Media Attention Research Articles

Corporate Environmental Responsibility, Media Attention and Financial Performance

Corporate Environmental Responsibility, Media Attention and Financial Performance

Impact of the National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Zone on corporate ESG: Evidence from China

This study examines the effect of implementation of the National Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Zone (NECCDZ) policy in China as a quasi-natural experiment on Chinese listed firms’ ESG performance. By utilizing a multi-period differences-in-differences model, the empirical results reveal that the NECCDZ policy boosted the ESG performance of China’s A-share listed companies in the pilot region by an average of 38%. However, the NECCDZ policy has differential effects on the three subdimensions of ESG. More specifically, the NECCDZ policy significantly improves the social responsibility performance and governance performance of the company, and has a lagged positive effect on the environmental performance. The mechanism analysis shows that the NECCDZ policy enhances corporate ESG practices by promoting enterprise green technology innovation, while media attention positively moderates the impact of the NECCDZ policy on corporate ESG practices. Further analysis shows that the NECCDZ policy also improves the enterprises’ financing environment through government subsidies and public investment. Overall, the empirical findings show the effectiveness of NECCDZ policy in enhancing ESG practices at the enterprise level and offer a new approach to improving corporate ESG finance in emerging markets such as China.

Digital transformation driving green innovation: Evidence from Chinese A-Share firms

With its “dual carbon” goals, Chinese firms are being challenged to improve both their environmental and economic performance. Previous research has found that digital transformation can foster the development of firms in various ways. Using a fixed-effects Poisson model, we examine China's A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2022 to elucidate the relationship between digital transformations and green innovation. The results show that digital transformation significantly promotes firms' green transformations. Moreover, digital transformation affects green innovations by attracting media attention, increasing analyst coverage, and reducing firms' rent-seeking behavior. The study further demonstrates that institutional investors and comprehensive green information disclosure can augment digital transformations' positive effects on green innovation.

#Nature is trending: Social media, viral landscapes, and digital environmental activism in Oman

Influenced by social media and COVID-19, human relations with ‘nature’ are increasingly shaped by media infrastructures and logics, leading to a global surge of interest in nature tourism and outdoor activities. This article examines the mediatization of relations with nature—or, the more-than-human world—in the Arabian Gulf country of Oman, where nature tourism has developed in the past decade. Through a mixed-methods approach involving fieldwork and interviews between 2022–2024, relations with nature in Oman are shown to be informed by global social media logics, as with the trend of ‘viral landscapes’ in which a nature destination is popularized due to its high value in social media attention economies. However, local practices are also platformed, as Instagram users in Oman exploit three affordances to address the environmental problem of litter. Mediatization may thus entail a circulation of global discourses and practices as well as the emergence of syncretic sociocultural formations.

Dioxins vs. PFAS: Science and Policy Challenges.

Dioxin-like chemicals are a group of ubiquitous environmental toxicants that received intense attention in the last two decades of the 20th century. Through extensive mechanistic research and validation, the global community has agreed upon a regulatory strategy for these chemicals that centers on their common additive activation of a single receptor. Applying these regulations has led to decreased exposure in most populations studied. As dioxin-like chemicals moved out of the limelight, research and media attention has turned to other concerning contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). During the 20th century, PFAS were also being quietly emitted into the environment, but only in the last 20 years have we realized the serious threat they pose to health. There is active debate about how to appropriately classify and regulate the thousands of known PFAS and finding a solution for these "forever chemicals" is of the utmost urgency. Here, we compare important features of dioxin-like chemicals and PFAS, including the history, mechanism of action, and effective upstream regulatory strategies, with the objective of gleaning insight from the past to improve strategies for addressing PFAS. The differences between these two chemical classes means that regulatory strategies for dioxin-like chemicals will not be appropriate for PFAS. PFAS exert toxicity by both receptor-based and nonreceptor-based mechanisms, which complicates mixtures evaluation and stymies efforts to develop inexpensive assays that accurately capture toxicity. Furthermore, dioxin-like chemicals were unwanted byproducts, but PFAS are useful and valuable, which has led to intense resistance against efforts to restrict their production. Nonetheless, useful lessons can be drawn from dioxin-like chemicals and applied to PFAS, including eliminating nonessential production of new PFAS and proactive investment in environmental remediation to address their extraordinarily long environmental persistence. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP14449.

