Issue Arenas Research Articles

Examining WHO’s Crisis Communication in Issue Arenas during COVID-19: A Socio-semantic Network Analysis

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has posed several challenges to public health regulatory bodies and experts in dealing with crisis communication. The World Health Organization’s role in dealing with crisis communication came under scrutiny and opened a debate on Twitter regarding COVID-19 information. This study investigates the delay in the dissemination of information on COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its effects on communication about the pandemic through the lens of issue arenas and communication network theories. It examines the actors, topics, and sentiments that emerged in Twitter because of the communication as well as the crisis response strategies adopted by the WHO. The findings reveal five main actors – organizations, media, independent users, political actors, and others; the dominant emotions in the arena such as anticipation, anger, fear, and trust. Additionally, the WHO employs minimization, and corrective action strategies supported by bolstering. By introducing a new context to the socio-semantic network in the virtual space, this study sheds light on strategic communication while focusing on health communication, public relations, and crisis communication. These insights and findings can help organizations to moderate and manage issues during crises.

The framing of plastic pollution responsibility: comparing corporate versus environmental movement discursive evaluations

PurposeThis article aims to investigate evaluative framing of global plastic pollution as discursively performed by two opposed categories of social actors, namely corporations versus environmental movements.Design/methodology/approachThe article builds on the literature related to framing, issue arenas and moral evaluations to unravel how evaluative framing and counterframing are implemented in multimodal digital spaces and how social practices get legitimized or delegitimized according to different communicative purposes. It presents a longitudinal critical discourse analysis of the issue-related webpages and press releases of PepsiCo, one of the worst global plastic polluters, and of the global environmental movement #breakfreefromplastic.FindingsFindings suggest that the systematic recurrence of specific evaluative strategies has a double macro-function: (a) organizing discourses strategically through its presence or absence; (b) signalling the moral significance of recontextualized social practices by conferring legitimacy to remedial actions and/or illegitimacy to deviant actions.Social implicationsThis study contributes to increasing accountable environmental action and trustful communication for overcoming global sustainability issues.Originality/valueThe article offers a nuanced understanding of the role of evaluative framing in communicating global sustainability issues. Methodologically, it extends existing categories of moral evaluations and articulates a framework for future studies.

Post-Kantian Perfectionism. A Study in the Political Thought of German Idealism, from Leibniz to Marx

The political salience of policy issue arenas related to the movement of people, including immigration, citizenship, and asylum, has increased in recent decades and is likely to continue to escalate for the foreseeable future, because of both real dynamics of migration flows and because of political dynamics including reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing governance regimes at the global, regional, and national levels somewhat order the migration issue arena and do much humanitarian good, but they also generate new problems and injustices. The perception of disorder in migration and citizenship are likely to continue to present challenges for liberal democracy and for international cooperation. This article outlines the contours of challenges of governing the movement of people since the end of the Cold War.

India's engagement with the International Monetary Fund: growing into an ownership role

ABSTRACT How do rising powers engage with international institutions? While this question has remained important, we have very few theoretically grounded, empirical studies that look at this engagement. This paper seeks to address that gap by focusing on India's engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It argues that rising powers engage with the institution's distinctive design, seeking to change features such as the rules for controlling the institution. The issues the institution covers matter: the nature of the issue area can facilitate engagement. For example, in the case of India's engagement with the IMF, the technical nature of the issue arena provided autonomy to the executive and facilitated the process of formulating and implementing its strategy. The Indian executive has engaged mostly with formal rules during the period under review. Contrary to expectations that status-quoist institutions will normally discourage states from seeking change, the paper finds that India expended its resources to influence quota reform.

Meaning-making on the ground: an empirical study on interactional framing in environmental conflicts

PurposeThe study aims to explain the communicative basis of conflicts in which actors stand in opposition in defining a negotiated situation and to deepen knowledge of environmental conflict development, in particular on how frames are (re)shaped through discursive choices in interaction.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an interactional approach to framing and 1) identifies the frames shaped and reshaped in four environmental debates and 2) analyzes how framing activities affect the course of the debates.FindingsThis study contributes to understanding 1) the interactive nature of conflicts; 2) how the reception and interpretation of issue framing depends on the surrounding identity and characterization framing and 3) how framing activities, like identity work, emotional alignment and reframing, can affect the course of environmental debates toward polarizing or bridging.Research limitations/implicationsOn a methodological level, this study contributes to communication research by applying methodologies for investigating framing processes on a micro-level. This study investigates interactional framing, considering the perspectives of frame strategists engaging in issue arenas. The study provides an in-depth discourse analysis of the debates but lacks an overview on the entire issue arena regarding this conflict.Practical implicationsSkilled actors span boundaries by articulating issue frames that accommodate opponents' concerns and values while demonstrating the added value of the new frame, adjusting identity work in favor of relations with opponents. Furthermore, calibrating emotional intensity offers opportunities to mobilize support.Originality/valueThis research investigates which communicative competences are essential to act adequately in environmental conflicts, given their intractable nature, and suggests opportunities for cocreation by making discursive choices. This approach helps to uncover the micro-processes that escalate and de-escalate a conflict.

