Guardian Online Research Articles

Defining Virtual Consumerism Through Content and Sentiment Analyses.

This study set out to better understand virtual consumerism (VC) by applying natural language processing (NLP) methods for sentiment and content analyses. A total of 318 articles related to VC were identified on theguardian.com Web site and analyzed by text mining methodology. A thematic, content analysis using the Leximancer program was performed to explore VC as a concept, and its related concepts and concept associations. For the purposes of "deep-dive insights," further content and sentiment analyses were performed with MonkeyLearn and valence aware dictionary for sentiment reasoning. This triangulation in methodology enabled a comprehensive unstructured qualitative data analysis. The study identified key themes that characterize and define VC. It uncovered that, although there is predominantly positive sentiment toward VC reported in The Guardian online articles, negative sentiment also exists, presenting challenges for the industry to maneuver. The findings reveal that in the context of VC, a virtual experience is also a social experience in a virtual space, which is becoming and evolving. There are certain industries and sectors that are embracing VC, such as marketing, advertising and public relations, software development/IT, art/design, and entertainment, as well as science/technology. Some sectors and industries are experiencing challenges, such as security/law enforcement and medical, and hence display negative sentiment toward VC. Overall, this study presents a working definition of VC, a synopsis of the state of VC, and highlights areas for potential research to further our understanding of this phenomenon. It contributes to an improved understanding of VC for the industry and academia, and provides impetus for future studies focused on the emergent VC-relevant conceptual relationships.

How Constructive News Outlets Reported the Synergistic Effects of Climate Change and Covid-19 Through Metaphors

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has provoked fears that the heavy reporting of pandemic developments may cause climate change to slip from public attention. Views have also converged that the focus should be on the positive lessons of COVID-19 for addressing climate change. This paper examined Guardian Online and Positive News to identify examples of good practice in reporting the synergistic effects of climate change and COVID-19, as both are committed to covering climate change and practice solutions-oriented constructive journalism that provides context by explaining relations between issues. The study sought to identify the types of synergistic effects that were reported and how they were reported through metaphors—key conceptualisation tools. Analysis of 153 news articles published in the first year of the pandemic showed that the coverage of synergistic effects was solutions-oriented and synergistic effects were discussed mainly through Movement and Colour metaphors—particularly the colour Green. War metaphors which have dominated reporting when climate change and COVID-19 have been discussed separately were rare. Reliance on Movement and Colour metaphors can be interpreted as a positive practice, as Movement metaphors are familiar, vivid and more flexible than War metaphors, while Green metaphors are closely associated with environmentalism and have positive connotations.

When I Met Kathy Acker

When I Met Kathy Acker

The Influence of Choice Feminism on Women’s and Men’s Attitudes towards Name Changing at Marriage: An Analysis of Online Comments on UK Social Media

Analysis of name changing choices women have undertaken in English-speaking Western countries such as the USA and in the UK indicate that there are various predictors of whether women change their name at marriage or not, one of which is whether they identify as a feminist. This research examines the views of women and men on the issue of choice in name changing at marriage on a UK-based internet forum, Mumsnet, and in the British newspaper The Guardian online and explores whether identification with feminism has an influence on traditional name changing choices performed by women and men. The paper concludes that societal change is necessary to accommodate genuine free choice in name changing at marriage.

(In)civility and online deliberation: readers’ reactions to race-related news stories

Reacting to an increase in gratuitous racist and sexist comments made by readers in response to online articles, media outlets in South Africa have begun closing down their comments sections, an action that has been repeated many times over across the globe. After a particularly abusive tirade against a young women who wrote an article about being black in Cape Town, Independent Media established an advisory panel in 2014 to investigate the nature of user-generated content (UGC) on their news site, Independent Online (IOL). One of the panel’s recommendations was that what is meant by “uncivil” discourse on online news sites be delineated more accurately and narrowly. Employing computer-mediated discourse analysis, we explore the nature of civility and incivility generated by readers of online news. We look at readers’ posts in response to race-based topics and uncover the complexities inherent in describing both (in)civility and deliberative discourse precisely. Our sample is drawn from the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian Online, one of the few national media establishments that permitted user comments during our data collection phase.

