The Critical Risk of Disinformation for Humanitarians – The Case of the MV Aquarius

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-39
Author(s):  
Sean Healy ◽  
Victoria Russell
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Search And Rescue ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
A Site

The search and rescue of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants on the Mediterranean has become a site of major political contestation in Europe, on the seas, in parliaments and government offices and in online public opinion. This article summarises one particular set of controversies, namely, false claims that the non-government organisations conducting such search and rescue operations are actively ‘colluding’ with people smugglers to ferry people into Europe. In spring and summer 2017, these claims of ‘collusion’ emerged from state agencies and from anti-immigration groups, became viral on social media platforms and rapidly moved into mainstream media coverage, criminal investigations by prosecutors and the speech and laws of politicians across the continent. These claims were in turn connected to far-right conspiracy theories about ‘flooding’ Europe with ‘invaders’. By looking at the experience of one particular ship, the MV Aquarius, run in partnership by MSF and SOS Méditerranée, the authors detail the risks that humanitarian organisations now face from such types of disinformation campaign. If humanitarian organisations do not prepare themselves against this risk, they will find themselves in a world turned upside-down, in which their efforts to help people in distress become evidence of criminal activity.

scholarly journals E-scaping apartheid: Digital ventures of Zionist settler colonialism

2021 ◽  
pp. 194277862110557
Author(s):  
Ivana Bevilacqua
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Massive Data ◽  
Data Traffic ◽  
International Media ◽  
Terra Nullius ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
A Site ◽  
Geospatial Mapping

The ongoing “Intifada of Unity” against Israel's settler colonialism has resuscitated discussions about the liberatory potential of digital emancipation due to the massive data traffic circulation through its international media coverage. In fact, in a process that has intensified since the outbreak of the global pandemic at the very least, social media platforms and geospatial mapping tools have been subverted from more mundane uses, developing into new forums for organizing, imagining, and practicing more just futures. Yet, the centrality of infrastructure both as a means of digital extractivism and as a site for rupture and resistance demonstrates that the path toward new trajectories of e-scaping cannot be conceived as a virtual venture directed at designing alternative volatile geographies alone, but should always involve facing and challenging power in its everyday forms. By investigating the materiality of cyber colonialism, this paper explores the entanglement between imperial cartography and digital map-making which has reduced Palestinians and their space to a pixelated terra nullius, sanitized from the paradigmatic sites of the occupation and overwritten by a pseudo-biblical narrative that aims to legitimize the re-indigenization of the Zionist settlers . At the same time, it unpacks online processes of hyper-visibility through which Palestine suddenly materializes as a signifier for its dangerous nature, yet fragmented and enclaved by an intangible and discretional regime of im/mobility enforced through the neglect of permits and visas, as well as by the material constraints posed by apartheid roads, barriers, checkpoints, gates, and walls. Finally, it retraces the rationality of Israeli violence diluted through the technical means of built environment, infrastructure, machines and algorithms which, on one hand, contributes to the de-development of Palestine and the censorship of its people, and on the other, normalizes Israel’s position in the region due to its perceived technological superiority vis-à-vis its neighboring counterparts.

Lost at Woomera: Rereading Mainstream and Alternative Media

2003 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Alternative Media ◽  
Detention Centre ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Public Demonstration

This paper focuses on aspects of the media engagement with demonstrations at the Woomera Detention Centre during Easter 2002. A broad range of interests and affiliations were represented within the 1000–2000 protestors, several hundred of whom attacked the fences, allowing a number of detainees to escape. In an era of online activism, the Easter 2002 demonstration at Woomera showed the continuing significance of the embodied occupation of public space by protestors. It echoed an upsurge in public demonstration, from Seattle to more recent worldwide marches against war in Iraq. In addition to receiving extensive mainstream media coverage both in Australia and overseas, a whole series of ‘alternative’ forms of media were mobilised around the demonstration. Through a study of some mainstream and alternative media, this paper suggests that casting them as oppositional — one as reactionary towards asylum seekers from Islamic cultures and the other as emancipatory — is too simplistic. While mainstream media are the subject of searching critiques of their representational and agenda-setting power, similar critical evaluations are few for alternative media. It suggests that such a dichotomy has serious consequences for the understanding and operation both of emancipatory struggles and of the media. Giroux (2002) has called for a politics of educated hope, and this paper suggests that critique should be accompanied by an active search for moments of contradiction and possibility.

