The dynamics of online news discussions: effects of news articles and reader comments on users’ involvement,willingness to participate,and the civility of their contributions*

This study investigates when and why news website visitors write civil or uncivil comments in response to news articles or related user comments. In an experiment, we manipulated the news value of news articles and the presence of ‘deliberative’ or ‘detrimental’ elements of comments to compare their impact on participants’ involvement, willingness to comment, and the comments they posted. News factors and comment characteristics increased participants’ willingness to comment via cognitive and affective involvement. Cognitive involvement made it less likely and affective involvement more likely that participants wrote uncivil comments. Additionally, involvement with previous comments increased participants’ willingness to comment on articles and vice versa. Results imply that news articles and comments dynamically shape the discussion value of online news.     

The politics of flies: mocking news in Chinese cyberspace

Utilizing an illustrative case, this article examines readers' satirical comments on online news in Chinese cyberspace, revealing that using the news as a prop, netizens joke about social inequality and injustice, and parody sham and official stereotyped and hollow messages. Furthermore, by raising questions and exploring possible answers collectively, netizens unveil the absurdity of social policies and the hypocrisy, greed, and corruption of government officials. Hence, netizens' satirical comments focus a spotlight on social problems. This article argues that satirical comments enrich news and expand its content, thereby giving the news an aura, making ordinary news extraordinary, and making possible political and radical readings of seemingly apolitical and neutral news.     

Survey Participation, Nonresponse Bias, Measurement Error Bias, and Total Bias

A common hypothesis about practices to reduce survey nonresponseis that those persons brought into the respondent pool throughpersuasive efforts may provide data filled with measurementerror. Two questions flow from this hypothesis. First, doesthe mean square error of a statistic increase when sample personswho are less likely to be contacted or cooperate are incorporatedinto the respondent pool? Second, do nonresponse bias estimatesmade on the respondents, using survey reports instead of records,provide accurate information about nonresponse bias? Using aunique data set, the Wisconsin Divorce Study, with divorce recordsas the frame and questions about the frame information includedin the questionnaire, this article takes a first look into thesetwo issues. We find that the relationship between nonresponsebias, measurement error bias, and response propensity is statistic-specificand specific to the type of nonresponse. Total bias tends tobe lower on estimates calculated using all respondents, comparedwith those with only the highest contact and cooperation propensities,and nonresponse bias analyses based on respondents yield conclusionssimilar to those based on records. Finally, we find that errorproperties of statistics may differ from error properties ofthe individual variables used to calculate the statistics.     

British newspapers privilege health and medicine topics over other science news

This study examines coverage of science, health and medicine in five UK national newspapers: three broadsheets, a mid-sheet and a tabloid. The content analysis is compared with a quantitative survey of members of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW). The study confirms earlier reports that medicine and health topics are privileged over science in newspaper reporting. Unlike studies of medical research news, which have found medical journals to be the main source of news stories, this study found that general science and medical news is drawn from a wide range of sources. Although respondents were generally positive about press materials, targeting and news value were highlighted as areas for improvement. Briefing scientists to use less jargon and training scientists to better understand the needs of journalists were also highlighted by respondents as areas to improve.     

Discriminatory language in the workplace: unmasking prejudices and stereotypes / El lenguaje discriminatorio en contextos laborales: desenmascarando prejuicios y estereotipos

The link between language, communication and open discrimination has been the focus of numerous studies. For many years, language has been a vehicle of prejudice and negative stereotypes. However, in the last few years, overt verbal aggressions have diminished thanks to the implementation of equality policies and awareness-raising initiatives. Despite that, negative attitudes against protected groups might not have disappeared and may instead be transmitted subtly, such as through uncivil language. The goal of this research is to study the relation between language and subtle discrimination against lesbian and gay (LG) workers. With this goal in mind, 39 in-depth interviews were conducted. The analysis showed that LG people are victims of subtle discrimination and that language is one of the most common vehicles of prejudice and negative stereotypes. Jokes, inappropriate comments and questions are the expression of negative attitudes, which are probably present at an implicit level. Due to the ambiguity of these expressions and the settings where they have been studied — the workplace — these acts could be defined as uncivil behaviours. Practical implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Intercultural literacy dialogue: international assessment moderation in early childhood teacher education