Valuing The Revolving Door: Media Attention and Departures of Corporate Executives to the Government

Valuing The Revolving Door: Media Attention and Departures of Corporate Executives to the Government

Geographic Inequity in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services: An Administrative Case Report of Successful Advocacy for Change.

Following an injury or disease, physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) services are often necessary to help patients recover function, activity, and community participation. Ten years ago, there was a significant gap between PM&R services in central Israel and those in the rural north of the country in terms of quality, quantity, and layout. The purpose of this administrative case report is to outline the gap in PM&R services between regions in Israel, as portrayed above; to describe a decade of civil action; and to describe civil action administrative approaches and actions that contributed to changes in the PM&R services now available in northern Israel. A decade of civil action to promote PM&R services is reviewed, illustrating the main administrative steps, including initiating and organizing meetings with key partners, lobbying, testifying in front of parliament and government committees, garnering media attention to promote public awareness, and filing a case with the Supreme Court of Israel. The encountered challenges and the subsequent actions are also described. Awareness of the significance of PM&R services and of the inadequacy of such services in the northern part of Israel rose due to our actions, with practical field results, including a 180-bed government rehabilitation center that plans to open during 2024, and 5 daycare rehabilitation clinics and a private inpatient center that opened between 2020 and 2023. Data-driven research will aid in understanding the current gaps and tracking improvements with the opening of the new rehabilitation facility. When inequality is brought to light and legislation for equality exists, civil action can promote change to reduce these gaps. Others can follow the steps taken in this administrative case report to achieve success in struggles aiming to correct comparative inequality.

The power of social media: broader Twitter outreach and higher Altmetric scores significantly amplify neurosurgical citation reach.

The authors sought to quantify the role of social media-related academic activity through use of the Altmetric score (a composite score based on social media attention from a variety of sources) and investigate its potential impact on the number of citations received at 3 years postpublication (articles published between January 2019 and December 2019). Articles published in the top 12 neurosurgical journals according to Google Scholar (based on 5-year Web of Science impact factors, 2017-2021) were identified. Data collected included days since publication, Altmetric scores, and total number of tweets (posts), and 3-year citations were obtained from Google Scholar. A multiple linear regression model was created that featured a blocking method to stratify confounding variables from most to least contributing. Furthermore, the data were dichotomized by publications with ≥ 10 citations (top 25th percentile) and those with < 10 to analyze the impact of the score on total number of citations received at 3 years, using an independent-samples Mann-Whitney U-test. Among 6721 included articles, the mean Altmetric score was 3.76 ± 15.69 and the mean number of citations received was 9.61 ± 22.16. When accounting for relevant control variables, the Altmetric score was a significant predictor of the total number of citations accumulated at 3 years (variability of 10.17%). On statistical testing, the Altmetric score was significantly higher in publications with ≥ 10 citations (p < 0.001). The authors report a strong, statistically significant correlation between the Altmetric score and the number of citations received. To their knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the impact of social media academic activity on neurosurgery article citation dissemination, potentially influencing resident medical education.

Combining Natural Language Processing and Statistical Methods to Assess Gender Gaps in the Mediated Personalization of Politics

The media attention to the personal sphere of famous and important individuals has become a key element of the gender narrative. In this setting, we aim at assessing gender gaps in the mediated personalization of a wide range of political office holders in Italy during the period 2017–2020 by means of a combination of NLP and statistical methods. The proposed analysis hinges on the definition of a new score for each word in the corpus that adjusts the incidence rate for the under representation of women in politics. On this basis, evidence is found that political personalization in Italy is more detrimental for women than it is for men, with the persistence of entrenched stereotypes including a masculine connotation of leadership, the resulting women’s unsuitability to hold political functions, and a greater deal of focus on their attractiveness and body parts. In addition, women politicians are covered with a more negative tone than their men counterpart when personal details are reported. By distinguishing between different types of media, we also show that the observed gender differences are primarily found in online news rather than print news. This suggests that the expression of certain stereotypes may be favored when click baiting and personal targeting have a major impact.

Eyes on me: how social media use is associated with urban Chinese adolescents' concerns about their physical appearance.