A Knight in Sheep’s Clothing: Media Framing of the Alt-Right Can Alter the Image of Racist Groups

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Burton Speakman
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Framing Analysis ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Racist Ideology ◽  
National Profile

The Alt-Right increased its national profile during the 2016 presidential election based on its support of Donald Trump. This research becomes more salient with the media continuing to face similar challenges in framing far-right groups. The Alt-Right, like other Far Right groups worldwide, has moderated their framing to hide racist ideology. Therefore, the challenge of this article is to learn if the media allow newer far-right conservative groups to self-frame even against the advice from the Associated Press. This study uses qualitative framing analysis through grounded theory to review the coverage of the Alt-Right as a manner of examining if the group was successful in advancing its desired frames into mainstream media coverage. The results of this study suggest overall the Alt-Right was successful in reducing a direct discussion about the racist beliefs of the group within press coverage. This study continues in the tradition of framing studies of the past yet moves the genre forward as journalists negotiate increasing polarised and fragmented political communication.

Bioenterprise Media Strategy 2020

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Moira A. Gunn
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Business Media

In 2012 and 2016, the first two strategic science-business media models were published (SBBMM 1.0 and 2.0). Since that time, there have been significant changes both to the media landscape and to the usage and capability of online and social media platforms. This paper seeks to describe the current bioindustry-relevant media landscape, to introduce a new media model, the Strategic Bioenterprise Media Model 2020 (SBMM 2020), which reflects this new landscape, and to present a mainstream submodel to support the latest opportunity for biotechnology media coverage: Mainstream Media. Examples are drawn from media coverage following the FDA approvals of Zulresso from Sage Therapeutics, Aimovig from Novartis and Amgen, and AquAdvantage salmon from AquAdvantage Technologies. The overall goal of this paper is to equip bioenterprise professionals with an understanding of media dynamics and the strategic potential it brings, ultimately contributing to bioenterprise success.

Moccasins and ‘Respect’: Writing Practices during Media Coverage of the Moe Story

1998 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Special Edition ◽  
Local Response ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
A Site ◽  
Country Town

Metropolitan media coverage moved beyond reporting the alleged abduction of Moe toddler Jaidyn Leskie to describe the social ‘tragedy’ of Victoria's La Trobe Valley, attributing the collapse of country-town innocence and a perceived growth of anti-social behaviour to state-driven ‘dirty’ industry restructuring, unemployment and the collapse of the local small business economy. The representation of Moe as ‘rotten’ offended local readers, sparking a series of mainstream and tactical ‘rewritings’ of Moe's social, moral and physical landscapes. The most effective and noteworthy local response was a special edition of the regional non-daily community paper, The La Trobe Valley Express. In ‘Moe under the microscope’, ‘ordinary citizens’ were given a platform for their views on the ‘hostile’ mainstream media reports, the region and the civic ‘truths’ of Moe. The incident provides a site for the consideration of some of the issues involved in compliance with the new code of ethics for journalists.

Pointing Fingers at the Media?