ABSTRACT

This research reports intercultural dialogue of meaning making in literacy by lecturers, engaged with an assessment moderation process of early childhood education (ECE) preservice teacher education across Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. The purpose of the dialogue was to inform pedagogical and conceptual knowledge in their courses. The research question is: How does intercultural dialogue inform teacher education literacy practices? Methods include (1) a blind assessment review process using 30 examples from ‘high’ to ‘low’ exemplars of ECE students’ literacy assessment annotations, some from each country, and (2) textual analysis of intercultural student feedback and reflection from student forum comments and, semi-structured reflexive interviews with students about the assessment moderation process. Rich academic reflections on the data have led to our recommendations that the conceptual framework of intercultural praxis could be applied in early childhood preservice teacher education practice. Further, we suggest there are increased possibilities for the use of intercultural literacy with ECE preservice student teachers using virtual and explicit collaborations and texts as explained in this research.     

VoiceYourView: anytime, anyplace, anywhere user participation

Citizens are increasingly called upon to comment on issues that directly concern them. However, such consultations may be tokenistic [1] as they occur with limited respondents, or may be at a time, or in a format which is inconvenient to the user. To encourage wider participation, the VoiceYourView project (vYv) has developed a system allowing people to make comments in a manner, time and place convenient to them. A real world trial of the prototype system was conducted at Coventry University campus to explore issues related to the system's usability and usage, as a means of enabling campus users to comment on their environment. Members of the university population were invited to comment on the university estate using one of five technologies (e-mail, online form, iPhone app, SMS message, or electronic kiosk). Although the immediate application area in this case was the design of public spaces, the approach can be transferred to other domains and thus provide a new way of gathering user information. Submitted comments were automatically analysed in terms of theme, sentiment, location and actionability and displayed online in a 2D visualisation. It is argued that that online data collection (crowd sourcing and skimming social networks) may provide a rich source of information for future ergonomists.     

Opinion expression via user comments on news websites: analysis through the perspective of the spiral of silence

User comments have become an essential part of news websites. In this article, we examine this mode of public expression via the theory of the spiral of silence. This is done while adopting alternative measures, with regard to three major issues on the Israeli agenda, and in comparison to expression in public, as in the traditional theory. Based on an Internet survey (n?=?712), the present study results support the relevancy of the spiral of silence to the online comment sphere. Perceived support for one’s opinion by the majority was found to have a positive and significant effect on the willingness to express opinion in the online sphere. The explanatory role of fear of isolation was more significant in the online sphere than in face-to-face context.     

Mapping social dynamics on Facebook: The Brexit debate

Nowadays users get informed and shape their opinion through social media. However, the disintermediated access to contents does not guarantee quality of information. Selective exposure and confirmation bias, indeed, have been shown to play a pivotal role in content consumption and information spreading. Users tend to select information adhering (and reinforcing) their worldview and to ignore dissenting information. This pattern elicits the formation of polarized groups – i.e., echo chambers – where the interaction with like-minded people might even reinforce polarization. In this work we address news consumption around Brexit in UK on Facebook. In particular, we perform a massive analysis on more than 1 million users interacting with Brexit related posts from the main news providers between January and July 2016. We show that consumption patterns elicit the emergence of two distinct communities of news outlets. Furthermore, to better characterize inner group dynamics, we introduce a new technique which combines automatic topic extraction and sentiment analysis. We compare how the same topics are presented on posts and the related emotional response on comments finding significant differences in both echo chambers and that polarization influences the perception of topics. Our results provide important insights about the determinants of polarization and evolution of core narratives on online debating.     

The facts of fake news: A research review

This article offers a review of scholarly research on the phenomenon of fake news. Most studies have so far focused on three main themes: the definition and the scope of the problem; the potential causes; and the impact of proposed solutions. First, scholarly research has defined fake news as a form of falsehood intended to primarily deceive people by mimicking the look and feel of real news. While initial research has shown that only a small fraction of the online audience is exposed to fake news, for this small group of individuals, the impact of fake news can be quite substantial. Second, studies have identified cognitive processes that make individuals more prone to the influence of fake news, such as confirmation bias, selective exposure, and lack of analytical thinking. Fake news also derives its power from its appeal to partisanship, perceived novelty, and repeated exposure facilitated by both bots and human users that share them in the online sphere. Finally, while fact checking has also risen in response to fake news, studies have found that corrections to wrong information only work on some individuals.     

