Contemporary Media Environment Research Articles

The “Clinching” Effect and Affective Polarization: Exposure to Incivility via Social Media in the Presence of Online News

Abstract The contemporary media environment is often characterized as awash in uncivil and divisive messages. Central to this characterization, are social media, where partisans may engage in uncivil exchanges with outgroup members. The Internet has also become a key source of partisan news content, which is often filled with vitriol and “outrage” toward “the other side.” Using panel survey data from a large and diverse general-population sample of the US, the current study considers the influence of exposure to incivility on social media and online news use on a particularly emotional form of division, affective polarization. Fixed effects regression analyses find no main effects, but significant interaction effects between exposure to incivility via social media and online news use (pro-attitudinal, counter-attitudinal, and nonpartisan online news use) on affective polarization. Exposure to incivility via social media as a form of personal contact, appears to supplement the effect of partisan online news (and vice versa), whether pro-attitudinal or counter-attitudinal, intensifying affective polarization. However, when combined with exposure to incivility on social media, nonpartisan news appears to have an attenuating effect on affective polarization.

Opening a Virtual Space before the Door of the Law: The Transnational Togani Effect from Silenced to Angels Wear White

Through an examination of what the author calls the transnational Togani effect, which challenges legislative failures across both screens and borders, the author hopes to show how social justice films are deployed as a mode of critique that directly impacts the criminal justice system. The author's analysis of the transnational Togani effect therefore encompasses and connects the dimensions of virtuality and actuality in their interactive relation in the contemporary media environment. The author situates this interactive relationship between the virtual and the actual within a transnational framework because awareness of sexual assault is raised in cross-border contexts that are intertextual and interconnected. Drawing on the Deleuzian notion of the virtual and the actual and Giorgio Agamben's concept of inclusive exclusion, the author suggests that screen intervention is a virtual layer added to heterotopic space that serves as a possible resistance against the entrapment of human subjects by neoliberal governance, in which the law is “in force without significance.” As Deleuze shows, the virtual and the actual are fully real, and the relationship between them takes the form of a circuit. By exploring how the interlocking of virtuality and actuality comes to bear on the legal sphere, this article poses fundamental questions for cinema, or for audiovisual media in general, such as to what extent cinematic critique is capable of opening an alternative space for social justice.

The influence of threat and right-wing authoritarianism on the selection of online (dis)information—a conceptual replication and extension of Lavine et al. (2005)

Abstract Over the decades, communication research has investigated the situational and personal conditions under which people particularly prefer attitude-consistent over attitude-inconsistent content (confirmation bias). In a central study, Lavine et al. (2005) [Lavine, H., Lodge, M., & Freitas, K. (2005). Authoritarianism, threat, and motivated reasoning. Political Psychology, 26(2), 219–244.] examined how right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and threat cause bias when processing political information. Their laboratory experiment suggested that right-wing authoritarians prefer attitude-consistent information in the presence of a threat. Given new crisis environments accompanied by various threats, we re-examined this interaction effect and conceptually replicated Lavine et al.'s central hypothesis in a contemporary media environment. In an online experiment (N = 1,118), we focused on selective exposure to verified news and disinformation and tracked participants’ selection unobtrusively. Contrary to expectations, the interaction between different threats and RWA did not increase selective exposure to attitude-consistent (dis)information. The results challenge the hypothesis’ underlying framework and make it necessary to consider new ways of advancing the theoretical model.

Digital Video Advertising: Breakthrough or Extension of TV Advertising in the New Digital Media Landscape?

