well-being.
Keywords: children; Czech Republic; diversity; inclusion; media education; youth
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:391-399

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond Digital Literacy in Australian Prisons: Theorizing “Network Literacy,” Intersectionality, and Female Incarcerated Students
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5734
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5734
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 382-390
Author-Name: Susan Hopkins
Author-Workplace-Name: USQ College, University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Abstract: Incarcerated students, especially women and Indigenous Australians in custody, are among the most marginalized, oppressed, and invisible identities in Australian society today. These prison-based university students experience not only multi-layered disadvantages that derive from intersecting experiences of oppression, including race, gender, and class, but they are also further disadvantaged by the experience of incarceration itself, despite their attempts to improve their life chances and social positioning through distance education. This is partly due to the challenges of learning within prison environments, including disruptions, disparities, and disconnections in terms of access to digital technologies, digital literacies, and digital channels. The majority of Australian prisoners have no direct access to the internet, smartphones, or internet-enabled devices which means they are disconnected from social media and other networked communication platforms. Although significant gains have been made in developing and delivering prison-based non-networked digital devices, digital learning platforms and digital education to Australian incarcerated students over the past decade, more work must be done to adequately prepare incarcerated students, with multi-faceted needs, to live and learn as empowered agents within the informational capitalism of the contemporary “network society.” The purpose of this article is to argue for a new form of “network literacy” education over and above “digital literacy” skills for female Australian incarcerated students, through an intersectional theoretical lens which addresses the multidimensional disadvantages experienced by women in custody within Australian prisons.
Keywords: Australia; digital literacy; incarcerated students; incarcerated women; intersectionality; network literacy; prison education
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:382-390

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Rights, Institutionalised Youths, and Contexts of Inequalities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5663
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5663
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 369-381
Author-Name: Maria José Brites
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University
Author-Name: Teresa Sofia Castro
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies, Lusófona University
Abstract: In this article, we aim to discuss digital rights and media literacy in the context of socio-digital inequalities experienced by institutionalised youths. In the case of these digitally disconnected youths in detention centres, there is evidence of multiple life-course disadvantages that will resonate throughout their future lives. They see their present and future lives deeply challenged by the fast pace of technological innovation and its social impacts while living in environments that we see as digital deserts. The data we bring to the discussion results from the Portuguese participatory project DiCi-Educa. We worked for three years with institutionalised youth on digital media production and critical thinking regarding digital citizenship, participation, and otherness issues. This article is organised around two research questions: What were youths’ practices regarding media and digital environments before institutionalisation? How did they discuss these digital environments and their digital rights during the project? Early findings point to (a) the importance of implementing critical methods to help them to think about technologies in diverse daily life contexts, (b) the need to provide venues for institutionalised youth to build critical thinking and communication skills, and (c) the necessity to widen their worldviews and promote positive behaviours.
Keywords: detention centres; DiCi-Educa; digital citizenship; digital disadvantage; digital disconnection; digital divide; digital rights; institutionalised youth; juvenile delinquency; youth-at-risk
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:369-381

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: When Everyone Wins: Dialogue, Play, and Black History for Critical Games Education
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5680
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5680
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 357-368
Author-Name: Rebecca Rouse
Author-Workplace-Name: Division of Game Development, University of Skövde, Sweden
Author-Name: Amy Corron Youmans
Author-Workplace-Name: Archer Center for Student Leadership Development, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA
Abstract: In this article, we reflect on the process and outcomes of using dialogue, play, and a focus on Black women’s history to support critical media literacy in game design education. Over three years we developed a dialogue-based introductory undergraduate course in the game design program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute intended to deepen engagement by students in game design practice. We specifically focused on critical approaches to explore the history and culture of games, utilizing dialogic pedagogy to develop transformative learning environments rooted in social justice education, and helped students develop skills for intercultural dialogue and communicating “across difference.” The dialogue experience created a powerful learning environment that resulted in higher quality and more critical student game design work. This was evident in the 2019 iteration of the course, which included two sections of students and in which we had a semester-long group project on the history of Harriet Tubman, culminating in a selection of student games being shown at a local gallery in an exhibition celebrating Tubman’s legacy. The Tubman project was liberatory not only for students, but also instructors, as we learned together how to navigate discomfort and gain a more critical understanding of the material realities of white supremacy in games, self, and each other. This article shares details from the design and methodology of our course, outcomes as evidenced by student work, survey responses, and instructor observations, and concludes with reflections on areas for further research and opportunities for other educators to incorporate new methods in design education.
Keywords: Black history; critical media literacy; dialogue; games; pedagogy; play
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:357-368

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Joining and Gaining Knowledge From Digital Literacy Courses: How Perceptions of Internet and Technology Outweigh Socio-Demographic Factors
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5669
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5669
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 347-356
Author-Name: Azi Lev-On
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel
Author-Name: Hama Abu-Kishk
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, Sapir Academic College, Israel
Author-Name: Nili Steinfeld
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel
Abstract: Many government-sponsored policies and programs have been implemented in recent years to reduce digital inequality, but research on the effectiveness of such programs is severely lacking. We examine the short-term effects of participation in Lehava, the largest such program in Israel. Participants in our study completed a survey before and after taking introductory computer and internet classes. The findings demonstrate that motivations for participating in the program (measured before taking the course), as well as knowledge gains (i.e., differences between levels of familiarity with concepts before and after taking the course), were predicted almost exclusively by participants’ perceptions of technology and the internet, and not by socio-demographic or other variables. We conclude by discussing the <em>significance of perceptions</em> over and above socio-demographic considerations for bridging digital inequality gaps.
Keywords: digital divide; digital inequality; digital literacy; Israel; Lehava; media literacy; perceptions about technology; perceptions about the internet
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:347-356

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Transforming Disinformation on Minorities Into a Pedagogical Resource: Towards a Critical Intercultural News Literacy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5708
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5708
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 338-346
Author-Name: Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, Hamburg University, Germany
Author-Name: Helena Dedecek Gertz
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Education, Hamburg University, Germany
Abstract: Intercultural competence and diversity awareness are relevant to handling “fake news” related to minorities and migrants, thus preventing “othering” and stereotyping of vulnerable populations. Teachers and schools can play a central role in preventing the spread of far-right ideologies and the dissemination of false information and hate discourse. For that, bringing together intercultural competence and news literacy, conceptualised as “critical intercultural news literacy,” is needed to navigate disinformation related to minorities and their connection to polarising themes. In this article, we focus on false or misleading information published on online platforms that brings together two salient topics: the Covid-19 pandemic and minorities. We discuss the issues of concern around the transformation of such material into a didactic resource for the school context and we question whether such practice can (paradoxically) lead to reinforcing or reproducing its undesirable content, i.e., to the othering of school populations that are targeted by false or manipulative information. This leads us to discuss potential problems associated with the pedagogical use of false information by teachers and, in resonance with the theme of this thematic issue, we claim that inclusive media education should also be an education for diversity and inclusion, through the development of critical intercultural news literacy.
Keywords: critical intercultural news literacy; disinformation; intercultural competence; media literacy; news literacy
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:338-346

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Taking a Dialogical Approach to Guiding Gaming Practices in a Non-Family Context
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5727
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5727
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 328-337
Author-Name: Gilda Seddighi
Author-Workplace-Name: Research group Technology and Society, Western Norway Research Institute, Norway
Abstract: As the inclusion of youths in decision-making around their media use is increasingly normalized in the family context in the Global North, one could ask how media literacy support can be adjusted for youths in vulnerable situations, situations where their family cannot be involved in regulating their media use, such as gaming. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2021 with 13 unaccompanied refugee youths (16–25 years old) and 10 social actors working in eight organizations, this study investigates the gaming habits of such youths in Norway and the ways in which relevant social actors are involved in guiding their gaming practices. This study shows that social actors’ views on gaming vary according to their level of involvement in the youths’ housing arrangements. Whilst those working directly with such arrangements are involved in direct or indirect rule-setting for gaming practices, others struggle to find their role within this context. The youths, however, emphasize the importance of gaming in building relationships with other unaccompanied refugees, learning about the culture of socialization, and mitigating trauma. Moreover, there is a lack of a dialogical approach to welfare services’ regulation of these youths’ gaming practices. Employing such an approach could not only give these youths a voice but also expand gaming’s democratization ability beyond the family context.
Keywords: active meditation; digital care labor; gaming practices; refugee youths; social actors; video games
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:328-337

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Aspiring to Dutchness: Media Literacy, Integration, and Communication with Eritrean Status Holders
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5605
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5605
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 317-327
Author-Name: Rosanne van Kommer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Joke Hermes
Author-Workplace-Name: Inclusion and the Creative Industries, Inholland, the Netherlands
Abstract: Based on 13 interviews with Eritrean status holders and professionals in Amsterdam this article explores how paying attention to media skills and media literacies may help gain a better understanding of what matters in exchanges between professionals and legal refugees in the mandatory Dutch integration process. Media literacy needs to be decolonised in order to do so. Starting as an inquiry into how professionals and their clients have different ideas of what constitutes “inclusive communication,” analysis of the interviews provides insight into how there is a need to (a) renegotiate citizenship away from the equation of neoliberal values with good citizenship and recognising needs and ambitions outside a neoliberal framework, (b) rethink components of formal and informal communication, and (c) reconceptualise media literacies beyond Western-oriented definitions. We propose that professionals and status holders need to understand how and when they (can) trust media and sources; how what we might call “open-mindedness to the media literacy of others” is a dialogic performative skill that is linked to contexts of time and place. It requires self-reflective approach to integration, and the identities of being a professional and an Eritrean stakeholder. Co-designing such media literacy training will bring reflexivity rather than the more generic term “competence” within the heart of both media literacy and inclusive communication.
Keywords: citizenship; critical media literacy; Eritrean status holders; inclusive communication; integration; reflexivity; street-level bureaucrats
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:317-327

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Inclusive Media Education in the Diverse Classroom: A Participatory Action Research in Germany
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5640
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5640
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 305-316
Author-Name: Çiğdem Bozdağ
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany / Research Centre Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract: Media literacy has become a key concept for understanding how different citizens develop the capacity to participate in the mediatized society. One key question here is how media literacy education can support people of diverse backgrounds to have equal chances of benefiting from the media. Furthermore, as many schools are characterized by superdiversity, especially in bigger cities (Crul et al., 2013), there is also a need for research on media education and diversity. This article presents the findings of the research project INCLUDED, a participatory action research about media education in a secondary school in Germany. The project aims to analyse the everyday media use of young people with diverse cultural backgrounds living in a socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhood and co-develop teaching modules on media literacy education integrating an intercultural perspective. The fieldwork of the project (January 2020–April 2021) included participatory observations (online and offline), teacher interviews, and focus groups with the students (13–15 years). The article will particularly focus on one teaching module that focused on TikTok and Instagram influencers. The students’ presentations in the classroom demonstrated how the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students also shaped the content that they consumed on social media. Analysing this teaching module as an example, this article discusses the benefits and challenges of designing a more inclusive and participatory approach to media education in the context of culturally diverse schools as an alternative to culture-blindness and over-emphasis of cultural differences.
Keywords: diversity; inclusion; influencers; Instagram; media education; media literacy; migrants; social media; TikTok; youth
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:305-316

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Storytelling as Media Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue in Post-Colonial Societies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5814
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5814
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 294-304
Author-Name: Maria Teresa Cruz
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Author-Name: Madalena Miranda
Author-Workplace-Name: NOVA Institute of Communication (ICNOVA), NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract: <div><span>This article reflects upon digital storytelling and collaborative media practices as valuable tools for reassessing memory, questioning identity discourses, and unveiling the cultural diversity of contemporary societies. The digital age allows for a constant re-reading and re-mediation of cultural archives by ordinary citizens, namely by younger generations, and for the production and dissemination of alternative narratives about the present. These are crucial opportunities for post-colonial societies to overcome silences around difficult memories that hinder a collective reappropriation of the past, confront some of the current issues on ethnical diversity, and discrimination and reimagine a more inclusive identity. However, taking advantage of this opportunity implies fully recognizing the role of media technology in shaping memory, social individuation and establishing networks, making media literacy and media education crucial aspects of cultural dialogue. Based on the experience of a citizenship project about the post-colonial condition and Afro-European interculturality, this essay reflects on digital storytelling, and co-creative practices as relevant literacy and education strategies for furthering interculturality in contemporary societies.</span></div>
Keywords: afro-european dialogue; desktop cinema; media literacy; post-colonial societies; storytelling
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:294-304

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Using Comics as a Media Literacy Tool for Marginalised Groups: The Case of Athens Comics Library
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5716
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5716
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 289-293
Author-Name: Lida Tsene
Author-Workplace-Name: Open University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Abstract: Comics and graphic novels not only have the power to narrate the stories of superheroes, but they also have the superpower to transfer knowledge. Using pictures and images is a great means to overcome cultural or language barriers and, at the same time, cultivate critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. Among their superpowers is also the ability to teach media literacy. Comics are a visual medium and people tend to react better to visual communication than verbal. Discussing multimodal literacy, we can claim that comics can become an efficient media literacy tool, especially for children, and with a special focus on diversity. In an era where misinformation/disinformation and fake news are all around us, marginalised groups, such as refugee populations, are more vulnerable. At the same time, Covid-19 brought upon us not only an infodemic but also digital inequalities, as several communities are excluded by the digital transformation. In this commentary article, we will present and discuss examples of how Athens Comics Library is using comics in order to provide a more inclusive media literacy education to refugee populations highlighting the correspondence between comics storytelling and media literacy abilities.
Keywords: comics; diversity; media literacy; participatory culture; refugees; storytelling; visual literacy
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:289-293

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Intergenerational Perspectives on Media and Fake News During Covid-19: Results From Online Intergenerational Focus Groups
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5712
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5712
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 277-288
Author-Name: Ana Filipa Oliveira
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, Portugal
Author-Name: Maria José Brites
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, Portugal
Author-Name: Carla Cerqueira
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture, and New Technologies (CICANT), Lusófona University, Portugal
Abstract: This article reflects on intergenerational perspectives on media habits and fake news during Covid-19. Active participation is closely linked to the citizens’ media literacy competencies. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, inequalities in access, use, and understanding of the information conveyed by the media became more evident. Digital skills are essential to encourage co-learning and active ageing among different generations. This article relies on data collected during two online intergenerational focus groups with family pairs of different ages (grandparents and grandchildren) conducted in Portugal in the context of the European project SMaRT-EU. The focus groups addressed subjects such as news, fake news, critical perspective towards social networks and digital communication, and younger and older people’s perspectives regarding these matters. The thematic analysis of the Portuguese data suggests that, by placing grandparents and grandchildren side by side, the online intergenerational focus groups promoted sharing and exchange of knowledge, valuing the intergenerational encounter and the voices of one of society’s most fragile groups. Data also shows that participants have different perspectives on communication and digitally mediated interaction, mainly related to age factors and media literacy skills. As for fake news, although grandparents and grandchildren show awareness of the phenomenon, for the youngest participant it was complex to identify characteristics or the spaces where they are disseminated. The young adult participant was the most proficient and autonomous digital media user. Results further indicate that, although the online environment contributed to continuing research in times of pandemic, bringing together family members with different media literacy skills and ages poses difficulties related to the recruitment of participants.
Keywords: fake news; information disorders; intergenerationality; media habits; online focus groups; Portugal
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:277-288

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Beyond Solutionism: Differently Motivating Media Literacy
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5715
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5715
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 267-276
Author-Name: Julian McDougall
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University, UK
Author-Name: Isabella Rega
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, Bournemouth University, UK
Abstract: This article discusses three research projects conducted in partnerships in diverse societies. We assess the implications of each project for media literacy’s motivations and intentionality through a theory of change. For the first project, BBC Media Action, we developed the theory of change which frames this article and a media literacy training programme for in-country practitioners to strengthen media ecosystems and support resilience to information disorder. Our second project was Dual Netizenship, a youth-led, intercultural partnership between Tunisia and the UK at the intersection of media literacy, civic agency, and decolonisation. Thirdly, Digital Arts—Refugee Engagement<em> </em>(DA-RE) brought together refugee youth in Bangladesh and Turkey to combine media literacy and digital artivism with civic capability development. The status of media literacy as a conduit for positive change (rather than a solution in itself) was different in each partnership—from the production of counter-script youth-led media to capacity-building for refugee participants in host communities to the situating of “mainstream media” itself as the agent of positive intervention in the ecosystem. Our theory of change situates media literacy as a form of context-bound capability development as opposed to a set of neutral, universal competences. The research that we share here was conducted with “third space” media literacy design principles. In addressing both the positive change initiated by these projects and the tensions and challenges in play in the motivating imperatives of partnerships, the article speaks to the complexity of media literacy in diverse societies.
Keywords: capability; change; civic engagement; media ecosystems; media literacy; third space
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:267-276

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Children’s News Media as a Space for Learning About Difference
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5729
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5729
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 256-266
Author-Name: Camilla Haavisto
Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Avanti Chajed
Author-Workplace-Name: Teachers College, Columbia University, USA
Author-Name: Rasmus Kyllönen
Author-Workplace-Name: Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: In this article, we show how everyday difference is conceptualised in Finland through our analysis of media products for children (<em>HBL Junior</em>, <em>HS Lasten Uutiset</em>, and <em>Yle Mix</em>). We consider media as a part of the “lived curriculum”<em> </em>through which media professionals intentionally or unintentionally reproduce particular discourses of difference and sameness that become part of children’s everyday learning and understanding of multicultural society. Our aim in doing so is to consider what marks these discourses produced specifically for children, and what versions of difference they replicate and advance. We find that children’s media advances discourses of “comfortable conviviality” through the paradigms of colour-blind friendship, the universal experience of childhood, and through a firm belief in social cohesion as the master signifier of Finnish society. Through the lens of inclusiveness, we discuss the implications of these discourses on journalism and media literacy.
Keywords: children’s journalism; conviviality; ethnic differences; Finland; media literacy education; media for children; racial differences
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:256-266

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Inclusive Media Literacy Education for Diverse Societies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6625
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.6625
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 248-255
Author-Name: Çiğdem Bozdağ
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Pedagogy and Educational Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany / Research Centre Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Annamária Neag
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Charles University, Czechia
Author-Name: Koen Leurs
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Abstract: This editorial introduces the thematic issue titled <em>Inclusive Media Literacy Education for Diverse Societies</em>. We start by introducing our aims for developing a more open and inviting approach to media education. We argue for a media education that acknowledges a variety of voices, and that provides skills and recognition for everyone, irrespective of their social class, status, gender identification, sexuality, race, ability, and other variables. The articles in this issue address the role of media literacy education in relation to questions of in- and exclusion, social justice, voice, and listening. The issue covers a variety of critical, non-Western perspectives needed to challenge dominant regimes of representation. The editorial is enriched by the artist Neetje’s illustrations of the workshop that preceded the publication of this thematic issue.
Keywords: critical pedagogy; diversity; games; inclusion; intersectionality; media education; media literacy; postcolonialism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:248-255

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Manufacturing Populism: Digitally Amplified Vernacular Authority
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5857
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5857
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 236-247
Author-Name: Robert Glenn Howard
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Arts, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Abstract: This article shows that digital technologies can play an outsized role in populist discourse because the imagined “voice of the people” gains its authority through the appearance of continuities and consistencies across many iterative communication events. Those iterations create an observable aggregate volition which is the basis of vernacular authority. Digital technologies give institutions the ability to generate those iterative communications quickly. Through example analyses, I show three different ways that institutional actors deployed digital technologies to promote their populist political agendas by manufacturing “the will of the people.” Each of these examples suggests that digital technologies hybridize communication in ways that suggest the elite are always already part of “the people.”
Keywords: aggregate authority; algorithms; digital technologies; iterative communications; populism; rhetoric; vernacular discourse
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:236-247

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Caring Ecologies of the New Right and Left: Populist Performances of Care During the Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5842
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5842
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 224-235
Author-Name: Sara García Santamaría
Author-Workplace-Name: Open University of Catalonia, Spain
Abstract: This article examines leaders’ ability to take care of the people during a global pandemic. The article focuses on two populist leaders in Spain: Ada Colau, Barcelona’s mayor and a global municipalist referent, and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid and a referent of the new right in Europe. The analysis is informed by theoretical discussions on care, examining how populists perform micro and macro practices of care(lessness) as reflected on their Instagram accounts. How has a global pandemic affected populists’ unspoken role of taking care of “their people”? Do they understand care as an individual or as a collective enterprise that challenges capitalist forms of annihilation? The article takes a feminist approach by challenging traditional male-centric analyses of populism. Methodologically, the article advances our understanding of discursive, visual, and affective approaches to digital storytelling. The data is analyzed through a combination of content analysis, a performative approach to populism and visual rhetorical analysis. The results show important differences in how right- and left-wing populists create their ethos as carers and establish emotional connections with those they care about, performing radical care versus neoliberal carelessness.
Keywords: Ada Colau; care; female populist leaders; Isabel Díaz Ayuso; new left; new right; pandemic; performance; populism; Spain
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:224-235