Social media usage carries risks of negative impacts on one's perception of physical attractiveness, especially among adolescents who are developing their self-image. These findings suggest that targeted interventions focusing on attention-seeking behaviors may be effective in addressing appearance-related anxieties among adolescents. We employed Bayesian analysis with Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms on survey data from 11,926 middle school students in China. Our findings indicate that while the amount of daily social media usage does not significantly correlate with appearance concerns, the desire for social media attention through interactions such as liking, commenting, and sharing shows a clear positive association. Female adolescents exhibit a higher degree of concern about their physical appearance compared to males. Additionally, behaviors aimed at improving perceived physical attractiveness, such as exercising and using skin-whitening products, are positively associated with increased appearance concerns. These findings suggest that targeted interventions focusing on attention-seeking behaviors may be effective in addressing appearance-related anxieties among adolescents.

Social Media Attention to Geopolitical Conflicts - An Analysis of Weibo Users' Comments on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In the globalized information age, social media has become a primary channel for news and information dissemination, particularly during geopolitical conflicts. This study investigates public sentiment and discourse on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Utilizing content analysis, the researcher conducted sentiment statistics and word frequency analysis on Weibo comments to understand Chinese public attitudes toward this conflict. The research reveals a significant increase in negative emotions from 33.33% in October 2023 to 100% in April 2024, indicating growing public discontent and concern as the conflict intensified. Concurrently, positive emotions sharply declined from 47.62% to 0%, reflecting diminished hopes for a peaceful resolution. Neutral sentiments also fluctuated, initially at 19.05%, dropping to 0% by April 2024. Additionally, the study identifies a shift in keyword usage from "world peace" and "hope" to specific entities like "Israel" and "Hamas," and terms like "disaster." This highlights a change in public and media focus from peace initiatives to the humanitarian impact of the conflict. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for promoting a more inclusive gaming environment, challenging existing gender stereotypes, and fostering social stability. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of Chinese public opinion on international geopolitical issues and underscores the importance of social media in shaping public discourse.

POLITICAL INTERESTS AND POLITICAL DECISIONS: THE POSSIBILITIES OF FORMING A DEMOCRATIC AGENDA

The article is devoted to the study of political interest as a hidden determinant of the activity of associated and non-associated pressure groups (informal lobbying) within the bureaucratic power vertical. Applying modern interdisciplinary methodological tools, the author offers a rationale for the expediency of public articulation of political interests, elimination of hidden lobbying, as well as non-public agreements between the main political players, which slow down the modernization of the institutional environment of the democratic political system. The article reveals and describes the optimal efforts of the Ukrainian political class, which will be aimed at implementing the specified strategic changes. The author reveals an explanation of the functioning of the mechanisms by which interest groups operate and their influence on the formation of the agenda. The crucial importance of interest groups for understanding the dynamics of political decision-making is noted. It is emphasized that group actors are working to bring their issues to the top of the political agenda. The text examines the functionality of providing well-grounded and reasoned information by interested groups that reinforces the importance of their demands. The paper addresses demonstrations, petitions, and social media campaigns as common tactics used to mobilize public opinion and pressure political institutions into action. The article analyzes the pooling of resources and efforts by associated interest groups that purposefully increase the likelihood that their issues will be high on the political agenda. It is noted that publicizing demands and problems can lead to a change in the course and strategy of the current leadership or power team. It has been established that by consistently advocating their cause in public, group actors can ensure consideration of agenda items by politicians and attract media attention. Attention is paid to the cooperation of political forces and interested groups to obtain detailed information and recommendations during the development of draft laws or regulatory acts. Emphasis is placed on the priorities of elected officials who seek to conform to the “mainstream” of public opinion and public sentiment. In the final part of the article, the author emphasizes that the full representation of political interests and the interests of minority groups that are not in the mainstream of public attention. It was concluded that the institutional structure of European democracy is more open to the development of public interests. Therefore, for modern Ukraine, an important element is the formation of structures of political arbitration regarding the conflict of political interests or the provision of this functionality to already existing institutions

Possibilities and Limitations of Biodegradable Plastics

This study examined societal interest in biodegradable plastics as portrayed in South Korean media, analyzing trends, topics, and related keywords to understand public perceptions and discourse. Big data analysis was conducted on news articles from 104 major South Korean media outlets between 2014 and 2023 using the BIGKinds platform. The frequency of articles mentioning biodegradable plastics and related keywords were analyzed. A total of 4,403 articles were identified, with a peak in coverage in 2021 followed by a slight decline. Keyword analysis revealed a focus on "eco-friendly" materials like PHA and PLA, and concepts like recycling and commercialization. Media attention toward biodegradable plastics significantly increased, reflecting growing public awareness of sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. However, challenges such as degradation conditions, waste management integration, and economic feasibility require further attention.

