外文橱窗丨政治传播研究前沿
01
The New Silk Road on Facebook: How China’s official media cover and frame a national initiative for global audiences
Facebook上的“新丝绸之路”：中国官方媒体如何报道和框架针对全球受众的国家倡议
Fan Liang
Abstract
The New Silk Road has been considered as China’s core foreign policy since 2013. This initiative is paralleled by the expansion of China’s official media on Western networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. These projects indicate China’s ambitious plans for promoting its hard power and soft power. This study examines the news production and framing of the New Silk Road by China’s official media on Facebook, as well as predictors for explaining audience engagement with these news outlets. By examining 43,239 posts relating to the national initiative, this study finds that China’s media build distinct news topics and sentiments for the New Silk Road and countries involved in the policy to achieve the official goal of “spreading China’s voices.” Moreover, news topics and sentiment play significant roles in encouraging Facebook users to like, share, and comment on news stories about the New Silk Road.
Keywords
Audience engagement, content analysis,
media bias, New Silk Road, soft power
Source
Communication and the Public,Published January 8, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047319894654
02
Online partisan news and China’s country image: an experiment based on partisan motivated reasoning
在线政党新闻与中国国家形象：基于党派动机推理的实验研究
Chen Yang&Gi Woong Yun
Abstract
This research used a 2 × 2 pretest-posttest experimental design to measure China’s image after participants’ exposure to news stimuli on a partisan news website. Two manipulated factors were media congruency (congruent or incongruent) and news coverage (positive or negative). No effect of news coverage was detected, but congruent media led to significantly higher scores in country beliefs than incongruent media. In addition, a significant boomerang effect was found between news coverage and media congruency: the same positive coverage, when embedded in the congruent partisan media, resulted in the biggest enhancement of country beliefs and desired interaction, but led to the largest setback for these two dimensions when embedded in the incongruent partisan media. The findings suggest that when processing news about China, partisans are partially motivated by directional goals in the cognitive and conative components of China’s country image, but stick to accuracy goals in the affective dimension.
Keywords
country image, partisan news, partisan motivated reasoning, media effects
Source
Asian Journal of Communication,Published
05 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2020.1725074
03
‘Panda engagement’ in China’s digital public diplomacy
中国数字公共外交中的“熊猫参与”
Zhao Alexandre Huang &Rui Wang
Abstract
Applying a constructive journalistic paradigm, we examined how the Chinese media digitalized panda diplomacy on Twitter. By analyzing English-language, panda-themed tweets (N = 855) posted by Chinese state-owned media (Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and CGTN) in 2017, we identified content types and communication engagement practices that contributed to Chinese digital diplomacy. Our findings confirm that the practice of panda engagement online is highly politicized in the context of China’s public diplomacy. Chinese media outlets use Twitter (a) to spread official discourse and views in the diplomatic arena to strengthen the government’s impact and (b) to accrue sympathy capital and increase attractiveness through strategic placement of imagery (e.g. static images, moving gifs, and video clips) and textual narrative.
Keywords
Constructive journalism, digital public diplomacy, engagement, panda, Twitter
Source
Asian Journal of Communication,Published 05 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2020.1725075
04
Political news and happiness: the difference between traditional media and new media use
政治新闻与幸福：传统媒体与新媒体使用的区别
Yuxiang Hong &Peiqing Zhang
Abstract
Traditional media (e.g., newspapers, radio, and television) and new media (e.g., the Internet, SNS, and mobile devices) are equally important in individuals’ access to political news about governmental performance and social problems. This study is aimed at examining the effects of political news media use on civil happiness. The mediation effects of public trust in government (GT) and their perceived social risks (PSR) are considered. Specifically, GT concerns people’s trust that government functions in the public interest and fulfills its promises, while PSR is individuals’ perception of the risks of social problems. A total of 3,561 samples were used in the final data analysis. In line with theoretical arguments, the empirical evidence showed that the influence of political news exposure through traditional media (PTMU) and new media use (PNMU) on happiness differed. For example, PTMU increased happiness by enhancing GT, but it was not the case in PNMU. PNMU decreased happiness by enhancing PSR; however, its effect on PTMU was insignificant. The results suggest that the accessibility of political news should be enhanced, and the level of public trust in the government should be increased to promote civil happiness.