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Bread and Plots: Conspiracy Theories and the Rhetorical Style of Political Influencer Communities on YouTube
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5807
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5807
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 213-223
Author-Name: Christina Wurst
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of American Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany
Abstract: Based on the assumption that social media encourages a populist style of politics in online communities and the proposition that populism and conspiracy theories tend to co-occur, this article investigates whether this holds true for YouTube influencers, particularly on the less investigated left-wing spectrum. The article provides qualitative case studies of four different groups of political content creators on YouTube whose content makes use of or analyzes popular culture. The article concludes that a populist style plays a far less central role in left-wing communities on YouTube than on other platforms or within right-wing communities.
Keywords: BreadTube; conspiracy theories; popular culture; populism; social media; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:213-223

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Dropkick Murphys vs. Scott Walker: Unpacking Populist Ideological Discourse in Digital Space
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5747
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5747
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 202-212
Author-Name: Connor D. Wilcox
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Communication and Information, Kent State University, USA
Abstract: On January 24, 2015, the folk punk band Dropkick Murphys penned a tweet to former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that read “please stop using our music in any way…We literally hate you!!!” Within hours, thousands of users interacted with the post and a contentious mediated discussion materialized. By exporting the full conversation using the program BrandWatch and applying Sonja Foss’s ideological criticism approach, I found several recurrent ideological constructions reappear throughout the data. Through comments considering the band’s political activism as alienating, re-envisioning punk rock as right-wing, and framing Dropkick Murphys as inherently un-American and undesirable through Twitter comments, Walker supporters rhetorically dismiss the band and their message. These constructions show how new media audiences discursively construct ideologies to delegitimize opposition along the lines of political affiliation and illustrate the communicative mechanism of populism on a micro-level.
Keywords: discourse; Dropkick Murphys; ideology; music; new media; populism; Scott Walker; Twitter
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:202-212

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Points of Contact Between Activism, Populism, and Fandom on Social Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5738
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5738
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 191-201
Author-Name: Sarah Riddick
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Humanities and Arts, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
Abstract: This article explores how music fans used social media to increase a social movement’s public support. Although initially dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the movement eventually gained widespread support and is motivating communities to engage in broader cultural conversations. The movement’s success, this article argues, is largely owed to social media’s networked communication affordances and how they facilitate fan-based citizenship and citizen journalism. Through a rhetorical analysis of social media communication related to the movement, this article examines how online fan-based citizen journalism can draw together seemingly disconnected ideologies and audiences to diversify and bolster social movements’ support.
Keywords: celebrity; citizen journalism; digital publics; fan activism; fan studies; hashtag activism; popular culture; pop music; social media; social movements
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:191-201

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Politicisation of the Domestic: Populist Narratives About Covid-19 Among Influencers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5736
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5736
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 180-190
Author-Name: Marie Heřmanová
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
Abstract: The article analyses the proliferation of narratives about Covid-19 as an orchestrated political event among female lifestyle influencers on Czech Instagram. As the Covid-19 pandemic turned even the most basic everyday activities into politically loaded questions, the boundaries between lifestyle, domestic, and political content posted by influencers became increasingly blurred. The article explores this process of “politicisation of the domestic” with a focus on (a) the gendered character of influencer communities on Instagram, (b) the process of authority building within the newly politicised and gendered spaces, and (c) the post-socialist socio-political context of the Czech Republic that frames current political events by symbolic references to a totalitarian past. Empirically, the article builds on data collected using digital ethnography and ethnographic content analysis of selected Czech female lifestyle influencers’ Instagram profiles.
Keywords: Covid-19; Czech Republic; Instagram; political influencers; populism; social media influencers
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:180-190

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: What “Real” Women Want: Alt-Right Femininity Vlogs as an Anti-Feminist Populist Aesthetic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5726
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5726
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 170-179
Author-Name: Megan L. Zahay
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Abstract: This article suggests that one reason for the resurgence of populism we see in the digital age is its resonance as a political<em> aesthetic</em> with the style and aesthetics of online culture. Influencers on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram rely on style to attract viewers and identify themselves with a community. This makes fertile ground for far-right populist movements like the alt-right, who can package extremist politics in attractive content that appears to represent viewers’ everyday concerns. A growing alt-right community on YouTube known as traditional or “trad” wives create videos about femininity, beauty, and relationships. However, viewers who seek out these channels for clothing or hair styling tips leave with another kind of styling: populist messaging that frames feminism as an elitist threat to the “real” femininity of everyday women. Through rhetorical analysis, I find that trad wife vloggers’ videos stylistically suture alt-right anti-feminism to the broader online influencer culture through repeated aesthetic displays of the feminine self, home, and family. I argue that this visuality acts as an aesthetic mode of veridiction for the anti-feminist message that is uniquely powerful on image-based social media platforms. It creates the appearance of broad support as similar aesthetics are repeatedly performed by many trusted influencers. I conclude by calling scholars of populism and rhetoric to attend to the way multi-layered conventions of aesthetics on social media platforms can spread extremist messaging through ambiguous content within and beyond online communities.
Keywords: aesthetic; alt-right; extremism; femininity; gender; internet culture; populism; rhetoric; social media; trad wife vlogs; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:170-179

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Far-Right Populism Online: Did VOX’s Community Reproduce the Party’s Discourse During the April 2019 Campaign?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5704
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5704
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 155-169
Author-Name: Arantxa Capdevila
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Author-Name: Carlota M. Moragas-Fernández
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Author-Name: Josep Maria Grau Masot
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain
Abstract: In April 2019, VOX, a far-right populist party, won seats for the first time in the Spanish parliament. VOX successfully used social media to participate in the electoral debate and to establish a more direct link with its followers. We investigated how the VOX online community was structured during the election campaign and to what extent the most influential profiles spread the party’s messages. We accordingly analysed two samples, one composed of tweets and retweets that used the hashtags #28A, #28Abril, and #28AbrilElecciones, and the other composed of metaphorical expressions identified in tweets by influencers. Applying social network analysis to the first sample, we studied the form and structure of the network and identified key profiles in the VOX community, i.e., influencers, builders, and bridges. Using critical metaphor analysis with the second sample, we identified the main frames used by VOX influencers to explore whether they reproduced the party’s populist discourse. We found that the VOX online community in 2019 did not only include party supporters or members but was composed of varied profiles. For this reason, the populist metaphorical framing used by the VOX leadership was only partially disseminated.
Keywords: far-right populism; metaphor; online community; Spain; Twitter; VOX
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:155-169

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: How Right-Wing Populist Comments Affect Online Deliberation on News Media Facebook Pages
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5690
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5690
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 141-154
Author-Name: Daniel Thiele
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria
Author-Name: Tjaša Turnšek
Author-Workplace-Name: Peace Institute, Slovenia / Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract: Right-wing populist user comments on social media are said to impair online deliberation. Right-wing populism’s anti-pluralist and conflict-centered message might hinder deliberative debates, which are characterized by reciprocity, arguments, sourcing, politeness, and civility. Although right-wing populism has been found to foster user interaction on social media, few empirical studies have examined its impact on the scope and deliberative quality of user debates. This study focuses on debates on 10 Facebook pages of Austrian and Slovenian mass media during the so-called “refugee crisis” of 2015–2016. Proceeding in two steps, we first analyze how right-wing populist user comments affect the number of reply comments using a dataset of N = 281,115 Facebook comments and a validated, automated content analysis. In a second step, we use a manual, quantitative content analysis to investigate how right-wing populist comments affect the deliberative quality of N = 1,413 reply comments. We test five hypotheses in carefully modeled regression analyses. Our findings show that right-wing populist comments trigger replies but impair their deliberative quality. People-centric comments decrease the probability of arguments in replies, and anti-immigrant comments spark incivility. Countering populism further increases impoliteness. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of an increasingly uncivil online public sphere and populism’s ambivalent relationship with democracy.
Keywords: deliberation; immigration; incivility; online news; populist communication; political communication; reciprocity; social media; user comments
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:141-154

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Populist Disinformation: Are Citizens With Populist Attitudes Affected Most by Radical Right-Wing Disinformation?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5654
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5654
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 129-140
Author-Name: Michael Hameleers
Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Disinformation emphasizing radical populist narratives may threaten democratic values. Although extant literature has pointed to a strong affinity between disinformation and the populist radical right, we know little about the effects of such deceptive information. Against this backdrop, this article relies on an experiment in the Netherlands (<em>N</em> = 456) in which participants were exposed to radical right-wing populist disinformation versus decontextualized malinformation. Mimicking the participatory logic of disinformation campaigns in the digital society, we also varied the source of the message (a neutral news message versus a social media post of an ordinary citizen). Main findings indicate that exposure to radical right-wing populist messages can prime support for radical-right-wing issue positions, but ordinary citizen sources do not amplify disinformation’s effects. Our findings indicate that malign populist messages may have a delegitimizing impact on democracy, irrespective of how they are presented.
Keywords: disinformation; ordinary citizens; populist attitudes; right-wing populism; social media; the Netherlands
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:129-140

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Spectre of Populist Leadership: QAnon, Emergent Formations, and Digital Community
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5586
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5586
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 118-128
Author-Name: Rob Cover
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia
Author-Name: Jay Daniel Thompson
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia
Author-Name: Ashleigh Haw
Author-Workplace-Name: Melbourne Social Equity Institute, University Melbourne, Australia / School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University, Australia
Abstract: QAnon is an online conspiracy movement centred on cryptic posts published by an unknown figure referred to as “Q.” Its anti-hierarchical framework and deployment of an unknown leader can be understood as a substantial departure from other 21st-century populisms that are sustained by the celebrity relationship between a leader (often aspiring to or gaining political office) and its followers (constituted in community through consumption of the leaders’ social media posts). Reflecting on contemporary debates and insights within cultural studies and digital communication literature, this article investigates some of the ways in which the spectral leadership of Q presents challenges for understanding and apprehending populist movements. In light of QAnon, there is an emerging need to make sense of populisms that are built on mythical or anonymous characters rather than on identifiable human actors in leadership roles. We begin by discussing the role of key practices of contemporary populist leadership and contrast these with justice-based populisms that are community-led without the figure of an identifiable leader. We argue that, as a populist movement, QAnon fits neither of these frameworks and, instead, has drawn on the affordances of digital media and its intersections with postmodern hyperreality to produce a new formation of populist movement today. Arguing that Q is the simulacra of a leader, we theorise the ways in which QAnon fosters affiliation and action from its adherents who, themselves, take on the role of saviour-leader.
Keywords: digital affordances; identification practices; leadership; networking; populism; QAnon; simulacra
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:118-128

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Don’t Fauci My Florida:” Anti-Fauci Memes as Digital Anti-Intellectualism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5588
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5588
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 109-117
Author-Name: Andrew Zolides
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Xavier University, USA
Abstract: In his prescient book <em>Achieving Our Country</em>, Richard Rorty predicts the rise of a Trump-like strongman built on attacking, among other public figures, “postmodern professors” (1998, p. 90). This speaks to the importance of anti-intellectualism to the populist movement in the US today. Always present in populist appeals, like McCarthy’s placement of “educated elites at the center of his communist conspiracy” (Peck, 2019, p. 129), this approach “seeks to undermine public discourse by attacking and devaluing education, expertise, and language” (Stanley, 2020, p. 36). The result of these attacks is a return to tribalism and power, key facets of populist rhetoric and strategies. With the Covid-19 pandemic dominating the US public discourse since 2020, the populist conservative movement has trained their anti-intellectual rhetoric towards a singular figure: Dr. Anthony Fauci. An anti-fandom community was thus born built around attacking and mocking Fauci, taking place within the larger populist movement. While this anti-Fauci rhetoric takes many forms, one of the most dominant is that of memes. Through an analysis of both formal (DeSantis merchandise and political cartoons) and informal (actual grassroots) anti-Fauci memes, I argue online communities have used anti-Fauci memes as a form of anti-fandom community building utilizing and bolstering anti-intellectual, populist rhetoric due to their ease of transmission, mutability, and personification of intellectualism on a singular figure. In this way, being “anti-Fauci” allows the populist argument to seem like a personal grievance rather than a focused attack on academic thought itself.
Keywords: Anthony Fauci; anti-fandom; anti-intellectualism; memes; online communities; populism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:109-117

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial:  Populism in and Through Online Communities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6505
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.6505
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 105-108
Author-Name: Ashley Hinck
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Xavier University, USA
Abstract: This editorial introduces the thematic issue of <em>Online Communities and Populism</em>. I begin by laying out the justification for taking up this topic and then articulate why <em>Media and Communication</em> is the ideal location to hold this discussion. Then I introduce the articles in this issue by listing the questions these articles take up, the four major themes these articles take on, and preview each article.
Keywords: online communities; online populism; political communication; populism; populist discourse; networked media; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:105-108

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Examining the Role of Online Uncivil Discussion and Ideological Extremity on Illegal Protest
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5694
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5694
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 94-104
Author-Name: Bingbing Zhang
Author-Workplace-Name: Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, USA / Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Isabel Inguanzo
Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Author-Workplace-Name: Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, USA / Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain / Faculty of Communication and Humanities, Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile
Abstract: In recent years, there has been an increased academic interest revolving around the beneficial or pernicious effects of ideological extremity and (uncivil) political discussion over democracy. For instance, citizens’ ideological predispositions and higher levels of political discussion have been linked with a more active and vibrant political life. In fact, ideological extremity and uncivil discussion foster institutionalized political engagement. However, less explored in the literature remains whether such polarization and uncivil discussions may be related to unlawful political behavior such as illegal protest. This study contends that one of the main drivers of illegal protest behavior lies in online uncivil political discussion, specifically through the normalization and activation of further incivility. We tested this through a two-wave panel data drawn from a diverse US sample and cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive regression models. Mediation analysis was also conducted to test whether uncivil online discussion mediated the relationship between frequency of online political discussion and illegal protest engagement. Overall, we found that illegal protest was particularly associated with online uncivil discussion, while ideological extremity and other forms of online and offline discussions seemed to have no effect on unlawful protest over time.
Keywords: ideological extremity; illegal protest; online political discussion; offline uncivil discussion; online uncivil discussion
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:94-104

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: WhatsApp, Polarization, and Non-Conventional Political Participation: Chile and Colombia Before the Social Outbursts of 2019
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5817
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5817
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 77-93
Author-Name: Andrés Scherman
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain / School of Communication and Journalism, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Chile / Millennium Nucleus Center for the Study of Politics, Public Opinion, and Media in Chile, Chile
Author-Name: Nicolle Etchegaray
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism, Diego Portales University, Chile / Research Center in Communication, Literature and Social Observation (CICLOS-UDP), Chile
Author-Name: Magdalena Browne
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication and Journalism, Adolfo Ibáñez University, Chile / Laboratory of Surveys and Social Analysis (LEAS), Adolfo Ibáñez University, Chile
Author-Name: Diego Mazorra
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Communication–Journalism, Externado de Colombia University, Colombia
Author-Name: Hernando Rojas
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Abstract: Chile and Colombia are two South American countries with political and economic similarities that, during 2019, faced strong social outbursts, which translated into massive street protests and the weakening of their governments. Using data collected in the period immediately prior to the start of this social unrest, this study seeks to establish the role played by strong-tied social media—which are generally homogeneous, formed by close people, and with a high potential for influencing their members—in three phenomena associated with political conflict: (a) perceived political polarization, (b) affective polarization, and (c) non-conventional political participation. To estimate this influence, information collected through surveys in Chile in 2017 and Colombia in 2018 was used within the framework of the Comparative National Elections project. In both countries, probabilistic samples were employed to do face-to-face interviews with samples of over 1,100 people. In both countries, the results show that the use of social media with strong ties, specifically WhatsApp, tends to be related to two of the studied phenomena: perceived political polarization and non-conventional participation. An interaction is also observed between WhatsApp use and political ideology that amplifies the degree of perceived political polarization, affective polarization, and participation in one or both of the countries studied. We conclude by arguing that this dual phenomenon of polarization and participation can be problematic for democracy, since polarized groups (or groups that have the perception that there is ideological polarization in the political elite) tend to consider the position of the rest of the citizens to be illegitimate, thus undermining collective problem-solving.
Keywords: affective polarization; Chile; Colombia; non-conventional political participation; political polarization; social media; WhatsApp
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:77-93

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social Media and Contentious Action: The Use and Users of QQ Groups in China
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5894
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5894
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 66-76
Author-Name: Zixue Tai
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Kentucky, USA
Abstract: This article presents an analysis of a netnographic study of QQ groups engaged in contentious activities in China. Informed primarily by semi-structured in-depth interviews of 34 participants and field observations through years of grounded research, the findings shed light on the communicative dynamics and mobilization strategies of QQ groups in nurturing contentious action and motivating mass participation in social protest. In-group communication stays highly focused on the respective mission of the groups, and it cultivates a sense of shared awareness conducive to collective action. There is also a noticeable contagion effect that transfers the spirit of contestation in terms of speech and action. Mobilizing dynamics in the QQ groups point to a hybrid model of activist-brokered networks, which crosscuts and interconnects elements in Bennett and Segerberg’s (2012) prototype of self-organizing networks and organizationally brokered networks. Group leaders and activists resort to a multi-layered mechanism to dissipate contentious information and to mobilize participation in protests.
Keywords: China; collective action; connective action; QQ groups; social media; social protest
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:66-76

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Polarization of Deliberative and Participatory Activists on Social Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5637
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5637
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 56-65
Author-Name: Azi Lev-On
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel
Abstract: The article demonstrates how social media activism polarizes and clusters into distinct deliberative and participatory arenas, using the case study of online activism for justice for Roman Zadorov in Israel. Zadorov was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Still, an overwhelming majority of Israelis think he is innocent, with the social media obstruction-of-justice campaign in his support having raised overwhelming exposure and engagement. Theorists distinguish between participatory and deliberative public processes. Supporters of participatory processes advocate for the participation of multiple stakeholders in addressing public concerns. Supporters of deliberative processes advocate for a thorough evaluation of arguments for and against any course of action before decision-making. This study demonstrates how people congregate online and polarize into deliberative and participatory clusters. The “deliberative” cluster is characteristic of groups led by admins who advocate reaching the truth through exposing relevant information and conducting fact-based deliberation. The “participatory” cluster is characteristic of groups led by admins who believe that their activities should aim exclusively at generating more attention and engagement with the general public.
Keywords: activism; deliberation; Israel; obstruction-of-justice campaign; participation; polarization; protest; Roman Zadorov; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:56-65

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Far-Right Digital Activism in Polarized Contexts: A Comparative Analysis of Engagement in Hashtag Wars
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5622
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5622
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 42-55
Author-Name: Viktor Chagas
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil
Author-Name: Rodrigo Carreiro
Author-Workplace-Name: National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Author-Name: Nina Santos
Author-Workplace-Name: National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil
Author-Name: Guilherme Popolin
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Graduate Program, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil
Abstract: Literature on influence operations highlights the coordinated actions of digital activists aimed at persuading audiences. Scholars have discussed many angles of this behavior and emphasized repertoires based on specific contentious actions. However, little is discussed about how these disputes allow us to apprehend different models of political action in polarized contexts. On a whole, studies have not considered a broader understanding of digital activism performed by supporters of far-right governments. How does the far-right spread its agenda and support the government in “hashtag wars”? What kind of strategies are employed? This study seeks to compare patterns of coordinated behavior in hashtags created by supporters and detractors of the Bolsonaro government in Brazil that occupied the trending topics on Twitter. The statistical analysis is based on 6.1 million tweets taken from 20 political hashtags collected over a three-month period from May to July 2020. Data was scraped using Twitter’s Search API v3.0 for academic use. We analyzed the overall volume and peaks of tweets, the users they engaged with, and their network of influence, as well as the length of each hashtag. The results show an intense use of hashtag activism by Bolsonaro supporters, with users struggling for greater prominence in social media in the face of political events in Brazil. This article sheds light on how the far-right appropriates digital platforms to promote the government’s public image in times of political tension and how it promotes coordinated actions aimed at framing social media audiences.
Keywords: astroturfing; digital activism; far-rights; hashtag wars; Jair Bolsonaro; political polarization
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:42-55

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Conspiracy Beliefs, Misinformation, Social Media Platforms, and Protest Participation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5667
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5667
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 30-41
Author-Name: Shelley Boulianne
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, MacEwan University, Canada
Author-Name: Sangwon Lee
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, New Mexico State University, USA
Abstract: Protest has long been associated with left-wing actors and left-wing causes. However, right-wing actors also engage in protest. Are right-wing actors mobilized by the same factors as those actors on the left? This article uses cross-national survey data (i.e., US, UK, France, and Canada) gathered in February 2021 to assess the role of misinformation, conspiracy beliefs, and the use of different social media platforms in explaining participation in marches or demonstrations. We find that those who use Twitch or TikTok are twice as likely to participate in marches or demonstrations, compared to non-users, but the uses of these platforms are more highly related to participation in right-wing protests than left-wing protests. Exposure to misinformation on social media and beliefs in conspiracy theories also increase the likelihood of participating in protests. Our research makes several important contributions. First, we separate right-wing protest participation from left-wing protest participation, whereas existing scholarship tends to lump these together. Second, we offer new insights into the effects of conspiracy beliefs and misinformation on participation using cross-national data. Third, we examine the roles of emerging social media platforms such as Twitch and TikTok (as well as legacy platforms such as YouTube and Facebook) to better understand the differential roles that social media platforms play in protest participation.
Keywords: conspiracy; cross-national; Facebook; misinformation; protest; social media; TikTok; Twitch; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:30-41

