Volume 1, Issue 1

Purpose Scholars have expressed great hopes that social media use can foster the democratic engagement of young adults. However, this research has largely ignored non-political, entertainment-oriented uses of social media. In this essay, I theorize that social media use can significantly dampen political engagement because, by and large, young adults use social media primarily for non-political purposes, which distracts rather than mobilizes. Design/methodology/approach I illustrate this argument using aggregate level data from the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, and Japan by comparing relative voter turnout and social media use data of young adults. Findings Data suggest a so called Social Media Political Participation paradox in those countries: The gap in voter turnout between young adults and older generations has not significantly decreased, despite a skyrocketing rise of social media use on the side of young adults, and the overwhelming research evidence that social media use fosters offline political participation. Implications When trying to understand the implications of social media for democracy across the globe, entertainment-oriented content needs to be brought back in. Originality/value This essay challenges the dominant research paradigm on social media use and political participation. It urges future research to theoretically develop, describe, and empirically test a comprehensive model of how social media use has the potential to mobilize and to distract.

Purpose Using a mixed-method approach, this comparative study unpacks the way journalists personalized the controversial Yemen Civil War by examining the patterns of visual framing on Twitter. It further explores the influence of the individual level factor (home country or foreign identity of the journalist) and organizational level factor (countries affiliated with news organizations directly or indirectly involved in the conflict), on images shared on the Twitter platform. Design/methodology/approach A content analysis and a semiotic analysis of 2880 image tweets were used to investigate the different visual narratives related to the conflict and the extent of personalized journalism on Twitter. Findings The content analysis showed that while journalists offered some personalized reporting, by and large, they preferred to adopt a neutral stance when reporting the conflict. The semiotic analysis complemented the findings and identified more broadly that the image tweets analyzed emphasized the classic war-as-a-tragedy narrative, while at the same time shedding some light on the political conflict. Practical implications Researchers are given guidance into journalistic practices on social media and a deeper understanding of the extent and role of personalized journalism of conflict on Twitter. Social implications This study captured the fluctuating role of journalists on Twitter. Journalists occasionally fluctuated in their visual roles between being neutral observers and moral agents. These fluctuations were likely influenced by an array of factors, including the journalist’s home country or foreign identity and the country affiliation of news organizations they were working for. Originality/value This is the first study to show that journalists from different backgrounds have remained somehow obliged to carry on with their journalistic roles on Twitter. It also sheds light on different levels of influences on personalized war coverage on social media and extend the hierarchy of influence model (Shoemaker, Pamela & Stephen Reese. 1996. Mediating the Message; Theories of influence on mass media content . New York: Longman) in the context of personalized reporting on Twitter. It thus adds to the growing body of knowledge on how this model plays out in an online-first era, especially in non-western contexts.

Purpose Publishers are innovating their practices in the face of global platform companies’ growing dominance on journalism. This study examines how publishers innovate their editorially oriented activities vis-à-vis third-party platforms with respect to six stages of news production. In doing so, this article introduces and advances platform configuration as a conceptual framework. Design/methodology/approach This five-year longitudinal case study of a Singaporean legacy news publisher uses a mix-method qualitative approach. It includes in-depth interviews with 35 staff, newsroom observations and close monitoring of the publisher’s website and apps. Findings This study offers three key findings about the publisher’s platform configuration. First, multidirectionality : the publisher simultaneously leveraged on platforms’ capacities (building platform presence), while also reducing dependence on them (platform counterbalancing). Second, specificity : the publisher added, removed and/or modified editorially oriented activities with respect to the six stages of news production. Third, commitment: the publisher calibrated its commitment to specific activities oriented towards either building platform presence and/or platform counterbalancing. Practical implications This article introduces a 2 × 2 platform configuration matrix that classifies and explains how and why publishers engage in platform configuration. Theoretical and social implications Scholars can draw on platform configuration to study and advance theorizing on the evolving publisher-platform interrelationship. Platform configuration is useful for understanding how publishers reconcile their innovation practices and strategize their commitment to news activities in relation to platforms with broader journalistic and financial objectives. Originality/value This is the first study that introduces and advances the concept of platform configuration with regard to publishers’ innovation practices . Both the platform configuration concept and matrix allow researchers to classify and operationalize future longitudinal and short-term studies into the publisher-platform dynamic.

Purpose This study examined the psychological and social factors that affect the performance of preventive behaviors toward COVID-19, by testing a model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Our model featured media exposure and social networking site (SNS) involvement, and we tested it in two highly contrasted cultures regarding COVID-19 attitudes: U.S. and Japan. Method An online survey collected 300 samples for each culture. Participation was voluntary, for monetary compensation through crowd-sourcing platforms. Findings Overall, the results showed a good fit of our TPB model in each culture. Media exposure was a major predictor of risk perception in both cultures, while engagement in SNS predicted intention to perform preventive behavior for the Japanese only, and personal hygiene was found to be a significant predictor of protective behavior once again only for the Japanese. Implications and Value While there were differences in the variables affecting preventive behaviors, overall, our proposed model proved to be robust across both cultures. Implications were made on differences between tight and loose cultures, as represented by Japan and the US, regarding COVID-19 preventive attitudes.

Since China officially gained access to the Internet in 1994, Internet-based communication has gradually become the dominant form of communication within Chinese society and between China and the international community. Understanding the Internet and its impact on China is not only a key to understanding modern China and its relationship with the world, but also a powerful complement to the classical topics of communication and an indispensable observation on new developments. Combing through the transformation of Internet-based communication research in China, this paper summarizes the achievements in five key areas, reflects on the failures, and makes a call to return to the core relationship between communication and people.

The spread of disinformation about science in social media has been a major concern worldwide, especially at a time of crisis in which all institutions that produce knowledge and truth, including science, are delegitimized or discredited by society. Given this, the purpose of this research is to map the circulation of information on the most frequent conspiracy theories in Brazil, seeking to identify actors, discourses, and interactions on different digital platforms. Using a mixed methodology for identifying informational flows among supporters of conspiracy theories on Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube, the results show that, even though there is distrust about the relationship between science, government and industry, scientific authority is a symbolic capital of extreme importance for the circulation of information on conspiracy theories related to science.