Keywords
political news media use, happiness, trust in government, perceived social risks
Source
Chinese Journal of Communication
,Published 22 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2020.1731562
05
China’s globalizing internet: history, power, and governance
中国互联网全球化：历史、权力与治理
Yu Hong &Eric Harwit
The specter of global digital China looms large in foreign policy debates around the world. Political headlines fuel a polarizing sentiment. The ongoing US–China trade dispute, in particular, has sucked ZTE, Huawei, and even TikTok into a vortex of geopolitical actions, countermeasures, and performative escalation. Issues pertaining to security, privacy, and development are further generalized through the mass mediation by international news, regional diplomacy, and social media. Out of this fast-moving, confounding situation, one thing is warranted for critical reflection: technological interfaces with the global system, as emblematized by what we call “China’s globalizing internet,” are crucial to understanding the dynamic and dialectical global communication order.
Source
Chinese Journal of Communication,Published 03 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2020.1722903
06
Digital propaganda, political bots and polarized politics in India
印度的数字宣传、政治机器人和两极分化的政治
Taberez Ahmed Neyazi
Abstract
The use of digital propaganda during crises and elections to manipulate public opinion, suppress dissent, and diminish activists’ voices has been increasingly witnessed in recent times in both developed and developing countries. Digital propaganda refers to the use of machines in addition to human users to interact with humans or run a campaign on the internet, computer and mobile devices designed to deliberately manipulate public opinion during crises or elections. While developing countries continue to have a limited internet base, this has not deterred political actors from integrating the internet into their propaganda strategies. Using Twitter data on two international conflicts between India and Pakistan – the Uri attack and the subsequent Surgical Strike – I show how online public opinion has been manipulated by a handful of sources that are driven by algorithms. Online public opinion has been able to enter the offline domain because of the contextual hybridity and the emergence of a hybrid media system. These findings reflect the limitations of public opinion in the digital age, and call attention to political polarization in the country. I discuss the need to integrate computational techniques with critical analysis of tweets and suspicious Twitter accounts to identify political bots online.
Keywords
Political bots, political polarization, digital propaganda, Twitter, public opinion, India
Source
Asian Journal of Communication,Published 06 Dec 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2019.1699938
07
The power of voice: bots, democracy and the problem of political ventriloquism
声音的力量：机器人、民主和政治腹语的问题
Catherine Frost
Abstract
This paper considers the problem of political ventriloquism in a digital age. Democracy relies on the authority of collective voice conceived of as constituent power or vox populi but new technologies that mimic human participation can divert public debate, posing a threat to authenticity and accountability. If ventriloquism primarily serves to manipulate the gullible, the practice should be curtailed. However, this neglects the power of ventriloquism to also open politics to new voices and minimizes the responsibility of listeners. Efforts to address the practice, therefore, cannot follow a model based on simple silencing without prioritizing pacification over transformation.
Keywords
Voice, democracy, constituent power, ventriloquism, bots
Source
Journal of Political Power,Published 12 Dec 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2019.1701831
08
Making up Audience: Media Bots and the Falsification of the Public Sphere
编造受众：媒体机器人与公共领域的造假
Rose Marie Santini,Debora Salles,Giulia Tucci,Fernando Ferreira &Felipe Grael
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to discuss if and how Brazilian media outlets make use of automated strategies and artificial intelligence (AI) in order to produce convenient social media metrics about themselves and amplify their relevance on Twitter. We examine how media bots can manipulate online ratings, change social perception of what is relevant and increase engagement with both on- and offline media entities. We extracted three types of data: (i) 530,942 tweets containing at least one URL from Globo Group or Folha Group collected via Twitter API; (ii) URL metadata from 158,690 articles by Globo Group and Folha Group; (iii) Twitter trending topics in Brazil. Profiles that posted links were later sampled and classified using the Botometer. Automated and human accounts were analyzed regarding their posting frequency and speed. In this paper, we assess the hypothesis that the existence of media bots is affecting the Twittersphere in Brazil, where automated accounts, empowered by AI, might be responsible for a substantial share of the links to popular Brazilian media outlets on Twitter. Our research provides quantitative empirical evidence that bots are particularly active in amplifying news media links in the initial moments of spreading. Additionally, automated accounts play an important role in promoting TV broadcast programs in Brazil. Based on these evidences, we discuss the strategies adopted by Brazilian media corporations to sustain their omnipresence online that boosts their online audience.
