外文橱窗 | 政治传播研究前沿

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1

Chinese computational propaganda: automation, algorithms and the manipulation of information about Chinese politics on Twitter and Weibo

中国计算化宣传：

自动化，算法以及推特和微博上的政治信息操纵

Gillian Bolsover ORCID Icon & Philip Howard ORCID Icon

Abstract

A 2016 review of literature about automation, algorithms and politics identified China as the foremost area in which further research was needed because of the size of its population, the potential for Chinese algorithmic manipulation in the politics of other countries, and the frequency of exportation of Chinese software and hardware. This paper contributes to the small body of knowledge on the first point (domestic automation and opinion manipulation) and presents the first piece of research into the second (international automation and opinion manipulation). Findings are based on an analysis of 1.5 million comments on official political information posts on Weibo and 1.1 million posts using hashtags associated with China and Chinese politics on Twitter. In line with previous research, little evidence of automation was found on Weibo. In contrast, a large amount of automation was found on Twitter. However, contrary to expectations and previous news reports, no evidence was found of pro-Chinese-state automation on Twitter. Automation on Twitter was associated with anti-Chinese-state perspectives and published in simplified Mandarin, presumably aimed at diasporic Chinese and mainland users who ‘jump the wall’ to access blocked platforms. These users come to Twitter seeking more diverse information and an online public sphere but instead they find an information environment in which a small number of anti-Chinese-state voices are attempting to use automation to dominate discourse. Our understanding of public conversation on Twitter in Mandarin is extremely limited and, thus, this paper advances the understanding of political communication on social media.

KEYWORDS

Twitter, Weibo, China, bots, politics,

computational propaganda

SOURCE

nformation, Communication & Society 

Published online: 24 May 2018

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1476576

2

Updating citizenship? The effects of digital media use on citizenship understanding and political participation

更新公民身份？

数字媒体使用对公民理解和政治参与的影响

Jakob Ohme ORCID Icon

Abstract

Is there a connection between increased use of digital media and changing patterns of political participation? This study tests how the use of online media for different purposes (social interaction, creative expression, online news use, social media news use) is related to three types of political participation. It examines whether mobilizing effects are partly indirect due to different understandings of citizenship (dutiful, optional, individual, collective) that may be fostered by digital media use. The study is based on a survey of a sample of the Danish population (n = 1322), including data from two online survey waves and a smartphone-based media diary that documents respondents’ social media use. Results indicate support for a new pathway to participation, but the relationship depends on whether citizens are socialized in a digital media environment.

KEYWORDS

 Social media, political participation, 

citizenship, civic norms, digital natives

SOURCE

Information, Communication & Society

Published online: 05 May 2018

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1469657

3

Concealing Corruption: How Chinese Officials Distort Upward Reporting of Online Grievances

腐败隐瞒：官员如何扭曲网上申诉的上报

JENNIFER PAN and KAIPING CHEN  

Abstract

A prerequisite for the durability of authoritarian regimes as well as their effective governance is the regime’s ability to gather reliable information about the actions of lower-tier officials. Allowing public participation in the form of online complaints is one approach authoritarian regimes have taken to improve monitoring of lower-tier officials. In this paper, we gain rare access to internal communications between a monitoring agency and upper-level officials in China. We show that citizen grievances posted publicly online that contain complaints of corruption are systematically concealed from upper-level authorities when they implicate lower-tier officials or associates connected to lower-tier officials through patronage ties. Information manipulation occurs primarily through omission of wrongdoing rather than censorship or falsification, suggesting that even in the digital age, in a highly determined and capable regime where reports of corruption are actively and publicly voiced, monitoring the behavior of regime agents remains a challenge.