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Alexander Beyer ◽  
Steven Weldon
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Media ◽  
Alternative For Germany ◽  
Key Questions

The 2017 Bundestag election and the breakthrough of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) will likely long be remembered as a pivotal moment in German politics. One of the key questions in the aftermath of this breakthrough is what role the mainstream media played in this party’s success. Drawing on online data from the four largest German news outlets, Google-trend searches, and Twitter, we examine the media coverage landscape over the course of the election campaign, focusing on the coverage of the AfD relative to other parties and its key issues of immigration and Euroskepticism. Our results indicate that the AfD did indeed face a favorable media environment, especially in the final month of the campaign. Further analysis, however, suggests that the media was in many ways simply responding to public interest and demand—immigration, especially, was a highly salient issue throughout the campaign, something that was a significant departure from recent elections.

scholarly journals Pseudo-Media Sites, Polarization, and Pandemic Skepticism in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolors Palau-Sampio
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
News Media ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Systemic Control ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms

The Coronavirus pandemic has triggered an authentic infodemic, which is a global epidemic of disinformation that has spread throughout most of the world. Social media platforms and pseudo-media outlets have contributed to the problem by producing and disseminating misleading content that is potentially dangerous to public health. This research focuses on a rather unknown phenomenon, which involves digital sites that mimic the appearance of news media but provide pseudo-information. Five Spanish pseudo-media have been analyzed with the aim of enhancing understanding of the issues and the frames presented. The results show clear links with the far-right ideology as well as the presence of a populist, polarized discourse through the use of belligerent, offensive expressions to refer to institutions and their representatives. Politics is the main issue represented, with a frame that clearly points out the incompetence and cynicism of the Spanish government. Conspiracy theories associate the origins of the pandemic to a Chinese laboratory and emphasize a global plan to establish systemic control. Measures to stop the virus are framed as harmful and ineffective, linked to a euthanasia scheme targeted at older people, especially regarding vaccination, which is presented as a solution offered for economic interests.

scholarly journals Patterns of media coverage repeated in online abuse on high-profile criminal cases

Journalism ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 146488491988127
Author(s):  
Carolina Are
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Online Abuse

What relationship do the mainstream media have with online abuse on high-profile criminal cases? This article hopes to make a start at answering this question by examining tweets containing the #McCann hashtag, utilised by a highly engaged community of users to comment on all matters related to the disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann. On #McCann, the child’s parents and other players are often singled out as the perpetrators of her disappearance and other crimes, in a blend of harassment, defamation and insults with conspiracy theories, disinformation and a strong anti-establishment vein typical of the posttruth era. Through an experimental digital ethnography blending elements of content and discourse analysis, this research has observed the #McCann conversation and analysed 500 tweets with the hashtag, observing that some of the most offensive theories posted by users on Twitter reprised themes seen in the mainstream media at the time of the disappearance, which resulted in defamation lawsuits by the McCanns and in complaints about unethical reporting at the Leveson Inquiry. This raises questions about the mainstream media’s responsibility and duty of care towards people they report on in the digital age, and showcases a symbiotic yet diffident relationship between anti-establishment online users and traditional news media.

Almanya’da aşırı sağ hareketler ve medyanın suçlu göçmen söyleminin resmi belgeler ışığında incelenmesi

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-226
Author(s):  
Soner Tauscher
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
German Society ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Open Door ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Open Door Policy ◽  
Far Right

