Media Attitudes Research Articles

Trauma, bicultural immersion, and growing into self: The impacts of media narratives on former refugees

Background: Building on robust research linking discrimination and poorer mental health outcomes, the current study explores the impacts of macro-level attitudes, such as in media and politics, on refugee wellbeing during resettlement. Method: A purposive sample of six former refugees of Banyamulenge ethnicity from the Democratic Republic of Congo participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, analyzed independently by two authors, and then jointly using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: Five superordinate group experiential themes emerged from the data, Fleeing, rejection, and illusive safety, straddling two cultures, media stigmatizing identity, different is good, and, g rowth and wellbeing. Themes speak to overcoming turbulence and past trauma, of being othered and rejected along the way to safety that is often elusive. Participants grapple with bicultural identities, and the media’s power in shaping societal narratives. Over time, their history becomes a source of pride for redefining self through strength of character, resilience, and psychological growth. Discussion and conclusion: Findings indicate that for these participants, media was stigmatizing, and negatively impacted wellbeing, confidence, and self-esteem by threatening their self-identity and presenting challenges in other areas of their life, such as work, school, and friendships. Despite this, participants’ experiences of resettlement and bicultural immersion promoted personal growth and a positive outlook for the future. This study recognizes the need to elevate Banyamulenge youth voices as a group poorly represented in research and contributes to a better understanding of how macro-level attitudes in media impact the wellbeing of ethnic minority youth in Australia.

Swipe, view, engage: the interplay of athlete social media content and viewer attitudes on sports perception and interest

PurposeInfluencers in physical activity and sports have gained significant prominence in promoting health and well-being via digital social networks. This research investigates the impact of athlete influencers on sports perceptions, with a focus on korfball. Using korfball as a representative sport minimizes biases, allowing a nuanced exploration of athlete-generated content’s direct influence on viewer attitudes.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey with 319 respondents explores variables like athlete attitude, attractive appearance, social media profile attitude, emotional engagement toward korfball, korfball perception, korfball interest and general sports attitude. Structural equation modeling analysis examines relationships among these variables.FindingsThe study delves into the complex interplay among athlete attitude, social media attitude and emotional engagement toward sports, emphasizing the pivotal role of authenticity in fostering deeper connections. Contrary to expectations, athlete attractiveness did not significantly influence viewer priorities, signaling a notable shift towards valuing authenticity and performance. Furthermore, the research explores how general sports attitudes moderate relationships between sports perceptions and interest, offering critical insights for sports sociology and marketing.Originality/valueThis study innovates by focusing on korfball, emphasizing authenticity over attractiveness and providing insights into the evolving dynamics of sports marketing and consumer behavior in the digital age. This research evidences the profound impact of the digital age on sports engagement, laying a foundation for future studies and practical applications in sports sociology, marketing and consumer behavior.

How is autism portrayed in news media? A corpus-based, mixed-methods analysis in China

IntroductionNews media play an important role in shaping public perceptions of and attitudes toward people with autism. This study examines news reports about autism in China Daily over the past 20 years, from 2003 to 2022.MethodsThis study employed both quantitative and qualitative analyses.ResultsThe findings reveal that news coverage on autism predominantly centers on children, with a significant shift in focus from support by family members and schools to support at the broader societal and governmental levels. Further, the overall representation of autism remains predominantly negative and rooted in prejudice. In terms of gender representation, autism is often depicted more frequently as male-oriented. However, a more diverse representation of age groups has emerged. Finally, while news media subtly convey negative attitudes toward autism, they also demonstrate a concurrent concern for the condition, reflecting a complex and nuanced attitude toward people with autism.DiscussionOur study indicates that corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis allows researchers to compare news over time, thus offering insights into changing discourses. The analysis can also reduce bias and uncover the implicit attitudes of news media toward autism by analyzing patterns of words and discourses.