SOURCE

American Political Science Review

Published online: 06 June 2018

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055418000205

4

Remembering Political Messages in Dynamic Information Environments: Insights from Eye Movements

眼球运动视角下在动态信息环境中

记住政治信息

Jason C Coronel  Matthew D Sweitzer

Abstract

An important but understudied characteristic of the information environment involves political information changing across time. This dynamic feature of the environment can make it difficult for voters to possess accurate political knowledge. In this study, we assessed memory for political information using self-report and eye movement methods. We used these metrics to examine how individuals learn facts about policies whose important features have changed across time. We find that eye movements can accurately assess changes in political information even when self-reports fail to do so. Our results highlight the utility of a converging methods approach in the study of dynamic information environments, and specify mechanisms that facilitate or inhibit people’s capacity to recognize changes in political information.

SOURCE

Human Communication Research

Published: 18 May 2018  Article history

https://academic.oup.com/hcr/

5

Rethinking Censorship: A Case Study of Singaporean Media

反思审查制度 - 以新加坡媒体为例

Siao Yuong Fong

Abstract

Singapore is often represented as an example of a successful “postcolonial” society that transitioned into a developed nation and economy. The government articulates its reliance on enlightenment ideals such as reason and meritocracy, separation of church and state, and equality; but at the same time draws its legitimacy from articulations of “tradition” based on “ethnicity” and “culture.” These contradictions extend to censorship, particularly since the state actively censors the media when it comes to issues of race and religion whenever they threaten to disrupt the appearance of equality, while selectively using repackaged “Asian values” to justify their interventions. To convolute matters further, critics and academics often employ quasi-Western concepts of “freedom of expression” to critique state censorship. So, what underlying assumptions do these various representations articulate? And how do these rival articulations relate to the ways censorship work in practice? Drawing on ethnographic materials obtained during an intensive 15-month fieldwork conducted between 2012 and 2013, this article aims to complicate dominant conceptualisations of censorship by shifting its focus onto situated practices.

KEYWORDS

Singapore, censorship, ethnography, practices, 

articulation, media and cultural studies

SOURCE

Javnost - The Public 

Published online: 23 May 2018

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13183222.2018.1463350

6

Googling for Trump: investigating online information seeking during the 2016 US presidential election

用谷歌搜索特朗普：关于2016年美国总统选举期间网络信息搜索的调查

Florian Arendt & Nayla Fawzi

Abstract

Search engines are increasingly used by citizens to seek out political information. Both the high frequency of use and the high credibility attributed to them by their users emphasize the need for research on search engines’ role in the democratic process. The present paper reports on a case study on online information seeking (OIS) via search engines during the 2016 US presidential election. Presidential candidate Donald Trump was largely unknown as a politician, was opposed by the vast majority in elite circles, broke the standard niceties of politics, and practiced a style of politics based on riot and conflict. Based on these attention-gaining maneuvers, we predicted that citizens would show an OIS bias toward Trump (compared to Hillary Clinton). Importantly, we hypothesized that key events broadly categorizable as gaffes, scandal, or gossip influenced OIS bias due to a general negativity bias. We used a retrospective database study relying on query share data from the search engine Google to test these assumptions. Consistent with our predictions, we found that there was a substantial OIS bias toward Trump and that negatively-valenced key events influenced the size of the OIS bias meaningfully. Of interest, additional analyses revealed a correlation between OIS bias and election outcome: The higher the OIS bias toward Trump, the less citizens voted for Trump. We offer post hoc theorizing on this explorative finding.

KEYWORDS

 Information seeking, search engines,

 election, Google, negativity bias

SOURCE

Information, Communication & Society 

Published online: 11 May 2018

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1473459

7

“Fake News” and Emerging Online Media Ecosystem: An Integrated Intermedia Agenda-Setting Analysis of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

“假新闻”和新兴网络媒体生态系统：对2016年美国总统大选的综合跨媒体议程设置分析

Lei Guo, Chris Vargo  

Abstract

This study examined how fake news, misinformation, and satire, affected the emerging media ecosystem during the 2016 U.S. presidential election through an integrated intermedia agenda-setting analysis, which studies broad attributes and myopic stories and events. A computer-assisted content analysis of millions of news articles was conducted alongside a qualitative analysis of popular news headlines and articles. The results showed that websites that spread misinformation had a fairly close intermedia agenda-setting relationship with fact-based media in covering Trump, but not for the news about Clinton. Satire websites barely interacted with the agenda of other media outlets. Overall, it seemed that rather than playing a unique agenda-setting role in this emerging media landscape, fake news websites added some noise to an already sensationalized news environment. 