Avrupa ülkelerinin alışık olduğu düzenli işçi göçü ve kontrollü sığınmacı alımı Suriye iç savaşının üst düzeye ulaştığı 2013/2014 yılından itibaren önemli bir değişim göstermektedir. Avrupa Birliği, kuruluşundan bu yana en yoğun mülteci göçüyle karşılaşmaktadır. Yaşanan bu kontrolsüz ve zorunlu göçe Avrupa toplumları ve devletleri hazırlıksız yakalanmıştır. Mülteci krizini ekonomik olarak fırsata çevirmek isteyen Almanya ise göçmenler için 2015 yazından itibaren açık kapı politikası uygulamaya başlamıştır. Ancak uygulanan açık kapı politikası Alman toplumunun azımsanmayacak bir kesiminde mültecilere ve Müslümanlara yönelik ağır ve şiddetli bir karşı kampanya ortaya çıkardı. Mülteciler ve Müslümanlar aşırı sağ toplumsal hareketlerin gösterilerinde “tecavüzcü”, “işgalci”, “kriminal dolandırıcılar” vb. sıfatlar ile birlikte anılmakta, medya da bu söylemlerin taşıyıcılığını yaparak kamusallaşmasını sağlamaktadır. Böylece aşırı sağı desteklemeyen, apolitik, ya da sığınmacılara karşı hoşgörülü davranan toplum kesimlerinde kamuoyu oluşturularak sığınmacı ve göçmenlere karşı olumsuz algı gündemde tutulmakta, politik olanın merkezine yerleştirilmektedir. Bu çalışmada öncelikle göçmenlere karşı aşırı sağ toplumsal hareketlerin oluşturduğu olumsuz söylemin McCombs ve Shaw’un Gündem Belirleme Kuramı (Agenda Setting Function) bağlamında medya tarafından siyasetin merkezine nasıl oturtulduğu tartışılacaktır. Ayrıca gündemde tutulan mültecilere yönelik olumsuz söylemin gerçeği yansıtıp yansıtmadığı, göçmenlerin ve sığınmacıların biyolojik Almanlardan daha çok suça meyilli olup olmadığı oluşturulan soyut söylemlerden ziyade Almanya İçişleri Bakanlığı’nın yıllık olarak yayınladığı Emniyet Suç İstatistikleri temel alınarak incelenecektir.ABSTRACT IN ENGLISHFar right movements in Germany and evaluation of media discourse of criminal immigrant in the light of official documentsFlows of regular worker migration and regular asylum seekers, of whom European countries are familiar, have significantly changed since 2013/2014 when the civil war of Syria reached its peak. The European Union face probably the most intensive refugee migration since its establishment. European societies and states have not been prepared for this uncontrolled and compulsory immigration. Germany seem to want to turn the refugee crisis into an economic opportunity as evident in their open door policy since the summer of 2015. However, implementation of open-door policy has led a substantial part of German society to a strong campaign against the refugees and Muslims. Refugees and Muslims are referred to as “rapists”, “invaders”, “criminal fraudsters”, and so on in demonstrations of far right movements and media has helped disseminating these discourses. Hence, this manipulated and hateful discourse tries to gain support from the segment of society wh normally does not support far right and often apolitical, or tolerant towards asylum seekers. In this study, the ways in which the negative discourse of far right social movements against immigrants is brought to the centre of the political agenda by media is analysed using the agenda setting framework by McCombs and Shaw. Then, the claims that immigrants are involved in crime, or they are prone to be criminals are analysed and contrasted with the data obtained from the annual Crime and Safety Reports of the German Ministry of the Interior.

scholarly journals Learning to Detain Asylum Seekers and the Growth of Mass Immigration Detention in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Smita Ghosh ◽  
Mary Hoopes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Component ◽  
Immigration Detention ◽  
Important Shift

Drawing upon an analysis of congressional records and media coverage from 1981 to 1996, this article examines the growth of mass immigration detention. It traces an important shift during this period: while detention began as an ad hoc executive initiative that was received with skepticism by the legislature, Congress was ultimately responsible for entrenching the system over objections from the agency. As we reveal, a critical component of this evolution was a transformation in Congress’s perception of asylum seekers. While lawmakers initially decried their detention, they later branded them as dangerous. Lawmakers began describing asylum seekers as criminals or agents of infectious diseases in order to justify their detention, which then cleared the way for the mass detention of arriving migrants more broadly. Our analysis suggests that they may have emphasized the dangerousness of asylum seekers to resolve the dissonance between their theoretical commitments to asylum and their hesitance to welcome newcomers. In addition to this distinctive form of cognitive dissonance, we discuss a number of other implications of our research, including the ways in which the new penology framework figured into the changing discourse about detaining asylum seekers.

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