Flat adverbs: acceptable today?

In February 2015, Catherine Bennett published a piece called “Modern Tribes: the grammar pedant” in The Guardian Online. The article focused on so-called usage problems – instances of divided usage concerning grammar, vocabulary or spelling that many people have strong opinions about. (The previous sentence is a good example of such a usage problem: can you indeed end a sentence with a preposition, for instance?) The article itself was not very interesting in its own right: it dealt with all the “old chestnuts”, like less/fewer, disinterested/uninterested and of course the split infinitive. What was interesting, though, was that within a little over ten hours, 84 comments had come in. In the Bridging the Unbridgeable project, we are interested in new usage problems rather than the ones we have been reading about for around two hundred years. So I scoured the comments with great interest. I've already written about what I found in a post on the Bridging the Unbridgeable blog: there were not many new or any very striking complaints, but what I do find of interest is that no-one mentioned the flat adverb. Does this mean that flat adverbs are no longer considered problematical today?

Can the NHS make the efficiency savings it needs to survive?

British Journal of NursingVol. 24, No. 14 RegularsCan the NHS make the efficiency savings it needs to survive?Alan GlasperAlan GlasperSearch for more papers by this authorAlan GlasperPublished Online:23 Jul 2015https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2015.24.14.752AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article References Boffey D (2014) NHS spending on agency nurses soars past £5.5bn. Guardian online. Saturday 1 November 2014 (accessed 10 July 2015) Google ScholarDepartment of Health (2015) Review of Operational Productivity in NHS providers. DH, London Google ScholarGlasper A (2015) Can the NHS become a 7-day service for all? Br J Nurs 24(13): 706–707 Link, Google ScholarMoon JC, Flett AS, Godman BB, Grosso AM, Wierzbicki AS (2010) Getting better value from the NHS drug budget. BMJ 341: c6449 Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarMytton OT, Clarke D, Raynor M (2012) Taxing unhealthy food and drinks to improve health. BMJ 344: e2931 Crossref, Medline, Google ScholarNursing Times (2015) Buying smarter, buying safer. NursingTimes.net. http://tinyurl.com/nlhk367 (accessed 10 July 2015) Google ScholarRoyal College of Nursing (2015a) 6. Workforce planning. http://tinyurl.com/pwotsnw (accessed 10 July 2015) Google ScholarRoyal College of Nursing (2015b) Nursing shortage preventing access to crucial training, says RCN. http://tinyurl.com/bqo6yz4 (accessed 10 July 2015) Google ScholarRoyal College of Nursing (2015c) Small Changes, Big Differences. http://tinyurl.com/o6qdae4 (accessed 10 July 2015) Google ScholarScarborough P, Bhatnagar P, Wickramasinghe KK, et al. (2011) The economic burden of ill health due to diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol and obesity in the UK: an update to 2006–07 NHS costs. J Public Health 33(4): 527–35 Crossref, Google ScholarTriggle N (2015) Simple steps ‘could save NHS £5bn’. BBC online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33071066 (accessed 10 July 2015) Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails 23 July 2015Volume 24Issue 14ISSN (print): 0966-0461ISSN (online): 2052-2819 Metrics History Published online 23 July 2015 Published in print 23 July 2015 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

Metaphors in Guardian Online and Mail Online Opinion-page Content on Climate Change: War, Religion, and Politics

In climate change-related media discourses metaphors are used to (re-)conceptualize climate change science as well as climate change mitigation/adaptation efforts. Using critical metaphor analysis, we study linguistic and conceptual metaphors in opinion-page content from the British online newspapers Guardian Online and Mail Online, while paying attention to the arguments they advance. We find that Guardian Online employed war metaphors to advance pro-climate change arguments. War metaphors were used to (1) communicate the urgency to act on climate change and (2) conceptualize climate change politics. Mail Online employed religion metaphors to furnish skeptic/contrarian arguments. Religion metaphors were used to (1) downplay the urgency to act on climate change and (2) conceptualize transitions from climate change belief to skepticism. These findings raise concerns about sustained policy gridlock and refute expectations about novelty in climate change-related media discourses (as both war and religion have a history of use).