SOURCE

Communication Research: SAGE Journals

First Published June 4, 2018 Research Article 

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0093650218777177#

8

Social media campaigns, electoral momentum, and vote shares: evidence from the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election

社交媒体活动，选举动力和投票权：以2016年香港立法委员会选举为例

Gary Tang & Francis L. F. Lee

Abstract

By studying candidates’ Facebook fan pages and rolling poll data during the Hong Kong Legislative Council election in 2016, this article aims at examining the relationships between candidates’ campaign performance on social media, electoral momentum, and vote shares. We contend that, under specific contextual conditions, social media campaigns could affect candidates’ momentum during the election period, which can in turn affect vote shares. We also examine how the relationships between social media performance and electoral momentum vary according to the candidates’ background characteristics, including age, political affiliation, incumbency status, and scale of the campaign of the political group to which the candidates belong. The results show that candidates’ social media performance can indeed predict vote shares indirectly via the mediation of electoral momentum. The predictive power of social media performance is stronger for pro-democracy candidates, incumbents, and candidates belonging to political groups with larger election campaigns.

KEYWORDS

Social media, Facebook,

 electoral momentum, voting, Hong Kong

SOURCE

Asian Journal of Communication

Published online: 17 May 2018

https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2018.1476564

9

Television vs. YouTube: political advertising in the 2012 presidential election

电视与YouTube：

2012年总统选举中的政治广告

Porismita Borah, Erika Fowler & Travis Nelson Ridout

Abstract

Few studies have examined political content on YouTube, especially in comparison to the traditional television spots. Relying on both audience- and platform-based theories, we develop expectations of differences in content between political ads posted online and aired on television. We use content analysis to compare both online political ads and televised political ads from the 2012 presidential campaign, relying upon data from YouTube and the Wesleyan Media Project. We find that negative ads are more likely to be sponsored by groups than candidates on both television and YouTube. Online ads are less negative and less policy focused. By comparing ads made for TV uploaded to YouTube and those only on YouTube, we find that there is no difference in viewership between the two types, but online ads are more likely to be shared.

KEYWORDS

Political advertising, YouTube, 

2012 presidential election, content analysis

SOURCE

Journal of Information Technology & Politics 

Published online: 29 May 2018

 https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2018.1476280 

10

Exploring Citizens’ Hierarchical Government Satisfaction: Evidence from China and Taiwan

探索公民阶层政府满意度：以中国和台湾为例

HSIN-HAO HUANG 

Abstract

Although the importance of public satisfaction is well documented, few studies have been conducted on the diversity of citizens’ evaluations of the various levels of government. This study explored hierarchical government satisfaction among the public in two culturally Chinese societies, namely China and Taiwan. Basing the analysis on the perspective of responsibility attribution, this paper proposes that the two publics’ distinctive perceptions, which are shaped by different information flows, lead hierarchical government satisfaction in the two societies in separate directions. This argument is supported by the empirical findings from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey. The findings confirm that personal evaluations, including household economic satisfaction, democratic evaluation, and public service confidence, exert more influence over local government satisfaction in China, but conversely have a greater impact on central government satisfaction in Taiwan. Moreover, these evaluations are shown to affect hierarchical government satisfaction differently in the two societies. The evidence reveals that the two publics attribute blame for problems to different administrative objects: Chinese citizens tend to blame local governments, whereas Taiwanese citizens are inclined to criticize the central government.