Understanding the Effects of Post-Covid-19 Challenges on Employee Job Satisfaction and Job Performance in Café- Restaurants, Islamabad Pakistan; a Phenomenological Study

Current research is about Understanding the effect of post-Covid-19 challenges on employee job satisfaction and job performance in cafe-restaurants in Islamabad, Pakistan. The purpose of this research is to explore the challenge on the job satisfaction and performance after Corona virus. The qualitative inquiry method used phenomenological strategies with a post-positivist paradigm. A semi-structured face to face interview tool with open-ended questions was used. Analyze these questions by using thematic analysis approaches. Interview held in Urdu Language. Data were collected from six different three- and four-star cafe-restaurants. 15 interviewees shared their thoughts and satisfied questions with their answers in Urdu. Finding highlighted 12 major themes including psychological Changes after COVID-19, operational changes, assistance by Organization, changes in Role, communication, novelty in working environment, change in performance level, employee remarks regarding satisfaction, survivor sickness, sustainer, work attitude and effects of media. Participants practiced and research observed that Covid challenged the satisfaction and relationship and found decline in satisfaction and improvement in performance. Employees of Café-restaurant are not satisfied with their working conditions but still struggle to enhance their performance. Employees shared their feelings and practice and noted that a satisfied employee is not always a good performer, there are some other reasons also.

Critical Discourse Analysis of the Portuguese Media’s Coverage of the Belt and Road Initiative: The Case of Portuguese Mainstream Media, Público

Since 2013, when the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by China, this transnational cooperation initiative has attracted a lot of attention and discussion on a global scale. Portugal has been one of the EU countries actively supporting the Belt and Road Initiative and has signed a formal cooperation agreement with China. Coverage of the Belt and Road initiative has become a window into Portugal’s attitude and impression of China. This work uses newspaper-based data from Público to deconstruct the attitudes of the main Portuguese media towards the Belt and Road Initiative in terms of language use, discursive practices, and social practices, using content analysis and critical discourse analysis. The results show that Público uses both positive and negative terms in its coverage of the Belt and Road initiative, reflecting a complex attitude towards it. Criticism of the Belt and Road initiative reflects concern that Chinese policies could affect Portugal’s national interests, including concerns about human rights and environmental protection, among others. In general, media coverage of the Belt and Road initiative in Portugal has been both approving and supportive, as well as critical and challenging, and this attitude is closely related to Portugal’s international policies, economic interests, and social values. Analysis of this coverage provides a better understanding of the complex global impact of international cooperation projects such as the “One Belt, One Road” initiative and the way they are presented in the media of different countries.

What Instagram Means to Me: Links Between Social Anxiety, Instagram Contingent Self-worth, and Automated Textual Analysis of Linguistic Authenticity

While research has shown mixed effects of social media on mental health and well-being, little is known about the association between social media attitudes and objective measures of social interaction, such as linguistic authenticity. This study examined the relationship between self-reported social anxiety, linguistic authenticity, and Instagram contingent self-worth (ICSW). A total of 149 adults with active Instagram accounts completed online questionnaires and shared their Instagram comment data. Automated linguistic analysis of authenticity was performed on participants’ comment data using validated algorithms. Multiple linear regression showed that ICSW significantly moderated the relationship between social anxiety and linguistic authenticity, whereby higher levels of social anxiety marginally predicted lower linguistic authenticity at high levels of ICSW. As social media use continues to rise, this study emphasizes the need to explore the impact of social media interactions on emotional and social well-being.

Experience Flow and Social Media Attitude toward Purchase Intention

This paper employs a quantitative approach to hypothesis testing through structural equation modeling. The advertising perceived value of the consumer is described by four factors: entertainment, informativeness, credibility, and irritation. Based on a sample size of 406 individuals who use advertising platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The study validated the positive relationship between advertising's three components, namely entertainment, information, and credibility, and the user's flow experience and attitude toward advertising. Conversely, the advertising irritation component has an adverse effect on both user experience and attitude toward advertising. Furthermore, the findings also show a positive association between experience flow and people's attitudes about advertising. Finally, the study found that both experience flow and attitude toward advertising have a significant and positive effect on the tendency of consumers to purchase.

Language attitudes in the mass media: What attitude towards the Ukrainian language was formed by the Odesa media (2014–2023)

Language attitudes in the mass media: What attitude towards the Ukrainian language was formed by the Odesa media (2014–2023)

Exploring the Chinese public's affective attitudes towards digital transformation in agriculture: A social media-based analysis.