Social media

The Guardian online has highlighted ten health-related Twitter feeds that offer a diverse take on health care, science and policy. They include: Oliver Sachs (@OliverSachs), the neurologist and scientist who wrote The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and who recently told followers he has terminal cancer; and Caitlin Doughty (@TheGoodDeath), an undertaker who advises on healthier ways to talk about death, grieving and mourning. Go to tinyurl.com/k3rsrhs to see the full list.

An evaluation of the front page design of The Guardian's online newspaper from 1996 to 2015

Online newspapers can be distinguished by speed and immediacy, it can be known as the online publications, which collect news items. This is linked to relations between change and action. This research paper aims to draw the developed temporalities of the online journalistic design since the first news sites in 1995 to 2015. The analytical point for this is that such period time should be recognized as a complex interaction between graphic elements on different and overlapping levels of the online newspaper's front page.

Reactions and Actions to Xenophobia in South Africa: An Analysis of The Herald and The Guardian Online Newspapers

The spate of xenophobic attacks that occurred in South Africa first in 2008 and more recently in 2015 has raised questions in relation to causes and possible solutions. These discourses have focused on South African narratives with little contributions on how other African nationals perceive and conceptualize xenophobia. The paper recognizes the power of the mass media in serving as a major source of information for a variety of people in shaping their views and opinions about issues concerning xenophobia. Based on mass media narratives, the concept of a global village becomes more apparent as viewers, listeners and readers were informed of the events even though they were several miles away and in the comfort and safety of their environments. The paper argues that the media did not only inform but also served as a platform through which national and international reactions and actions could be aired and reported. These reactions and actions speak to a perceived identity that bind people along the lines of fundamental and sensitive issues such as religion, gender, rights and race. The Arab Spring protests exemplify the quintessential demonstration of the mobilization, by mass media, of citizens who through reactions and actions united to fight a common course and defend a common identity in the 21 st century. The study focuses on the xenophobic attacks in South Africa between April and June 2015. The paper considers xenophobia not from the point of view of South African journalists and citizens but from the narratives of foreign online newspaper reportage. Through content analysis of online versions of The Guardian (based in Nigeria) and The Herald (based in Zimbabwe), the study attempts to understand the role of the media in reporting the reactions and actions as identified in these papers. Key findings of the study suggest that mass media are not only instrumental in stimulating actions and reactions within the selected countries but also in South Africa where the xenophobic attacks took place.

Comparing the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper with its co-owned South African Mail & Guardian Online: Towards productive global north–south collaborations in the digital world information order

This article highlights how one online news organisation in the global south, with no more than three staff and no foreign correspondents, strategically used multiple wire service feeds to successfully cover a significant story more comprehensively than its better-endowed co-owner. It compares the timeliness and comprehensiveness of coverage of this century's first genocide in Darfur, Sudan, by the United Kingdom's Guardian (UKG) and its co-owned South African Mail & Guardian Online (MGO). Despite the 3 000 miles distance between Darfur and Johannesburg, its lack of foreign reporters and few staff, the MGO covered the Darfur crisis earlier, with better attention to detail and specifics. The MGO staff expressed surprise at their more comprehensive coverage, and credited the clarity that came from their primary gatekeeping focus on Africa as the reason.

