gabbyakiocean

[gabbyakiocean]

Fake News on Social Media: Has the Gatekeeper ever Disappeared?

The rapid growth of social networks has brought a huge impact to the news industry, causing many newspapers or magazines to struggle to transform in order to survive. However, changes are not only taking place in the form of journalism, but also in the long-term media functions. The proliferation of fake news caused by the absence of "gatekeepers" is one of the most serious problems.

Picture source: Getty Images

Currently, the definition of fake news on social media has not yet been completely unified. How to accurately distinguish between "misinformation" and "fake news" is the difficulty in defining it. Gelfert (2018) gave a more detailed description of fake news, defining this phenomenon as a form of false information.“the fake news term should be reserved for cases of deliberate presentation of typically false or misleading claims as news, where these are misleading by design, (…) systemic features of the sources and channels by which fake news propagates and thereby manipulates (…) consumers’  pre-existing cognitive biases and heuristics” (p. 108). The definition emphasizes some features that help define the concept of fake news, namely appealing to individual pre-existing cognitive biases to change their way of thinking and behaviors.

 The spread of fake news on social networks is not surprisingly composed of two parts: humans and robots. This is also one of the important differences between the social media era and the paper media era. Robots usually follow a set procedure to comment, repost, and like  With the continuous improvement of algorithms, the "intelligence" of these robots is also increasing, and sometimes it is even difficult to distinguish them from . In contrast, the purpose of human forwarding fake news is much more, which is closely related to the careful setting of fake news. Some people really believe it; some just want to use the reposting of fake news to get more attention; and some people may have been aware of the potential problems with this information, but still choose to retweets it out of concern for it , resulting in the further spread of fake news.

Picture source:  GETTY IMAGES

In traditional media, the existence of "gatekeepers", proposed by Kurt Luin (1947), effectively reduced the emergence of fake news. Although due to negligence or misjudgment, the gatekeeper cannot accurately judge and filter all fake news, but it is better than nobody takes charge. In the era of social media, every user has a channel for expressing opinions without the supervision of gatekeepers, which leads to a lot of unconfirmed content being spread easily at exponential speed. In fact, opinion leaders in social networks can partly act as a "gatekeeper", but they are not necessarily competent enough, leaving the de facto absence of "gatekeepers".

References:

  Al-Rawi A. Gatekeeping Fake News Discourses on Mainstream Media Versus Social Media. Social Science Computer Review. 2019;37(6):687-704. doi:10.1177/0894439318795849

Giandomenico Di Domenico, Jason Sit, Alessio Ishizaka, Daniel Nunan, Fake news, social media and marketing: A systematic review, Journal of Business Research, Volume 124, 2021, Pages 329-341, ISSN 0148-2963, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.037

Shalini Talwar, Amandeep Dhir, Dilraj Singh, Gurnam Singh Virk, Jari Salo, Sharing of fake news on social media: Application of the honeycomb framework and the third-person effect hypothesis, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Volume 57, 2020, 102197, ISSN 0969-6989, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102197.

#fake news #gatekeeper

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Different Political Participation on Social Media Between the US and China

Due to the demand of people, social media "has become one of the most popular Internet services in the world"  (Gil de Zúñiga et al., 2012, p. 319). As a relatively "new medium", it, regardless of whether it is apparently available or not, has provided a way for social and political participation. One form of digital communication that falls into this category is Internet memes. Internet memes are located at the ties between language, society, popular culture, communication science and digital technology, and are succinctly described as an example of "products of participatory digital culture." (Wiggins and Bowers, 2015, p. 1886)

 The forms of political participation vary among countries, especially in countries with different ideologies. In Western countries, political participation as commonly understood usually involves “behavior aimed at shaping government policy by influencing the choices of government personnel or by influencing their choices”, including “instrumental political actions (for example, voting, signing petitions, Protests) and political organizations involved in lobbying activities (such as political parties, interest groups)” (Conover 1995, p. 135). In China, however, participating in "politics" in contemporary China (Chinese Mainland) does not mean direct and open challenges to the foundation of the current political system.

Picture source: https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/gia/infographic/the-rise-of-social-media-in-political-participation

In the United States, the most direct political participation of ordinary citizens in campaigns is to vote. However, there are many factors that affect the results of the voting, and sometimes it is impossible to predict through the performance on social platforms. The results of the 2016 Trump and Hillary elections are a case in point. In this process, digital media is considered to provide a channel for political communication, but it does not promote participation by itself. It was found that political effectiveness and the use of Facebook had significant negative interactions on participation, so the relationship between Facebook use and participation was stronger for people with lower levels of political efficacy. The findings have provided cross-cultural support for the argument that youth use of social media can promote a greater degree of political and civic engagement.