NEWS ABOUT MURDER IN AN AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER: Effects of Relative Frequency and Race and Gender Typifications

Previous scholarly research on selection bias in news about murder indicates that race and gender stereotypes and, to a much lesser extent, the relative frequency of particular murders explain why some homicides are made into news and others are not. However, previous research has directed nearly exclusive attention to white newspapers. The present research remedies this omission by directing attention to the factors that shape selection bias in news about murder in a big-city African American newspaper. The results indicate that the relative frequency dimension of newsworthiness is a weak and inconsistent explanation of selection bias in news about murder in the black newspaper examined. Race, however, has profoundly different effects in white and African American newspapers. Whereas white newspapers use long-standing race stereotypes to filter news about murder, the data from the African American newspaper signal a firm rejection of the black image in the white mind (Entman and Rojecki 2000). Newspaper images of women and men are another matter. In both black and white newspapers, gender stereotypes uniformly filter news about murder and fundamentally distort gender effects. The implications of these findings are discussed including the clear need and ample scholarly room for replicative analyses of news about murder in other African American newspapers, with a keen eye on both "raced ways of seeing" (Hunt 1999, pp. 181–215) and gendered ways of seeing.     

Celebrating the 21st anniversary of empowerment evaluation with our critical friends

This special topic edition of E&PP presents the insights of luminaries in the field who have helped shape empowerment evaluation with their critiques, concerns, and congratulations. We celebrate their contributions to empowerment evaluation. This special topic edition of E&PP presents their comments about an evaluation approach that, according to president Stewart Donaldson, has “gone viral” across the globe (Donaldson, 2015).To set the stage for these critical friends’ comments, additional context for their discussion is provided. In addition, this special topic edition concludes with a brief comment on their thoughts.     

Fake News Is Real: The Significance and Sources of Disbelief in Mainstream Media in Trump’s America

Are appeals to discredit mainstream media reporting of political news in the guise of “fake news” merely a diversion from more fundamental threats to democratic politics and policymaking? Or is the emerging belief in “fake news” itself a looming threat? Using data from the Voter Study Group’s panel survey, we examine the relationship between disbelief in mainstream media and a wide range of social attitudes and policy preferences. We find that in December 2016, just after Trump’s election, belief in fake news wields an outsized influence, independent of partisanship, ideology, media consumption, and other established foundations of public opinion. The effects of fake news beliefs are especially pronounced on key elements of Trump’s rhetoric as candidate and as president—hostility toward immigrants, racial and religious minorities, gender equality, perceptions of America’s “greatness,” and even support for democratic norms and institutions itself. We also find some evidence that by January 2019, the belief in fake news has become even more focally associated with Trump. These findings portend the possibility of an emerging exclusionary, populist variant of American conservatism, of which disbelief in media institutions is a key component.     

Priming Implicit Racism in Television News: Visual and Verbal Limitations on Diversity

We highlight an understudied aspect of racism in television news, implicit racial cues found in the contradictions between visual and verbal messages. We compare three television news broadcasts from the first week after Hurricane Katrina to reexamine race and representation during the disaster. Drawing together insights from interdisciplinary studies of cognition and sociological theories of race and racism, we examine how different combinations of the race of reporters and news sources relate to the priming of implicit racism. We find racial cues that are consistent with stereotypes and myths about African Americans—even in broadcasts featuring black reporters—but which appear only in the context of color‐blind verbal narration. We conclude by drawing attention to the unexpected and seemingly unintended reproduction of racial ideology.     

Who Do You Say That I Am? A History of How Religion Communicators Have Often Avoided “Public Relations”

ABSTRACT

This article argues that Religion Communicators Council members have historically avoided identification with public relations—especially practices associated with Edward Bernays. Council members appear to consider Bernays’ research-based approach evil and manipulative. Instead, religion communicators follow in Ivy Lee's footsteps. The one-time journalist promised to provide honest, accurate news about his clients, not advertising. Comments in council documents have shown that since 1929 members describe themselves more as technicians and in-house journalists who provide news about their organizations than as management-level public relations counsels. These comments reflect Lee's 1905 Declaration of Principles and a public-information approach to public relations.     