Eadweard Muybridge issue

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements With thanks to Alexandra Reynolds and Peta Cook for their valuable assistance with the above text. Notes 1. Richard Henry Horne, Prometheus, the Fire-Bringer (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1864). 2. See http://www.stephenherbert.co.uk/muyFATHER.htm. 3. The Chronicle of Higher Education (online), available at http://chronicle.com/article/Eadweard-Muybridge-Thief-of/66024/. 4. Available at http://www.muybridgeinkingston.com/images/Muybridge%20in%20Translation.pdf (accessed 12 September 2012). 5. http://ansteebridge.co.uk/. 6. Examples can be seen at http://www.muybridge.co.uk/ (accessed 12 September 2012). 7. Peta Cook, personal communication to Stephen Herbert, 2 October 2012. 8. Graham Moody, ‘Did Muybridge build the American Great Lakes in his Kingston back garden?’ Croydon Guardian online, 18 November 2010, http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/leisure/leisurenews/8674860.Did_Muybridge_build_the_American_Great_Lakes_in_his_Kingston_back_garden_/ (accessed 29 October 2012). 9. Information on the conference can be found at http://black2.fri.unilj.si/humbug/files/papers/esf2010/342%20Final%20Programme%20_%20Europ...pdf and the paper itself can be found at http://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/156/1/Alexandra_Reynolds_Eadweard_Muybridge_-_Defining_Modernities.pdf.

Unravelling the Threads: Discourses of Sustainability and Consumption in an Online Forum

This article analyzes an online discussion that followed an article published by UK environmental activist and journalist George Monbiot in The Guardian online newspaper. The analysis addresses the ways in which participants in an online forum debate responded to the tensions and contradictions between lifestyle, consumption, and sustainability highlighted in the original article. The discursive construction of class, green political orientations, and identities; visions of “the good life”; and appeals to religion and science are highlighted throughout the analysis—as are the discursive strategies for positioning self, other, and audience in the debate. The argument emphasizes the heterogeneity of discursive positioning and reflects on the role of social media in the politics of consumption and sustainability, especially given the inherent reflexivity of web forums as online communicative forms.

Book Review: The Geopolitics of Representation in Foreign News: Explaining Darfur

The Geopolitics of Representation in Foreign News: Explaining Darfur. Bella Mody. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010. 478 pp. $100 hbk. $44.95 pbk.Bella Mody's cross-national study of news media reporting of the Darfur crisis is among the most extensive and complex of its kind. Mody is James de Castro Chair in Global Media Studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The book is the collaborative outcome of an endeavor spearheaded by Mody that also involved several of her graduate students.The study investigated coverage of the Darfur crisis by ten news organizations over twenty-six months. The organizations were the New York Times, the Washington Post, Le Monde, the Guardian, Al-Ahram, People's Daily, China Daily, BBC.co.uk, English. AlJazeera.Net, and Mail & Guardian Online. The range includes some that are based in the global North, some in the South, a mixture of privately owned and state owned, some oriented to national audiences and others aimed at foreign audiences. Some are print, some online. The organizations differ in the extent to which their countries of location had historical geopolitical affiliation with Sudan or current national interests.The study draws on a total sample of 1,198 articles from the ten media, published during the first twenty-six months of the crisis (January 2003 to February 2005). Among other variables, each article was analyzed for its focal frame or dominant focus. Frames included causes (historical and contemporary), conduct (nature, status, process, and conduct of the crisis), and remedies. Headlines and text were also analyzed for the presence of three keywords: ethnic-race terms, genocide, and oil/ petroleum. Coders rated the emotional intensity of articles as high, medium, or low. Following extensive literature review and background on the Darfur crisis, the book is organized by a series of comparative analyses of different pairs of news organizations representing China's state-owned English- and Chinese-Language newspapers (China Daily and People's Daily); South Africa's Mail and Guardian Online with the Egyptian Al-Ahram; UK's Guardian with France's Le Monde; the New York Times with the Washington Post; and the websites of the BBC and Al Jazeera.The study confirms many long-standing criticisms of the performance of news media. While news representations of cross-national foreign events were most noticeable for their diversity of lenses and foci, one noticeable similarity was the relative neglect of the causes of the crisis. Otherwise, coverage was influenced by the national locations and characteristics of news organizations. Perhaps disappointingly for those who hoped for convincing evidence of improvement in North-South performance since the 1970s' NWICO debates, coverage by media of the global North proved strongest in several respects. This was surely related to the superior resources available to those organizations, but many other factors were at play. Locational standpoint matters, says Mody. Each news organization was embedded in a distinct geopolitical context that shaped its news representations.The study constructed a multilevel measure for level of press attention. Le Monde, BBC.co.uk, and the New York Times gave most attention to Darfur. News organizations located in China and Egypt, with a high national interest in Sudan's oil, trade, and water, produced mostly news articles of low emotional intensity. …