The aim of this paper is to shape the identity of digital video advertising in the new digital media landscape, focusing on whether and to what extent popular digital ads on social media are differentiated from traditional television ads in the context of the convergence of traditional and new electronic media. Content analysis was preferred for the study of popular advertising content in social media. In this respect, the differentiation of digital video advertising from its television counterpart is examined in terms of the properties and effects of the transmission medium itself on the advertising content and of the features of the digital advertising content itself. Out of the findings emerged that digital video advertising is still in a phase of adaptation/transition, consisting of only a potential breakthrough in the contemporary media environment, since it has not yet exhausted the possibilities offered by the internet and Web 2.0. Currently, digital advertising only partially incorporates and exploits the advantages of enriched, multimedia, interactive, and personalized content, characteristics that would potentially differentiate it to a greater extent from advertising shown in traditional media, especially television.

The Public Sphere Is “Too Darn Hot”: Social Identity Complexity as a Basis for Authentic Communication

A growing body of research suggests that the contemporary media environment enables motivated reasoning, which intensifies affective polarization. This is especially the case in the U.S., where elections are capital-intensive and media are largely commercially owned. From a normative perspective, these commercial forces may interfere with authentic communication by hijacking the “lifeworld” and thus undermining the sincerity of our speech. From a psychological and empirical perspective, this means we are an affective public steeping in “hot cognitions” that unconsciously motivate us toward processing (mis)information in biased and distorted ways. This kind of cognitive limitation intensifies as current affairs heat up, but starts well before, as a function of media market boundaries aligning with human psychology. Through a synthetic literature review of theory and empirical research, this essay argues that “social identity complexity” may help to overcome some of the worst outcomes of motivated reasoning, pointing toward a developmental basis for more authentic communication in the public sphere.

Exposure to diverse political views in contemporary media environments

Exploring the nexus between digital media and citizens’ exposure to diverse political views is imperative for understanding contemporary democratic engagement. This study builds upon Mutz and Martin’s (2001) seminal research, integrating digital communication channels previously unexamined. Our findings suggest that the interpersonal character of media interactions, rather than the mere distinction between offline and online platforms, significantly influences the diversity of political views to which individuals are exposed. Contrary to the prevalent theories of “echo chambers” and “filter bubbles,” our analysis reveals a nuanced media landscape where digital platforms facilitate both homogeneous and heterogeneous political exposures, depending on their specific affordances. This study contributes to the political communication literature by offering a comprehensive overview of exposure dynamics in the digital age.

From Stage to Screen: The Digital Mediatization of Ballet

While contributing to mediatization theory by extending the scope of study, this research explores the interrelationship between digital media and ballet. Upon defining ballet as a sociocultural field, it attempts to describe how digital media influences ballet and assess: 1) how and why ballet dancers of varying degrees of involvement use different types of digital media when engaging with their activity; 2) how ballet dancers understand digital media’s influence on the development of ballet; and 3) the attitudes toward such influence that ballet dancers hold. The study first offers an outline of the history of ballet and its longstanding relationship with the media. It then provides a brief overview of mediatization and, considering the complexity of the contemporary digital media environment, isolates the influence of digital mediatization. The results suggest that digital mediatization has significantly influenced the development of ballet, affecting technical, professional, and social institutions and processes.

Critical Inquiry in (and About) Media Environments: Examining an Asset-Based Digital Literacy Curriculum

Scholars have long recognized that reading in digital spaces requires unique skills, strategies, and competencies in comparison to those needed for reading printed text. In recent years, the ubiquity of social media and algorithmically targeted content has radically changed the nature of online reading and meaning making. Technological changes have occurred simultaneously with radically altered sociocultural and sociopolitical contexts. To account for an altered technological and sociocultural landscape, new approaches to teaching digital reading and critical media literacy are needed. Addressing these concerns, this case study detailed a digital reading curriculum designed to be responsive to both the contemporary digital media environment and to students’ out-of-school digital literacy practices and contexts. The curriculum was collaboratively designed by five middle-school language arts teachers who participated in a semester-long professional learning group focused on digital reading. Drawing upon sociocultural, asset-based, and culturally relevant philosophies of education, these five teachers designed a unique digital reading curriculum. This study examined the nature of this curriculum. The findings detailed four aspects of the teachers’ unit: (1) digital reading instruction situated within students’ literate lives; (2) critical instruction regarding systemic features of the internet such as algorithms and clickbait; (3) lessons in which students interrogate socially situated meaning making; and (4) lessons focused on the role of emotions while reading online. The findings have implications for future digital reading and media literacy curricula intended to be responsive to students’ funds of knowledge, ever-changing literacy technologies, and new, emergent ways of reading and practicing literacy on the internet.