SOURCE

Japanese Journal of Political Science

Published online: 22 May 2018

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109918000026

11

Political communication in election processes: an overview

选举过程中的政治传播概述

Guillermo López-García& José M. Pavía

Abstract

Influenced by both the impact of digital technologies and the social and political changes experienced in Western societies, the processes of political communication have undergone profound transformations in recent years. This paper introduces the themed issue of Contemporary Social Science devoted to the topic, entitled ‘Election Campaigns and Political Communication’. The themed issue provides an overview of up-to-date interdisciplinary, international research that investigates the complex dynamics linking election campaigns and political communication in the era of internet. Without overlooking the theoretical contributions, the 11 papers that complete this special issue address various aspects related to the field of political communication from an eminently empirical perspective. The contributions are varied and have been presented by experts from diverse fields such as political science, communication or data science.

KEYWORDS

Social media, internet, 

election campaigns, populism

SOURCE

Contemporary Social Science-Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences , Published online: 01 Jun 2018

https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2018.1479040 

12

Political Humour in the Social Network Sites

社交网站中的政治幽默

Ayşe Aslı Sezgin

Abstract

“Social network sites” first began to be used as new tools of political communication during the 2008 Presidential Election in the United States, and their importance became even more apparent during the Arab Spring. In the course of this, the social network sites became a new and widely discussed channel of communication. In addition to its ability to bring together people from different parts of the world by removing any time and space barriers, creates a virtual network that allows individuals with shared social values to take action in an organized manner. Furthermore, this novel, versatile and multi-faceted tool of political communication has also provided a new mean for observing various aspects of social reactions to political events. Instead of voters expressing their political views through their votes from one election to the other, we nowadays have voters who actively take part in political processes by instantly demonstrating their reactions and by directly communicating their criticisms online.

SOURCE

Studies in Media and Communication 6(1):70 · May 2018 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325427809_Political_Humour_in_the_Social_Network_Sites

13

Political Communication: The Devil's Advocate of Social Manipulation

政治传播：社会操纵的倡导者

Bayan KojokFollow

Abstract

My research investigates the political exchange of information, interpretation, debate and use of symbols, in relation to the intent of promoting set values and interests to influence political and societal decisions. I will be studying the interactions and mediums of communication utilized between the actors of said exchanges, along with the political messages conveyed and the consequences this may have on the formation of political and public’s discourses. My research will not only address the current political climate of North America but previous ones as well, dating back to the 19th Century. I will utilize an ongoing study that the International Association for Media and Communication Research is conducting which studies media as a medium of communication to convey a political message via campaigns and elections, along with political marketing processes in government and the role media play in local and informal forms of governance. While this research tackles many important aspects in respect to political communication, I found that the variables being studied were limited in respect to depth on the subject- thereby necessitating my research proposal. Conducting this research will not only shed light on the strategic advancements that political discourse hopes to transcend over societal beliefs, but it will also compare approaches that were formerly exploited for the same reasons. These questions will be answered with the assistance of varying methods, including but not limited to Semiotic, Rhetorical and Historical Analysis, as well as Digital Ethnography. The research is provisional at this time, however the preliminary results suggests that despite what many choose to believe, History is not history and it is in fact repeating itself – the only thing that has changed is the medium of communication. It also points towards a social marginalization; specifically when political propaganda is most frequent (i.e. elections). If that is the case, then what is the social context and what does this say about our society? These are all concerns that I hope to address when my research is concluded. I also hope that further research will be conducted after the fact to review these factors on an international scale in order to determine how political discourse impacts society in other dimensions of the globe and how these findings shape their own society, economy and culture.

SOURCE

https://b.beijingbang.top/scholar/scholar_url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.uwindsor.ca%2Fuwilldiscover%2F2018%2Fall2018%2F93%2F&hl=zh-CN&sa=T&ct=res&cd=222&ei=s40XW5nHDoumywTp7IWQBA&scisig=AAGBfm2GcgZqdEY8FHee__tqBNK_9AYBfg&nossl=1&ws=1249x631

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