 When it turns to China, the situation here is very different. Although the Internet has indeed promoted the interaction and lobbying between Chinese citizens and the government officials (which is regarded as political participation for Westerners), these activities are by no means political participation behaviors from the perspective of quite a few Chinese people, but are likely to threaten the national security and social order. Therefore, it is not easy for Chinese people to participate in politics on social platforms, unless they are supporting and praising the government (which does not meet the Western definition of political participation). At the same time, what cannot be ignored is the "fifty cents", that is, the employed cyber robots. Its existence is actually a typical evidence of the Chinese government's intervention in the political participation of the people on social software.

 Anonymity provides users of social media unique freedom, but in terms of political participation, does everyone have real freedom?

   References:

Bruce Bimber & Lauren Copeland (2013) Digital Media and Traditional Political Participation Over Time in the U.S., Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 10:2, 125-137, DOI: 10.1080/19331681.2013.769925

Hongyu Wang & Fayong Shi (2018) Weibo use and political participation: the mechanism explaining the positive effect of Weibo use on online political participation among college students in contemporary China, Information, Communication & Society, 21:4, 516-530, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1289234

Michael Chan and Jing Guo (2013), The Role of Political Efficacy on the Relationship Between Facebook Use and Participatory Behaviors: A Comparative Study of Young American and Chinese Adults Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 2013 16:6, 460-463

Xie, B., Jaeger, P.T. Older Adults and Political Participation on the Internet: A Cross-cultural Comparison of the USA and China. J Cross Cult Gerontol 23, 1–15 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-007-9050-6

#political participation

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How Have the Chinese Government Built its Own Echo Chamber on Weibo and Wechat?

At present, in order to improve user loyalty, social media has designed intelligent algorithms that cater to user preferences. An analysis of the Facebook feed and Twitter network shows that their users' information input is being thoroughly filtered, and users are largely exposed to the arguments and opinions they have agreed to (Saez-Trumper, Castillo and Lalmas, 2013;. An, Quercia and Crowcroft, 2014), forming the so-called "echo chamber". The echo chamber effect, proposed by the psychologist Cass R. Sustein (2006), is that in a relatively closed environment, some sounds with similar opinions are repeated continuously as exaggerated or other distorted forms, leading most people in the environment to think that these distorted stories are all the truth.

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se20RoB331w

 Echo chambers are formed for multiple reasons, among which the user's personal preferences play a major role. Positive personal choice preferences are reflected by unfollowing of people who have express different opinions and actively refuse to accept other voices. At the same time, negative personal selection preferences are related to the filtering mechanism of social software. Users do not seem to give a clear statement, but the time or other performance they consume on different types of information can reflect their preferences. Based on this, the algorithm of social software label users and then filter bubbles come into being.

 Unlike the echo chambers formed on Facebook and Twitter, Weibo and WeChat, as the most widely used social platforms in China, have their own unique reasons for their formation. The analysis will be discussed from 4 features of the echo chamber:

Picture source:  Bigstock.

1. Segregation.

The Chinese government has established a firewall, making the Internet in Chinese mainland  the largest “Local Area Network” (LAN) . People have no access to information from Facebook, Twitter, or other foreign media, unless they use the VPN, which is illegal. As a result, a huge number of netizens in China can only gather on Weibo and WeChat, laying the foundation for the formation of the echo chamber.

 2. Polarization.

Since no external information be entered, internal views have been constantly consolidated during repeated dissemination, prompting people to deny as much as possible when they see views that are different from internal views, thereby achieving extremes.

 3. Homogeneity.

For both the contents on Weibo and articles posted on WeChat, their comments can be artificially screened and filtered. Therefore, when people find a certain point of view, it is likely that the comments on it are all positive and affirmative, which contributes to the consistency of the point.

 4. Repeat spread.

There is a default rule in the Chinese press: For reports or comments on major events, all manuscripts from Xinhua News Agency, China National News Agency, shall be forwarded, which is the most authoritative news organization in China. Therefore, it is common for the same content to be sent by different press accounts. Repetition increases credibility, and the echo chamber is thus further consolidated.

 The specific policies have shaped so typical echo chambers in China, which play a significant role on propaganda.