Keywords
Social media, bot, audience manipulation, media outlet, Twitter
Source
Communication Studies,Published 05 Mar 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2020.1735466
09
The disconcerting potential of online disinformation: Persuasive effects of astroturfing comments and three strategies for inoculation against them
网络虚假信息令人不安的潜在性：造谣评论的说服作用及三种预防策略
Thomas Zerback, Florian Töpfl, Maria Knöpfle
Abstract
This study is the first to scrutinize the psychological effects of online astroturfing in the context of Russia’s digitally enabled foreign propaganda. Online astroturfing is a communicative strategy that uses websites, “sock puppets,” or social bots to create the false impression that a particular opinion has widespread public support. We exposed N = 2353 subjects to pro-Russian astroturfing comments and tested: (1) their effects on political opinions and opinion certainty and (2) the efficiency of three inoculation strategies to prevent these effects. All effects were investigated across three issues and from a short- and long-term perspective. Results show that astroturfing comments can indeed alter recipients’ opinions, and increase uncertainty, even when subjects are inoculated before exposure. We found exclusively short-term effects of only one inoculation strategy (refutational-same). As these findings imply, preemptive media literacy campaigns should deploy (1) continuous rather than one-time efforts and (2) issue specific rather than abstract inoculation messages.
Keywords
countermeasures, disinformation, inoculation, misinformation, online astroturfing, opinion certainty, Russia, state propaganda, uncertainty
Source
Journal of Public Relations Research
,Published March 4, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820908530
10
Mistrust, Disinforming News, and Vote Choice: A Panel Survey on the Origins and Consequences of Believing Disinformation in the 2017 German Parliamentary Election
不信任，虚假新闻和投票选择：对2017年德国国会选举中相信虚假信息的成因和后果的小组调查
Fabian Zimmermann,&Matthias Kohring
Abstract
In this paper, we address the question of whether disinforming news spread online possesses the power to change the prevailing political circumstances during an election campaign. We highlight factors for believing disinformation that until now have received little attention, namely trust in news media and trust in politics. A panel survey in the context of the 2017 German parliamentary election (N = 989) shows that believing disinforming news had a specific impact on vote choice by alienating voters from the main governing party (i.e., the CDU/CSU), and driving them into the arms of right-wing populists (i.e., the AfD). Furthermore, we demonstrate that the less one trusts in news media and politics, the more one believes in online disinformation. Hence, we provide empirical evidence for Bennett and Livingston’s notion of a disinformation order, which forms in opposition to the established information system to disrupt democracy.
Keywords
online disinformation, institutional mistrust, voting behavior, panel data, structural equation modeling
Source
Political Communication, Published online: 01 Jan 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2019.1686095
11
Online disinformation in the run-up to the Indian 2019 election
印度2019年大选前夕的网络虚假信息
Anupam Das &Ralph Schroeder
Abstract
This essay examines the role of disinformation in the Indian general election of 2019. The findings are presented against the background of previous work on the role of digital media in Indian politics. The essay uses 25 in-depth interviews among ordinary Indians to probe their level of awareness about so-called ‘fake news’. It also examines their behavior in seeking news and sharing political information and their views about the digital campaign strategies of leaders and parties. The interviewees were concerned about the increasing role of religious extremism online. Yet they were also strongly aware of the role of disinformation campaigns and had strategies for working around being misled by information shared on social media. The essay concludes by assessing how disinformation and online extremism are likely to have affected the 2019 election, and makes comparisons with Modi's election in 2014 and with other leaders.