Why mainstream news media still matter

It is frequently claimed that mainstream news organisations are in crisis and becoming ever more marginalised in the contemporary high-choice media environment. Such claims frequently conflate different challenges facing the industry, resulting in over-generalised claims about the prospects for established news brands. In this article, we identify four related crises: reach, resource, reputation and relevance. Through the analysis of each, we show that many claims about the displacement of mainstream news are overstated, but that the interactive aspects of these crises are presenting particularly significant challenges for local news production and news organisations orientated towards impartiality norms.

Original sin or natural order: Dialogical construction of social knowledge of animal production

AbstractThis research examines the public discussion around animal production in Finland. Applying a dialogical approach to social representations theory, we elucidate the hotly debated nature of animal production by analysing news articles (N = 50) and the related reader‐produced comments (N = 1501) in Finnish newspapers. We employed qualitative methods for analysing multivoicedness and dialogue to identify ego–alter pairs constructed in the material in relation to the object of animal production. Four prevalent ego–alter pairs were identified: advocates for animal rights–animal production defenders, producers–consumers, orthodox–unorthodox Christians and provincials–urban dwellers. The study contributes to the study of everyday knowledge by showing how various contradictory understandings of the same topic are generated in public discourse. The research also demonstrates how the theoretical concept of ego–alter embedded in the social representations theory can be empirically utilised in analysing debates in contemporary media environments and to shed light on the dialogical dynamics around the discussions.

Exposure to Diverse Political Views in Contemporary Media Environments

Exposure to Diverse Political Views in Contemporary Media Environments

Modeling pathway linking mobile social media intensity to attitude towards electronic word-of-mouth and engagement: The significant role of social trust and perceived homophily

Along with the rapid development of diversified social media, WeChat has become a prevalent social tool in mainland China which allows users to connect and communicate with others spanning time and distance. Although a great deal of empirical literature has explored the antecedents of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and indicated that a link exists between social capital and e-WOM engagement, the specific dimensions of social capital are still rarely probed and investigated, especially in the mobile social media setting. The present research takes a social capital perspective and aims to systematically clarify three distinct dimensions of social capital, attitude towards e-WOM and their association with WeChat users' e-WOM engagement behaviors. The current research analyzes variables and their influence using structural equation modeling. The statistical sample was obtained from 365 young people who have used WeChat in mainland China. The obtained results demonstrate that WeChat usage intensity can positively influence social interaction ties, social trust, and perceived homophily. Additionally, social interaction ties, social trust, and perceived homophily can positively predict WeChat users' e-WOM engagement. Furthermore, attitude towards e-WOM can partially mediate the effect of social capital on e-WOM engagement. These new findings may enrich the existing research body of social capital theory and provide fresh insights for scholars and managers to further understand individuals' attitudes and e-WOM engagement behaviors in the contemporary new media environment.

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF THE MODERN NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE: ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH

In contemporary high-choice media environments, the issue of media trust and its impact on people's media use has taken on new importance. At the same time, the extent to which people trust the news media and how much it matters for their use of different types of media is not clear. To lay the groundwork for future research, in this article we offer a focused review of how news media trust has been conceptualized and operationalized in previous research and research on the extent to which news media trust influences media use, and offer a theoretically derived framework for future research on news media trust and its influence on media use.