This study utilizes natural language processing techniques and panel vector autoregression methodology, to delve into the perceived attitudes of social media users towards the digital transformation of agriculture, and to assess its impact on total agricultural output and agricultural science and technology inputs. Data related to agricultural digital transformation were collected from Sina Weibo using web crawlers. The SnowNLP model was employed to infer users' attitudes, encompassing both positive and negative aspects. Furthermore, the study delves into the specific themes capturing users' positive attitudes and explores regional variations in focus. The findings reveal a sustained increase in users' interest in agricultural digital transformation since 2013. Positive attitudes primarily center around green development, agricultural intelligence, and global cooperation and innovation. Moreover, the study establishes a significant positive impact of users' positive attitudes on both total agricultural output value and agricultural science and technology investment, highlighting the constructive influence of user support on the agricultural industry's development.

Toward a Datafied Mindset: Conceptualizing Digital Dynamics and Analogue Resilience

This article explores the ways in which what we call the analogue and the datafied mindsets perceive the functioning of the datafied world. Based on a qualitative interview study of two generations of media users in Estonia, Portugal, and Sweden, we present and analyze underlying patterns in participants’ media attitudes and related practices. We show that belonging to a media generation does not always produce a homogeneous mindset or a uniform attitude toward media technologies. These mindsets, being ideal-typical constructs, are not bound to individuals: the same person can display features of the analogue and the datafied mindset in relation to different parts of the datafied world. One mindset does not replace the other but rather adds another layer to the social action of the individuals. The mindsets are multi-dimensional and molded by contrasting understandings, indicating that the tenacious structures of the analogue world linger on in the datafied social space.

"Pretty Women" and "Lucky Blokes": Unpacking Australian Social Media Responses to Female-Perpetrated Sexual Assault Against Men.

Female-perpetrated sexual violence research in Australia and elsewhere has been limited, part of a less common and arguably contentious field of criminology. Because of gendered social and cultural stereotypes, female sexual offending is often perceived as harmless or too rare to warrant attention. Utilizing Schippers' pariah femininities, this paper presents a critical criminological exploration of social media users' constructions of female sex offenders and their male victim-survivors. Examining 28 Facebook posts from 13 popular Australian newspapers, our findings identified social media users' tendency to question offence severity and sexualize offenders based on appearance, revealing how offender legitimacy and conceptions of harm are shaped by gendered expectations of "pretty women" and "lucky blokes." Conclusions suggest online discourse remains influenced by gendered stereotypes, though awareness of pariah femininities is growing, with further research needed worldwide to explore the impact of such social media attitudes and commentary on the incidence of and reactions to female sexual offending against men, including victim-survivors' help-seeking behavior.

An appraisal study of Ghanaian media's attitude towards Britain on the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth II

Considering the recent anti-imperial sentiments that have inspired several agitations in the media landscape of Francophone African countries, the study examines the existence or otherwise of such sentiments in Ghana's media landscape through the media's publications about the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth II. It explores the attitude portrayed by the media through their publications to understand the current political relationship between Ghana and Britain. Using the linguistic Appraisal System's Attitude as a tool for analysis, the study, selecting fifteen print and radio media organisations in Ghana, examines data about the death and burial of the Queen. The study finds that the British monarch and her affiliates are favourably presented in the affect, judgement and appreciation systems of evaluation and considers this presentation as a demonstration of solidarity between the nations. It concludes that Ghana, and by extension, African Anglophone countries, shows less hostility towards the former colonial authority.

Pojam denacifikacije u srpskim štampanim medijima 2022-2023. godine

One of the goals of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine has been the denazification of Ukrainian society. The aim of the research is to determine how the media public in the Republic of Serbia saw denazification in relation to its factors: history, politics, economy, culture. Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of media content, we have performed a descriptive identification of the term itself, as well as its frequency. Empirical research was carried out, which included five daily newspapers with the largest circulation in the Republic of Serbia: Novosti, Politika, Kurir, Blic and Danas, in the period from February 2022 to October 2023. The research indicates the active role of the print media in describing the concept of denazification, and the polarized attitudes of print media towards the denazification process, depending on whether they belong to mainstream or alternative print media, as well as the critical perception of the application of the National Socialist ideology in practice.