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Another Violent Protest? New Perspectives to Understand Protest Coverage
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5796
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5796
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 18-29
Author-Name: Valentina Proust
Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Author-Name: Magdalena Saldaña
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communications, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile / Center for the Study of Media, Public Opinion, and Politics in Chile, Chile / Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data, Chile
Abstract: This study assesses the relationship between two well-established sets of frames to better understand the news coverage of massive political protests. By relying on Semetko and Valkenburg’s generic frames and McLeod and Hertog’s protest frames, this study aims to identify whether certain generic frames emphasized in news stories increase the tendency to delegitimize protest movements. To this end, we analyzed the news coverage of Chile’s Estallido Social, a series of massive political demonstrations that developed across the country from October to December 2019. Data for this study come from stories published by Radio Bío Bío, the most trusted news outlet in the country, according to Reuters Institute. By analyzing a sample of 417 stories, we found the coverage replicated patterns that usually delegitimize protest movements, as many of the stories focused on violent acts and depicted demonstrators as deviant from the status quo. We also found a direct relationship between generic frames and protest frames, in which the presence of the former determines that of the latter. Generic frames provide information about how the news media interpret and package the news, which in turn affects demonstration-related features that the news media pay attention to. As such, we argue that combining both generic and issue-specific frames is a helpful approach to understanding the complexities of protest news coverage.
Keywords: Chile; Estallido Social; generic frames; issue-specific frames; protest; Radio Bío Bío
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:18-29

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: States vs. Social Movements: Protests and State Repression in Asia
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5623
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.5623
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 5-17
Author-Name: Josephine Lukito
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Author-Name: Zhe Cui
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Author-Name: An Hu
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Author-Name: Taeyoung Lee
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Author-Name: Joao V. S. Ozawa
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Abstract: This study considers how governments use state-sponsored propaganda and state violence in tandem to repress social movements and, in so doing, exacerbate polarization. We specifically focus on cases in young and non-democracies in East and Southeast Asia: China and Hong Kong, the Free Papua Movement in Indonesia, and Myanmar’s more recent coup. Using a time series analysis, our analysis reveals a temporal relationship between state propaganda and violence; however, we do not find much evidence that these state actions Granger-cause social movement activities. The exception to this is in Myanmar, where we find that repressive state actions decrease activity in Facebook groups criticizing the Tatmadaw, which in turn increases offline protest activities.
Keywords: Asia; political repression; propaganda; protests; social movements
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:5-17

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Contentious Politics in a Digital World: Studies on Social Activism, Protest, and Polarization
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6270
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i4.6270
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 4
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain / Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, USA / Facultad de Comunicación y Letras, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
Author-Name: Isabel Inguanzo
Author-Workplace-Name: Democracy Research Unit, University of Salamanca, Spain
Author-Name: Alberto Ardèvol-Abreu
Author-Workplace-Name: Departamento de Ciencias de la Comunicación y Trabajo Social, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain / Instituto Universitario de Neurociencia, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain
Abstract: In a world of polarized societies and radical voices hogging the public digital sphere, this thematic issue aims at identifying the different strategies of old and new social movements in the extremes of the political debates by focusing on the interplay between polarization, uses of the internet, and social activism. In order to disentangle these interactions, this thematic issue covers a wide range of political settings across the globe. It does so by studying: (a) how opposing activists discuss politics online and its implications for democratic theory; (b) how social media uses and online discussions foster offline protests; (c) how the media and state-led-propaganda frame disruptive and anti-government offline protests and how this situation contributes to polarization in both democratic and non-democratic regimes; and finally (d) how civil society uses digital tools to organize and mobilize around sensitive issues in non-democratic regimes.
Keywords: digital activism; digital mobilization; political polarization; political protest; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:4:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Community Internet of Things as Mobile Infrastructure: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5372
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5372
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 303-314
Author-Name: Chelsea P. Butkowski
Author-Workplace-Name: Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Author-Name: Ngai Keung Chan
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Lee Humphreys
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA
Abstract: From smart devices to homes to cities, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have become embedded within everyday objects on a global scale. We understand IoT technologies as a form of infrastructure that bridges the gaps between offline spaces and online networks as they track, transmit, and construct digital data from and of the physical world. We examine the social construction of IoT network technologies through their technological design and corporate discourses. In this article, we explore the methodological challenges and opportunities of studying IoT as an emerging network technology. We draw on a case study of a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN), a cost-effective radio frequency network that is designed to connect sensors across long distances. Reflecting on our semi-structured interviews with LPWAN users and advocates, participant observation at conferences about LPWAN, as well as a community-based LPWAN project, we examine the intersections of methods and practices as related to space, data, and infrastructures. We identify three key methodological obstacles involved in studying the social construction of networked technologies that straddle physical and digital environments. These include (a) transcending the invisibility and abstraction of network infrastructures, (b) managing practical and conceptual boundaries to sample key cases and participants, and (c) negotiating competing technospatial imaginaries between participants and researchers. Through our reflection, we demonstrate that these challenges also serve as generative methodological opportunities, extending existing tools to study the ways data connects online and offline spaces.
Keywords: community networks; infrastructure; internet of things; LPWAN; mobile communication; qualitative methods; sensing technologies
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:303-314

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Methodological Reflections on Capturing Augmented Space: Insights From an Augmented Reality Field Study
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5316
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5316
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 290-302
Author-Name: Moritz Schweiger
Author-Workplace-Name: Department for Media, Knowledge, and Communication, University of Augsburg, Germany
Author-Name: Jeffrey Wimmer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department for Media, Knowledge, and Communication, University of Augsburg, Germany
Abstract: The growing popularity of augmented reality has led to an increased overlaying of physical, offline space with digital, augmented space. This is particularly evident in the public space of big cities, which already feature a multitude of holographic content that can be experienced via augmented reality devices. But how can we methodically capture the interrelation between physical and augmented space? In this augmented reality field study, a historical building was holographically reconstructed in its original size on a public city square. The test people were then able to move around and view the hologram from different angles via high-tech augmented reality glasses. Due to its explorative character and constantly changing field conditions, including, among other things, the Covid-19 pandemic, we had to critically reflect and adapt our methods to take into account technical, environmental, social, operationalisation, and recruitment issues. After evaluating our solutions to these issues, this article aims to illustrate the methodological challenges and opportunities of augmented reality field studies and to provide an overview of best practices for capturing the interrelationship of physical and augmented space.
Keywords: augmented reality; augmented space; locative tracking; methodology; polarity profiles; spatial meaning; spatial movement; spatial perception; thinking aloud
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:290-302

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Researching Motherhood in the Age of Short Videos: Stay-at-Home Mothers in China Performing Labor on Douyin
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5510
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5510
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 273-289
Author-Name: Guanqin He
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
Author-Name: Yongjian Li
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Addressing the particular context of China, this article has two aims. First, it offers reflections on the possibilities and limitations of using user-generated short videos (vlogs) as research data both methodologically and ethically. We specifically explore the potential of centering vlogs as a new format for examining motherhood behavior across online and offline spaces. Secondly, it adds to the thematic literature on the (re)production and representations of motherhood. We critically examine the rising phenomenon in China of the stay-at-home mother, by exploring how these mothers use short video platforms. Inductively learning from the thematic analysis of short videos of stay-at-home mothers published on Douyin, the patterns in the data indicate three distinct forms of labor are performed through digital motherhood practices: domestic labor, affective labor, and entrepreneurial labor. Drawing on these patterns, we update the original framework of “motherhood 2.0,” which was coined in the 2010s to address mothering practices in industrialized western societies. We extend this framework and conceptualize “motherhood 3.0” by analyzing a type of Chinese community-based intersectional performance of motherhood, gender, and labor that we see emerging in digital cultural production centered on short videos. Mediated labor within online and offline motherhood practices is informed by social, cultural, and technological factors. Digital technologies and mobile media communication provide new means for stay-at-home mothers to navigate between their roles as devoted mothers and their pursuit of self-actualization.
Keywords: digital motherhood practices; Douyin; labor; stay-at-home mothers; vlog
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:273-289

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: WhatsApp as a Tool for Researching the Everyday Lives of Venezuelan Refugees Settling in Brazil
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5468
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5468
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 261-272
Author-Name: Amanda Alencar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Julia Camargo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Higher School of Advertising and Marketing, Brazil / Department of International Relations, Federal University of Roraima, Brazil
Abstract: In this article, we explore the role that WhatsApp can play as a research tool for investigating the experiences of settling refugees. Messaging apps can help researchers collect data about people’s everyday lives while also providing insights into processes that are difficult to study as they happen. The communicative affordances of messaging apps also facilitate spontaneous interactions in research and the flexibility needed when working with mobile groups of people, such as refugees. We build on our experience of interacting together with Venezuelan refugees through the Conexión Sin Fronteras (Connection Without Borders) WhatsApp group, which was designed by the researchers in the form of an intervention focused on building community among Venezuelans settling in the city of Boa Vista, Brazil. Our experience shows that data collection in WhatsApp allows researchers to obtain relevant insights into social support, relationship-building, and negotiations of rules in a group context. However, our research outlines challenges related to the varied engagement of participants in WhatsApp group chats and the difficulty for researchers to be always present during group conversations. Limitations to the use of WhatsApp in research with refugee populations also include restrictions in terms of internet capacity shaping the types of data participants choose to share. In this context, it is crucial to address barriers to access to connectivity and create opportunities to enhance refugees’ literacy regarding data collection in digital spaces. We hope these findings will contribute to the development of inclusive methodological approaches using mobile apps in refugee settings.
Keywords: messaging apps; refugee settlement; Venezuelan refugees; WhatsApp; WhatsApp groups
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:261-272

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Instagram Interview: Talking to People About Travel Experiences Across Online and Offline Spaces
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5340
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5340
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 247-260
Author-Name: Larissa Hugentobler
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Abstract: Studying visitors’ experiences with cultural sites has been complicated by the availability of internet-connected mobile devices. Simply observing visitors on site is no longer sufficient since they can interact with a site offline and online: before, during, and after their visit. Furthermore, cultural sites are as much sites of cultural heritage as they are sites of tourism. To study such complex experiences, new approaches to the study of human interactions with cultural sites must be developed; these methods must account for the fact that the offline and online realms can no longer be considered separate. In this article, I introduce the method of the Instagram interview as applied in an Instagram ethnography, contextualized by my project on visitor experiences of a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC, where I interviewed visitors after their visit. The Instagram interview helps study a dispersed population that engages, through Instagram posts, with one physical location and its narratives, allowing conclusions about visitor experiences of the site and the role of Instagram in this context. When constructing the Instagram interview in a manner that corresponds to platform conventions, it produces personal, in-depth narratives about the interviewee’s experiences. Conceptualizing the experience of a memorial as expanding beyond the space and time of the site visit, the Instagram interview is suitable for holistically studying visitors’ complex experiences: before, during, and after their visits, as it recognizes that offline and online interactions with the site are part of the same experience.
Keywords: cultural sites; digital ethnography; heritage tourism; Instagram; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:247-260

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Mobile Belonging in Digital Exile: Methodological Reflection on Doing Ethnography on (Social) Media Practices
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5379
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5379
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 236-246
Author-Name: Cathrine Bublatzky
Author-Workplace-Name: Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany
Abstract: Life in exile presents hardship and brings with it multiple personal and socio-political challenges and grievances. Being forced into separation from family and home society often stimulates the desire to maintain belonging and contact with families and communities. “Co-presence” and “being there” require a lot of personal effort and commitment. Communication and mediation strategies have a special significance as everyday practices in social and digital media technologies. “Mobile belonging” and staying connected across various online and offline spaces and in various social and political environments and communities can be a constant requirement in digital exile. After an introduction to relevant literature about the complexity of media communication, belonging, and migration, the article examines mobile media technologies and the central role they play in everyday exile. Following a discussion about the notion of “digital exile” and “mobile belonging,” the second part of the article will focus on a specific case study of an Iranian artist and activist living in exile in Germany. It will show how (social) media promotes activism and performance in both online and offline public spaces as practices of “mobile belonging here and there” during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thirdly, the article will turn to a methodological reflection about doing ethnographic research on digital exile and practices of mobile belonging. With a systematic description of applied methods, early developments in multi-modal ethnography will be outlined that illustrate how collaboration and co-creation promise innovative directions for doing ethnography on digital exile in the different-yet-shared times of the pandemic crisis.
Keywords: activism; collaboration; communication; digital exile; ethnography; media; mobile belonging; multimodality
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:236-246

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Affective Triad: Smartphone in the Ethnographic Encounter
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5331
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5331
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 225-235
Author-Name: Suzana Jovicic
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: “Hanging out” and establishing “rapport” is an essential part of the ethnographic encounter in anthropology. But what happens when the smartphone, seemingly a distraction from the relationship in the making, creates a wall between the anthropologist and the interlocutor? While smartphones have been widely explored as a media technology used by the interlocutors, or as research tools, their affective grip on the researchers themselves has received less attention to date. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with visitors of two youth centers in Vienna, Austria, in 2019, I argue that the moment when the smartphone becomes part of the affective triad, alongside the researcher and the interlocutor, also presents a window on the entanglement of digital technologies with everyday life. Moreover, affective ripples emerging from such irritations also expose underlying assumptions about how ethnographic encounters should ideally proceed and what constitutes rapport and “good” ethnographic relationships, seemingly a prerequisite for successful ethnographies. Hence, affective entanglements and irritations that arise in this context are not disturbances to be discarded or smoothed over in the ethnographic narratives. While the smartphone appears to impair the ethnographic encounter at first, its designed porosity allows the researcher to develop a particular sensitivity to issues of rapport, consent, and privacy, and to negotiate the space of potentiality of ambiguous, door-like situations, thus becoming a methodological blessing rather than a curse.
Keywords: affects; anthropology; digital ethnography; ethnography; privacy; rapport; small talk; smartphone; youths
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:225-235

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Doing Research at Online and Offline Intersections: Bringing Together Digital and Mobile Methodologies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6227
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.6227
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 219-224
Author-Name: Katja Kaufmann
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Author-Name: Monika Palmberger
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria
Abstract: This thematic issue is an interdisciplinary exchange of methodological, practical, and ethical issues linked to conducting research across online and offline spaces in times of mobile technologies. It includes a wide range of disciplines, geographical locations, methodological approaches, and designs. The seven articles in this thematic issue are organized around three distinctive potential entry points: (a) researching across online and offline spaces with ethnographic, multisited, nonmedia-centric approaches; (b) making use of mobile media for researching across online and offline spaces; (c) researching emerging technologies built across online and offline spaces. All authors make their research processes transparent and share not only the methodical challenges and ethical dilemmas they faced, but also the opportunities that arose and methodological ways forward.
Keywords: digital ethnography; hybrid methods; mixed methods; mobile media; mobile methods; mobile technologies; multimethod; multimodal; online ethnography; qualitative methods
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:219-224

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: How Citizenship Norms and Digital Media Use Affect Political Participation: A Two-Wave Panel Analysis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5482
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5482
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 206-218
Author-Name: Jennifer Oser
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Abstract: A centrally important question for researchers of media and communication is whether any type of individual-level behavior (e.g., digital media use) or normative attitude (e.g., norms of good citizenship) contributes to equalizing patterns of political participation, which often favor higher-status groups. Drawing on a two-wave repeated panel telephone survey that uses a nationally representative sampling frame, the study’s research design facilitates a robust analysis of how citizenship norms and digital media use affect political participation, with a focus on comparing higher- and lower-status groups. Specifically, the study analyzes a survey conducted in 2018 (Wave 1) and 2019 (Wave 2) among Israeli citizens, with a representative sampling of the generally higher-status Jewish majority and the lower-status Arab minority. The findings indicate that citizenship norms and digital media use in Wave 1 have a time-ordered positive effect on nonelectoral participation in Wave 2 for both Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. However, the findings also show that for voting, the only statistically significant determinant is citizens’ Jewish or Arab identity. At a time when many democracies are facing severe challenges due to democratic erosion and social disintegration, this study contributes a normatively encouraging finding that key factors identified in the literature on citizenship norms and digital media use do not contribute to participatory inequalities between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israel. The findings also show, however, that it is essential to look beyond digital media use patterns to mobilize lower-status groups to become politically engaged in electoral-oriented politics.
Keywords: citizenship norms; digital media; electoral participation; nonelectoral participation; participatory inequality; voting
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:206-218

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Insidiously Trivial: Meme Format Reduces Perceived Influence and Intent to Debate Partisan Claims
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5388
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5388
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 196-205
Author-Name: Benjamin A. Lyons
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University of Utah, USA / Department of Politics, University of Exeter, UK
Abstract: If citizens systematically respond differently to claims conveyed by memes, their effects on the broader information ecosystem may be underestimated. This US-based study (N = 598) uses a 2 (partisan news/meme format) x 2 (congenial/uncongenial message) design to examine perceptions of partisan memes’ influence on self and others, and the format’s effect on willingness to share disagreement in the context of partisan claims about corruption surrounding biofuels operations. Results indicate that meme format enhances individuals’ tendency to see messages as less influential on oneself than on others and individuals less intent to share disagreement with claims presented in meme format. This decrease is mediated by the decrease in perceived influence over self. These findings call attention to the role format differences may play in the psychological processes underlying political discussion as it becomes increasingly mediated and visual.
Keywords: corrective action; perceived media influence; partisan media; political memes; third-person effect
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:196-205

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Media Coverage as Mirror or Molder? An Inference-Based Framework
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5453
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5453
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 183-195
Author-Name: Christina Peter
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communications, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
Abstract: Many communication theories in the context of political communication are based on the premise that humans are social beings affected by their perception of what others think, do, or say. For example, the spiral of silence theory predicts that individuals publically speaking their mind on certain issues is dependent on whether they perceive their opinion to be that of the majority or minority, and that the media is a core source for gauging public opinion. Yet, communication research has produced contradictory findings regarding the relationship between media coverage, perceived public opinion, personal opinion, and behavior. We argue that these contradictory findings can be explained by different inference hypotheses that people apply when inferring the opinion and behaviors of others from media coverage. There are two competing inference hypotheses discussed in the literature: While the reflection hypothesis assumes that the audience sees media content as a mirror of what the public thinks, persuasive press inference postulates that individuals perceive media as an influence on public opinion. Drawing on different research strands such as the spiral of silence theory, hostile media, persuasive press inference, and corrective action, several propositions are put forward that link these inference hypotheses to the media coverage and its effects on individual outcomes, and potential drivers are discussed. The propositions are then put to an initial test using an existing data set.
Keywords: hostile media; inference; media effects; persuasion; persuasive press inference; public opinion; reflection; spiral of silence
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:183-195

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Complicating the Resilience Model: A Four-Country Study About Misinformation
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5346
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5346
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 169-182
Author-Name: Shelley Boulianne
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology, MacEwan University, Canada
Author-Name: Chris Tenove
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, Canada
Author-Name: Jordan Buffie
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia, Canada
Abstract: The resilience model to disinformation (Humprecht et al., 2020, 2021) suggests that countries will differ in exposure and reactions to disinformation due to their distinct media, economic, and political environments. In this model, higher media trust and the use of public service broadcasters are expected to build resilience to disinformation, while social media use and political polarization undermine resilience. To further test and develop the resilience model, we draw on a four-country (the US, Canada, the UK, and France) survey conducted in February 2021. We focus on three individual-level indicators of a lack of resilience: awareness of, exposure to, and sharing of misinformation. We find that social media use is associated with higher levels of all three measures, which is consistent with the resilience model. Social media use decreases resilience to misinformation. Contrary to the expectations of the resilience model, trust in national news media does not build resilience. Finally, we consider the use of public broadcasting media (BBC, France Télévisions, and CBC). The use of these sources does not build resilience in the short term. Moving forward, we suggest that awareness of, exposure to, and reactions to misinformation are best understood in terms of social media use and left–right ideology. Furthermore, instead of focusing on the US as the exceptional case of low resilience, we should consider the UK as the exceptional case of high resilience to misinformation. Finally, we identify potential avenues to further develop frameworks to understand and measure resilience to misinformation.
Keywords: Canada; comparative politics; France; misinformation; news media; political ideology; social media; United Kingdom; United States
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:169-182

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “I Don’t Believe Anything They Say Anymore!” Explaining Unanticipated Media Effects Among Distrusting Citizens
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5307
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5307
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 158-168
Author-Name: Michael Hameleers
Author-Workplace-Name: Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: The erosion of political and societal trust, polarization, and the omnipresence of disinformation may undermine the perceived trustworthiness of established sources of information. Yet, many forced exposure media effect studies in the field of political communication studying polarizing issues such as disinformation and populism assume a baseline level of trust among participants exposed to seemingly neutral information. This neglects long-standing issues of distrust in the press and trends toward increasing distrust among growing segments of the population. Resistance toward established information presented as news may result in unanticipated findings, as a substantial part of the population may not accept these sources as trustworthy or neutral. To enlighten confusion, this article relies on two different experiments (<em>N</em> = 728 and <em>N</em> = 738) to explore how citizens with low levels of trust and high dissatisfaction with the established order respond to information from established information sources. Our main findings indicate that participants with higher levels of populist attitudes, media distrust, and fake news perceptions are more likely to find established information untrustworthy. They are also less likely to agree with the statements of such content. These findings indicate that media effect studies assuming univocal acceptance of seemingly neutral information may fall short in incorporating problematic trends toward factual relativism in their design.
Keywords: disinformation; distrust; factual relativism; media effects; media trust; post-truth politics
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:158-168

