scholarly journals The coronavirus pandemic narratives in Italian digital media

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (02) ◽  
pp. A07
Author(s):  
Jorge Milan Fitera ◽  
Natalia Abuín-Vences ◽  
Javier Sierra Sánchez

In this paper we discuss the SARS-CoV-2-related information coverage (beginning of the epidemic) in Italian digital media narratives. We surveyed the digital articles that reported the highest engagement level. The aim was to identify the most prominent variables (topics, players and news coverage area). Similarly, a discourse analysis was carried out by analyzing the tone used in relation to the variables mentioned. The results show that the most important topics were health, politics and the economy. Headlines appeared to be more likely to have a negative tone, although neutral headlines were the most common. The main feature in digital media headlines was civil society.

Author(s):  
Peter Van Aelst

This chapter analyzes media malaise theories and their consequences for legitimacy. These theories argue that the increasing availability of information through new and old media and increasingly negative tone of media are to blame for declining legitimacy. The chapter examines these claims by providing a systematic review of empirical research on media and political support. It first investigates whether news coverage has become more negative over time, and then examines the micro process that might explain the link between media coverage and political support. Empirical evidence suggests that where coverage has become more negative, this occurred before the 1990s and has levelled off since, and is concentrated primarily in election news. Negative political news does have a modest impact on political support once controlled for level of education, but that effect can be positive and negative, depending on the medium, the receiver, and the indicator of political support.


Author(s):  
Lynn Schofield Clark ◽  
Ioana Literat ◽  
Neta Kligler-Vilenchik ◽  
Ashley Lee ◽  
Ellen Middaugh ◽  
...  

We are living through a highly politicized time, with deep divisions foregrounding the significance and importance of political expression and dialogue. Youth have been at the forefront of these important conversations, in both academic research and in the popular press. On the one hand, we are seeing a resurgence of activism and engagement among youth (Bond, Chenoweth & Pressman 2018; Deal 2019), who are using online platforms to express themselves politically in rich and creative ways (Graef 2016; Jenkins et al., 2016). On the other hand, deep concerns have emerged about “some of the darker sides of networked media engagement” (boyd, 2017, n.p.), including the spread of misinformation, increased polarization and politically motivated bullying among youth (Rogers, 2017). If we see youth as active agents in their own political socialization (Youniss, McLellan & Yates, 1997), the ways they actively express and negotiate their civic identities online (Jenkins et al., 2016) offer rich possibilities for understanding how we can best support them as civic actors. The research presented in this panel aims to move beyond a simplified depiction of youth as either idealized political role models (e.g. Greta Thunberg or the Parkland Youth) or, conversely, as apathetic and politically disengaged. In light of the conference theme exploring what it means to have a Life mediated by the internet, we place emergent and senior scholars studying youth and online political expression in dialogue with one another to discuss both findings and particular considerations brought up by internet research (franzke et al., 2020), and especially internet research involving youth (Livingstone & Third, 2017). By encouraging researchers and audience members to reflect on the epistemological, ethical, and practical aspects of their own research, we aim to identify new questions for further study as we seek to understand the evolution of youth and online political expression. The first presentation reviews findings from a cross-platform study utilizing a mixed methods approach to explore youth online political expression and cross-cutting political talk on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. These presenters discuss their findings in relation to the challenges and opportunities they encountered when identifying and analyzing youth-generated cross-platform data. The second presentation highlights findings from a social discourse analysis of Twitter and Reddit threads on youth-centric issues of immigration (DACA) and environmental issues (plastic pollution) to identify how the intersection of issue, platform and aims of discourse shape the characteristics of online civic discourse. This presenter discusses the challenges she encountered when creating both a codebook and coding scheme for data analysis. The third presentation considers the role of gender and intersectional identity in online humorous political expression through a case study of a U.S. Black Muslim teen’s TikTok posts. This presenter discusses the challenges of placing critical technocultural discourse analysis into dialogue with digital media literacy and youth participatory action research endeavors. The fourth presentation highlights findings emerging from a series of ethnographic interviews with young people in a comparative study exploring online youth political expression in democratic and non-democratic contexts. This presenter discusses challenges of qualitative research when working with young people, especially marginalized youth, who utilize hidden forms of expression to engage in politics. Finally, our respondent will invite audience members into the discussion by offering a reflection on the four presentations and asking session attendees to comment on their own research experiences and larger implications they see for the study of youth political expression online.