The geopolitics of representation in foreign news: explaining Darfur

Part 1 Part One. Benefiting From Previous Researchers Chapter 2 Chapter One. Foreign News: the Geopolitics of Representation and Explanation Chapter 3 Chapter Two. Journalistic Influence in Moral Mobilization Part 4 Part Two. The Study of the Uprising in Darfur Sudan: Representation and Explanation in the World's Press Chapter 5 Chapter Three. Rebellion Within States in the Global South: Explaining the Conflict in Darfur Chapter 6 Chapter Four. Cross-National Comparative Research on Foreign News: Design and Implementation Part 7 Part Three. Findings: The Representation of Darfur by News Organizations from the Global South Chapter 8 Chapter Five. Comparing China's State-Owned English-Language and Chinese-Language Newspapers Chapter 9 Chapter Six. Comparing the South African Mail & Guardian Online with the Egyptian Al-Ahram Part 10 Part Four. Findings: The Representation of Darfur by News Organizations from the Global North Chapter 11 Chapter Seven. Comparing the UK's Guardian with France's Le Monde Chapter 12 Chapter Eight. Comparing the US' New York Times with the Washington Post Part 13 Part Five. Findings: The Representation of Darfur in Online News Intended for Extra-National Audiences Chapter 14 Chapter Nine. Comparing the English-Language Web Sites of the UK's BBC and Qatar's Al Jazeera Part 15 Part Six. Conclusion Chapter 16 Chapter Ten. Foreign News: Journalism for Cross-National Public Education?

Im/polite reader responses on British online news sites

Impolite and aggressive behaviour of anonymous users appears to be an important feature of online newspaper comments. This paper identifies and investigates how impoliteness is utilized strategically by newspaper readers to attack the author of an article. Empirical data is drawn from “Have-your-say” sections of the Guardian Online, Times Online and Telegraph Online. Results illustrate that impolite moves frequently involve facethreats that question the journalists' authority, credibility and trustworthiness. In the main part of the paper a categorization scheme for different types of impolite moves is introduced and a working definition of impoliteness in the context of “Have-your-say” sections presented. After having sketched a number of fundamental methodological and theoretical challenges in impoliteness research, the paper also demonstrates how the communicative setting and medium influence the realization and interpretation of impolite behaviour in those forms of public debates. Given the challenge of identifying and conceptualizing impoliteness in general and more specifically in a computer-mediated environment, netiquette rules prove especially useful for norms of appropriateness. It is also argued that the strength of those face-threats may be boosted by the fact that they are uttered in front of a large audience and more specifically the journalist's readership.

Of conspiracies and kangas: Mail & Guardian Online’s construction of the Jacob Zuma rape trial

This textual analysis considers how one of South Africa’s elite news media constructed the rape trial of Jacob Zuma, the nation’s former deputy president, who was charged with raping an HIV-positive family friend. The Mail & Guardian Online ’s representation of the case engaged with some of South Africa’s most pressing issues during 2005—2006: political succession, women’s status, treatment of rape accusers, cultural attitudes towards sexuality, and soaring rates of rape and HIV/AIDS prevalence. I argue that the M&G Online constructed the rape trial in ways that prioritized party politics over gender politics by foregrounding contemporary discourses related to political power, rape myths, class and ethnic division, and the role of the press in 21st-century South Africa. Ultimately, I suggest that such representation served the M&G Online’s interest in attracting the readers its advertisers sought most: the liberal-minded middle class, a group generally frustrated with its political options.

Media Reporting, Mobility and Trauma

Media Reporting, Mobility and Trauma

Iain Sinclair's Excremental Narratives

Iain Sinclair's Excremental Narratives