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Media Use and Societal Perceptions: The Dual Role of Media Trust
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5449
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5449
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 146-157
Author-Name: Adam Shehata
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Author-Name: Jesper Strömbäck
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Abstract: How citizens’ perceptions of societal problems are shaped by media use has been a critical question in media effects research for decades. This study addresses a specific puzzle concerning media effects in contemporary fragmented media environments: the dual role of media trust as both (a) an antecedent variable guiding news selection and (b) a moderator variable conditioning the effects of news use on perceptions of societal problems. Building upon the differential susceptibility to media effects model, we analyze the role of media trust for citizens’ orientation towards mainstream and alternative news media—and how such usage influences perceptions of two major societal issues: health care and school. Findings from a four-wave panel survey conducted in Sweden suggest that public service and alternative news use matter for citizens’ perceptions of societal problems and that media trust influences news choices and may, partly, condition media effects.
Keywords: alternative media; media effects; media trust; media use; societal perceptions
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:146-157

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Information Patterns and News Bubbles in Hungary
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5373
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5373
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 133-145
Author-Name: Gábor Polyák
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary / Mertek Media Monitor, Hungary
Author-Name: Ágnes Urbán
Author-Workplace-Name: Mertek Media Monitor, Hungary / Department of Infocommunication, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Author-Name: Petra Szávai
Author-Workplace-Name: Mertek Media Monitor, Hungary / Doctoral School of Linguistics, University of Pécs, Hungary
Abstract: The study is based on data from a representative survey conducted in Hungary in 2020, which examined the public’s consumption of political and public information. Using the survey data, the authors attempt to map the consumption patterns of the Hungarian audience, with a special focus on the relationship between party preferences and the consumption of the various news sources with different ideological backgrounds. The research aims to better understand the phenomenon of polarisation, which is increasingly observed on both the supply and demand sides of the Hungarian news media. The focus of the study is to examine news consumption patterns in Hungary and the relationship between political polarisation and news consumption. The authors analysed the prevalence of information bubbles in the Hungarian public sphere, where consumers are only exposed to the views of one political side without being confronted with information or opinions that differ. Particular attention is paid to a special category of the Hungarian media system, the grey-zone media; they might seem to contribute greatly to the pluralism of the media system, but they are, in fact, strongly politically dependent. In addition to the identified news consumption patterns, the study aims to shed light on the importance and problematic nature of this grey-zone media category and to reveal how deeply the Hungarian public is actually dependent on the government.
Keywords: Hungarian media; information bubble; media classification; news consumption; polarisation
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:133-145

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Matter of Perspective? The Impact of Analysis Configurations on Testing the Agenda-Setting Hypothesis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5375
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5375
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 118-132
Author-Name: Stefan Geiß
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Abstract: The media’s capacity to stimulate public concern and create a common ground for issues can counteract the fragmentation of society. Assessing the intactness of the media’s agenda-setting function can be an important diagnostic tool for scholars. However, the manifold design choices in agenda-setting research raise the question of how design choice impacts analysis results and potentially leads to methodological artefacts. I compare how the choice between 20 plausible analysis configurations impacts tests of the agenda-setting hypothesis, coefficients, and explanatory power. I also explore changes in agenda-setting effect size over time. I develop a typology of analysis configurations from five basic study design types by four ways of linking content analysis to survey data (5 × 4 = 20). The following design types are compared: three single-survey/between designs (aggregate-cross-sectional, aggregate-longitudinal, and individual-level) and two panel-survey/within designs (aggregate-change and individual-change). I draw on the German Longitudinal Election Study data (2009, 2013, and 2017). All 20 tests of the agenda-setting hypothesis support the hypothesis, independent of the analytical configuration used. The choice of analysis configuration substantially impacts the coefficients and explanatory power attributed to media salience. The individual-level analyses indicate that agenda-setting effects became significantly weaker at later elections, though not linearly. This study provides strong empirical support for the agenda-setting hypothesis independent of design choice.
Keywords: agenda-setting; aggregation; design choice; data analysis; data linkage; methodological artefacts
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:118-132

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Types of Information Orientation and Information Levels Among Young and Old News Audiences
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5293
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5293
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 104-117
Author-Name: Leonie Wunderlich
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for Media Research 
Author-Name:  Hans Bredow Institute, Germany
Author-Name: Sascha Hölig
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for Media Research 
Author-Name:  Hans Bredow Institute, Germany
Abstract: Studies on audiences’ information behavior paint a mixed picture of young and old people’s interests, their involvement with news and information, and the effects news consumption has on their learning. By adapting Giddens’s structuration approach, this study aims to assess audience behavior and its relationship with journalism by comparing the use behavior and attitudes of three age groups—adolescents, young adults, and adults—as characterized by distinct media socialization and use patterns. We identify types of information orientation—that is, a typology of behavior and attitudes towards news and information—for the examination of news audiences. Based on a representative face-to-face survey (N = 1,508) with German adolescents (14–17 years old), young adults (18–24 years old), and adults (40–53 years old), we identify four types that can be characterized by a certain pattern of news-related attitudes, the use of sources, and their relevance to opinion formation, as well as the perceived information level of participants. We examine how these types of information orientation differ between and among the three age groups and explore their relationship with audiences’ socio-political knowledge. The findings show that not all young people are necessarily less interested and engaged with news and journalism than older people. Moreover, it is a combination of interest with the use and perceived relevance of journalistic sources that is relevant for positive effects on information levels.
Keywords: adolescents; audience behavior; hybrid media system; information orientation; journalism; news use; young adults
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:104-117

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: What Does “Being Informed” Mean? Assessing Social Media Users’ Self-Concepts of Informedness
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5310
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5310
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 93-103
Author-Name: Anna Sophie Kümpel
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany
Author-Name: Luise Anter
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media and Communication, TU Dresden, Germany
Author-Name: Julian Unkel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany
Abstract: In recent years, much research has—more or less candidly—asked whether the use of social media platforms is “making us dumber” (Cacciatore et al., 2018). Likewise, discussions around constructs such as the news-finds-me perception or illusions of knowledge point to concerns about social media users being inadequately informed. This assessment of inadequacy, explicitly or implicitly, builds on the ideal of the informed citizen with a broad interest in current affairs who knows about all important societal issues. However, research has largely ignored what citizens themselves understand as “being informed.” Accordingly, this research project asks what people actually want to be informed about, which user characteristics predict different self-concepts of informedness, and how both of these aspects relate to feelings of being informed in the context of social media platforms. Based on a preregistered, national representative survey of German social media users (<em>n</em> = 1,091), we find that keeping up with news and political information is generally less important for people than staying informed about their personal interests and their social environment. However, feelings of being informed through social media are most strongly predicted by how suitable a given social media platform is perceived to be for keeping up-to-date with current affairs. This suggests that while information needs are diverse and related to different sociodemographic and personal characteristics, most people indeed seem to associate “being informed” with political information and news.
Keywords: feelings of being informed; information needs; self-concepts of informedness; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:93-103

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Enlightening Confusion: How Contradictory Findings Help Mitigate Problematic Trends in Digital Democracies
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/6155
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.6155
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 89-92
Author-Name: Cornelia Mothes
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Culture, Media, and Psychology, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Jakob Ohme
Author-Workplace-Name: Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Abstract: This thematic issue includes ten articles that address previous contradictions in research on two main trends in digital democracies: news avoidance and political polarization. Looking at these contradictions from different angles, all contributions suggest one aspect in particular that could be important for future research to investigate more specifically possible countermeasures to harmful trends: the individualized, self-reflective way in which media users nowadays engage with political content. The increasingly value-based individualization of media use may be a hopeful starting point for reversing harmful trends to some degree by addressing individual media users as a community with a common base of civic values, rather than addressing them in their limited social group identities.
Keywords: civic norms; corrective action; disinformation; media trust; news avoidance; political polarization; politicized self; populism; selective exposure; social identity
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:89-92

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Crime News Under Digitization Process in French and German Newsrooms: Standardization and Diversification of News under Web-First Pressure
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5439
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5439
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 78-88
Author-Name: Claire Ruffio
Author-Workplace-Name: CESSP, Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France
Author-Name: Nicolas Hubé
Author-Workplace-Name: CREM, University of Lorraine, France
Abstract: Based on a qualitative survey (comprised of interviews with 42 journalists) in French and German mainstream media (print and TV), this article aims to compare the effect of the digitalization process on editorial choices and journalistic roles concerning crime news. Crime news appears to be particularly revealing of the new journalistic constraints: tabloidization and high-speed publishing, but without jeopardizing the ethical requirements of an ongoing legal investigation. Three main changes can be identified, namely regarding (a) the use of social media and its audience as a legitimate source and as a key factor of newsworthiness, (b) the importance granted to online metrics for planning media content and editorial meetings, and (c) the transition observed toward the “online-first model,” which encourages journalists to publish all content online first, updating it to the minute before any print publication. The article first underlines the importance of the digital conversion of newsrooms. Interviewees point out that this pressure has counterintuitive effects, giving them room for autonomy and journalistic creativity in crime news reporting. Finally, and more worryingly for them, journalists are concerned that their professional practices may be undermined, since the online-first model has affected the organization of newsrooms and the structure of the media market in both countries. This structural process is somehow stronger in France than in Germany, but this is more a matter of degree than of structural model differences.
Keywords: audience metrics; crime news; division of work; journalism practices; online-first model; social networks
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:78-88

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Neutral Observers or Advocates for Societal Transformation? Role Orientations of Constructive Journalists in Germany
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5300
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5300
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 64-77
Author-Name: Uwe Krüger
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany
Author-Name: Markus Beiler
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany
Author-Name: Thilko Gläßgen
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany
Author-Name: Michael Kees
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany
Author-Name: Maximilian Küstermann
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Communication and Media Studies, Leipzig University, Germany
Abstract: Since the 2010s, a new type of journalism has emerged, especially in North America and Western Europe, called constructive journalism. Its basic idea is to complement classic problem-centered reporting by covering problem-solving approaches that could inspire the recipients. It has been harshly criticized, especially for its alleged proximity to advocacy or activism. To clarify the role orientations of the protagonists of this trend, a survey of all German journalists that call themselves constructive or solution-oriented was conducted (n = 79). The results show that constructive journalists are as diverse in age as the total of all journalists in Germany, but tend to be more women journalists, freelancers, formally higher educated, and politically leaning toward green and left-wing positions. Regarding role orientations, the field of constructive journalism not only represents a new facet of the entire journalistic field but also consists of several nuanced approaches itself: In factor analysis, we found eight role dimensions, of which the most important were the Social Integrator, the Transformation Agent, the Active Watchdog, the Emotional Storyteller, and the Innovation Reporter. In comparison to the average German journalist, the German constructive journalist shows stronger ambitions to control political and business elites, to motivate people to participate, and to contribute to social change. This can be explained as a countermovement not only to a possible negativity bias in the news but also to an increased attitude of detachment in German newsrooms.
Keywords: constructive journalism; Germany; professional role orientations; solutions journalism; value attitudes
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:64-77

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: How China Divides the Left: Competing Transnational Left-Wing Alternative Media on Twitter
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5345
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5345
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 50-63
Author-Name: Lev Nachman
Author-Workplace-Name: College of Social Science, National Chengchi University, Taiwan
Author-Name: Adrian Rauchfleisch
Author-Workplace-Name: Graduate Institute of Journalism, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Author-Name: Brian Hioe
Author-Workplace-Name: Independent Scholar, Taiwan
Abstract: Twitter has pushed public opinion on foreign policy into partisan bubbles that often value alternative media sources over traditional media or political elites. Public opinion on China is no exception. On the left, some alternative media outlets support China as a socialist ideal, while others criticize it as a key player in global capitalism and neoliberal order. This leads to an important puzzle: How and why do some transnational left media disseminate pro-China messaging while others do not? We focus on two leftist alternative media outlets: the Qiao Collective and Lausan. Both organizations claim to offer a variety of counter-hegemonic-oriented discourses. We first qualitatively analyze the differences in how these two organizations frame key topics in contemporary Chinese politics including Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the Hong Kong protests. We then use quantitative social network analysis to show how their communication efforts lead to different follower audiences. In the last step, we analyze what issues the Qiao Collective is using to achieve its inward- and outward-oriented goals. Our study shows how both outlets focus on the transnational left, but each reaches distinct audiences that do not overlap. We find that the Qiao Collective jumps on traditional left-wing issues in the US to extend its reach while regularly posting positive, often revisionist perspectives about Chinese politics. This specific element conflicts with its claim of supporting anti-imperialist and pro-democracy politics and distinguishes the Qiao Collective from other transnational left outlets.
Keywords: alternative media; China; counterpublic; public opinion; Twitter; transnational
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:50-63

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: United in Grief? Emotional Communities Around the Far-Right Terrorist Attack in Hanau
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5438
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5438
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 39-49
Author-Name: Débora Medeiros
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Author-Name: Ana Makhashvili
Author-Workplace-Name: Collaborative Research Center Affective Societies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Abstract: Drawing on theories of affect, emotion, and new institutionalism, we analyze discourse around the right-wing terrorist attack in Hanau, Germany, to identify the different ways in which emotions and affect circulate on legacy media and Twitter and how they help establish varying emotional communities. Building upon an understanding of journalism as an affective institution, our article takes a close look at how journalism attempts to assert its role in public spheres not only by circulating information but also by providing emotional interpretations of events. Journalism’s emotional interpretations, however, do not remain unchallenged. With the emergence of the hybrid media system, users engage in various forms of interaction on social media platforms, forming “affective publics” by connecting through their affective reactions to current issues and events. In these interactions, distinct emotional communities may emerge, built around performative, political emotions. Our data comprises various news shows aired on the German public service broadcaster ARD as well as a dataset of tweets about #Hanau that were collected in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The results of our mixed-methods analysis reveal that different performances of grief played a central role both on TV news and on social media. On TV, grief was nationally connotated and aimed at uniting Germany’s population. On social media, it fueled anti-racist activism, as seen on the hashtag #SayTheirNames, honoring the victims of the attack.
Keywords: affective publics; emotional communities; far-right terrorism; Hanau; journalism; new institutionalism; social media; social network analysis
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:39-49

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Journalist-Twitterers as Political Influencers in Brazil: Narratives and Disputes Towards a New Intermediary Model
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5363
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5363
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 28-38
Author-Name: Luiz Peres-Neto
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Abstract: The ascendency of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency of Brazil in 2018 put the role of traditional media companies and journalists under the spotlight. Bad news or opinions against his government have been officially treated as fake, inaccurate, or false information. In this context, data show a decrease in news trust and growing news consumption through platforms. According to the 2021 Reuters Institute report on news trust, only 21% of Brazilians trust the press as an institution, with 71% using social media platforms to be informed. As part of a broad and complex crisis of the traditional intermediary model, several journalists appeared in the Brazilian public sphere as influencers on social media platforms such as Twitter. Based on a qualitative perspective, this article aims to research the role of journalists as political influencers and their use of Twitter to express their voices. A sample of 10 journalists with more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, five working for traditional media and five from native digital media, were interviewed in depth. We realized that they use their digital capital in two political directions. On the one hand, as part of a digital strategy promoted by media outlets to gain attention and call the audience, journalists share their spots and comments on daily issues. On the other hand, in a polarized political context, journalists have found Twitter a means to express their voices in a context of increasing violence and restrictions on free expression among this collective.
Keywords: Brazil; freedom of the press; influencers; Jair Bolsonaro; journalists
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:28-38

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Hijacking Journalism: Legitimacy and Metajournalistic Discourse in Right-Wing Podcasts
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5260
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5260
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 17-27
Author-Name: David O. Dowling
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA
Author-Name: Patrick R. Johnson
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA
Author-Name: Brian Ekdale
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA
Abstract: Whereas personal expression has become a core practice of journalism whose merits can include greater attention to context and interpretative analysis, these freedoms from the constraints of traditional broadcast conventions can pose serious risks, including the ideological hijacking of journalism by partisan actors. In popular right-wing podcasts, such as those hosted by Ben Shapiro and Dan Bongino, the element of opinion amplifies the tendency of the podcast medium to relegate news to a secondary concern behind the emotional impact. Not only do podcasters like Shapiro and Bongino contribute to a fractured media environment of hyper-partisan news and commentary, but they also utilize social media platforms and transmedia networks to undermine traditional journalism and replace it with an alternative conservative media ecosystem—a multiplatform, full-service clearinghouse of news and commentary afforded by the publishing capabilities of the internet and the distribution algorithms of social media platforms like Facebook. This study charts the evolution of conservative audio production, from the influential work of talk radio star Rush Limbaugh through the latest innovations by conservative podcasters, as exemplified by Shapiro and Bongino. Our study builds on previous scholarship on metajournalistic discourse to examine how right-wing podcasters use exclusionary language to delegitimize the institution of journalism and offer a self-contained, ideologically conservative version of journalism as a replacement.
Keywords: Ben Shapiro; conservative media; Dan Bongino; metajournalistic discourse; right-wing podcasts; Rush Limbaugh
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:17-27

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Responding to “Fake News”: Journalistic Perceptions of and Reactions to a Delegitimising Force
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5401
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5401
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 5-16
Author-Name: Aljosha Karim Schapals
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Author-Name: Axel Bruns
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Abstract: The “fake news” phenomenon has permeated academic scholarship and popular debate since the 2016 US presidential election. Much has been written on the circulation of “fake news” and other forms of mis- and disinformation online. Despite its ongoing proliferation, less effort has been made to better understand the work of those engaged in daily news production—journalists themselves. Funded by the Australian Research Council project Journalism Beyond the Crisis, this study investigates how journalists perceive and respond to this phenomenon at a time when the industry has come under significant attack, and trust in news media has fallen globally. To do so, it draws on in-depth interviews with journalists in Australia and the UK, providing topical insights on their perceptions of and reactions to this profoundly delegitimising force. While on one hand, our findings show journalists expressing significant concern about the rise of “fake news,” they also proactively seek—and, in some cases, implement—deliberate counterstrategies to defend their profession. These strategies range from discursive means—such as stressing and re-asserting journalists’ professional authority and legitimacy—to tangible measures at an organisational level, including newsroom diversity and increased transparency in the news production process.
Keywords: fact-checking; fake news; journalism; misinformation; news verification; objectivity; professional roles; Trump election
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:5-16

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Journalism, Activism, and Social Media: Exploring the Shifts in Journalistic Roles, Performance, and Interconnectedness
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5984
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i3.5984
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Peter Maurer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies, Trier University, Germany
Author-Name: Christian Nuernbergk
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media Studies, Trier University, Germany
Abstract: The emergence of the Hybrid Media System (Chadwick, 2017) has changed the actor constellations between political journalism, active members of the audience, and sources. How journalism responds to activism, pressure from politics, and emerging forms of connective action around news events is an important theme in journalism research. This thematic issue brings together seven articles that look at these developments from different angles in a rapidly changing communication ecosystem. The focus is on journalistic authority and legitimacy, journalism and interpretive communities, and changes concerning journalistic roles and practices.
Keywords: activism; journalism research; journalistic legitimacy; journalistic roles; political journalism; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Migrants as “Objects of Care”: Immigration Coverage in Russian Media During the Covid-19 Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5213
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5213
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 287-300
Author-Name: Svetlana S. Bodrunova
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Author-Name: Anna Smoliarova
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg State University, Russia
Abstract: For over 20 years, Russia has been within the top five most attractive countries for immigrants. Before the pandemic, the federal policies that stimulated the immigration of cheap workforce contradicted the public perception and the media coverage of immigrants as problematic communities. Unlike labor immigrants, the EU refugees from the Middle East were depicted as a challenge for the disunited and unhospitable EU, and re-settlers from Donbass were portrayed highly sympathetically. These differences remain virtually unstudied. We explore the coverage of immigrants and refugees in Russia during the Covid-19 pandemic to see whether, under its impact, the coverage was equal and humanistic rather than different and politically induced. Based on content analysis of 12 Russian federal and regional textual media and four TV channels in 2020, we show that the differences described above have persisted and even intensified during the pandemic, supported by pro-state media, with only marginal counterbalancing from oppositional news outlets. The discourse about labor immigrants pragmatically focused on immigration-related problems for businesses and the state, channeling the authorities’ position on immigrants as “objects of proper care,” while the EU refugees were depicted as “objects of improper treatment.” In both discourses, immigrants were equally deprived of their subjectivity. In general, the immigration-related issues were not a major focus, especially for regional media, and the pandemic has not led to the re-humanization of immigration coverage.
Keywords: Central Asia; Covid-19; European Union; migration; migration crisis; migration coverage; Russia
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:287-300