Gledaj (TV) i uči? Važnost (utjelovljenog) kulturnog kapitala u objašnjenju klasične i digitalne medijske pismenosti

This paper aims to identify whether dimensions of cultural capital affect traditional and media literacy by using survey data collected in 2022 as part of the project Medijsko obrazovanje je važno (N=1033). Using Bourdieu's theoretical framework, three dimensions of cultural capital were operationalised as independent variables: objectified (number of books in the household), embodied (taste in TV programmes), and institutionalised (level of education) cultural capital. Traditional media literacy was operationalised as critical reading of media messages, while digital media literacy was operationalised as creating online digital content. Both of these variables were used as dependent variables in the analysis. Following principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to establish whether cultural capital has explanatory power for both dimensions of media literacy. The results point to the statistically significant role of objectified cultural capital in explaining traditional media literacy, although that explanation’s statistical power remains questionable. Digital media literacy exhibited no statistically significant connection with all three cultural capital dimensions. However, additional analysis points to the relevance of digital skills as a more potent factor in explaining traditional and digital media literacy. Overall, digital capital represents a more relevant distinction factor than users’ classic cultural capital in a contemporary media environment. The implications of this data point to the conclusion that media literacy is primarily shaped through various forms of digital capital, although the role of television should not be neglected when developing future programmes in media literacy.

Importance of news media branding in a contemporary media environment

Digitalization fundamentally brought new ways in how media distribute and audiences consume media content, transforming the existing media environment and bringing new competitors to media organizations. On one side, new platforms and technology companies give media ample opportunities to reach their audiences; on the other, they develop a highly competitive information environment - oversaturated and fragmented where the point of differentiation between media brands could be higher. Furthermore, multi-platform and content on-demand consumption delude and endangers media brand associations, contributing to an environment where audiences care less about media brands and more about the moment of consumption independently from platform, time and media brand. The younger audience, Generation Z, is an even more platform, on-demand and experience-driven audience who prefers social media and global media and cares less about national media brands raising vital questions about whether national news media brands will have an audience in future. Therefore, young audience consumption trends have become significant media industry factors as the sector recognizes this audience as a significant portion of the market today and shortly signalling media consumption trends after coming generations. The research actuality is based on these aspects that challenge national news media brands to attract a younger audience, ensuring news media brand attribution and strong brand equity in a contemporary media environment. Numerous experts believe that competition among news media outlets has intensified dramatically due to the fragmentation of the news media market, compelling media managers to continually search out new methods to differentiate their media brands. In the meantime, realising that news media brand uniqueness is uncommon and developing a continual stream of items with distinctive characteristics is exceedingly challenging. This study focuses on national news media and analyzes how news media attributes and perceived uniqueness impact news media brand equity in a contemporary media environment transformed by digitalization. The study highlights the importance of media brands' distinctiveness and impact on news media brand equity. The authors utilised multiple linear regression analyses and the decision tree method to estimate the most influential news media attributes contributing to news media brand equity. The impact of the perceived uniqueness of news media brands was analyzed along with other news media brand attribute-based associations.

Slimy tactics: the covert commercialisation of child-targeted content

ABSTRACT There are growing concerns about the commercialisation of childhood and the consequences of marketing to children, including marketing’s negative effects and increasingly sophisticated and potentially deceptive online tactics that permeate the contemporary media environment. Children and young people are prolific users of video-sharing platforms (VSP) such as TikTok and YouTube, yet little is known about children’s advertising literacy within these contexts. Therefore, this paper answers recent calls for a deeper understanding of children’s advertising literacy in light of their increasingly digital lifestyles. A combination of qualitative, participatory creative methods were used with children aged 9–11 from the UK. Findings show that despite their negative perceptions of online advertising, children place a level of trust in video-sharing platforms, based on a misconception that the commercialisation of content is always disclosed. This is concerning because children may prefer and pay more attention to content that they believe to be genuine.