How to Cover Murder-Suicides: A Study of Irish Journalism Ethics

ABSTRACT Based on 12 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, this study explores the attitudes of news media professionals toward Codes of Practice and guidelines and how they may conflict in the coverage of murder-suicide incidents. There is a dearth of research in this area, even though four organizations in Ireland have issued guidelines on how journalists should report on cases of this nature. This study found that news media professionals have a largely positive attitude toward guidelines and codes; however, news media conventions and routines can conflict with recommendations. Furthermore, the interview subjects’ sense of duty to the public, to provide a full and frank disclosure of information often outweighed their responsibility to any guide or code in the context of covering cases of murder-suicide. This raises critical issues for the coverage of cases of this nature, particularly when news values clash with Codes of Practice and guidelines.

Alignment and antagonism in flux: A diachronic sentiment analysis of attitudes towards the Chinese mainland in the Hong Kong press

Despite extensive discussions about Hong Kong’s sentiments towards the Chinese mainland since the sovereignty transfer in 1997, there has been a lack of large-scale empirical analysis of attitude change in the mainstream media, which both reflect and shape sentiments in society. To address this gap, the present study employs an optimised semantic-based automatic sentiment analysis method to examine a corpus of news about China from 1997 to 2020 in three leading Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong, namely Apple Daily, Ming Pao, and Oriental Daily News. The analysis reveals that although the Hong Kong press had a positive emotional tone towards China in general, the overall sentiment was becoming increasingly negative. Meanwhile, the alignment and antagonism towards China have both increased, providing empirical evidence for attitudinal polarisation in the Hong Kong press. Specifically, Apple Daily’s depictions of China became increasingly negative, though with some positive turns before 2008, whereas Oriental Daily News consistently expressed favourable sentiments. Ming Pao maintained an impartial stance towards China through an increased but balanced representation of positive and negative sentiments, with its subjectivity and sentiment intensity growing to an industry-standard level. By explicating the cross-newspaper and cross-period variations, the results provide new insights into the complexity of sentiments towards China in the Hong Kong press, and media attitudes in general in terms of the “us” and “them” positionings.

Attitudes Toward Women in Media Discourse -- Discourse Construction with "Leftover Women" as an Example

The media first proposed the term leftover women and then spread it on the Internet. Ex-isting studies on leftover women mainly focus on traditional media, such as newspapers and TV, and rarely involve we media. Through text analysis and comparative research method, this paper conducts a comparative study on the discourse attitudes of official me-dia and private media towards women and the media images they construct. According to the data citation and case analysis, the following results are concluded: the official medias construction of the image of leftover women is relatively rigid and simple, and the report-ing plate mainly focuses on the entertainment part. Due to the relative freedom of speech, private media create a more diversified image, and the mode is mainly personal Posting, re-lying on traffic to spread. To a certain extent, this paper fills in the research of leftover women in the field of we media and puts forward suggestions on how to create the me-dia image of leftover women more objectively.

RELASI MEDIA MASSA JELANG PEMILU 2024 ANTARA PEMERINTAH DAN MASYARAKAT

Talking about the relationship between the media and the political sphere is a dilemmatic relationship. This is due to the attitude of media reporting which is not completely neutral from political intervention or capital patronage. Of course, this is something paradoxical considering that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy after the trias politica. The media should act as a watchdog in power so that checks and balances are created in the country and society. The media's observation is related to its central function as social correlations which lead the public to translate the various realities of life-span and national into the consumption of good print and electronic information. So, the media here has power over public knowledge through text and image framing so that it becomes the main public reference in shaping their views on the way government works. Information is the key word that links media relations with politics through the formation of public opinion on the news. This study aims to explain and analyze the tendency of mass media coverage in the context of the 2024 Presidential Election. The research method used is Robert N. Entman's framing analysis. The Research has shown that with mass media relations in politics by looking at media neutrality mass can at least be detected through; Mass media in determining news sources; Media using column and page limitations, mass media will observe the urgency of someone or a candidate couple in the election; There's room and place settings that are fairly wide against the activities of someone or a candidate couple, like the announcement on the first page of a newspaper.

