Disinformation,performed: self-presentation of a Russian IRA account on Twitter

ABSTRACT

How disinformation campaigns operate and how they fit into the broader social communication environment – which has been described as a ‘disinformation order’ [Bennett & Livingston, (2018). The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions. European Journal of Communication, 33(2), 122–139] – represent critical, ongoing questions for political communication. We offer a thorough analysis of a highly successful disinformation account run by Russia’s Internet Research Agency: the so-called ‘Jenna Abrams’ account. We analyze Abrams’ tweets and other content such as blogposts with qualitative discourse analysis, assisted by quantitative content analysis and metadata analysis. This yields an in-depth understanding of how the IRA team behind the Abrams account presented this persona across multiple platforms and over time. Especially, we describe the techniques used to perform personal authenticity and cultural competence. The performance of personal authenticity was central to her persona building as a likeable American woman, whereas the performance of cultural competence enabled her to infiltrate American conservative communities with resonant messages. Implications for understanding disinformation processes, and how some aspects of the hybrid media system are especially vulnerable to hijacking by bad actors are discussed.     

Disaster vulnerability,displacement, and infectious disease: Nicaragua and Hurricane Mitch

Population and Environment - Research conducted among socially vulnerable populations caught in the paths of natural disasters represents the forefront of our understanding the health-related...     

Robust precision matrix estimation via weighted median regression with regularization

A precision matrix is an important parameter of interests because its elements describe useful association information among multiple variables, which has a wide variety of applications. For example, it is used for inferring gene regulation networks in genomic studies and stock association networks in financial studies. However, in many cases, the precision matrix needs to be robustly estimated due to the presence of outliers. We propose estimating a sparse scaled precision matrix via weighted median regression with regularization. Our weighted median regression approach is consistent under various distributional assumptions including multivariate t‐ or contaminated Gaussian distributions. This fact is illustrated with simulation studies and a real data analysis with monthly stock return data. The Canadian Journal of Statistics 46: 265–278; 2018 © 2018 Statistical Society of Canada     

Marginal information for structure learning

Structure learning for Bayesian networks has been made in a heuristic mode in search of an optimal model to avoid an explosive computational burden. In the learning process, a structural error which occurred at a point of learning may deteriorate its subsequent learning. We proposed a remedial approach to this error-for-error process by using marginal model structures. The remedy is made by fixing local errors in structure in reference to the marginal structures. In this sense, we call the remedy a marginally corrective procedure. We devised a new score function for the procedure which consists of two components, the likelihood function of a model and a discrepancy measure in marginal structures. The proposed method compares favourably with a couple of the most popular algorithms as shown in experiments with benchmark data sets.     

Challenges of Forest Governance: the Case of Forest Rehabilitation in Vietnam

Public Organization Review - Building upon the perspectives of the policy arrangement approach, this article explores the extent to which forest governance has changed under the two national...     

Why do people take to the streets? Understanding the multidimensional motivations of protesting publics

This study enhances our understanding of protesting publics by exploring the motivations that trigger individuals to take part in protests. This study used 22 in-depth interviews for one case and 25 in-depth interviews for another to investigate why individuals participate in anti-government protests. At the collective level, individuals participated in protests to communicate with and warn their governments; at the individual level, protestors expected to learn through active participation, gain personal satisfaction, and vent their emotions. This study contributes to public relations theory and practices specific to government public relations.     

Determinants of state long-term debt: The political market framework

Because it focuses on the moderating role of political institutions – which emphasize equilibrium policy outcomes under different institutional arrangements derived from the interaction of policy supply and demand – the political market framework provides useful insights for analyzing the determinants of state long-term debt. Thus, different types of state political institutions should affect the degree of long-term debt in terms of specific demands and supply. Despite the numerous studies that have either applied the political market approach to local governments in policy areas or have analyzed the determinants of long-term debt from only a financial management perspective, few studies have applied the political market framework to state governments. Thus, adopting a state financial management perspective and conducting a panel data analysis using state data from 1980 to 2014, this study identifies the reasons why state governments act on long-term obligations in terms of the political market framework. This study also aims to expand the application of the political market framework to state governments and to integrate determinants of state long-term indebtedness.     

Influencing factors to have an additional child by working women in Korea

This study aims to explore the effects of individual and regional characteristics on working women’s intention of additional childbirth in Korea. Since most the individuals generally revolve within their own hierarchically structured regions, data from 2012 Population and Housing Census Statistics are utilized in the analysis. The hierarchical generalized liner model is employed to find out the effects of individual and regional factors, while comparisons of these results are made using the binary logistic model. And finally, Heckman 2-stage model is applied in order to determine if selection bias is present. The results indicate that the working women ultimately deal with economic aspects on their decision for additional childbirth. Regional characteristics variables, namely unemployment rate, city type, private education cost, workplace daycare facilities and government budget for childcare, reflect economic aspects in households. These findings address important policy implications to overcome low fertility rate in the era of increasing number of working women.     

Multiple assessors of child welfare youths' mental‐health functioning: comparing perceptions of adolescents,caregivers and teachers

For youth involved with the child welfare system, accurate assessment of mental‐health functioning is a critical factor in case planning. To assess correspondence among multiple reporters of child welfare youths' mental‐health difficulties, this study, using data drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐being dataset, examined the caregiver, teacher and youth (aged 11–16 years) reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (n = 464). Perceptions about symptomatology on a variety of externalizing and internalizing behaviour problem scales were measured with a correlation analysis. Subsequently, logistic regression models were created, which explored how each reporter category matched a fourth reporter category: the child welfare investigation caseworkers' identification of youths' mental‐health needs. Results show that in several models, the odds of matching caseworkers' determination of youths' mental‐health needs significantly increased as youths' perceptions of psychopathology increased. A similar pattern was found for caregivers' perceptions in some of the models, across both internalizing and externalizing domains. Implications for child welfare practice and research with child welfare youth are discussed.     

The Curious Case of Self‐Interest: Inconsistent Effects and Ambivalence toward a Widely Accepted Construct

Self‐interest is widely accepted as a powerful motivator by both academics and laypeople alike. However, research surrounding the self‐interest motive paints a complicated picture of this most important psychological construct. Additionally, research on the social desirability of self‐interest has revealed that despite its widespread acceptance, people do not readily accept that self‐interest drives their own behaviors. This paper reviews the literature on self‐interest and reveals several curious features surrounding its actual effect on helping behaviors, political attitudes and voting, and people's apparent ambivalence toward self‐interest as a motive. It is possible that norms against the expression of self‐interestedness evolved, creating ambivalence towards this widely accepted construct, subsequently affecting its expression on many human behaviors.