"The spread of disinformation in recent years has caused the international community concerns, particularly around its impact on electoral and public health outcomes. When one considers how disinformation can be contained, one often looks to new laws imposing more accountability on prominent social
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media platforms. While this narrative may be consistent with the fact that the problem of disinformation is exacerbated on social media platforms, it obscures the fact that individual users hold more power than is acknowledged and that shaping user norms should be accorded high priority in the fight against disinformation. In this article, I examine selected legislation implemented to regulate the spread of disinformation online. I also scrutinise two selected social media platforms – Twitter and Facebook – to anchor my discussion. In doing so, I consider what these platforms have done to self and co-regulate. Thereafter, I consider the limitations on regulation posed by certain behavioural norms of users. I argue that shaping user norms lie at the heart of the regulatory approaches discussed and is pivotal to regulating disinformation effectively." (Abstract)
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"Misinformation and fake news are severe threats to society. The role of critical reading skills is crucial in the battle against misinformation. Despite the promising results of game-based interventions to mitigate the effects of misinformation, the corpus of research on games supporting critical r
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eading skills needs an overview. Therefore, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyze how games have been used to tackle misinformation and reveal game design trends. A total of 15 papers eventually met the defined inclusion criteria and were analyzed. The review revealed that the use of games in critical reading education had emerged recently and focused mainly on fake news. Most games were grounded on inoculation theory and consequently designed to expose players to weakened doses of the misinformation manipulation techniques to build resistance against them. So far, the games have been studied mainly in informal settings and with adult participants. The median sample size was 196, and the median playing time was 15 min across the studies reported in the papers. Although all the reviewed papers reported positive outcomes, the game-based learning research on the critical reading domain is not yet mature enough to generalize findings." (Abstract)
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"How does academia understand the disinformation problem, and are we equipped to offer solutions? In response to this question, our study provides an overview of the general definitions, trends, patterns, and developments that represent the research on disinformation and misinformation. We conducted
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a systematic review of N = 756 publications covering eight years, 2014–2022. This period captures phenomena such as Trump’s emergence as a candidate for the US presidency, his term in office, as well as the leadership of figures such as Erdogan in Turkey, Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India, and various similar populist and nationalist leaders across a range of democratic and semi-democratic societies. This period is also one that witnessed the first global pandemic, when misinformation and disinformation not only threatened societal cohesion but the lives of people. This systematic review explores the critical terminology used, the areas of social life where disinformation is identified as problematic, the sources identified as creating or circulating this material, as well as the channels studied, the targets, and the persuasiveness of the discourse. What this article offers, then, is an overview of what we know about disinformation and what gaps in research should be pursued. We conclude that given the problems that misinformation and disinformation are seen to cause for democratic societies, we need to assess the contribution of social science in providing a foundation for scientific knowledge." (Abstract)
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"Academia as an industry has come to rely on journal impact factors as convenient proxy measures of faculty members’ research quality. As competition intensifies — among individuals, departments, and universities — such bibliometrics have grown in importance. At many institutions, researchers
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are pushed to publish in journals that are highly ranked. Many scholars of non-western societies have long noted, though, that “top-tier” journals, while international in reputation, are far from global in orientation. This is an issue that we and our colleagues in the Global Media Studies Network are keen to discuss. First, though, what exactly is the current state of affairs? We looked at 20 SSCI-indexed communication journals with high five-year journal impact factors. We categorised all the articles they published in 2021 and 2022 according to their geographic focus: what country or countries was each article studying? Here is what we found: [see chart]. This snapshot shows clearly that top-tier journals generally have a geographic diversity problem. Most of the articles are about the west, with a high proportion of articles focusing purely on the United States. Also striking is the lack of North-South comparative work, despite years of advocacy for comparative research. The chart may underestimate the imbalance. We coded many of the articles— literature reviews, meta-studies, or purely methodological or theoretical pieces— as geographically “non-specific” as they have no explicit focus on any particular country, but since these tend to be built on past work that was even less diverse than the field is now, most of these should probably be considered genetically western. One interesting pattern is that journals devoted to digital communication host a higher proportion of non-western work. This could be because the digital is so globalised and new that research on phenomena beyond the west (say, disinformation in Kenya’s social media) is intelligible to western editors, while research on older offline phenomena (say, caste discrimination on Indian television) requires extensive contextual explanation that journals do not have the patience for. The digital may also be more amenable than offline communication to the quantitative research methods favoured by many top journals."
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"Uma campanha anti-imprensa permanente força e acelera a perda de credibilidade da mídia profissional. Os ataques são orquestrados e contam com um ecossistema de desinformação bem estruturado e auto-sustentável. A campanha é financiada por políticos de pequena expressão e veículos de junk.