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Urban Refugees’ Digital Experiences and Social Connections During Covid-19 Response in Kampala, Uganda
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5169
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5169
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 276-286
Author-Name: Hakimu Sseviiri
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda / United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Uganda / Urban Action Lab, Makerere University, Uganda / Glocal Progressive Goals, Uganda
Author-Name: Amanda Alencar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Yeeko Kisira
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Climatic Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda / Glocal Progressive Goals, Uganda / Department of Geography, Ndejje University, Uganda
Abstract: The Covid-19 crisis and its aftermath challenged economies and societal sectors globally. Refugees in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Uganda, refugees significantly compose the marginalized urban population, dependent largely on the informal sector, and are severely affected by the crisis amidst limited social protection interventions. This article draws on key informant interviews with refugees and refugee-led organizations to examine the diverse ways through which social capital within refugees and host communities in Kampala enabled and shaped digitally mediated responses to sustain livelihoods, social wellbeing, and access to information and economic resources in the wake of the pandemic. The findings indicate that digitally enabled and mediated social networks and/or connections through bonds, bridges, and links are crucial in supporting refugees to cope with crisis effects. Networks of friends, families, and institutions are sustained by digital spaces that support the everyday lives of urban refugees through communication, social protection, livelihood continuity and recovery, and service improvisation during and after the crisis. The fragmented digital infrastructure, digital divide, limited government support, language barrier, and circulation of fake news challenged the utility of digital social networks in mobilizing support for refugees during the crisis. Digital technologies offer opportunities to strengthen social support and potentially mobilize refugee livelihoods in cities with fluid programs for displaced communities. The best practices around sustained multi-platform communications, technological innovations, data collection, and robust community engagement should be leveraged to garner the opportunities offered by technologies towards stimulating inclusive crisis responses.
Keywords: Covid-19; digital technologies; social connections; social networks; Uganda; urban refugees
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:276-286

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Between Conflict and Solidarity: Pandemic Media Coverage of Romanian Intra-EU Labour Migrants
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5014
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5014
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 265-275
Author-Name: Hanna Orsolya Vincze
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania
Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș‐Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic affected Romanian intra-EU labour migrants in a particular way and challenged the established themes associated with and the social roles assigned to them in news discourses. During the first wave of the pandemic, Covid-19 hotspots were reported abroad in Romanian migrant communities, the most notorious example being at the Tönnies factory in Germany. The pandemic brought to prominence the precarious working conditions of labour migrants employed in agriculture and especially in the food industry. Wider discussions, conflicts, and solidarity actions were generated around this topic. In the present study, we identify the main themes and topics present in the Romanian media coverage of Romanian labour migrants, as well as the way foreign, particularly German, media perspectives were integrated into and domesticated in the Romanian coverage. Findings show that both the Romanian and German media used, to a certain extent, the media coverage of this exceptional pandemic situation to invite reflection on the general social costs of migration and on the responsibility of political actors in the migrants’ country of origin, in their country of destination, and at the level of EU institutions. However, the perspective of the migrants was underrepresented in the media coverage.
Keywords: diaspora; international news flow; intra-EU migration; labour migration; news representations
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:265-275

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Framing Migration During the Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa: A 12-Month Media Monitoring Project
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4990
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.4990
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 253-264
Author-Name: Thea de Gruchy
Author-Workplace-Name: The African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Author-Name: Thulisile Zikhali
Author-Workplace-Name: The African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Author-Name: Jo Vearey
Author-Workplace-Name: The African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Author-Name: Johanna Hanefeld
Author-Workplace-Name: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
Abstract: Assumptions surrounding the origins of Covid-19, the relationship between human mobility and the spread of the virus, and the pressure that the pandemic has placed on communities, have exacerbated xenophobic tensions globally, including in South Africa, a country long-associated with xenophobia. Previous research exploring how the South African media frames migration, and research investigating the framing of migration during Covid-19 in other contexts, has found that the media tends to frame migrants in terms of (un)deservingness and blame them for the spread of disease. Our findings, however, identify different concerns. This article discusses findings from a 12-month study exploring how migrant and mobile populations in South Africa were framed in the media as the pandemic developed during 2020. A news aggregator—Meltwater—was used to scrape the internet for English language text-based media published globally in 2020 that met a search with key terms Migration, Covid-19, and South Africa. A total of 12,068 articles were identified and descriptively analysed. Informed by previous approaches, a framing analysis was then undertaken of a sample of 561 articles. Findings illustrate how articles published by outlets based in the US and UK have a far greater reach than locally or regionally produced articles, despite local and regional outlets publishing far more consistently on the topic. Consistent and sympathetic engagement with issues of migration by South African publications was seen across 2020 and suggests that those writing from the region are aware of the realities of migration and mobility. Findings show that rather than centring migrants as the locus of blame for failures of the South African state—as has been done in the past—the state and its failure to adequately respond to both Covid-19 and migration are now being clearly articulated by media.
Keywords: Covid-19; media; migration; South Africa; xenophobia
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:253-264

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Refugee Issue in the Greek, German, and British Press During the Covid-19 Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4942
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.4942
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 241-252
Author-Name: Nikos Fotopoulos
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Social and Education Policy, University of Peloponnese, Greece
Author-Name: Andrea Masini
Author-Workplace-Name: Spokesperson’s Service, European Commission, Belgium / University of Antwerp, Belgium
Author-Name: Stergios Fotopoulos
Author-Workplace-Name: Media Relations Unit, Council of the European Union, Belgium / Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium
Abstract: The media hold an essential role in circulating information, disseminating knowledge, constructing representations, shaping ideologies, and influencing contemporary societies. Since the outburst of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, their attention has been mostly paid to the protection and the health situation of citizens worldwide. Although millions of refugees are also exposed to a new risk with their vulnerable position being deteriorated, the refugee issue in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to have been downgraded. In this regard, the current article explores to what extent the refugee issue was salient in the Greek, German, and British press during the pandemic. At the same time, it looks at how the media outlets in all three countries addressed it, focusing on the key topics reported and the interpretive schemata of the pertinent coverage. We use a qualitative content analysis, examining a sample of newspaper articles that were published between 1 January 2021 and 1 May 2021. The results presented by this article suggest that the epidemiological developments or other health aspects related to local populations seem to overshadow the situation of refugees. Yet, media outlets mostly perceive refugees as victims of the pandemic, underlining their vulnerability and marginalisation in health, economic, and education terms. The findings seek to feed the public discussion, providing a fruitful approach to the media narratives and representations of refugees during the Covid-19 crisis.
Keywords: Covid-19; frame analysis; media discourse; media representations; pandemic; refugees
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:241-252

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Venezuelan Refugees in Brazil: Communication Rights and Digital Inequalities During the Covid-19 Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5051
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5051
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 230-340
Author-Name: Julia Camargo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of International Relations, Federal University of Roraima, Brazil
Author-Name: Denise Cogo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Higher School of Advertising and Marketing, Brazil
Author-Name: Amanda Alencar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: The article analyzes the experiences of Venezuelan refugees in the city of Boa Vista (Brazil) in exercising their communication rights in the context of social and digital inequalities aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This article outlines a perspective on digital inequalities from a rights-based approach, which focuses on granting the right to communicate to those who lack it rather than providing access to technology without highlighting the structural changes that are needed for promoting representation and participation of marginalized communities. Building on online and face-to-face interviews with 12 Venezuelan refugees, we identified three scenarios where inequalities regarding access and uses of ICTs are materialized: (a) reduction of digital communication interactions and affective networks due to the deterioration of connectivity in Venezuela and the suspension of local communication services provided by humanitarian agencies; (b) barriers to accessing information about rights and basic services, such as education, health, work, and shelter, given the reduction of communication channels and the closure of reference centers supporting refugees; and (c) increased exposure to fake news, scams, and hate speech in social media platforms and message apps, generating disinformation and enhancing risks of exploitation and marginalization of refugees.
Keywords: citizen communication; communication rights; Covid-19; digital inequalities; Venezuelan refugees
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:230-340

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Precariousness and Hope: Digital Everyday Life of the Undocumented Migrants Explored Through Collaborative Photography
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5036
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5036
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 218-229
Author-Name: Kaarina Nikunen
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Sanna Valtonen
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Technology and Communication, Tampere University, Finland
Abstract: The article explores the digital everyday life of recently or currently undocumented migrants in times of Covid-19 in Finland. It is based on an empirical case study on a collaborative photographic exhibition and workshop including visual images, diaries, interviews, and discussions. The analysis explores the ways in which a photography exhibition and a workshop may depict meaningful moments in digital everyday life as well as open up an understanding of the various vulnerabilities that emerge in the life of the undocumented, as expressed by themselves. The study demonstrates the fundamental importance of communication rights for people in precarious life situations, expressed by themselves in visual images. The insight produced multidimensionally in images, discussions, and interviews illustrate how digital media environment exposes to coerced visibility and requires constant struggle for communicative rights. These struggles take place on the material infrastructural level of devices, chargers, and access, but also on the level of self-expression and connection on social media platforms. Finally, the article discusses the emancipatory potential of a collaborative exhibition and workshop as a way to encounter and deal with increasingly vulnerable life situations. It points out the relevance of collaborative work as a research method, in providing knowledge from experience as well as space of recognition.
Keywords: communicative rights; datafication; digital everyday life; participation; photography; undocumented migrants; visibility
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:218-229

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Media and Migration in the Covid-19 Pandemic—Discourses, Policies, and Practices in Times of Crisis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5918
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5918
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 214-217
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
Author-Name: Dimitris Skleparis
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, UK
Abstract: This editorial serves as an introduction to <em>Media and Communication</em>’s thematic issue “Media and Migration in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Discourses, Policies, and Practices in Times of Crisis.” This thematic issue presents a space for discussion on ways in which digital infrastructures and media have an impact on understandings and experiences of migration during the pandemic. The seven articles in this volume offer an integrated account of this issue from many empirical studies adopting a multi-actor perspective while also involving different methodologies and cross-cultural and interdisciplinary frameworks. The contributions featured in this thematic issue shed new light on the role of mediated processes and discourses around migration and may be of assistance to understanding the opportunities and challenges of leveraging media technologies to promote inclusive, sustainable, and meaningful participation and representation of migrants beyond the pandemic.
Keywords: Covid-19; digital technologies; media and migration; media discourses; migrants
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:214-217

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Discourse and Social Cohesion in and After the Covid-19 Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5150
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5150
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 204-213
Author-Name: Mario Bisiada
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Translation and Language Sciences, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
Abstract: This conceptual article argues that class is a major factor in the social division and polarisation after the Covid-19 pandemic. Current discourse and communication analyses of phenomena such as compliance with measures and vaccine hesitancy seek explanations mainly in opposing ideological stances, ignoring existing structural inequalities and class relations and their effects on people’s decisions. I approach social cohesion in the Covid-19 pandemic through the theories of epidemic psychology, which sees language as fundamental in social conflicts during pandemics, and progressive neoliberalism, which critiques a post-industrial social class whose assumed moral superiority and talking down to working-class people is argued to be an explanation of many current social conflicts. I argue that these theories construct a valuable theoretical framework for explaining and analysing the social division and polarisation that has resulted from the pandemic. Reducing non-compliance with mitigating measures and vaccine hesitancy to an ideological issue implies that it can be countered by combatting misinformation and anti-vaccination thinking and shutting down particular discourses, which grossly simplifies the problem. The impact that class relations and inequality have on political and health issues, coupled with the characteristics of progressive neoliberalism, may partially explain the rise of populist and nativist movements. I conclude that if social cohesion is to be maintained through the ongoing climate emergency, understanding the impacts of progressive neoliberalism and the role of contempt in exclusionary discursive practices is of utmost importance.
Keywords: Covid-19; discourse studies; Foucault; ideology; legitimisation; polarisation; political communication; power; progressive neoliberalism; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:204-213

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Social Media Use and Migrants’ Intersectional Positioning: A Case Study of Vietnamese Female Migrants
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5034
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5034
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 192-203
Author-Name: Linh Le-Phuong
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Lutgard Lams
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven – Brussels, Belgium
Author-Name: Rozane De Cock
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Media Studies, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: Social media can benefit migrant communities in various ways since the sense of belonging and social inclusion have increasingly been facilitated by online participatory activity over the last decade. However, participating in social media requires not only physical thresholds such as access to internet-connected devices but also intangible assets such as linguistic skills, education, and time. As these resources are not equally available to all members of society, social media adoption differs depending on the users’ positioning. Within the intersectional framework, we explore how social circumstances influence the social media use of female migrants from Vietnam. Research on migrants’ social media use rarely focuses on migrants’ multilayers of identities and intersectionality, nor does it zoom in on different (in)voluntary migration routes within Asia (in contrast to South–North migration). Our case study focuses on two groups of Vietnamese female migrants: those who had migrated to China but returned to Vietnam; and those who married Taiwanese men and still live in Taiwan. Seventeen female migrants were interviewed about their migratory experience and social media use. Our empirical data reveal that the social media use patterns of the Vietnamese female migrants are impacted by their intersectional identities of being female, (returned) migrants of a specific social class, ethnicity, education level, and age group. Their use is steered by different motivations and often limited by social positioning but only seldom are social media used as a channel to raise public awareness or to express migration-related issues.
Keywords: female migration; intersectionality; social cohesion; social media use; Vietnam; Vietnamese migrants
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:192-203

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Humor That Harms? Examining Racist Audio-Visual Memetic Media on TikTok During Covid-19
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5154
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5154
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 180-191
Author-Name: Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia / School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Author-Name: Aleesha Rodriguez
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia / School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Author-Name: Patrik Wikström
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Australia / School of Communication, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Abstract: During times of crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic, digital platforms are under public scrutiny to guarantee users’ online safety and wellbeing. Following inconsistencies in how platforms moderate online content and behavior, governments around the world are putting pressure on them to curb the spread of illegal and lawful harmful content and behavior (e.g., UK’s Draft Online Safety Bill). These efforts, though, mainly focus on overt abuse and false information, which misses more mundane social media practices such as racial stereotyping that are equally popular and can be inadvertently harmful. Building on Stoever’s (2016) work on the “sonic color line,” this article problematizes sound, specifically, as a key element in racializing memetic practices on the popular short-video platform TikTok. We examine how humorous audio-visual memes about Covid-19 on TikTok contribute to social inequality by normalizing racial stereotyping, as facilitated through TikTok’s “Use This Sound” feature. We found that users’ appropriations of sounds and visuals on TikTok, in combination with the platform’s lack of clear and transparent moderation processes for humorous content, reinforce and (re)produce systems of advantage based on race. Our article contributes to remediating the consistent downplaying of humor that negatively stereotypes historically marginalized communities. It also advances work on race and racism on social media by foregrounding the sonification of race as means for racism’s evolving persistence, which represents a threat to social cohesion.
Keywords: Blackface; humor; memes; online harms; racism; social media; “sonic color line”; stereotypes; TikTok; yellowface
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:180-191

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Skeptical Inertia in the Face of Polarization: News Consumption and Misinformation in Turkey
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5057
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5057
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 169-179
Author-Name: Çiğdem Bozdağ
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands / Department of Intercultural Education, University of Bremen, Germany
Author-Name: Suncem Koçer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Public Relations and Information, Kadir Has University, Turkey
Abstract: Focusing on Turkey, this article analyzes the role of polarization on news users’ perception of misinformation and mistrust in the news on social media. Turkey is one of the countries where citizens complain most about misinformation on the internet. The citizens’ trust in news institutions is also in continuous decline. Furthermore, both Turkish society and its media landscape are politically highly polarized. Focusing on Turkey’s highly polarized environment, the article aims to analyze how political polarization influences the users’ trust in the news and their perceptions about misinformation on social media. The study is based on multi-method research, including focus groups, media diaries, and interviews with people of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. The article firstly demonstrates different strategies that the users develop to validate information, including searching for any suspicious information on search engines, looking at the comments below the post, and looking at other news media, especially television. Secondly, we will discuss how more affective mechanisms of news assessment come into prominence while evaluating political news. Although our participants are self-aware and critical about their partisan attitudes in news consumption and evaluation, they also reveal media sources to which they feel politically closer. We propose the concept of “skeptical inertia” to refer to this self-critical yet passive position of the users in the face of the polarized news environment in Turkey.
Keywords: misinformation; news; polarization; skeptical inertia; social media; Turkey
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:169-179

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: When Politicians Meet Experts: Disinformation on Twitter About Covid-19 Vaccination
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4955
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.4955
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 157-168
Author-Name: Concha Pérez-Curiel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism II, University of Seville, Spain
Author-Name: José Rúas-Araújo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of Vigo, Spain
Author-Name: Rubén Rivas-de-Roca
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism II, University of Seville, Spain
Abstract: The Covid-19 vaccination has meant a huge challenge for crisis communication. After months of lockdowns, mass vaccination was a silver lining moment, but it was under threat from disinformation boosted by misinformation on social media. This research explores how opinion leaders among political leaders and health experts used Twitter to create and manage messages about the vaccination process. Specifically, we show the issues (issue frame) and strategies (game frame) applied by these actors. This study employs a corpus on the words “Covid-19” and “vaccines” used on Twitter by the heads of government and 10 recognized health experts (two for each country) in the US, the UK, France, Portugal, and Spain. We also analyze the accounts of fact-checking projects on those countries (@PolitiFact, @FullFact, @decodeurs, @JornalPoligrafo, and @maldita). The sample allows the comparison of countries with different political cultures that participated differently in the production of vaccines. The data were captured from the beginning of the vaccination drive (December 14th, 2020) until most of the population above 60 were vaccinated (May 14th, 2021). A manual content analysis was performed on the tweets (n = 2,607). The results illustrate that the politicians mostly disagreed with experts regarding issues and strategies. This finding can foster distrust in the elites and, therefore, threatens the long-term success of a public health campaign. Our study contributes to discussions on the role of networks for social cohesion, arguing that the public conversation on Twitter about the vaccination has revealed high levels of controversy.
Keywords: Covid-19; disinformation; experts; fact-checking; public communication; public health; social cohesion; Twitter; vaccination
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:157-168

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Narratives of Anti-Vaccination Movements in the German and Brazilian Twittersphere: A Grounded Theory Approach
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5037
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5037
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 144-156
Author-Name: Adriana da Rosa Amaral
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Creative Industries, Unisinos University, Brazil
Author-Name: Anna-Katharina Jung
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Author-Name: Lea-Marie Braun
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Author-Name: Beatriz Blanco
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Creative Industries, Unisinos University, Brazil
Abstract: Since February 2020, the world has been facing a global pandemic of the SARS-CoV2 virus. All over the world, people have been urged to take protective measures. It is hoped that the implementation of widespread vaccination campaigns will defeat the pandemic in the long term. While many people are eager to be vaccinated against Covid-19, other voices in the population are highly critical of vaccination and protective measures, circulating much misinformation on social media. The movements opposing pandemic response measures are heterogeneous, including right-wing groups, spiritualists who deny science, citizens with existential fears, and those who equate vaccination with a loss of individual freedom. This study aims to map and compare the social media communication of anti-vaccination movements that defy social cohesion and circulate online misinformation in Germany and Brazil. By following a grounded theory approach suggested by Webb and Mallon (2007), we coded content from social media communication of opinion leaders on Twitter with extended narrative analysis methodology finding different narratives that were mapped within the inhomogeneous anti-vaccination movements. The results show that both countries’ main narratives against vaccination are very similar, but the main difference stems from Brazil’s stronger politicization of vaccines.
Keywords: anti-vaccination movements; Brazil; Germany; narratives; social cohesion; social media; Twitter
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:144-156

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: “Resistance!”: Collective Action Cues in Conspiracy Theory-Endorsing Facebook Groups
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5182
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5182
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 130-143
Author-Name: Lena Frischlich
Author-Workplace-Name: University of Münster, Germany
Abstract: Conspiracy theories on social media have been suspected of contributing to mobilization and radicalization. Yet, few studies have examined the prevalence of psychological variables that may serve to motivate normative and non-normative collective action in this material. Drawing from the “social identity model of collective action,” the current study uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the prevalence of collective action cues in conspiracy theory-endorsing social media spaces. Towards this end, I examined four German Facebook groups (Covid-19-Skeptic, Far-Right, Chemtrail, and Political Affairs) during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic<em>. </em>The results of qualitative content analysis (<em>N</em> = 828 posts), a hierarchical cluster analysis, and the examination of popularity cues showed that: (a) collective action cues were frequent; (b) most posts transmitted alternative views (Cluster 1) or<em> </em>absolutist ideologies (Cluster 2) with few collective action cues—yet, more than one-third of the posts were either mobilizing (Cluster 3) or wrathful (Cluster 4), entailing multiple collective action cues including cues theoretically linked to non-normative action; (c) mobilizing and wrathful posts were more engaging than alternative views and absolutist ideologies; (d) the types of posts and levels of engagement varied between the examined groups such that the Chemtrail and the Far-Right group disseminated more content with a higher mobilizing potential. The Far-Right group was also the most active in responding to its members. The results of this study are novel in that they demonstrate the prevalence of cues that have been linked to non-normative collective action in psychological research within conspiracy theory-endorsing Facebook groups.
Keywords: collective action; conspiracy theories; Facebook; Facebook groups; non-normative collective action; popularity cues; radicalization; virtual groups
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:130-143

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Does Passive Facebook Use Promote Feelings of Social Connectedness?
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5004
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5004
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 119-129
Author-Name: Ilse L. Pit
Author-Workplace-Name: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands / Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford, UK / Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences, Magdalen College, UK
Author-Name: Harm Veling
Author-Workplace-Name: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands / Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Johan C. Karremans
Author-Workplace-Name: Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands
Abstract: Previous research has shown that passive social media use does not have the same positive effects on well-being as active social media use. However, it is currently unclear whether these effects can be attributed to the benefits of active use, the costs of passive use, or both. The current article investigated the effect of active and passive Facebook use on feelings of social connectedness after being ostracized. In two preregistered experiments, participants were first ostracized on a faux social media platform, followed by a measurement of social connectedness. In Experiment 1 they were then instructed to either use Facebook passively, use Facebook actively, or use a non-social website (Wikipedia), after which social connectedness was measured again. Results indicated that active Facebook use can restore social connectedness after being ostracized as compared to using a non-social website. While passive Facebook use also restored social connectedness, it did not change social connectedness significantly more so than Wikipedia use. In Experiment 2, we replicated Experiment 1, now focusing only on passive Facebook use compared to a non-social website. Results showed again that passive Facebook use did not influence social connectedness more so than the use of Wikipedia. In exploratory analyses, we found that for participants who felt close to other Facebook users, passive Facebook use did increase social connectedness compared to using a non-social website. These experiments suggest that, even though passive social media use does not restore social connectedness in the same way that active social media use does, it also does not harm social connectedness, and it may actually promote social connectedness under certain circumstances.
Keywords: Facebook; ostracism; preregistration; social connectedness; social media; social network site
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:119-129