Keywords
Disinformation, fake news, social media, Indian election
Source
Information, Communication & Society
,Published 10 Mar 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1736123
12
Troll Factories: Manufacturing Specialized Disinformation on Twitter
巨魔工厂：推特上的专业虚假信息制造
Darren L. Linvill &Patrick L. Warren
Abstract
We document methods employed by Russia’s Internet Research Agency to influence the political agenda of the United States from September 9, 2009 to June 21, 2018. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyze Twitter accounts with known IRA affiliation to better understand the form and function of Russian efforts. We identified five handle categories: Right Troll, Left Troll, News Feed, Hashtag Gamer, and Fearmonger. Within each type, accounts were used consistently, but the behavior across types was different, both in terms of “normal” daily behavior and in how they responded to external events. In this sense, the Internet Research Agency’s agenda-building effort was “industrial” – mass produced from a system of interchangeable parts, where each class of part fulfilled a specialized function.
Keywords
Twitter, social media, disinformation, Internet Research Agency
Source
Political Communication,Published
05 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2020.1718257
13
‘I saw it on Facebook’: an experimental analysis of political learning through social media
“我在Facebook上看到的”：通过社交媒体进行政治学习的实验分析
Jessica T. Feezell &Brittany Ortiz
Abstract
The maldistribution of political knowledge in society has important consequences for individual-level political behavior and the representativeness of governmental policies. Increased media selectivity threatens to widen the gap between the politically well-informed and the less-informed by decreasing chance encounters with incidental political information. This study asks: Does exposure to incidental political information through social media promote political learning among users? We conduct two longitudinal, controlled experiments administered through the Facebook platform, and find no statistical difference in the levels of factual political knowledge among participants exposed to political information compared to those who were not. However, those in the treatment group with low political interest may be more likely to venture an incorrect guess than those in the control group, suggesting that exposure to incidental political information through social media may lead to an increase in self-perceived knowledge among some.
Keywords
Social media, political communication, ICTs, Incidental Exposure
Source
Communication and the Public,Published
06 Dec 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1697340
14
Civil society, the media and the Internet: changing roles and challenging authorities in digital political communication ecologies
公民社会、媒体和互联网：数字政治传播生态中的角色转变与权威挑战
Thomas Häussler
Abstract
The digital transformation has had a profound impact on political communication. It has lowered the access barrier for actors to become publicly visible and reconfigured predominantly vertical flows of information into horizontal communication networks. Media-centric studies hold that these ‘hybrid media systems’ do not subvert the analogue order tout court, as the media still occupy a central role in selection and distribution processes. In contrast to this, social movement scholars interested in digital forms of mobilization show that civil society actors can directly engage their base and the wider public. Because of this focus, the status and role of the media in these connective efforts has remained largely neglected. This study extends the view of both media-centric and social movement research by asking how the media are included in civil society mobilization efforts online and what status and role they have. Analysing the online communication around the UK climate change debate over a 30-month period, we show that while the media account for a substantial amount of the actors in the networks generated by civil society actors and bloggers, they become more marginal with respect to the authority they command. Not only are they replaced by bloggers as focal points in these digital political communication ecologies, they become next to irrelevant in allocating visibility and attention to other actors. This has ambivalent consequences for democratic discourse, as online debates become more inclusive but also more fragmented, lacking common points of reference.
Keywords
Internet, blogs, civil society, authority, media hybridity
Source
Communication and the Public,Published
14 Dec 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1697338
15
What drives political news engagement in digital spaces? Reimagining ‘echo chambers’ in a polarised and hybridised media ecology
是什么推动政治新闻在数字空间的参与？在极化和错杂的媒体生态中重塑“回声室”
Ashleigh L. Haw
Abstract
Today’s hybridised media landscape has brought about fundamental shifts in political news consumption, increasing concerns about polarisation and ‘echo chambers.’ There is, however, no clear consensus regarding how echo chambers impact exposure to dissenting ideas or the purpose they serve for audiences. This paper discusses research combining Critical Discourse Analysis with a cultural studies Audience Reception epistemology to explore how 24 Western Australians engage with online news representations of asylum seekers. Findings revealed that, while many self-selected into echo chambers, most were motivated by convenience and/or self-care, and echo chambers did not restrict exposure to dissenting ideas. I argue that these findings challenge those reported in the ‘selective exposure’ literature, aligning more closely with a ‘uses and gratifications’ framework. I discuss the implications for communications scholarship and practice, highlighting a need to re-orient conceptualisations of news consumption that problematise echo chambers and more closely examine the different functions echo chambers serve.
