The echo chamber is overstated: the moderating effect of political interest and diverse media

ABSTRACT

In a high-choice media environment, there are fears that individuals will select media and content that reinforce their existing beliefs and lead to segregation based on interest and/or partisanship. This could lead to partisan echo chambers among those who are politically interested and could contribute to a growing gap in knowledge between those who are politically interested and those who are not. However, the high-choice environment also allows individuals, including those who are politically interested, to consume a wide variety of media, which could lead them to more diverse content and perspectives. This study examines the relationship between political interest as well as media diversity and being caught in an echo chamber (measured by five different variables). Using a nationally representative survey of adult internet users in the United Kingdom (N?=?2000), we find that those who are interested in politics and those with diverse media diets tend to avoid echo chambers. This work challenges the impact of echo chambers and tempers fears of partisan segregation since only a small segment of the population are likely to find themselves in an echo chamber. We argue that single media studies and studies which use narrow definitions and measurements of being in an echo chamber are flawed because they do not test the theory in the realistic context of a multiple media environment.     

闻一多《奇迹》本事及解读

闻一多的《奇迹》一诗长期以来是一个难以破解的谜。它表现了作30年代初感情上的一点“涟漪”。《奇迹》在美丽神秘的意象组合与语言的交织里隐秘地传达了一个爱的期待曲折跃动、炽热丰富的情感流程,表现了现代爱情诗的神秘美。从方令孺的两首新诗中更能体味《奇迹》情感爆发的深刻内涵和闻一多的理性精神。     

宋代的味论诗学与苏轼的诗味追求

味论诗学在宋代得到了长足的发展,它是宋代以味论艺总倾向的一部分。苏轼在诗歌创作实践中努力追求诗味,创作出了组诗杰作《和陶诗》。严羽、张戒等人对味论诗学都作出了自己的理论贡献。     

Readouts for echo-state networks built using locally regularized orthogonal forward regression

Echo state network (ESN) is viewed as a temporal expansion which naturally give rise to regressors of various relevance to a teacher output. We illustrate that often only a certain amount of the generated echo-regressors effectively explain the teacher output and we propose to determine the importance of the echo-regressors by a joint calculation of the individual variance contributions and Bayesian relevance using the locally regularized orthogonal forward regression (LROFR). This information can be advantageously used in a variety of ways for an analysis of an ESN structure. We present a locally regularized linear readout built using LROFR. The readout may have a smaller dimensionality than the ESN model itself, and improves robustness and accuracy of an ESN. Its main advantage is ability to determine what type of an additional readout is suitable for a task at hand. Comparison with PCA is provided too. We also propose a radial basis function (RBF) readout built using LROFR, since flexibility of the linear readout has limitations and might be insufficient for complex tasks. Its excellent generalization abilities make it a viable alternative to feed-forward neural networks or relevance-vector-machines. For cases where more temporal capacity is required we propose well studied delay&sum readout.     

医患门诊会话中回声问的特征分析

回声问广泛存在于言语交际中,近年来研究者日益意识到回声问在日常交际和机构会话交际中的重要性,但是对回声问的研究不够充分、系统,更鲜有研究关注医患门诊会话中回声问的特征。基于医患门诊自然会话,考察了医患门诊会话互动中的回声问,重点分析了回声问的特征。经过对语料的分析发现,在医患门诊会话中,医患双方使用的回声问具有问句和重复的双重特征：以平升调或高升调表征疑问,以全部重复或部分重复对方前一话语为重复特征,重复的先前话语可以是陈述句、祈使句、疑问句,从而深化了对回声问特征的认识,并为医学实践提供了一些启示。