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Online Neighborhood Networks: The Relationship Between Online Communication Practices and Neighborhood Dynamics
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5129
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5129
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 108-118
Author-Name: Ben Robaeyst
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-mict-UGent, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Bastiaan Baccarne
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-mict-UGent, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Jonas De Meulenaere
Author-Workplace-Name: Hoplr, Belgium
Author-Name: Peter Mechant
Author-Workplace-Name: imec-mict-UGent, Ghent University, Belgium
Abstract: This article builds upon communication infrastructure theory and investigates how communication practices on online neighborhood networks (ONNs) relate to the social cohesion of neighborhood communities. Specifically, we study the hyperlocal social media platform Hoplr, which provides ad-free ONNs in which neighbors can communicate with one another. Local governments can subscribe to Hoplr to communicate with their residents and engage them for community and public participation purposes. This study is based on an online survey of Hoplr members (N = 3,055) from 150 randomly selected ONNs. Social cohesion is disentangled as a combination of social support, a sense of community, reciprocal exchange, and social trust. We investigated social cohesion differences at the neighborhood level in relation to self-reported types of ONN communication practices (shared interest, supportive communication, and both tangible and informational support mobilization). The results reveal the limited value of quantified behavioral data to explain differences in neighborhood social cohesion. However, interesting patterns are revealed between different communication practices and neighborhood social cohesion, such as the importance of trivial storytelling and information exchange practices for enhancing trust, reciprocal support, and a sense of community. At the same time, a reversed relation appears when ONNs are considered explicit information exchange platforms. With these insights, we enhance the theoretical understanding of ONNs in relation to neighborhood social cohesion and within a broader repertoire of neighborhood communication infrastructures.
Keywords: communication infrastructure theory; neighborhood social cohesion; online neighborhood networks; social cohesion
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:108-118

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Impact of Social Media on Social Cohesion: A Double-Edged Sword
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5792
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5792
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 104-107
Author-Name: Stefan Stieglitz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
Author-Name: Björn Ross
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation, University of Edinburgh, UK
Abstract: Social media plays a major role in public communication in many countries. Therefore, it has a large impact on societies and their cohesion. This thematic issue explores the impact social media has on social cohesion on a local or national level. The nine articles in this issue focus on both the potential of social media usage to foster social cohesion and the possible drawbacks of social media which could negatively influence the development and maintenance of social cohesion. In the articles, social cohesion is examined from different perspectives with or without the background of crisis, and on various social media platforms. The picture that emerges is that of social media as, to borrow a phrase used in one of the articles, a double-edged sword.
Keywords: crisis communication; social cohesion; social divide; social media; social movements; polarization; political communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:104-107

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Use of Social Media by Spanish Feminist Organizations: Collectivity From Individualism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5109
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5109
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 93-103
Author-Name: Celina Navarro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Author-Name: Gemma Gómez-Bernal
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Abstract: In recent years, social media platforms have become a popular tool for feminist activists and the main medium of communication for new feminist organizations to gain higher visibility. However, along with opportunities, they also bring a reshaping of communication forms and challenges in the modes of organization of these groups, which seek to transform the prevailing individualist logic of the mediated social media landscape into a collective identity. Through the findings of qualitative, semi-structured interviews and the analysis of the content published online, this article looks at the structures of interactions and organizing processes in the social media accounts of new Spanish feminist groups. The findings show that although the committees are aware of the importance of an online presence, they face many obstacles in the creation of collective profiles due to the lack of guidelines, having no clear organized steps on how to post content with consensus within each committee, and the many demands of the speed-driven nature of social media platforms.
Keywords: digital feminism; feminism; feminist media studies; feminist organizations; organizing processes; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:93-103

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Homophily and Polarization in Twitter Political Networks: A Cross-Country Analysis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4948
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.4948
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 81-92
Author-Name: Marc Esteve-Del-Valle
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract: Homophily, the tendency of people to have ties with those who are similar, is a fundamental pattern to understand human relations. As such, the study of homophily can provide key insights into the flow of information and behaviors within political contexts. Indeed, some degree of polarization is necessary for the functioning of liberal democracies, but too much polarization can increase the adoption of extreme political positions and create democratic gridlock. The relationship between homophilous communication ties and political polarization is thus fundamental because it affects a pillar of democratic regimes: the need for public debate where divergent ideas and interests can be confronted. This research compares the degree of homophily and political polarization in Catalan MPs’ Twitter mentions network to Dutch MPs’ Twitter mentions network. Exponential random graph models were employed on a one-year sample of mentions among Dutch MPs (<em>N</em> = 7,356) and on a one-year, three-month sample of mentions among Catalan MPs (<em>N</em> = 19,507). Party polarization was measured by calculating the external–internal index of both Twitter mentions networks. Results reveal that the mentions among Catalan MPs are much more homophilous than those among the Dutch MPs. Indeed, there is a positive relationship between the degree of MPs’ homophilous communication ties and the degree of political polarization observed in each network.
Keywords: homophily; parliamentarians; political networks; political polarization; political communication; Twitter
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:81-92

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Election Fraud and Misinformation on Twitter: Author, Cluster, and Message Antecedents
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5168
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5168
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 66-80
Author-Name: Ming Ming Chiu
Author-Workplace-Name: Analytics/Assessment Research Centre, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Author-Name: Chong Hyun Park
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Business, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Hyelim Lee
Author-Workplace-Name: Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma, USA
Author-Name: Yu Won Oh
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Digital Media, Myongji University, Republic of Korea
Author-Name: Jeong-Nam Kim
Author-Workplace-Name: Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Oklahoma, USA / Debiasing and Lay Informatics, USA / Data Institute for Societal Challenges, University of Oklahoma, USA
Abstract: This study determined the antecedents of diffusion scope (total audience), speed (number of adopters/time), and shape (broadcast vs. person-to-person transmission) for true vs. fake news about a falsely claimed stolen 2020 US Presidential election across clusters of users that responded to one another’s tweets (“user clusters”). We examined 31,128 tweets with links to fake vs. true news by 20,179 users to identify 1,069 user clusters via clustering analysis. We tested whether attributes of authors (experience, followers, following, total tweets), time (date), or tweets (link to fake [vs. true] news, retweets) affected diffusion scope, speed, or shape, across user clusters via multilevel diffusion analysis. These tweets showed no overall diffusion pattern; instead, specific explanatory variables determined their scope, speed, and shape. Compared to true news tweets, fake news tweets started earlier and showed greater broadcast influence (greater diffusion speed), scope, and person-to-person influence. Authors with more experience and smaller user clusters both showed greater speed but less scope and less person-to-person influence. Likewise, later tweets showed slightly more broadcast influence, less scope, and more person-to-person influence. By contrast, users with more followers showed less broadcast influence but greater scope and slightly more person-to-person influence. These results highlight the earlier instances of fake news and the greater diffusion speed of fake news in smaller user clusters and by users with fewer followers, so they suggest that monitors can detect fake news earlier by focusing on earlier tweets, smaller user clusters, and users with fewer followers.
Keywords: diffusion; elections; fake news; situational theory of problem-solving; social networks
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:66-80

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Community-Building on Bilibili: The Social Impact of Danmu Comments
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4996
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.4996
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 54-65
Author-Name: Rui Wang
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Russian and East European Studies, University of Manchester, UK
Abstract: Danmu commenting is a new feature of the streaming industry, popular in East Asia. Danmu comments are displayed as streams of comments superimposed on video screens and synchronised to the specific playback time at which the users sent them, moving horizontally from right to left. Interestingly, users do not have options such as “replies” to structure their comments; their interactions commonly include poor addressivity, hidden authorship, and unmarked sending time. The ways in which users actually interact with each other and, more importantly, the implications of such danmu-enabled social interactions on building virtual communities are so far understudied. Through a case study centred on Bilibili, a leading Chinese danmu platform, this article argues that in spite of their visually chaotic manner, the social interactive patterns of danmu commenters contribute to community building. Under the theoretical framework of “sense of virtual community,” the study adopts a data-driven methodology to qualitatively analyse such fragmented data. Results show that Bilibili users have discovered various ways to initiate social contact with each other through the creative use of linguistic and semiotic resources. Their ritualised performance in the Bilibili community is centred around the social aims of danmu comments, danmu clusters, and danmu language, all of which strengthen their sense of virtual community on the dimensions of membership, influence, and immersion. This article contributes to the research on this emerging media phenomenon by illustrating a new mode of watching and engaging in a participatory online community of practice that this platform encourages.
Keywords: Bilibili; community-building; danmu; digital culture; unstructured comments
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:54-65

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Expertise, Knowledge, and Resilience in #AcademicTwitter: Enacting Resilience-Craft in a Community of Practice
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5053
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5053
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 41-53
Author-Name: Sean M. Eddington
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Kansas State University, USA
Author-Name: Caitlyn Jarvis
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Studies, Kansas State University, USA
Abstract: Online communities of practice are a useful professional development space, where members can exchange information, aggregate expertise, and find support. These communities have grown in popularity within higher education—especially on social networking sites like Twitter. Although popular within academe, less is known about how specific online communities of practice respond and adapt during times of crisis (e.g., building capacity for resilience). We examined 22,078 tweets from #AcademicTwitter during the first two months of the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted higher education institutions greatly, to explore how #AcademicTwitter enacted resilience during this time. Using text mining and semantic network analysis, we highlight three specific communicative processes that constitute resilience through a form of resilience labor that we conceptualize as “resilience craft.” Our findings provide theoretical significance by showing how resilience craft can extend theorizing around both communities of practice and the communicative theory of resilience through a new form of resilience labor. We offer pragmatic implications given our findings that address how universities and colleges can act resiliently in the face of uncertainty.
Keywords: #AcademicTwitter; communities of practice; Covid-19; hashtags; resilience; Twitter
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:41-53

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Systems Approach to Studying Online Communities
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5042
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5042
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 29-40
Author-Name: Jeremy Foote
Author-Workplace-Name: Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University, USA
Abstract: Much early communication research was inspired by systems theory. This approach emphasizes that individuals and groups use communication to interact with and respond to their larger environment and attempts to outline the ways that different levels interact with each other (e.g., work groups within departments within firms). Many concepts from systems theory—such as emergence and feedback loops—have become integral parts of communication theories. However, until recently, quantitative researchers have struggled to apply a systems approach. Large-scale, multilevel trace data from online platforms combined with computational advances are enabling a turn back toward systems-inspired research. I outline four systems-based approaches that recent research uses to study online communities: community comparisons, individual trajectories, cross-level mechanisms, and simulating emergent behavior. I end with a discussion of the opportunities and challenges of systems-based research for quantitative communication scholars.
Keywords: digital trace data; online communities; organizational communication; systems theory
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:29-40

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The “Greta Effect”: Networked Mobilization and Leader Identification Among Fridays for Future Protesters
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5060
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5060
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 18-28
Author-Name: Giuliana Sorce
Author-Workplace-Name: Institute of Media Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany
Abstract: Drawing on walking interviews with 19 Fridays for Future (FFF) activists in Germany, this study focuses on Greta Thunberg by researching strikers’ perception, identification, and online networking practices with the movement’s central figure. With respect to protest mobilization and collective identity formation, this study finds that participants primarily identify with Thunberg via her class standing. While male activists highlight Thunberg’s gender as a mobilizing factor, female and non-binary activists often dismiss it, thereby distancing themselves from FFF’s feminized public image. Participants believe that Thunberg’s disability gives her an “edge” to generate media attention for FFF, calling it an asset to the cause. Although all participants engage with Thunberg via social media, many downplay her leadership role in the movement. Similarly, local organizers actively use Thunberg’s posts to build up their own online networks while routinely emphasizing FFF’s leaderlessness. The findings thus nuance assumptions about identity-based mobilization, explore the construction of networked leadership, and chart digital organizing practices in a transnational youth climate movement.
Keywords: climate activism; Fridays for Future; Greta Thunberg; identity formation; intersectionality; networked leadership; protest mobilization; social movements
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:18-28

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Entanglements of Identity and Resilience in the Camp Fire’s Network of Disaster-Specific Facebook Groups
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5038
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5038
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 5-17
Author-Name: Bailey C. Benedict
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management, California State University – San Bernardino, USA
Abstract: The Camp Fire in California (November 2018) was one of the most destructive wildfires in recorded history. Dozens of Facebook groups emerged to help people impacted by the Camp Fire. Its variety and prevalence throughout recovery make this network of disaster-specific, recovery-oriented social media groups a distinct context for inquiry. Reflexive thematic analysis was performed on 25 interviews with group administrators and publicly available descriptive data from 92 Facebook groups to characterize the composition of the network and explore identity in the groups. Group members’ identities fell into two categories—helpers and survivors—while the groups consisted of six identities: general, specialized, survivor-only, pet-related, location-specific, and adoptive. Administrators established group identity around purpose, through membership criteria, and in similarity and opposition to other Camp Fire Facebook groups. The findings contribute to social identity theory and the communication theory of resilience at the intersection of resilience labor, identity anchors, and communication networks.
Keywords: disaster recovery; Facebook groups; resilience; social identity; social media; social networks
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:5-17

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Networks and Organizing Processes in Online Social Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5616
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i2.5616
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Seungyoon Lee
Author-Workplace-Name: Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University, USA
Abstract: Online social media present unprecedented opportunities and challenges for a range of organizing processes such as information sharing, knowledge creation, collective action, and post-disaster resource mobilization. Concepts and tools of network research can help highlight key aspects of online interaction. This editorial introduction frames the thematic issue along three themes of networked processes: identity and identification; interaction patterns in online communities; and challenges and cautionary notes concerning social media organizing. A diverse range of country contexts, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches illustrated in this issue, represent the multifaceted research that scholars can undertake to understand networked organizing on social media.
Keywords: emergent organizing; networks; organizational communication; online communities; social media; social network analysis
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:2:p:1-4

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Privacy Paradox by Proxy: Considering Predictors of Sharenting
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4858
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4858
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 371-383
Author-Name: Niamh Ní Bhroin
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Thuy Dinh
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Social and Educational Research, Technological University Dublin, Ireland
Author-Name: Kira Thiel
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for Media Research 
Author-Name:  Hans-Bredow-Institut, Germany
Author-Name: Claudia Lampert
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz Institute for Media Research 
Author-Name:  Hans-Bredow-Institut, Germany
Author-Name: Elisabeth Staksrud
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Norway
Author-Name: Kjartan Ólafsson
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Norway
Abstract: Despite being worried that children may compromise their privacy by disclosing too much personal data online, many parents paradoxically share pictures and information about their children <em>themselves</em>, a practice called sharenting. In this article we utilise data from the EU Kids Online survey to investigate this paradox. We examine both how individual characteristics such as demographics and digital skills, and relational factors, including parental mediation styles, concerns about children’s privacy, and communication between parents and children influence sharenting practices. Counter-intuitively, our findings show that parents with higher levels of digital skills are more likely<em> </em>to engage in sharenting. Furthermore, parents who actively mediate their children’s use of the internet and are more concerned about the privacy of their children, are also more likely to engage in sharenting. At the same time, and further emphasising the complexities of this relational practice, many parents do not ask for their children’s consent in advance of sharing information about them. Overall, parents seem to consider the social benefits of sharenting to outweigh the potential risks both for themselves and for their children. Given the paradoxical complexities of sharenting practices, we propose further research is required to distinguish between different kinds of sharenting and their potential implications for children and young people’s right to privacy.
Keywords: children online; children’s digital rights; Europe; parental mediation; privacy paradox; sharenting
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:371-383

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Ethics of Gatekeeping: How Guarding Access Influences Digital Child and Youth Research
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4756
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4756
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 361-370
Author-Name: Malin Fecke
Author-Workplace-Name: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Author-Name: Ada Fehr
Author-Workplace-Name: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Author-Name: Daniela Schlütz
Author-Workplace-Name: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Author-Name: Arne Freya Zillich
Author-Workplace-Name: Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Abstract: Digital child and youth research is often conducted in schools involving minors. Corresponding research designs raise two related sets of problems: Ethical issues with regard to working with vulnerable groups like children and adolescents and access to these groups. The latter pertains to the concept of gatekeeping which is an ethical issue in and of itself if certain groups or areas of research are systematically excluded from empirical research and, consequently, from the resulting benefits. Thus, our study examines how perceived ethical challenges influence gatekeepers’ decisions to grant or deny access to investigate a potentially problematic topic: pupils’ group communication. We addressed this research question empirically via semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight educational gatekeepers in Germany inquiring their attitudes on research in schools in general and on the specific topic of pupils’ group communication via instant messaging as an exemplar of digital child and youth research. Approaching the question from two perspectives (procedural ethics and ethics in practice), we identified hierarchical power structures within multiple levels of gatekeeping and revealed rationales to deny access based on ethical considerations with regard to the given scenario of pupils’ group communication.
Keywords: access; gatekeeping; group communication; instant messaging; personal learning environment; research ethics; researching minors; research in schools; teacher–pupil relationship
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:361-370

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Does Digital Media Use Harm Children’s Emotional Intelligence? A Parental Perspective
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4731
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4731
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 350-360
Author-Name: Robin L. Nabi
Author-Workplace-Name: University of California, Santa Barbara
Author-Name: Lara N. Wolfers
Author-Workplace-Name: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien, Germany / Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Emotional intelligence (EI) is comprised of a set of critical life skills that develop, in part, through practice in social interaction. As such, some have expressed concern that the heavy screen media diet of today’s youth threatens the development of those crucial abilities. This research assesses how the media diet of children and the media use of their parents relates to child EI levels to assess what, if any, specific patterns exist. Four hundred parents of children aged 5–12 reported on, among other variables, their child’s EI, empathy, and emotional regulation skills along with their child’s various digital and non-digital media use, and non-media activities. Parental EI, screen use, media emotional mediation, and media co-use with their children were also assessed. Analyses revealed no significant relationships between child EI and screen use of any kind, though reading positively associated with child EI. Especially interesting, children whose parents used their mobile device more frequently in the presence of their child had lower EI, and parents who engaged in emotional mediation around their child’s media use reported higher EI levels in their children. These findings suggest that concerns about children’s digital media usage are perhaps overblown in terms of impeding emotional skill development. Further, and especially critical, parents’ own media-related behaviors around their children could have significant impact on child EI development.
Keywords: children; digital media; emotional intelligence; mediation; mobile media; parenting; screen use
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:350-360

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: When Ads Become Invisible: Minors’ Advertising Literacy While Using Mobile Phones
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4720
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4720
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 339-349
Author-Name: Beatriz Feijoo
Author-Workplace-Name: Communication Department, International University of La Rioja, Spain
Author-Name: Charo Sádaba
Author-Workplace-Name: Marketing and Media Management Department, University of Navarra, Spain
Abstract: It has been traditionally estimated that children begin to understand the persuasive intent of advertising at about the age of 8 which is when they acquire the skills of adult consumers. The ability to identify and interpret the persuasive content that minors are exposed to via mobile phones was analyzed through semi-structured interviews of children aged 10 to 14 years along with their parents in 20 households. Although minors seem to be able to recognize the persuasive intent of advertising, this does not necessarily mean that they have a deep understanding of the new digital formats that combine persuasion and entertainment. Data analysis of the interviews shows low recognition of the persuasive intent of commercial messages that are not explicitly identified as such, particularly on social networks. Data collected after minors viewing of different examples allowed researchers to conclude that standardized advertising is mainly identified by its format. Three levels of advertising processing were detected in minors: the liking of the advertisement, the affinity for the advertised product, and the ability to contrast the claims with searches for comments, forums or opinions of influencers. Recent research verified that conceptual knowledge of the persuasive intention of the advertising does not suffice for minors to interpret the message, a fact that must be taken into account when developing advertising literacy. For parents, the amount of time spent on these devices and the type of use minors make of their cellphones or the relationships they establish on them are more relevant than exposure to advertising itself.
Keywords: advertising literacy; children; hybrid advertising; mobile devices; parents perceptions; persuasive intention
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:339-349