Skepticism of and critical thinking about media messages: Conflicting relationships with body dissatisfaction

Despite the theoretical connection between media literacy and body dissatisfaction, empirical findings about their relationship are decidedly mixed. There is not a clear explanation for these discrepancies. The present study aimed to 1) compare the attitudes young adult women with those of a reference group of adolescents to examine whether similar values were observed despite differences in age group and racial/ethnic identity, 2) to examine the relationships between media literacy and body dissatisfaction using recommended measures of media literacy. Racially diverse female undergraduate students (N = 152, Mage = 21.62) completed the Media Attitudes Questionnaire, the Critical Thinking about Media Measure, and the Body Shape Questionnaire online. Young adult women endorsed greater critical thinking about media messages and greater skepticism towards the similarity of media messages than adolescents. Additionally, greater skepticism towards the desirability and realism of media messages was associated with lower body dissatisfaction while greater critical thinking about media messages was found to be positively related to greater body dissatisfaction. It is possible that greater critical thinking within the context of media literacy cannot occur without increased attention towards or time spent thinking about media messages. Findings suggest that enhancing critical thinking about the media may not be the main mechanism of change for effective media literacy interventions. These findings underscore the complexities that exist within the relationships between media literacy and body dissatisfaction and highlight the continued need for research in this area.

Critical media attitudes as a buffer against the harmful effects of pornography on beliefs about sexual and dating violence

ABSTRACT Pornography often depicts traditional gender norms and aggression paired with sexual behaviour. Among adolescents, exposure to pornography is related to unhealthy beliefs about gender, sex and relationships. Critical thinking about media may reduce the internalisation of unhealthy messages in pornography. However, there is a dearth of research examining how critical media attitudes are protective of youth in early adolescence. Using a US sample of ninth- and tenth-grade students (n = 558; M age = 14; 53% female), this study examines how the relationship between frequency of pornography use and acceptance of traditional gender norms, dating violence and rape myths may be moderated by critical media attitudes. More frequent pornography use was related to greater acceptance of rape myths and gender norms, but only for adolescents who were less sceptical about media messages. For adolescents who were sceptical of media messages about sex, there was no relationship between pornography use and their acceptance of rape myths and gender norms. This study provides preliminary evidence of the protective influence that critical media attitudes may have on adolescents’ sexual and relationship health. In an increasingly digital world, it is critical to provide early media literacy education as part of sexuality education to promote adolescents’ health.

Examinatıon of the relationship between secondary school 7th and 8th grade students' social media attitude and self-esteem

Bu çalışma ile ergenlerin sosyal medyaya yönelik tutumları ile benlik saygısı arasındaki ilişkinin çeşitli değişkenler açısından incelenmesi hedeflenmiştir. Araştırma ilişkisel tarama modelindedir. Araştırmanın katılımcılarını 2019-2020 eğitim öğretim yılında Ankara İlinde M.E.B’ye bağlı devlet ve özel ortaokulların 7. ve 8. sınıflarında öğrenim gören 13-14 yaş arası 207 öğrenci (108’i kız ve 99’u erkek) oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama araçları olarak “Genel Bilgi Formu” ile “Sosyal Medya Tutum Ölçeği” ve “Rosenberg Benlik Saygısı Ölçeği” kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada öğrencilerin benlik saygılarının yüksek ve sosyal medyaya yönelik tutumlarının olumlu olduğu belirlenmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre öğrencilerin benlik saygısı arttıkça sosyal medya tutumuna yönelik sosyal izolasyon düzeyinin azaldığı, öte yandan öğrencilerin sosyal izolasyon düzeyi azaldıkça sosyal medya tutumunun olumlu yönde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Araştırmaya katılan kız öğrencilerin paylaşım ihtiyacı düzeylerinin erkek öğrencilere göre fazla olduğu ve devlet okulunda öğrenim gören öğrencilerin sosyal izolasyon düzeylerinin özel okulda öğrenim gören öğrencilerden daha yüksek olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırma bulguları ilgili alanyazın çerçevesinde tartışılarak yorumlanmış ve önerilerde bulunulmuştur.