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news. Sistemas de recomendação favorecem veículos que reforçam o modelo de negócios da plataforma, independente da qualidade do conteúdo." (Diagnóstico geral, 56)
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"From Ethiopia to Sudan, there has been significant concern about the role of hate speech and incitement on social media to promote offline violence and, at its most extreme, genocide. These questions have become more urgent with the growth of large language models and Artificial Intelli-gence that
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are increasingly shaping online speech and may amplify existing concerns. In this paper, we interrogate the assumptions and myths about the causal link between online speech and its impact on the offline world by evaluating the empirical evidence. Overall, we found that there is limited ev-idence pointing to this direct association and, in line with broader literature on the underlying causes of violence, our review points to longer-term contextual, historical, and economic factors that often drive conflict, particularly in Africa. We conclude by identifying major evidence gaps and highlighting the need for caution when attributing the impact of online hate speech on violence." (Abstract)
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"Este artigo tem por objetivo identificar de que maneira a tecnologia pode afetar a produção radiojornalística local. Para isso, realizou-se a análise sistemática do programa RBV Notícias da cidade de Videira (SC) durante dez dias do ano de 2021. Como resultados, observou-se que o programa RBV
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Notícias está progredindo em termos de desenvolvimento tecnológico, o que colaborou com a qualidade de transmissão dos conteúdos e aumentou a área de abrangência de acesso, porém, não houve a priorização dos conteúdos jornalísticos locais." (Resumo)
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"Este artigo avaliou o rádio de proximidade em Mato Grosso do Sul, no interior do Brasil, a partir de sua presença e performance na produção e circulação de conteúdo no ambiente multiplataforma. Além de pesquisa cartográfica, realizada em 91 emissoras FMs comerciais, a investigação envolv
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eu análise qualitativa em quatro estações situadas nas principais regiões geográficas do estado. Os dados indicam que, embora integradas ao contexto digital, as estações apresentam performance analógica na produção circulação de conteúdo." (Resumo)
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"Em um cenário de convergência midiática, o rádio se expande (Kischinhevsky, 2016) ao transbordar o conteúdo das ondas hertezianas para a internet e os meios digitais, passando a formar um novo ecossistema. Neste contexto, o do rádio hipermidiático (Lopez, 2009), a audiência, agora ouvinte-i
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nternauta, provoca o veículo a criar novos gêneros. Ele segue como importante fonte de informação e entretenimento, mas passa a adotar estratégias que incorporam formatos antes só vistos na televisão. Neste artigo, analisamos o fenômeno social do rádio que é ouvido, sentido e visto em Pernambuco, no Nordeste do Brasil." (Resumo)
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"Este artigo sistematiza uma cartografia de campo (Martín-Barbero, 2002) da pesquisa radiofônica a partir de um levantamento exploratório nos anais do Grupo de Trabalho de Rádio e Meios Sonoros dos Congressos da Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências da Comunicação entre 2013 e 2019. A discussão s
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e baseia na proposição de Aníbal Quijano (1992; 2000) quanto à colonialidade do saber e se propõe a discutir como os estudos radiofônicos brasileiros estabelecem o giro decolonial (Ballestrin, 2013). Constata-se que os estudos radiofônicos feitos por pesquisadores brasileiros mostram que é possível uma epistemologia a partir dos saberes e práticas do Sul." (Resumo)
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"1. Expansive reach and influence of WhatsApp groups: The study findings indicate that WhatsApp groups have a remarkably wide reach, potentially connecting with three quarters of WhatsApp users in Lebanon. These groups are part of larger networks, which enhances the dissemination of content. Moreove
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r, their cost-effectiveness for advertising, compared to platforms like Facebook, makes them a formidable tool for targeted information dissemination. 2. Dominant themes and regional variation in conversations: The analysis revealed that conversations in the 37 sampled groups revolved mainly around key themes such as livelihood, security, politics, and foreign countries’ involvement in Lebanon. Interestingly, there were regional variations in the content promoted and more specifically in fear-oriented news, reflecting the different concerns prevalent in various areas. 3. Sensationalism, speculation, and fearmongering: WhatsApp groups frequently employ sensationalized language, unverified speculations, and a focus on dramatic events. These practices contribute to an atmosphere of anxiety and uncertainty among the public, potentially influencing behaviors, including purchasing trends and political opinion-shaping. 4. Mis- and disinformation: The study highlighted the pervasive spread of false or misleading information, particularly during sensitive periods, where it can be used to exploit or manipulate public sentiment. Notable examples include unreliable earthquake predictions and the case of Sheikh Al Rifai’s murder." (Conclusion, page 38)
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"El artículo plantea un estudio longitudinal de la convergencia periodística en el marco de la radio especializada deportiva española y presenta las sinergias periodísticas establecidas entre Radio Marca, el diario Marca y la web marca.com. Se trata de un análisis del único caso existente en E
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spaña en el que una radio, un periódico impreso y un medio digital se aglutinan bajo la misma marca comercial. Para el estudio se propone una combinación de técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas que permiten obtener datos objetivos de los procesos de producción del contenido y explicaciones desarrolladas. Para ello, se recurre al análisis de contenido y a un trabajo etnográfico de observación del trabajo periodístico en la redacción de los medios, completado con una serie de entrevistas en profundidad y encuestas realizadas en dos períodos que han conformado dos muestras. Los resultados muestran que las redacciones de los tres medios establecen sinergias periodísticas facilitadas por su ubicación en un mismo espacio físico de trabajo, pero no son resultado de una estrategia empresarial." (Resumo)
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