   References:

 Boutyline, A. and Willer, R. (2017), The Social Structure of Political Echo Chambers: Variation in Ideological Homophily in Online Networks. Political Psychology, 38: 551-569. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12337

Kiran Garimella, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Aristides Gionis, Michael Mathioudakis (2018), WWW '18: Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web ConferenceApril 2018 Pages 913–922https://doi.org/10.1145/3178876.3186139

Nguyen, C. (2020). ECHO CHAMBERS AND EPISTEMIC BUBBLES. Episteme, 17(2), 141-161. doi:10.1017/epi.2018.32

O'Hara, K. and Stevens, D. (2015), Echo Chambers and Online Radicalism: Assessing the Internet's Complicity in Violent Extremism. Policy & Internet, 7: 401-422. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.88

Seth Flaxman, Sharad Goel, Justin M. Rao, Filter Bubbles, Echo Chambers, and Online News Consumption, Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 80, Issue S1, 2016, Pages 298–320, https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfw006

#echo chamber

[gabbyakiocean]

Sexism Against Females Offline and Online: Taking the Humiliation of a Woman in Xi’an Subway as an Example

On October 15,2017, actress Alsa Mirano promoted the # metoo campaign, which aims to expose the prevalence of sexual harassment and attacks in the public domain by encouraging victims to use tag metoo to share their experiences on social media.The global movement, seen by some as "triggering gender antagonism between men and women", has actually aroused women's awareness of safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests.

Picture source: https://news.miami.edu/miamiherbert/stories/2021/03/changing-workplace-dynamics-in-a-metoo-environment.html

It has been noticed that women are more willing to use social platforms to express their opinions than men, especially for more radical content (Murthy, Gross, Pensavalle, 2016, Pew Research Center, 2012, 2014; Twenge, 2017). On the one hand, the Internet is regarded by them as a safe space for self-expression, which can avoid terrible events that may occur in the real world (Solórzano, Ceja, and Yosso, 2000); on the other hand, due to the lack of powerful voice from females in traditional industries (such as the media, legal institutions, workplaces etc.) , they have to turn to social media, trying to arouse people's attention there and address relevant issues.

 The males, however, as the long-term dominant group in society, have been offended by the rise of feminism in recent years because it is inconsistent with the stereotypes they have accepted  of women. As a result, gender discrimination by men against women has become more serious after the latter tried to defend their rights.

Picture source: https://news.miami.edu/miamiherbert/stories/2021/03/changing-workplace-dynamics-in-a-metoo-environment.html

 An example is the encounter of a woman on the subway in Xi'an. On August 31, 2021, a woman had a dispute with an elderly male passenger and then she was asked by the security personnel to leave the carriage immediately because her loud voice affected the traffic order and the normal travel of other passengers. During this process, the security guard pushed the woman, causing her belongings to fall on the carriage. When the woman tried to pick up her belongings, the security personnel thought she was resisting to leave and dragged her more brutally and violently, causing the woman almost unclothed. This incident was videotaped by other people present and uploaded to Weibo, which sparked heated discussion.

Picture source: @Yangshixinwenpinglun

The woman's experience was considered as prejudicial chastising from the male staff, which was used as a discourse, not only for humiliation and reproach, but for the construction of a failed female image. Regrettably, the relevant official in charge of the Xi'an Metro did not apologize for the incident, while the online comments against the female victim apparently caused her a second injury. These remarks mainly included the following: stigmatizing this lady with her agitated emotions, calling her a "shrew", which could rationalize the security guard's behaviour; besides, impolite comments on her almost naked figure can count as sexual harassment.

 It can be concluded from the above cases that men in modern society have oppressive and strong attitudes towards women both online and offline, in order to show their so-called "masculine spirit." In fact, as long as prejudice and discrimination exist, anyone is a potential victim.

References:

Barratt, Sue Ann (2018). Reinforcing Sexism and Misogyny: Social Media, Symbolic Violence and the Construction of Femininity-as-Fail. Journal of International Women's Studies, 19(3), 16-31.  https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol19/iss3/3

Jonas R. Kunst, April Bailey, Claire Prendergast & Aleksander Gundersen (2019) Sexism, rape myths and feminist identification explain gender differences in attitudes toward the #metoo social media campaign in two countries, Media Psychology, 22:5, 818-843, DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2018.1532300

Foster, M.D., Tassone, A. and Matheson, K. (2021), Tweeting about sexism motivates further activism: A social identity perspective. Br J Soc Psychol, 60: 741-764. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12431

Isabel Inguanzo, Bingbing Zhang, Homero Gil de Zúñiga. (2021) Online cultural backlash? sexism and political user-generated content. Information, Communication & Society 24:14, pages 2133-2152.