Keywords
media, political news, echo chambers, critical discourse analysis, audience reception, uses and gratifications
Source
Communication Research and Practice
,Published 19 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/22041451.2020.1732002
16
Mobilizing media: comparing TV and social media effects on protest mobilization
媒体动员：比较电视和社交媒体对抗议动员的影响
Shelley Boulianne,Karolina Koc-Michalska &Bruce Bimber
Abstract
The year 2017 saw a cycle of protest ignited by President Trump’s election and subsequent policies. This research seeks to investigate the role of social media and television in raising awareness of protest events and increasing participation in marches and demonstrations. This paper uses data from two surveys conducted in May and June 2017, during the peak of this cycle of protest. We explore the role of social media for protest participation (in general) as well as for awareness and participation in the Women’s March and March for Science. We find that Twitter use offers more consistent effects compared to Facebook in relation to the cycle of protest. In contrast, television use has no impact on awareness and thus, limited potential for mobilization. Social media is distinctive in relation to mobilization, because of social networking features that allow people to learn about specific events, discuss the issues, expose people to invitations to participation, as well as identify members of one’s social network who are also interested in participation.
Keywords
Social media, protest, marches, television
Source
Information, Communication & Society,Published 04 Feb 2020
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2020.1713847
17
Defining propaganda: A psychoanalytic perspective
定义宣传：一种精神分析的视角
Alexander V Laskin
Abstract
Propaganda is a centuries-old term, and yet scholars and practitioners are still having a hard time defining it and pinpointing what makes propaganda unique. Many existing definitions fail to distinguish between propaganda and marketing, public relations, advertising, or even mass communications, in general. This essay proposes to define propaganda through psychoanalytical research pioneered by Erich Fromm on symbiotic relations. Symbiotic relations, when transferred from biology to psychology and sociology, describe a process of allowing a person to merge with something big and important, therefore creating meaning beyond an individual’s life. As a result, following its religious roots, propaganda acts similar to religion—asking for a sacrifice of individualism in the name of something bigger—god, country, society, or political party. In the end, people willingly engage in propaganda because, although sacrificing something, they receive unity with the bigger powers of other people, organizations, political parties, countries, and so on. As a result, such persons are not alone against the world; they are now a part of a bigger and stronger union.
Keywords
Propaganda, psychoanalysis, psychology, public relations, symbiotic relations
Source
Communication and the Public,Published
January 8, 2020
https://doi.org/10.1177/2057047319896488
18
Donald Trump’s immigration speech: How metaphors function to convey messages
唐纳德·特朗普的移民演讲：隐喻如何传递信息
Mohammad Ali
Abstract
This study analyzes the immigration speech delivered by Donald J.Trump during his 2016 presidential election campaign in Arizona. Using the tenor-vehicle model of metaphor, the study identifies an unconventional metaphorical function in the speech. While a more traditional pattern of metaphorical language is absent in his speech, the function of his phrases, analyzed in this study, conforms to the usual form of the language of metaphors. Though metaphors are generally nouns or pronouns in the tenor-vehicle model, Trump’s metaphors are expressed in verbs or verb phrases. The findings extend the tenor-vehicle model beyond its traditional pattern of metaphorical function. The findings also call for further study to look into Trump’s other speeches aiming to understand the unconventional way of metaphorical function from broader perspectives.
Source
Atlantic Journal of Communication
,Published 31 Dec 2019
https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2019.1709463
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摘录与编辑：陈胜勇
中国传媒大学政治传播研究所博士研究生
校对：于淑婧
中国传媒大学政治传播研究所博士研究生