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Divergent Fan Forums and Political Consciousness Raising
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4707
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4707
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 329-338
Author-Name: Lauren Levitt
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Tulane University, USA
Abstract: This article conducts a thematic analysis of 40 threads related to sociopolitical issues on two <em>Divergent</em> fan forums, one on Divergent Fans and another on Divergent Wiki, to determine whether these forums raise political consciousness, especially among young people. As scholars of civic imagination show, popular culture narratives may lead to the ability to imagine a better future. Utopian narratives in particular facilitate this process in a dialectical way by presenting us with an impossible world, and dystopian narratives may operate in a similarly dialectical fashion by offering a negative example or warning. Analysis of posts related to utopia and dystopia, the story world versus the real world, historical and contemporary parallels, governmental reform, and non-normative sexuality reveals that participants on <em>Divergent </em>fan forums discuss real-world issues and sometimes imagine a better world, but this does not conclusively raise political consciousness. We can account for these civic successes and failures by considering Dahlgren’s (2009) six elements of civic cultures: knowledge, values, trust, spaces, practices/skills, and identities. While fan knowledge, trust, and spaces are strong, and fan identities can be experienced as relatively static, values and practices/skills are important areas for intervention to cultivate political consciousness among young people. Critical civic education at the secondary school level could foster democratic values, and teaching media literacy and political discussion skills could improve students’ ability to think critically about entertainment narratives.
Keywords: civic cultures; civic imagination; dystopian narrative; fandom; political consciousness
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:329-338

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Exploring Teenagers’ Folk Theories and Coping Strategies Regarding Commercial Data Collection and Personalized Advertising
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4704
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4704
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 317-328
Author-Name: Sanne Holvoet
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Steffi De Jans
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Ralf De Wolf
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium / imec-mict-UGent, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Liselot Hudders
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
Author-Name: Laura Herrewijn
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Management and Communication, AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts Antwerp, Belgium
Abstract: New data collection methods and processing capabilities facilitate online personalization of advertisements but also challenge youth’s understanding of how these methods work. Teenagers are often unaware of the commercial use of their personal information and are susceptible to the persuasive effects of personalized advertising. This raises questions about their ability to engage in privacy-protecting behaviors. This article examines teenagers’ coping responses to commercial data collection and subsequent personalized advertising, considering their limited knowledge. Ten focus groups with 35 teenagers aged 12–14 were conducted. The findings show that teenagers hold certain folk theories (i.e., incomplete and/or inaccurate representations of reality) about how and why their personal information is being collected for commercial purposes (e.g., commercial data collection is unavoidable or all principles of privacy statements are the same). Their coping responses regarding commercial data collection (e.g., limiting information disclosure or refusing to accept privacy policies) and personalized advertising (e.g., trying to change settings or avoiding interaction) are often based on these folk theories and embedded in their everyday practices. Despite teenagers’ efforts, we argue that their responses might not always be effective. Implications for educators, advertisers, and policymakers are discussed.
Keywords: commercial data collection; folk theories; personalized advertising; privacy management; teenagers
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:317-328

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Adolescents’ Understanding of the Model of Sponsored Content of Social Media Influencer Instagram Stories
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4652
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4652
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 305-316
Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Author-Name: Meda Mucundorfeanu
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Author-Name: Larisa Ioana Mureșan
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract: Our study stresses the importance of developing understandable and easily recognizable ad disclosures for adolescents as a specific target group of social media influencer (SMI) advertising. A comprehensive advertising literacy concept that includes a cognitive, performative, and attitudinal component builds the theoretical background of the present research. We examine the effectiveness of ad disclosure in the native language of adolescent Instagram users, explore their understanding of the economic mechanism behind SMIs’ advertising activities, and their skepticism toward sponsored content. Furthermore, we analyze the role that sponsorship transparency on Instagram stories plays in adolescents’ responses to advertising. A three-level between-subjects survey-based experimental design (manipulating the absence of ad disclosure versus ad disclosure in the participants’ native language versus standardized paid partnership ad disclosure in English) was conducted online with female adolescent participants (N = 241) in a European country. Findings showed that adolescents who understand the economic model behind SMI advertising have positive intentions toward the SMI and intend to spread online information about the promoted brand. However, even if ad disclosure made in the adolescents’ native language improved ad recognition, such knowledge did not result in more sophisticated defense mechanisms in the form of critical evaluations of the ads.
Keywords: ad disclosure; adolescents; advertising; advertising literacy; Instagram; social media influencer; sponsorship transparency
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:305-316

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: Digital Child- and Adulthood—Risks, Opportunities, and Challenges
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5461
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.5461
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 301-304
Author-Name: Claudia Riesmeyer
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Media and Communication, LMU Munich, Germany
Author-Name: Arne Freya Zillich
Author-Workplace-Name: Digital Media Culture, Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Germany
Author-Name: Thorsten Naab
Author-Workplace-Name: German Youth Institute, Germany
Abstract: This thematic issue discusses risks, opportunities, and challenges of digital child- and adulthood based on different theoretical and methodological perspectives. It focuses on three topics: First, the challenges children and adolescents face in developing skills for dealing with promotional content are highlighted. Second, several contributions discuss the actions of parents and instructors and their function as role models for children and adolescents. They outline the tension between the consequences of intensive media use by children and adolescents and a responsible approach to digital media as often demanded by parents and teachers. Finally, the last contribution gives an insight into how the political socialization of adolescents can manifest itself in the digital space. The multi-methodological, multi-perspective, and multi-theoretical contributions of this thematic issue illustrate the intergenerational relevance of digital child- and adulthood.
Keywords: adolescents; advertising; childhood; digital media usage; media education; media effects; media literacy; media socialization
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:301-304

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: (Not) Very Important People: Millennial Fantasies of Mobility in the Age of Excess
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4778
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4778
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 297-300
Author-Name: Susan Hopkins
Author-Workplace-Name: USQ College, University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Abstract: In her fascinating but frustrating new book, <em>Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit</em>, American sociologist, Ashley Mears (2020) offers both academic and mainstream readers a titillating, cross-over tour around the “cool” nightclub and party scene of the “global elite.” It is perhaps not so much global, however, as American, in the sense of the heteropatriarchal, middle-aged, male, working rich of America (or more precisely of its financial capital New York), jetting into their traditional party hotspots of Miami, Saint-Tropez, or the French Riviera, to party with young women who are (indirectly) paid (in-kind) to pose with them. Whether intentional or unintentional, along the way Mears also offers a dark mirror to the fears and fantasies of a rather lost millennial generation, raised in a new media, image age, which has coupled fast and furious performative excess to old fashioned sexual objectification, in the guise of fun and empowerment for the beautiful people.
Keywords: beauty capital; ethnography; fashion models; global elites; hustle culture
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:297-300

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Spanish Tipsters and the Millennial and Centennial Generations in the Scenario of a Pandemic
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4777
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4777
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 286-296
Author-Name: Almudena Barrientos-Báez
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Science, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: Juan Enrique Gonzálvez-Vallés
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Science, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Author-Name: José Daniel Barquero-Cabrero
Author-Workplace-Name: Research Department, ESERP Business & Law School, Spain
Author-Name: David Caldevilla-Domínguez
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Information Science, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract: The growth and popularization of sports betting have led to the emergence of a new type of influencer: Tipsters, people and betting houses who influence and advise through social networks on the bets they consider most profitable. Both agents are also content-generating, forming a particular ecosystem with a specific narrative. The research examines the narratives of both the personal and betting houses profiles that make up the category of tipsters and their impact on younger generations. It also takes an in-depth look at the content and languages used by tipsters on social media and what determines their success in terms of followers and interactions. The period and place analyzed is the year 2020 in Spain, because it allows observing the differences between the periods of free transit and the quarantine period caused by Covid-19. The selection of the studied profiles is based on the five most recommended profiles, according to 10 rankings in the sports betting sector. The results show how the tipsters’ narrative was adapted to the context of the pandemic to maintain interest during the quarantine and not lose its influence towards millennials and centennials. Especially relevant is the period after the quarantine, with long periods of stay at home by young people, where the narrative has iconic, symbolic, and linguistic elements typical of war periods.
Keywords: centennial generation; gambling; generation Z; millennial generation; pandemic; social networks; tipsters
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:286-296

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Narrative of Young YouTubers From the Andean Community and Their Media Competence
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4771
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4771
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 272-285
Author-Name: Diana Rivera-Rogel
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador
Author-Name: Claudia Rodríguez-Hidalgo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador
Author-Name: Ana María Beltrán-Flandoli
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador
Author-Name: Rebeca Córdova-Tapia
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Ecuador
Abstract: Young people spend an increasing amount of time in front of a screen, developing new forms of content consumption and production. In this context, the so-called YouTubers emerge. They are the new actors of the information society, who acquire prominence specially in the creation of audiovisual content. This article studies the narrative of YouTubers and the media competition behind the process. To accomplish this task we have selected the 10 most relevant young YouTubers in the Andean Community (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru), ranked by number of followers. Their products were analyzed with the following criteria: the narrative that they use, the impact that they generate, and the media competence that they demonstrate. The research we have made is descriptive and uses a mixed-methods approach, which employs technical datasheets that collect general information on the channels studied and the impact of their accounts. In general terms, we have observed that the videos contemplate new standards, which are not related to the contents of traditional media; the narrative is self-referential and through it, YouTubers manage to identify with niches of younger audiences, that can see in them similar life experiences. An interesting aspect is that a good part of the language used is violent and even foul, considering that young people are a vulnerable population group on the internet. Finally, the use and mastery of technological tools is evident on YouTubers, as well as the interest in self-training in content production processes.
Keywords: Andean Community; digital literacy; media competence; narratives; social media; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:272-285

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Political Influencers on YouTube: Business Strategies and Content Characteristics
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4767
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4767
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 259-271
Author-Name: Tasja-Selina Fischer
Author-Workplace-Name: Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Castulus Kolo
Author-Workplace-Name: Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Author-Name: Cornelia Mothes
Author-Workplace-Name: Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Abstract: Young media users increasingly engage with public affairs via social media such as YouTube, where content is increasingly produced by influencers who neither represent established professional news media nor political parties. Although the audience of these channels is already substantial in absolute terms and still growing enormously—making alternative influencers serious competitors to professional journalism—we still know little about their ways of attracting and monetizing audiences, the topics they emphasize, or the specific content they provide. To address this void, the present study examines political videos and their producers on YouTube in an explorative and comparative way for English- and German-speaking YouTube channels. We conducted a content analysis of the five most popular YouTube videos for each of the 20 most successful English- and German-speaking political influencers in 2020. Our analyses show that, although English YouTubers already appear to be more professionalized, similar patterns emerge in both language regions, particularly with regards to increasing efforts to manage microcelebrity status. In terms of content, two main types of political YouTube videos were identified: “partisan mockery” and “engaging education.” Results will be discussed in terms of their implications for political discourse, youth participation, and established journalistic media.
Keywords: alternative journalism; influencers; political communication; social media; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:259-271

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Nano-Influencers Edutubers: Perspective of Centennial Generation Families in Spain
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4760
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4760
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 247-258
Author-Name: Javier Gil-Quintana
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of School Organization and Special Didactics, National Distance Education University, Spain
Author-Name: Emilio Vida de León
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of School Organization and Special Didactics, National Distance Education University, Spain
Author-Name: Sara Osuna-Acedo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of School Organization and Special Didactics, National Distance Education University, Spain
Author-Name: Carmen Marta-Lazo
Author-Workplace-Name: Predepartmental Unit of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication and Advertising, University of Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract: In recent decades, the incipient technological development has generated a radical change in the way people access and transmit knowledge. Educational institutions must have a teaching staff adapted to new forms of consuming information. The purpose of this research is to know the media competence of Spanish teachers, from the perspective of families of schoolchildren in primary education. This analysis is based on the investigation published by 50 renowned international experts in media competence, which revolves around six major dimensions. In our analysis, we focused on the processes of interaction, production, and dissemination of content by teachers on YouTube. A questionnaire has been devised with a sample formed by 1228 families, a personal interview with a sample formed by 20 families, and a comparative analysis of the productions and interaction of amateur teachers on YouTube platform and of recognized “edutubers,” as well as the use given to the dissemination of content on social networks. In the results obtained, the profile of a teaching staff that is increasingly disseminating and producing on social networks stands out, becoming content creators through their own YouTube channels, which also proposes tools for an interaction adapted to the centennial generation, using different digital communication tools. Differences were found comparing the three dimensions involved in this analysis, with teachers obtaining more positive evaluations as producers and as interactors in private schools than in subsidized and public schools. Likewise, differences were found between nano-influencers and macro-influencers in the use of aesthetic elements that make up the videos analyzed among the “edutubers.”
Keywords: centennial generation; Covid-19; education; edutubers; media competence; parenting; social networks; teachers training; Youtube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:247-258

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Proposed Model of Self-Perceived Authenticity of Social Media Influencers
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4765
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4765
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 235-246
Author-Name: Delia Cristina Balaban
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Author-Name: Julia Szambolics
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Public Relations, and Advertising, Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania
Abstract: It is rather contradictory that there is a high demand for authenticity in today’s virtual space, where some platforms encourage the proliferation of idealized images, the products of digital alteration. Previous studies have examined how social media users perceive the authenticity and credibility of new digital celebrities—influencers—and the impacts on advertising outcomes. Authenticity in media communication has been defined in many ways, but most definitions include factors such as sincerity, trustworthiness, accuracy, originality, and spontaneity. Prior research on authenticity in computer-mediated communication emphasized the importance of three levels of authenticity, that of the source, of the message, and of the interaction. How social media influencers (SMIs) perceive their own authenticity is an understudied topic. SMIs are simultaneously perceived by their audiences as celebrities, experts, and consumers. Expanding their audiences is one of their goals. Being authentic at the beginning of one’s SMI career as a content creator might be simple, but it becomes much more challenging after one’s audience has grown significantly. Sponsorship can pose a challenge to an SMI’s authenticity. The present study aims to explore the role that authenticity plays for SMIs and develop a theoretical framework for understanding the self-perceived authenticity of SMIs. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with SMIs that have both national and international audiences (<em>N = </em>20). Sincerity, expertise, uniqueness, commitment to values, mediated realness, visibility, communication style, spontaneity, transparent and creative brand endorsement, commitment to followers, and frequency of interaction are the components of the proposed model.
Keywords: authenticity; Instagram; interaction; social media; social media influencers; TikTok; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:235-246

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Influencers With Intellectual Disability in Digital Society: An Opportunity to Advance in Social Inclusion
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4763
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4763
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 222-234
Author-Name: Mónica Bonilla-del-Río
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, University of Huelva, Spain
Author-Name: Bárbara Castillo-Abdul
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain / ESAI Business School, Espiritu Santo University, Ecuador
Author-Name: Rosa García-Ruiz
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain / Nebrija University, Spain
Author-Name: Alejandro Rodríguez-Martín
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education Sciences, University of Oviedo, Spain
Abstract: Social networks are appointed as an opportunity to socially normalize disability, as demonstrated by the growing number of influencers with a disability who are followed by millions of users. Likewise, intellectual disability has its place in the networks, with special relevance among influencers with Down syndrome. In this study, a content analysis of 10 accounts of influencers with Down syndrome from seven different countries was performed. Images, videos, comments, and other interactions with their followers were analyzed. The preliminary results described the influencer profiles, the type of content posted, and their relationship with sponsoring brands. These results indicate that social networks allow them to make their interests visible, take part in the digital environment, and interact with their audience, being a positive influence that promotes respect for diversity. These platforms are positioned as powerful tools for the construction and dissemination of inclusive values and the empowerment of disabled people, minimizing controversial questions such as the instrumentalization of the disability and its association with clichés. With all the analyzed results, it is possible to evidence that Instagram can be considered a privileged network that could be utilized for the eradication of barriers and to ease the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in the public sphere. The conclusions are relevant for the scientific community given that they will allow us to achieve social inclusion, thanks to the impact of the posts from the influencers with disability.
Keywords: digital inclusion; disability; down syndrome; influencer; Instagram; social inclusion; social networks
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:222-234

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Immigrant Influencers on TikTok: Diverse Microcelebrity Profiles and Algorithmic (In)Visibility
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4743
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4743
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 208-221
Author-Name: Daniela Jaramillo-Dent
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, University of Huelva, Spain / Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Author-Name: Paloma Contreras-Pulido
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Education, International University of La Rioja, Spain
Author-Name: Amor Pérez-Rodríguez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Philology, University of Huelva, Spain
Abstract: Internet celebrity has become a phenomenon of great interest for scholars in the last few years. This is partly due to its impact in contemporary media ecosystems, and its influence in political, social, cultural, and commercial behaviors around the world. Meanwhile, some segments of the population continue to be marginalized by sociotechnical configurations that perpetuate structures of dominance in the digital sphere and on social media platforms. This is the case of immigrants, who often face diverse digital, symbolic, and physical borders that neglect their voice and agency. Thus, the present study aims to explore the creative practices of immigrant tiktokers who have achieved a significant following on this platform. Using a case study approach, we explore four immigrant creator profiles with a following of 17,000 to 500,000 through in-depth interviews and a multimodal content analysis of 252 of their videos to delve into their platformed practices on TikTok. The participants are Latin American immigrant creators living in the US and Spain, identified as part of a larger study on the uses of TikTok by Latinx immigrants in these two countries exploring 53 immigrant creator profiles with more than 10,000 followers. Their practices related to algorithmic (in)visibility, and their unfolding identities including their digital, creative, political, activist, cultural, and national personas are noteworthy, and suggest unique pathways to reclaim agency through social media influence and construct multi-dimensional microcelebrity identities beyond migratory status.
Keywords: algorithm; identity; immigration; influencer; online persona; social media; TikTok; visibility
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:208-221

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Why Do People Return to Video Platforms? Millennials and Centennials on TikTok
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4737
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4737
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 198-207
Author-Name: Pedro Cuesta-Valiño
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Business Management, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain
Author-Name: Pablo Gutiérrez-Rodríguez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Business Administration, Universidad de León, Spain
Author-Name: Patricia Durán-Álamo
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Business Management, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain
Abstract: While some social networks like Facebook are losing interest among digital influencers, TikTok continues to grow, capturing and impacting centennials and millennials alike. This situation highlights the new generations’ increasing interest in short video formats, which are also becoming a new window of communication between companies and consumers. TikTok allows users to create, share, and discover short, user-generated videos in hopes of attracting viewers. But it is necessary to understand the variables that attract and engage users of these particular social networks. This article analyses the variables of continuance motivation, video sharing behaviour, and video creation capabilities, which allow users to enjoy such networks, and service providers and companies to obtain results from them. The aim is to understand how these variables motivate social media users to return to and spend more time on this video-sharing platform. This is measured through the stickiness variable. In this context—and due to the particular relevance of the topic—the authors also aim to reveal any potential differences in the behaviour of centennials and millennials when using TikTok. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted through a questionnaire answered by 2,301 millennials and centennials who use TikTok. The data were analysed through a structural equation model to measure the relevance of each of the variables to stickiness. The results provide guidelines for improving research on video social media platforms, as well as an opportunity to explore the importance of the selected variables to the stickiness variable across different user segments.
Keywords: centennials; continuance motivation; millennials; social networks; stickiness; TikTok; video creation; video sharing behaviour
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:198-207

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Promoting Social Media Engagement Via Branded Content Communication: A Fashion Brands Study on Instagram
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4728
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4728
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 185-197
Author-Name: Bárbara Castillo-Abdul
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain / ESAI Business School, Espiritu Santo University, Ecuador
Author-Name: Ana Pérez-Escoda
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, University Antonio de Nebrija, Spain
Author-Name: Estela Núñez-Barriopedro
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Business Management, University of Alcalá, Spain
Abstract: Social networks have become crucial communication channels for brands through awareness, engagement, and word of mouth. Instagram is firmly positioned as a direct gateway between brands and consumers, as it became the fifth most-used social network globally in 2021. As such, branded content is expected to increase the brand’s likability, by capturing the interest and attention of the consumer, which could differ depending on what social media platform is used. This study aims to analyze whether there is a relationship between the branded content published on the Instagram profile of luxury brands (Manolo Blahnik and Loewe) and the interactions of and with its followers, focusing on branded content communication associated to industrial, social responsibility, and commercial issues. A correlational study is presented using a quantitative methodology to test the hypotheses through an ANOVA analysis. The results show which type of content is more productive on Instagram’s social network profile, helping diffusion of the firm, as it provokes more reactions from followers when using branded content related to social responsibility. It is also worth noting the extent of the interactions that branded content shows within the brand, whose influence is detected not in averages but in reach. The study’s conclusions allow us to affirm that branded content directly impacts brand reputation, generating positive engagement in all the cases analyzed. The study contributes to a better understanding of the branded content effect on consumers.
Keywords: branded content; digital communication; engagement; Instagram; luxury; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:185-197

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Instagram Influencers as Superwomen: Influencers’ Lifestyle Presentations Observed Through Framing Analysis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4717
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4717
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 173-174
Author-Name: Sarah Devos
Author-Workplace-Name: School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Steven Eggermont
Author-Workplace-Name: School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Author-Name: Laura Vandenbosch
Author-Workplace-Name: School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Belgium
Abstract: Female Instagram influencers presumably manipulate their online presentations to conform to the “superwoman ideal” (i.e., the idea that women have to excel in multiple roles). Knowledge of how they build such presentations is important to understand how young women’s perception of the superwoman ideal might be affected by social media. As such, the current content analytical study (<em>N</em> = 1,200 posts, 60 influencers) examined how female health and beauty influencers present themselves in accordance with the superwoman ideal and whether such presentations vary by culture (i.e., the US, Belgium, and China). Inductive framing analysis revealed that they highlight their excellence in six roles, which focus on appearance, relationships, activities, achievements, wisdom, and expertise. Additional multilevel analyses suggested that besides beauty, it is most important to be perceived as an exciting and experienced individual. These roles are generalizable across cultures, implying that the superwoman ideal is presented identically worldwide.
Keywords: content analysis; framing analysis; Instagram influencers; superwoman ideal
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:173-174