Still a “female problem”: a framing analysis of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in Chinese online news

Approximately 562 million women in China are at risk for cervical cancer, which is mainly triggered by persistent infections with human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is also responsible for the majority of penile, anal, and oropharynx cancers in men. In this study, online Chinese news content was examined 12?months before and after the approval of the HPV vaccine in China. The coding instrument captured issue-specific and generic frames of the HPV vaccine. The sample of 224 online news articles revealed that headlines about the vaccine tended to be neutral in tone (48.7%); however, 32.1% of the sample did not mention the vaccine. Although information about vaccine efficacy, costs, and the populations recommended for vaccination increased after the approval, other information, such as safety concerns, increased significantly. Although 76.3% of the sample labeled the vaccine as a tool for cervical cancer prevention, they failed to recognize it as a method for preventing sexually transmitted diseases. In the sample, gender bias was present in both the headlines and content of the articles. For example, in the news stories, the consideration of the eligibility of males for vaccination, the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing diseases in men and the use of male exemplars were far from satisfactory. Moreover, the gender bias remained consistent over time. The implications of the findings and the contributions of the study are discussed.     

Bitch,slut, skank,cunt: patterned resistance to women’s visibility in digital publics

Resistance to women’s public voice and visibility via street harassment and workplace sexual harassment have long constrained women’s use of and comfort in physical public spaces; this gender-based resistance now extends into digital arenas. Women face extreme hostility in the form of digital sexism in discussion rooms, comment sections, gaming communities, and on social media platforms. Reflecting on two years of in-depth interviews with women who have been on the receiving end of gender-based digital abuse (n?=?38), conversations with industry professionals working in content moderation and digital safety, the extant literature, and news stories about digital attacks against women, I offer a lens to think through the prominent patterns in digital sexism, showing (1) that aggressors draw upon three overlapping strategies – intimidating, shaming, and discrediting – to limit women’s impact in digital publics, (2) the way femininity and femaleness are used to undermine women’s contributions, and (3) men call attention to women’s physicality as a way to pull gender – and the male advantage that comes with it – to the fore in digital exchanges. Finally, I argue that when digital sexism succeeds in pressing women out of digital spaces, constrains the topics they address publicly, or limits the ways they address them, we must consider the democratic costs of gender-based harassment, in addition to the personal ones.     

Gender differences in Chinese journalists' blogs

The explosion of Internet users and j-bloggers in mainland China makes Chinese j-blogs an area worthy of examination. This study focused on the gender differences in Chinese journalists' blogs. The study found that female j-bloggers were more likely to write about lifestyle issues and use the diary-like and rumor-mill formats, while male j-bloggers were more likely to discuss hard news topics and use the opinion column format. In addition, female j-bloggers in China were more likely to receive and respond to reader comments than male j-bloggers. Traditional social norms for gender may have influenced the content and format of Chinese j-blogs.     

Responsibility Inferences and Intergenerational Obligations to Parents and Stepparents: Are Step/Children Less Obligated When Older Adults Are at Fault for Their Problems?

Beliefs about intergenerational obligations to assist older adults are known to be influenced by contextual variables such as the type of kin relationship (i.e., stepparent, parent) between older and younger adults. One contextual variable that has not been studied is the degree to which older individuals are seen as culpable for their problems. If older kin are perceived to be at fault for their problems, are they seen as less deserving of help than if they are not to blame? Do judgments about being at fault for problems affect beliefs about helping parents differently than beliefs about helping stepparents? A random national sample of 229 men and 274 women responded to vignettes about an older parent or stepparent who needed help managing diabetes, which was presented as either the consequence of the older adult's actions or as an inherited illness. Respondents were asked about younger family members' obligations to help older adults, how much help younger adults and public agencies should provide, and how much older adults were responsible for themselves. The effects of older adults' marital status and sex of both adults also were examined. Obligations to stepparents were less than obligations to parents. The amount of help respondents thought should be provided was moderated by older adults' marital status. Obligations and aid to parents and stepparents generally were not affected by the older adults' culpability for the problems.     

Effects of online news forum on corporate reputation

This study tests the effects of online discussions about a company in an online news forum on people's perception of the corporate reputation of the company. The study is a 2 (tone of comments: negative versus positive) by 2 (number of comments: one versus five) factorial design experiment (n = 80). We found significant interaction effects between the two factors (tone versus number of comments) with regard to people's perception of the company's social responsiveness and employee treatment.