Shen Bin (2021), Don't fiddle with the sensitive nerves of society by surpassing civilization. Shenzhen Special Zone News, 2021-09-02(A05).DOI:10.28776/n.cnki.nsztq.2021.004844.

Tanjia Carstensen (2014),  Gender and social media: sexism, empowerment, or the irrelevance of gender? ISBN: 9780203066911

#sexism

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What Does the Establishment of the Virtual World Mean to Us: Reflecting on the Development of "Metaverse"

Affected by the global spread of COVID-19, people requiring self-isolation have to work and attend classes at home, which has promoted the development of non-contact culture. Under the dual stimulation of the progressive technology and social needs, the concept of "Metaverse" gradually aroused people's attention in 2021.

Photo source:https://www.the-sun.com/tech/3897437/meta-meaning-facebook/

In early 2021, Soul App proposed for the first time within the industry to build a "social Meta-Universe". In March, Roblox, known as the first stock of Metaverse, was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange; in May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that the company wasworking hard to build a "corporate Meta-Universe"; In August, NVIDIA announced the launch of the world's first simulation and collaboration platform to provide the foundation for the establishment of Meta-Universe; on October 28, Facebook announced that it was renamed "Meta", from "Metaverse"; In November, the virtual world platform Decentraland claimed that Barbados would set up the world's first embassy in Metaverse, which would be tentatively available in January 2022. In summary, although the concept of “Metaverse” has only been proposed in the public for less than a year, it has been involved in many fields such as politics, economy, social interaction, entertainment, etc., which is closely related to the real life of human beings.

Photo source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/9/22825139/meta-horizon-worlds-access-open-metaverse

Different from the existing social media, the "Meta-Universe" described by Zuckerberg will no longer be bound by the 2D plane, but will create a new 3D virtual world, which means that our media forms will be changed dramatically in the future. In the media field, the degree of every iteration is no different from the impacts brought by the industrial revolution. As we move from the 2G era to the 3G era, the image transmission becomes more convenient; the popularity of short videos on Tik Tok nowadays is also due to the highly increased Internet speed. As more and more companies have invested in VR equipment, the establishment of a virtual world seems reasonable.

Photo source: https://bernardmarr.com/the-important-difference-between-virtual-reality-augmented-reality-and-mixed-reality/

However, social problems associated with media revolution also cannot be ignored. In terms of security, data leakage and privacy violations have become the norm in the digital economy era. Once the virtual world where people invest more time, attention and money is invaded, the consequences will be very serious. How to deal with the virtual dissension is still a problem to solve since there is no law to restrict it. Internet addiction, meanwhile, has attracted more general wariness both academically and politically. The The Chinese government has declared that Internet addiction is a “public health hazard” (Crouch, 2018), as well as the South Korean government (Block, 2008). Another issue worthy of attention is cyber violence or cyberbullying. According to research, people who live unsatisfactorily in real life tend to be more impulsive and aggressive on the Internet. To make matters worse, if the virtual world is sufficiently simulated, what should be done when people trapped in it cannot distinguish the real world from it?

The Metaverse has not been established yet, but the potential problems it brings are enough to be thought-provoking.

 References:

Andreassen, C. S., Torsheim, T., Brunborg, G. S., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a Facebook addiction scale. Psychological Reports, 110(2), 501–517. DOI:10.2466/02.09.18.PR0.110.2.501-517.

Amedie, Jacob, "The Impact of Social Media on Society" (2015). Pop Culture Intersections. 2.https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/engl_176/2

Bhargava, V., & Velasquez, M. (2021). Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction. Business Ethics Quarterly, 31(3), 321-359. doi:10.1017/beq.2020.32

Larson, Keri and Watson, Richard, "THE VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: TOWARD MEASURING SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES" (2011). ICIS 2011 Proceedings. 10.https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2011/proceedings/onlinecommunity/10

M. Smith, C. Szongott, B. Henne and G. von Voigt, "Big data privacy issues in public social media," 2012 6th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (DEST), 2012, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/DEST.2012.6227909.

Russmann, U., & Svensson, J. (2017). Introduction to Visual Communication in the Age of Social Media: Conceptual, Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Media and Communication, 5(4), 1-5. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v5i4.1263

#metaverse #virtual world