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: #ThisIsMeChallenge and Music for Empowerment of Marginalized Groups on TikTok
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4715
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4715
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 157-172
Author-Name: Arantxa Vizcaíno-Verdú
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Huelva, Spain
Author-Name: Ignacio Aguaded
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Pedagogy, University of Huelva, Spain
Abstract: Media convergence is generating many collective performances on social media, where the rise of short-form videos has created a new opportunity for the empowerment of society on online platforms. In this context, TikTok appears as an application for creative expression through music clips and lip-syncs. Through the #ThisIsMeChallenge hashtag, which introduces the musical theme of <em>The Greatest Showman</em> film, we analyze a new online practice within messages from traditionally marginalized groups throughout individual and collective life events. In order to understand TikTok as a music venue for social empowerment, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of 100 TikTok posts under the hashtag, and an artificial intelligence sentiment analysis across 8,877 comments. The results show a wide range of performance work that addresses issues of gender, sexual orientation, racial discrimination, and other types of current hate speech. In short, we conclude that TikTok has become a platform that seems to motivate activism and empowerment of marginalized groups through music frameworks that challenge social discrimination.
Keywords: #ThisIsMeChallenge; empowerment; marginalized groups; social media; TikTok; transmedia music; video activism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:157-172

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Blurring Boundaries Between Journalists and Tiktokers: Journalistic Role Performance on TikTok
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4699
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4699
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 146-156
Author-Name: María-Cruz Negreira-Rey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Author-Name: Jorge Vázquez-Herrero
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Author-Name: Xosé López-García
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Abstract: In recent years, media has adapted to the logic of each new social network to respond to renewed consumption habits and journalists have developed new roles on these platforms. TikTok is an emerging platform with its own influencer culture and in which the main audiences are the millennial and centennial generations. The main objective of this study is to analyze the presence of journalists on TikTok through the type of content and strategies used in adapting to this platform. The research is based on methodological triangulation. First, a database of journalists on TikTok (<em>n</em><sub>1</sub> = 212) was developed and the profiles were reviewed. Second, a questionnaire survey (<em>n</em><sub>2</sub> = 63) was developed. Finally, a content analysis (<em>n</em><sub>3</sub> = 520) of profiles exceeding 100,000 followers was conducted. This research provides a first description of the activity of journalists on TikTok, where a variety of roles, usages, and strategies are identified, beyond those of their profession. They join the of-the-moment platform with different purposes (to inform, entertain, or introduce themselves) and targets (new audiences, young people, fans). Journalists adapt their presence to the TikTok social media logic, seeking a space of influence on a platform that is the natural habitat of younger generations.
Keywords: influencer; journalism; journalist; social media; TikTok
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:146-156

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Obesogenic Features of Food-Related Content Aimed at Children on YouTube
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4684
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4684
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 136-145
Author-Name: Victoria Tur-Viñes
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Social Psychology, University of Alicante, Spain
Author-Name: Araceli Castelló‐Martínez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Social Psychology, University of Alicante, Spain
Author-Name: Cecilia Barrilero-Carpio
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Social Psychology, University of Alicante, Spain
Abstract: Obesity, and particularly childhood obesity, is considered an epidemic by the WHO because of the health problems it causes and its impact on the lives and environment of those who suffer from it. In this article, the term “obesogenic features” refers to the set of supposedly aggravating risk factors that could intensify the proven effect on minors of exposure to food-related media content. The article explores the characteristics of food-related content in YouTube videos aimed at children, with the objective of identifying videos that pose a high risk due to the presence of obesogenic arguments, as well as videos with innovative media trends. It presents an exploratory study of 293 videos (22 hr 41 min) aimed at children and containing food and/or food brands, posted from May 2020 to April 2021 on 28 YouTube channels of food brands and child YouTubers with the largest numbers of subscribers. Child YouTubers often appear to explicitly promote calorie intake as a diet alternative and to disseminate content in which the presence of low-nutrition foods undermines childhood obesity prevention policies. The sensitivity of this target audience and the highly emotional nature of the formats in which messages with obesogenic features appear, such as “challenges,” point to an urgent need to adopt ethical standards and legal measures to regulate such content.
Keywords: advertising; children; child YouTubers; food; obesogenic features; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:136-145

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Disguising Commercial Intentions: Sponsorship Disclosure Practices of Mexican Instamoms
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4640
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4640
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 124-135
Author-Name: Luisa Zozaya-Durazo
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain
Author-Name: Charo Sádaba-Chalezquer
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain
Abstract: Influencers have established themselves as key allies for brands by cultivating a powerful public image to promote them. In the case of Instamoms, these collaborations can offer moms a means of achieving economic stability. In a country like Mexico, where the gender gap in the labor market remains a contentious issue, digital work represents an opportunity for women. The similarity between the organic content and commercial content created by these profiles has strengthened the presence of hybrid advertising. This means of advertising has not spelled the end for the original content, and audiences may struggle to spot ads if sponsorship is not disclosed properly. It is important for consumers to be able to identify ads so their persuasion knowledge can be activated. This article examines the commercial messages and types of disclosure used by Mexican Instamoms to inform their followers of the commercial nature of their collaborations. The types of disclosure are analyzed based on language, location, and type of text. After a content analysis of 10,135 stories and more than 330 posts, 40% and 47% of the sample, respectively, was identified as advertising content. The analysis revealed that less than 5% of the Instamoms sponsored content was tagged as such and that sponsorship disclosure does not form part of the usual protocol for influencer-brand collaborations in a country where no legislation is yet in place and the sector is making little effort to control these practices.
Keywords: advertising; influencer marketing; Instagram; Instamoms; persuasion knowledge; sponsorship disclosure
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:124-135

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: OK, Boomer: New Users, Different Platforms, New Challenges
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5050
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.5050
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 120-123
Author-Name: Luis M. Romero-Rodríguez
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain / ESAI Business School, Espiritu Santo University, Ecuador
Author-Name: Santiago Tejedor
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Journalism and Communication Sciences, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
Author-Name: Inmaculada Berlanga
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Business and Communication, International University of La Rioja, Spain
Abstract: The popularization of new interaction spaces brings new narratives and social phenomena that merit attention from the scientific community. Based on the existing literature on the new challenges facing the communication discipline with these emerging narratives, this editorial summarizes the empirical and theoretical contributions of the thematic issue entitled “New Narratives for New Consumers: Influencers and the Millennial and Centennial Generations.” The authors emphasize that the studies selected for this thematic issue explore the innovative features and opportunities of the emerging scenarios and offer a cautionary account of their structural problems and the urgency of a new media literacy.
Keywords: centennials; digital media; Facebook; influencers; Instagram; millenials; social networks; online participation; TikTok; YouTube
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:120-123

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Remixing News: Appropriation and Authorship in Finnish Counter-Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4437
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4437
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 110-119
Author-Name: Olli Seuri
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
Author-Name: Kim Ramstedt
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, Finland / Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Abstract: This article outlines a first attempt at analysing counter-media publishing through the lens of remix theory. We concentrate on two key concepts—appropriation and authorship—which have a permanent standing in the remix research literature. To support our theoretical analysis, we investigate the coverage of two cases in the Finnish right-wing counter-media online publication <em>MV-lehti</em>. Our findings enable new readings on the nature of both counter-media work and remix culture. In fact, counter-media publishing leans more in the direction of remix culture—which is based on the act of using pre-existing materials to produce something new—than towards traditional journalistic convention, with its rules and ethical guidelines. <em>MV-lehti</em>’s practice of combining and layering different material is discernibly political, often resembling media activism. Our study provides the argument that counter to the utopian democratising assumptions of remix culture, the proliferation of remix practices has also given antidemocratic actors the means to challenge collectively and institutionally supported ideas of knowledge and justice. Counter-media publishing is perhaps democratising in that it offers the means to participate, but these antagonistic actors also remix news to undermine liberal-democratic ideals and social justice. Evidently, remix practices can be co-opted for a reactionary agenda.
Keywords: alternative media; appropriation; authorship; counter media; democracy; journalism; media activism; media work; remix
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:110-119

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Media Work as Field Advancement: The Case of Science Media Center Germany
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4454
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4454
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 99-109
Author-Name: Christopher Buschow
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany
Author-Name: Maike Suhr
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany
Author-Name: Hauke Serger
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Media, Bauhaus‐Universität Weimar, Germany
Abstract: In the wake of the news industry’s digitization, novel organizations that differ considerably from traditional media firms in terms of their functional roles and organizational practices of media work are emerging. One new type is the field repair organization, which is characterized by supporting high-quality media work to compensate for the deficits (such as those which come from cost savings and layoffs) which have become apparent in legacy media today. From a practice-theoretical research perspective and based on semi-structured interviews, virtual field observations, and document analysis, we have conducted a single case study on Science Media Center Germany (SMC), a unique non-profit news start-up launched in 2016 in Cologne, Germany. Our findings show that, in addition to field repair activities, SMC aims to facilitate progress and innovation in the field, which we refer to as field advancement. This helps to uncover emerging needs and anticipates problems before they intensify or even occur, proactively providing products and tools for future journalism. This article contributes to our understanding of novel media organizations with distinct functions in the news industry, allowing for advancements in theory on media work and the organization of journalism in times of digital upheaval.
Keywords: digital journalism; field repair organization; journalism; media work; news media start-up; Science Media Center Germany
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:99-109

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Newsworthiness as a Governing Principle in Public Sector Communication
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4390
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4390
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 88-98
Author-Name: Maria Grafström
Author-Workplace-Name: Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research, Stockholm University, Sweden
Author-Name: Hanna Sofia Rehnberg
Author-Workplace-Name: Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research, Stockholm University, Sweden
Abstract: This article examines what qualifies as news when public agencies in Sweden claim to engage in media work. We unwrap and explore what happens when ideas about “newsworthiness” enter the practice of public sector communication. What becomes news, and how? What kinds of content are favored, how are stories told, and what voices are heard? The ideas of newsworthiness in a public sector context are here conceptualized as a logic of appropriateness that governs civil servants’ media work. We base our analysis on a three-year case study of a Swedish county council’s digital news channel, VGRfokus. The analysis focuses on how ideas of newsworthiness are constructed and mirrored in and through the content of VGRfokus, as well as how they are reflected and acted upon by communications professionals working at the news channel. We suggest that ideas of newsworthiness may function as a governing principle and tone down or even hide conflicts and tensions between key values of bureaucracy and market, otherwise often manifested in public sector communication.
Keywords: bureaucratic values; civic information; digital news channel; logic of appropriateness; market values; newsworthiness; public sector communication; media work; strategic communication; VGRfokus
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:88-98

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: In/Visibility in Social Media Work: The Hidden Labor Behind the Brands
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4460
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4460
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 77-87
Author-Name: Brooke Erin Duffy
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA
Author-Name: Megan Sawey
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication, Cornell University, USA
Abstract: Despite the staggering uptick in social media employment over the last decade, this nascent category of cultural labor remains comparatively under-theorized. In this article, we contend that social media work is configured by a visibility paradox: While workers are tasked with elevating the presence—or <em>visibility</em>—of their employers’ brands across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, their identities, and much of their labor, remain <em>hidden </em>behind branded social media accounts. To illuminate how this ostensible paradox impacts laborers’ conditions and experiences of work, we present data from in-depth interviews with more than 40 social media professionals. Their accounts make clear that social media work is not just materially concealed, but rendered socially invisible through its lack of crediting, marginal status, and incessant demands for un/under-compensated emotional labor. This patterned devaluation of social media employment can, we show, be situated along two gender-coded axes that have long structured the value of labor in the media and cultural industries: a) technical‒communication and b) creation‒circulation. After detailing these in/visibility mechanisms, we conclude by addressing the implications of our findings for the politics and subjectivities of work in the digital media economy.
Keywords: cultural production; digital media; gender; invisibility; labor; social media; technology; work
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:77-87

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: The Engagement Imperative: Experiences of Communication Practitioners’ Brand Work in the Music Industry
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4448
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4448
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 66-76
Author-Name: Jessica Edlom
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Geography, Media and Communication, Karlstad University, Sweden
Abstract: Due to societal trends, such as digitalisation, platformisation, and active and co-creative audiences, new organisational practices have surfaced. This study examines how communication practitioners experience their changing work in a new communication environment in which participatory cultural norms are becoming standard in strategic communication. I argue that the requirements to produce audience engagement affect the communication work and the communication workers. This study uses the popular music industry as a case, and is based on interviews with communication practitioners as well as on the qualitative text analysis of reports and newsletters from the music marketing firm Music Ally to the music industry. The study shows that communication practitioners within the industry experience a duty to create audience engagement—an engagement imperative. Although the practitioners are highly skilled in digital communication and social media, they often see the development of digital promotional culture as a challenge and express a lack of a deeper understanding of engagement. This study highlights implications for their professional roles, competences, and identities as well as ethical implications regarding the exploitation of audiences in communication work.
Keywords: audience engagement; communication management; communication practitioner; engagement imperative; ethics; media work; music industry; participatory culture; strategic communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:66-76

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: A Relational Approach to How Media Engage With Their Audiences in Social Media
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4409
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4409
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 54-65
Author-Name: Mark Badham
Author-Workplace-Name: Corporate Communication, Jyväskylä University School of Business & Economics, Finland
Author-Name: Markus Mykkänen
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract: People are increasingly turning to social media for their news and for sharing and discussing news with others. Simultaneously, media organizations are becoming platform-dependent and posting short forms of their news on their social media sites in the hope that audiences will not only consume this news but also comment on and share it. This article joins other media and journalism studies exploring this phenomenon through a relational approach to media audiences to better understand how media organizations, particularly newspapers, are cultivating relationships with audiences via social media. Drawing on public relations theory about organization–public relationships, the article examines how news organizations nurture relationships with audiences via social media, such as through engagement and dialogic communication strategies. This article empirically examines organization–public relationships strategies (disclosure, access, information dissemination, and engagement) of nine newspapers with the largest reach in Australia, the US, and the UK. A content analysis is conducted of these newspapers’ posts (total 1807) published in March 2021 on their Twitter and Facebook sites to identify and examine these strategies. Findings show that their social media accounts are predominantly used for news dissemination rather than audience engagement. The implications are that although media professionals are frequently distributing news content among their audiences via their social media sites, they are not adequately engaging with them.
Keywords: audiences; engagement; media organizations; news dissemination; organization–public relationship strategies; relational approach; social media
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:54-65

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Managing Organisational Tensions in Cross-Sector Collaboration: The Case of Mediapolis
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4394
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4394
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 43-53
Author-Name: Sari Virta
Author-Workplace-Name: Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, Sweden
Author-Name: Nando Malmelin
Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland / VTT Technical Research Center, Finland
Abstract: Cross-sector collaboration combining public (non-commercial) and private (commercial) organisational orientations is considered an advantageous and dynamic strategic approach to shared value creation and co-creative innovation in disruptive operational environments of media industries. However, cross-sector collaboration features inherent complexities and organisational tensions due to the fundamental differences between the actors’ strategies and operational models. This article explores organisational tensions and dualities in media work in the cross-sector collaboration of media clusters. The qualitative case study examines the development of the management approach and practical operations of the Finnish media cluster Mediapolis, which aims to produce value, especially through collaborative content and concept innovation. The case study builds on extensive empirical material collected since the Mediapolis project started in 2011 until 2018. The analysis focuses on the management of complexities and organisational tensions in implementing collaborative strategies at Mediapolis, as well as managing the shared operations and work of the cluster. The results reveal tensions between the core dualities in developing Mediapolis as a collaborative arrangement between the participating organisations in practice, despite shared strategic-level aspirations. The findings elaborate on the dynamics of different organisational orientations and business logics, discrepancies between visionary planning and practical actions, and opposing organisational interests and strategies as sources for organisational tensions in collaborative contexts. The article contributes to both the theoretical and practical knowledge on organisational tensions and their management in cross-sector collaboration in media cluster development and provides implications for managing respective complexities in media work.
Keywords: creative industries; cross-sector collaboration; media cluster; media industry; media work; Mediapolis; organisational tensions
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:43-53

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Digital Competencies for New Journalistic Work in Media Outlets: A Systematic Review
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4439
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4439
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 27-42
Author-Name: Salvador Reyes-de-Cózar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain
Author-Name: Marta Pérez-Escolar
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain
Author-Name: Pablo Navazo-Ostúa
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Communication and Education, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Spain
Abstract: Media organizations operate in a rivalry-charged ecosystem nowadays, as a consequence of emerging patterns of news production, distribution, and consumption. Furthermore, the growing of public social media manifestations and the arrival of digital journalism require new professional roles, responsibilities, and skills inside the media industry. In this context, Faculties of Communication need to equip students with the digital competencies that are relevant to new media outlets and journalistic work. Based on this approach, the main objective of this study is to answer the following questions: What does the literature suggest about the digital skills that new professional profiles should acquire in the field of journalism? Which dimensions of digital competence are gaining visibility and which dimensions are being neglected? To answer the scientific objectives, a systematic review has been carried out following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement. The application of the two models of digital competence, Bloom’s taxonomy (1956), and digital competence in education (Redecker, 2017), serves as a framework in two ways: to determine the level of digital competence development, and to identify the dimensions on which greater emphasis is being placed. The results show a lack of studies linked to key aspects of digital competence, especially those related to personal growth, emotional state (Redecker, 2017), and the development of a deep level of acquisition of this competence (Bloom, 1956). This article proposes to reflect on whether we want to train professionals according to the model demanded by the media outlets nowadays, or whether we prefer to train communication professionals with a deep level of digital competence, since they are able to respond to the future and changing needs of the 21st century.
Keywords: digital competence; digital journalism; digital skills; journalism; new media outlet; professional profiles
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:27-42

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Negotiating Journalistic Professional Ethos in Nordic Business Journalism
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4428
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4428
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 16-26
Author-Name: Johanna Suhonen
Author-Workplace-Name: Media and Communication Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland
Abstract: News work conducted more like business creates clashes between the journalistic and managerial professional ethos of editors. While journalists’ professional ethos includes values of self-regulation, autonomy, and public service, managerialism promotes business ideals, measurable outcomes, and organizational efficiency—values that business journalism is claimed to support. This article aims to show how editors negotiate their work-related ethos at the junction of two professional discourses. The article is based on 20 semi-structured interviews of editors in four Nordic business newsrooms. The results reveal a new hybrid professional ethos that combines managerial practices with journalistic ideals. Furthermore, editors in business journalism tend to absorb managerial tendencies more easily due to close connection to financial and commercial communities. Strong journalistic principles prevail, but managerial ideals are considered a notable part of the new editorial work ethos.
Keywords: business journalism; editor; ethos; financial journalism; managerialism; newsroom management; professionalism
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:16-26

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: ProPublica’s Data Journalism: How Multidisciplinary Teams and Hybrid Profiles Create Impactful Data Stories
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/4433
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.4433
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 5-15
Author-Name: Mathias-Felipe de-Lima-Santos
Author-Workplace-Name: School of Communication, University of Navarra, Spain
Abstract: Despite growing interest in the emergence of technologies in journalistic practices, especially from the production perspective, there is still very little research on organizational structures and professional culture in relation to the deployment of these technologies. Drawing on six interviews and observation in staff meetings, this study aims to explore the nuances behind the professional roles of data journalists and how these relate to structural aspects of news organizations. The study focuses on the case of ProPublica, a news organization internationally renowned for its global excellence in data stories. This work considers boundary-making in the context of journalism and focuses on new professional roles in the news industry to produce a hybrid ethnography study based on qualitative data collected immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States. The findings reveal the importance of hybrid profiles at ProPublica. While some journalists have had to expand their knowledge to learn more about new areas, such as coding and design, some non-journalistic professionals have had to develop writing skills, and this blurring of traditional boundaries forms an important aspect of ProPublica’s professional culture. The structure of the organization, divided into two teams engaged in cross-sector activities, helps to promote data skills and collaboration with other journalists, which also serves to mitigate any individual lack of experience on certain topics. The article concludes by suggesting that the growing importance of these new professional roles has broader implications for the development of data skills in the newsroom, and also discusses the limitations that can arise from the increasing overlap between journalistic and non-journalistic roles.
Keywords: data journalism; hybrid profile; journalism; multidisciplinary teams; news nerds; ProPublica
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:5-15

Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Title: Editorial: New Forms of Media Work and Its Organizational and Institutional Conditions
File-URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/5172
File-Format: text/html
DOI: 10.17645/mac.v10i1.5172
Journal: Media and Communication
Volume: 10
Year: 2022
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-4
Author-Name: Salla-Maaria Laaksonen
Author-Workplace-Name: Centre for Consumer Society Research, University of Helsinki, Finland
Author-Name: Mikko Villi
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Abstract: This thematic issue explores the widening scope of media work and the institutional and organizational conditions that support new forms of media work. The media industry has undergone significant economic, structural, and technological changes during the past few decades, including changing patterns of ownership and digitalization of media production, distribution, and consumption. Simultaneously, practices of media work are adopted also in other industries. The 10 articles in the issue not only focus on the new professional roles and responsibilities emerging in the news media industry but also study the practices of media work in organizations in other fields, such as the music industry and public sector.
Keywords: corporate media; journalism; media industry; media work; news media; organizational communication; organizations; strategic communication
Handle: RePEc:cog:meanco:v10:y:2022:i:1:p:1-4