How Crises Shape Interest in Elected Officials of Color: Social Media Activity, Race and Responsiveness to Members of Congress on Twitter

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand public reactions to statements about racial discrimination made by elected officials of color on Twitter. We argue that statements about race made by elected officials of color will be overlooked in most political contexts. However, during events when race is made a salient issue, the public will look to elected officials of the afflicted group for guidance and, through this, the public will be more likely to interact with these leaders on Twitter. In this way, periods of crises create a window of opportunity when statements against racism made by elected officials of color receive greater public attention. To assess this hypothesis, we use the case study of Asian American members of Congress and their discussion of anti-Asian racism on Twitter. We examine the pattern of Twitter interactions to their posts in 2021. We find that Asian American members of Congress receive more social media attention (likes and retweets) relative to other members of Congress when condemning anti-Asian violence, but only in the immediate wake of the March 2021 mass shooting of Asian Americans in Atlanta, Georgia. This study offers important new insight into when elected officials of color can draw public attention to the communities that they descriptively represent.

Enabling touch in an art museum: A curatorial reflection

In 2016 the National Museum in Oslo launched a nationwide touring exhibition that allowed visitors for the first time to touch the sculptures of modernist Aase Texmon Rygh. The aim was to encourage visitors to experience these abstract stone works through the body before engaging with various contextualising practices for a more comprehensive process of meaning-making. Allowing members of the public to touch original sculpture in an exhibition context was new not only for the National Museum but also internationally, and the exhibition generated considerable professional and media attention. In my role as the exhibition’s curator, I set out to investigate the interdisciplinary process of developing the exhibition concept and the audience response through a practice-led research project. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives, such as learning theory and interdisciplinary sensory research, and audience surveys which were conducted during the exhibition, I wanted to learn more about how audiences experienced touching the sculptures, and how touch affected their process of meaning making. In this paper, I share some of my findings and also reflect on the importance of practitioners doing research on their own practice.

The &amp;lsquo;Secret Killings&amp;rsquo; in Assam: Counterinsurgency and Censoring Perpetrator Information

In the late 1990s, a protracted armed conflict between the Indian government and the insurgent organization, United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the Northeast Indian state of Assam escalated to include ‘secret killings’ of family members, close aides, and sympathizers of ULFA among its many violent manifestations. The killers primarily targeted insurgents’ families to persuade their underground kin to surrender, and to create fear among community members who sympathized with the movement or sheltered its cadres. The 2007 report of the Justice K. N. Saikia Commission pointed out the role of the surrendered insurgents, and the state police behind the secret killings, where the army was kept in the loop in some cases. Surprisingly, over 300 people were killed between 1998 and 2001 under common circumstances but no one was convicted. This article describes the challenges I faced in conducting ethnographic fieldwork on this sensitive event, which continues to draw political and media attention in the region. I focus on the challenges of interviewing survivors, families of victims, and police officers about the secret killings in Assam. I particularly reflect on my fieldwork experience of what to ask, what to write and what to censor about my participants, and consider the ethical dimension of making those decisions. I argue that these decisions were often made spontaneously in response to emergent situations and my ethical principles. I let the responses of my participants guide me in the field, and did not carry any predetermined strategies to guide the interviews.