The changing working life of photojournalism professionals in the contemporary media environment

This article aims to pull together some of the recent trajectories that have affected the work of photojournalism professionals. It is argued that the hybrid media environment is yet another turning point of the revolutionary changes caused by the digitalization during the past three decades. Since the late 1980s the digitalization has enabled photojournalism much more than the transition of photo editing and cameras from analogue to digital technology. Digitalization has, for example, facilitated the work in numerous ways and enabled images to travel in multiple speed in comparison to analogue times. During the recent years, traditional media organizations have witnessed diminishing revenues of and cut downs of photography departments worldwide. Most of the news photographers of today are self-employed, and despite the growing importance of the visuals in society, they need to expand their reach from journalism to other fields such as commercial photography, public relations, corporate communications, artistic projects and NGO work to earn a living. This leads to blurring of boundaries between journalism and other fields and to diffusion of professional values and ethics.

Advancing a qualitative turn in news media trust research

AbstractThe contemporary media environment represents the greatest challenge ever to journalism's legitimacy. Surveys conducted in different parts of the world highlight a decline in trust in news media. Due to the numerous changes in the news media environment, different investigative tools are required to grasp the mechanisms underlying news media trust from those adopted so far. This article provides a review of existing media trust research and argues that it is necessary to investigate news media trust (also) from a qualitative perspective because today understanding media trust is as crucial as measuring it.

Individual (Non) Resilience of University Students to Digital Media Manipulation after COVID-19 (Case Study of Slovak Initiatives).

The starting point of this theoretical article is the presentation of the issue of media manipulation in the contemporary digital media environment. The theoretical part is followed by a description and analysis of selected factors that create a belief of the individual's resilience to digital media manipulative elements. Among the seven researched factors of an individual's (non) resilience to digital media manipulation, we include: media illiteracy/literacy, thought activity/laziness, searching/not searching for "consensus" in the media, not emphasizing/emphasizing emotions, non-reliance/reliance on own intuition, non-credibility/credibility in the opinion of celebrities and automatic distrust/trust of recipients in the information presented in the media and others. We do not see the presence of manipulative elements in digital media as the main danger (manipulation is always in a sense part of the media message), nor the fact that manipulative elements have an effect on individuals (media-manipulative and non-manipulative-effects cannot be doubted). In our opinion, the very significant risk is the fact that the media message is followed by a false belief of the recipient's own "immunity" against (covert and overt) media manipulation. The result of this false notion is the individual's belief that manipulation in digital media content does not "affect" him ("I can easily recognize media manipulation") and does not "touch" him ("It can't happen to me"). Such a person then resembles a "house on the sand", as his opinions, arguments or beliefs quickly collapse under the onslaught of five skills: challenges in the context of media literacy, critical thinking, strategies for verifying the credibility of information sources, the rational assessment of issues and reflection of reality. This original research article is a qualitative analysis of the legacy of ten Slovak educational initiatives focused on the issue of education in the context of media manipulation. The analysis focuses on the role of individual risk factors associated with resilience. The conclusion of the analysis is the elaboration of a positive proposal for the researched issue.

Säästämisen ja sijoittamisen risteyksiä pankkien Twitter-viestinnässä

Banks have traditionally played an important role in defining and shaping the cultural meanings and practices of saving and investing. Whereas saving has traditionally been associated with responsible economic behavior, the meaning history of investing is more varied. This paper focuses on how banks and their employees construct meanings for saving, investing, and responsibility in contemporary digital media environment. Through analyzing Twitter posts with hashtags #saving and #investing, the study shows how saving gains meaning through promotional discourse and is closely intertwined with consumption and investing, with little distinctive, substantial meaning. Investing gains meaning as a hobby of an investor community where banks, analysts, and consumers engage in investment-related activities. The study indicates that investing has sidelined traditional saving as ideal economic behavior in banks’ communication. Banks use the hashtags to position themselves as relevant actors in the field, but discussion concerning the societal aspects of economic activity remains limited.