2020 ◽  
pp. 174165902091863
Author(s):  
Justin R Ellis

Social media has transformed public discourse on policing and the contest of control over the police image. This article draws on original, empirical research to conceptualise the phenomenon of the ‘social media test’ – the evolution of social media into a legitimate measure of police performance. Through in-depth interviews with police and non-police respondents the article maps the genealogy of, and provides perspective on, one of the first viral cases of bystander video of police excessive force in Australia filmed and uploaded to YouTube. The study shows the video’s impact on hegemonic mainstream and police news media narratives, processes of criminalisation and police accountability and the merit of narrative criminology in unpacking these phenomena. Police alluding to the ‘social media test’ in in-depth interviews shows that digital media in general and social media in particular can no longer be dismissed as peripheral or subsidiary to public discourse on policing in a digital society.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Munyaradzi Hwami

The contemporary colonial world is witnessing struggles for domination and existence that have led to exclusion of some groups on the basis of parameters defined by the powerful. This contribution observes practices and policies of belonging and exclusion developing in Zimbabwe and argues that higher education should take the lead in discussing and proposing citizenship education that would produce cosmopolitan patriots, responsible and tolerant citizens. The discussion is a critical discourse analysis of dominant colonial forces of authoritarian nationalism and neoliberalism supplemented by personal experience and engagement with students and faculty at the Great Zimbabwe University. What has been observed is the failure of civil society and state led programmes in this endeavour and the honours rests with higher education institutions to develop citizenship education rooted in ideals that critique hegemonic discourses. This demands a change in perspectival foci and this study advances the adoption of anti-colonial liberationist perspectives as one of the options if an end to classification of citizens as aliens and patriots is to come to an end.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-355
Author(s):  
Nattawaj Kijratanakoson

The purposes of this study are twofold. First, it investigates how the digital media discursively react against the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). Second, it examines how Thailand is portrayed as a venue for steroid holiday among recreational bodybuilders from the Western countries. Adhering to the principle of theoretical triangulation, the study employs two frameworks including Reisigl and Wodak’s discursive strategies and Van Dijk’s ideological structures. The methodology undertaken is a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. The corpus contains 100 articles published on various websites between the period of 2014 and 2019 with the total number of 107,116 words. Main findings indicate that, regarding the first purpose, the media portray AAS as the ‘outgroup’ by employing various negative lexical items while attempting to dilute any claimed benefits. Concerning the second purpose, Thailand is represented as a venue in which AAS are easily available coupled with corrupt dealers and lax regulations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 57-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Funston

The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and its allies in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, known as the Alliance until 1974, dominated Malaysian elections for more than six decades. UMNO's winning formula was based on massive support for the politically dominant Malay community, and mobilising government institutions in support of the party. This was undermined towards the end of the 1990s by UMNO disunity, a strengthened civil society, and arrival of a digital media. Demands for comprehensive political and economic reforms ( reformasi) emerged following the controversial sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in 1998. UMNO had its worst result ever in the 1999 election, a trend that continued in 2008 and 2013 when BN lost its popular and two-thirds majority. Najib's attempt to reverse this by strengthening the call for Malay dominance and tightening coercion failed. His deep implication in multiple corruption cases, tactical campaign errors, and a united opposition, Pakatan Harapan, led to the BN's stunning defeat.


2005 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel C. Armony ◽  
Victor Armony

AbstractMost accounts of the turmoil that shook Argentina in 2001–2 focused on the harmful impact of the financial environment, imprudent policymaking, and institutional weaknesses. These explanations paid little attention to the cultural frames and cognitive patterns that underlie the connection between civil society and political society. Based on a discourse analysis of Internet forums and presidential speeches, this article argues that the Argentine crisis cannot be fully grasped without considering the link between collective behavior and ingrained conceptions of national identity. The analysis finds that national myths and definitional questions of national purpose are key factors in the way citizens behave in the context of an economic and political crisis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qasim Ali Shah ◽  
Bahadar Nawab ◽  
Tahir Mehmood

Peacebuilding is a continuous process to transform conflicts into development opportunities for and by the stakeholders. This article explores the role of stakeholders in post-conflict peacebuilding in Swat. Applying Constructivist paradigm and Discourse Analysis, 80 semi-structured interviews were conducted by incorporating local community, civil society and the government. Study finds out that cultural, political, social and economic tiers of peacebuilding measures in Swat hardly achieved its purpose. The lack of institutional coordination and gaps in peacebuilding measures are important hurdles, which needs to be minimized for sustainable development processes in Swat.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 686-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjay Asthana

Through the study of two UNICEF-supported youth media initiatives from Palestine, this article theorizes and generates new empirical knowledge about the encounter between constructions of youth in rights-based discourses of UNICEF and young people’s digital media narratives. The research encountered instances where the universal discourse of children’s rights did not connect with the local realities of youth (constraints) but found that young people translate children’s rights to construct new meanings to suit their local contexts and experiences (possibilities).


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