Artificial intelligence and innovation management: Charting the evolving landscape

The excitement surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) is palpable. It is rapidly gaining prevalence in academia, business, and personal use. In particular, the emergence of generative AI, exemplified by large language models such as ChatGPT, has been marked by substantial media attention, discourse, and hype. Like most, if not all, aspects of business, innovation processes have been impacted. However, little is known about the degree of impact or the benefits that might be gained. To cut through the hype and understand the use of AI in innovation processes in businesses today, a large-scale survey amongst innovation managers in the USA was conducted, followed by interviews. The findings indicate that the use of AI in innovation processes is high and widespread, with AI being used for more than half of the surveyed firms' innovation projects. Furthermore, AI is used more in the development stage of the innovation process than in the idea or commercialization stages, which counters much of the existing discourse, which focuses on the idea stage. We uncover interesting differences by comparing the use and impact of generative AI with that of more traditional AI. Among these is a significant difference in expected benefits in making employees’ jobs more fulfilling — managers believe generative AI is more likely to confer this benefit than traditional AI. This paper offers two valuable contributions. First, it enriches the evolving dialogue at the intersection of AI and innovation management by offering much-needed empirical evidence about practical applications. Second, it provides timely managerial implications by examining relationships between the use of AI and innovation performance and understanding the benefits that AI can confer in the innovation process.

Second-level agenda-setting effects of news media and public policy on social media discourse across platforms: immigration during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

ABSTRACT Integrating intermedia, second-level agenda-setting, and cross-platform research, this study examines the role of news media attention and public policy decisions in driving the salience of issue attributes on multiple social media platforms. We collected three immigration-related datasets (i.e., social media posts, news media headlines, and policy documents covering the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that also marked the last year of the Trump presidency) and applied manual coding, automated text analysis, and time series modeling to analyze the relationships. The results show that news media set the public agenda across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube at the second level, with conservative media elevating travel-related discussion and liberal media driving border- and court-rulings-related discussion on those platforms. Compared to news media, the second-level agenda-setting effect of policy announcements was small and platform-specific. Among the three platforms, public discourse on YouTube was the most responsive to media and policy agendas. These findings advance second-level agenda-setting research, demonstrate partisan differences in news media’s impact, reveal the limited role of public policy, and provide a nuanced portrayal of cross-platform public discourse dynamics.

Can environmental tax promote green M&amp;A in emerging market firms? Evidence from China's heavy polluters

AbstractBased on a sample of heavily polluting firms listed in China, we examine the impact of environmental taxes on the green M&amp;A behavior of these firms. Our findings underscore that environmental taxes have significantly increased the likelihood of heavily polluting firms engaging in green M&amp;A endeavors. This impact is particularly pronounced in areas with high media attention, low financing constraints, and high environmental investment. However, our examination of the economic consequences shows that green M&amp;A does not improve the green innovation performance and ESG performance of firms. The analysis of M&amp;A motivations shows that the majority of heavy polluters' green M&amp;A targets are located in regions with weak environmental regulation, confirming that green M&amp;A under the environmental tax burden is a tool used by firms to engage in pollution transfer. In addition, green M&amp;A under the environmental tax burden is characterized by financial investment, connected M&amp;A, and nonsignificant M&amp;A, confirming that green M&amp;A under the environmental tax burden may be a tool used by companies seeking only the appearance of “greenwashing.” Therefore, green M&amp;A under the environmental tax burden tends to be underpinned by opportunistic motives of pollution transfer and “greenwashing,” rather than substantive green transformation and upgrading. We provide evidence from emerging markets on the impact of environmental taxes on green M&amp;A, which adds to the literature in this area and has policy implications for government regulation of corporate environmental governance practices.

Evaluating Green Environmental Performance Through Multi-Stakeholder Governance: A Comparative Analysis of NCA and fsQCA in the New Energy Vehicle Industry

The emphasis on green development in China underscores the critical role of green environmental performance in achieving sustainability. This study introduces a multi-stakeholder governance perspective to evaluate enterprises&amp;rsquo; green environmental performance, utilizing a framework with five factors categorized into firm, government, and societal dimensions. Employing a combination of Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), it investigates specific conditions enhancing green environmental performance in new energy vehicle enterprises, drawing on a sample of 49 companies in 2021. Results indicate that high levels of green environmental performance are influenced by multiple factors, including incentives, pressures, resources, and media attention. Additionally, the study identifies a potential complementary relationship between government subsidies and green technology innovation in driving high-level green environmental performance, subject to specific conditions. These findings contribute to our understanding of corporate green environmental performance and provide practical implications for fostering sustainability in the new energy vehicle industry.