Suchergebnisse

In the latest Guest Author post, Hyunjin Seo, Oscar Stauffer Professor of
Journalism at the University of Kansas, writes about her new book
Networked Collective Actions: The Making of an Impeachment, out now in the
Oxford Studies in Digital Politics series.

Hyunjin Seo offers a comprehensive account of South Korean citizens' massive and sustained candlelight vigils in 2016-17, which led to impeachment and removal of then President Park Geun-hye. Based on interviews with key players in the impeachment movement and original analyses of news reports and social media posts, Seo untangles intricate interactions between different actors that were supported and sometimes constrained by the technological, socio-political, and legal environments in which they occurred. In doing so, Seo examines how the broad public consensus on Park was achieved in a South Korean media environment characterised by polarisation and low public trust, where extreme right-wing media outlets amplified conspiracy theories and false claims in opposition to impeachment.

This is the author's final draft. Copyright 2012 Wiley. ; The global distribution of information infrastructure has evolved significantly in the last decade. At a structural level, one of the most notable changes is in the way in which countries—as nodes in digital networks—link to each other. It may be analytically or epistemologically difficult to make clear causal claims between the evolution of information infrastructure and political outcomes. It may be more reasonable to argue that communications infrastructure and political processes evolve together, and in this study we attempt to measure key structural changes in bandwidth and the centrality of digital nodes, with an emphasis on Middle East and North Africa. Using a combination of bandwidth metrics and centrality indicators, we demonstrate how the information infrastructure of the Middle East and North Africa evolved between 2002 and 2010, in particular, and several countries in the Middle East rose to prominence as good nodes mediating strong intra-regional networks.

From misleading news articles around elections in Brazil and the United States to mob lynchings fueled by false social media messages in India to made-up stories about COVID-19 vaccination, a deluge of disinformation and misinformation is affecting various aspects of citizens' lives around the world. Although there is an increasing number of research papers dealing with disinformation or misinformation, a majority of these have focused on the United States. This Special Section on comparative approaches to mis/disinformation features conceptual and data-informed articles with international and global perspectives on the prevalence, impact, and diffusion of mis/disinformation in different countries. Articles selected for the Special Section provide new theoretical and empirical contributions to existing bodies of knowledge whether focusing on one country or offering comparative perspectives involving multiple countries. The articles, individually and collectively, offer important scholarly and policy implications for studying and combating mis/disinformation around the world.

Social media platforms have become important in spreading propaganda images during conflicts, as demonstrated in several recent cases including the Israeli–Hamas confrontation in 2012 and graphic internet videos by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in 2014. This study examines the role of visual propaganda in the social media age by analyzing themes, frames, and structural features of images posted on the official Facebook pages of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces in 2013 and 2014. Our content analysis shows interesting differences and similarities between the two sides in using images to promote their political agendas during the recent Syrian conflicts following the 2011 uprisings. The Syrian government used visual frames to support its narrative that President Assad is a fearless leader protecting its people and that life has continued normally throughout Syria. The Syrian opposition used various images to solidify its narrative of the Assad regime's brutality and sufferings of Syrian civilians. There were significant differences in terms of audience reactions to images with different themes and frames. These and other issues are discussed in the context of visual propaganda and framing in social media-based information warfare.

Researchers conducted a content analysis of 537 Twitter images posted by Kuwait University, King Saud University of Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates University to examine how public universities in the Middle East use social media to promote their agenda. Researchers analyzed prominent topics and democracy frames featured in the Twitter images and the structural characteristics of those images. The analysis shows significant differences between the three universities in terms of the most prominent topic category and democracy frame. A significantly higher proportion of the Twitter images posted by Kuwait University featured educational and political topic categories. The analysis of democracy frames shows that these public universities often used their social media channels to promote the respective government's political agenda.

We investigate homophily in the tie structure of the global Internet by estimating Exponential Random Graph models. Specifically, we analyze the extent to which different variables including Gross National Income, geographic proximity, political regime type, and press freedom rating account for the pattern of direct country-to-country Internet connections. Results show that for 2011-2014, but not before, press freedom homophily is significantly predictive of the presence (or absence) of country-to-country Internet connections even when controlling for geographic proximity, bandwidth, and whether or not a country is democratic. The findings provide insights into changes in press freedom around the world and the evolution of the global Internet structure.

This is an accepted version of the manuscript published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Global Information Technology Management in 2017, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1097198X.2017.1354597. ; The current study examines the relationship between regime type and country access to the Internet at both domestic and global levels by conducting longitudinal analyses of economic and social indicators and Internet data between 2002 and 2014. In particular, the authors investigate how a country's position in the global Internet network is associated with the country's type of political institution while taking into account its economic growth, population, and education level. The current analysis shows that democracies dominated the global Internet network both in 2002 and in 2014. Finally, the panel regression and network analyses suggest that it is important to consider network characteristics in investigating whether and how a country's regime type influences the country's Internet adoption.

Social media platforms have become important in spreading propaganda images during conflicts, as demonstrated in several recent cases including the Israeli–Hamas confrontation in 2012 and graphic internet videos by the self-proclaimed Islamic State in 2014. This study examines the role of visual propaganda in the social media age by analyzing themes, frames, and structural features of images posted on the official Facebook pages of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces in 2013 and 2014. Our content analysis shows interesting differences and similarities between the two sides in using images to promote their political agendas during the recent Syrian conflicts following the 2011 uprisings. The Syrian government used visual frames to support its narrative that President Assad is a fearless leader protecting its people and that life has continued normally throughout Syria. The Syrian opposition used various images to solidify its narrative of the Assad regime's brutality and sufferings of Syrian civilians. There were significant differences in terms of audience reactions to images with different themes and frames. These and other issues are discussed in the context of visual propaganda and framing in social media-based information warfare.

This is the author's accepted manuscript, made available with the permission of the publisher. Copyright 2009 Oxford University Press ; Public opinion is likely to be susceptible to the way a government and the news media frame foreign countries, because unlike domestic issues, foreign news is typically beyond a person's direct experience. How does the American public respond to foreign news when its government and the news media promote competing frames and change their prominence according to the relations between the U.S. and that foreign country? The present study shows this frame building and frame effects by using a public opinion poll and content analysis of U.S. policy statements and media coverage. North Korea was chosen because its visibility to the American public has increased since President George W. Bush designated it as one of the countries in the "axis of evil". The results show that during a four-month period, the U.S. government and the newspaper produced three competing frames, and that the magnitude of the frames shifted as U.S.–North Korean relationships shifted. These shifts in turn made the American public choose economic sanctions over military solutions toward the country.

Science can serve as an attractive mode for trust building and cooperative engagement between countries where formal political or diplomatic relations have been strained or are nonexistent. In this article we discuss some conditions and constraints for bilateral academic science engagement and suggest how such engagement might help to build trust between the United States and North Korea. We analyze longitudinal data on North Korea's diplomatic ties and international academic collaboration as well as US public opinion data to provide context for US-North Korea science engagement. We argue that bilateral academic science engagement should be attractive to the United States and North Korea and suggest a set of policy measures that might facilitate such engagement. (Asian Perspect/GIGA)