Unpacking Identity: Opportunities and Constraints for Cross-Racial Collaboration

We argue that two factors are important for cross-racial coalition building: policy convergence in key issue arenas and perceived interest alignment with other racial groups. Drawing on the 2016 National Asian American Survey, we examine two of the most salient issues Asian Americans consistently rate as among the most important: immigration and economic policy. Using principal component analysis, we plot mean scores by group to analyze national-origin clustering along these two dimensions. Next, we analyze national-origin differences in perceived interest alignment with Blacks and Latinos. Combining these two factors, we identify clusters of groups that have a strong potential for cross-racial coalition building and that face greater constraints. In sum, we propose a theoretical framework for understanding cross-racial coalition building that includes disaggregating Asian Americans by national origin, and then identify which national-origin groups have the greater opportunity to form such coalitions.

Politicization of corporations and their environment: Corporations’ social license to operate in a polarized and mediatized society

Societies are increasingly characterized by polarization and fragmentation on a variety of socio-political issues. With the heightened social visibility of corporations, as a result of processes of mediatization, firms are pressured to engage with such social issues that are part of broader political discourses. Against the backdrop of these broad socio-political shifts, this study conceptually addresses the contribution of public relations to understanding the politicization of corporations and their environment. We argue that corporations have become inherently intertwined with their mediatized and polarized socio-political surroundings. As a result, corporations are increasingly pressured to speak out and take a stance on social issues to engage with their environment and renew their social license to operate (SLO) in a context characterized by political divides. By relying on concepts like issue arenas and corporate political advocacy, we argue that corporations can use public relations to publicly promote one ideal over another, by being guided by the corporation’s own intrinsic values and moral standpoints rather than efforts to balance competing interests of multiple stakeholders.

Debating Glyphosate: A Macro Perspective on the Role of Strategic Communication in Forming and Monitoring A Global Issue Arena Using Inductive Topic Modelling

ABSTRACT Stakeholders debate issues of public interest in global online issue arenas, but political decision makers decide on these macro issues at national and supranational levels. A better understanding of the role of organizations in forming and monitoring such issue debates is necessary, given the influence of public affairs activities and media debates on politicians’ and public opinion. However, such a macro perspective is largely missing. This study analyzes the debate around the use of the pesticide glyphosate when the European Union decided on a license renewal in 2017. To uncover emerging salient topics and their relations with organizations, the online global coverage of the issue from the GDELT database (N = 1677) was analyzed using inductive automated content analysis (LDA topic modeling). Only three topics were salient in the arena, most prominently the carcinogenicity of glyphosate, thereby sidelining other relevant aspects. Furthermore, online issue arenas reach globally and are converged communicative spaces where a variety of media participate. Thus, the article develops and tests a typology of online news media for issue arena research. Advancing theory on organizations’ roles and strategies in these online issue arenas, a new classification of actors based on their visibility and communication strategy is proposed.

Turf wars: Using social media network analysis to examine the suspected astroturfing campaign for the Adani Carmichael Coal mine on Twitter

This article uses social media network analysis (SMNA) to examine whether there was an astroturfing campaign on Twitter in support of the Adani Carmichael coal mine in 2017. It shows that SMNA can be used to visualize and analyze outsider lobbying activity in issue arenas and is capable of identifying networks of fake opinion. This study found that in April 2017, there was a small network of accounts that made a series of suspiciously similar pro‐Adani tweets that could be considered a form of duplicitous lobbying. However, this study concludes that these posts were likely a weak influence on public opinion in Australia and largely ineffectual as a lobbying tactic. Nevertheless, this analysis shows how communitas public interests can be subverted by covert social media campaigns used in support of corporatas goals, as well as the role digital research methods can play in protecting the integrity on public debates by exposing disingenuous actors.

Human Touch in the Primary School Setting

No touch policies in schools have created a dilemma for teachers. To investigate student, teacher, and parent attitudes to touch at school, ten Pre-Kindy students, seven K-6 students, four teachers and four parents at a small faith-based school were interviewed using a semi-structured interview style. Analysis of the responses indicated the majority of the participants in this study supported the use of ‘healthy’ physical contact, between teachers and students. Students, parents and teachers were mindful of appropriate ways to touch, arena of safety issues, and that touch may not be for everyone, all concepts which informed a proposition for policy review in schools to optimise student development and wellbeing.

Headwinds in sports sponsoring

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of a crisis situation in a sports team on the credibility of their sponsor and how the sponsor’s use of various crises response strategies may repair the damage done to their credibility.Design/methodology/approachA scenario experiment was conducted with a 2 (pre-/post-crisis) × 4 (sponsor response strategy: denial/distancing/rebuild/no response) mixed factor design. Respondents (n=191) were recruited from a research panel.FindingsThe results confirmed the existence of a spill-over effect: the sponsor’s credibility dropped as a result of the crisis. More interestingly, the effects of the crisis on sponsor credibility were moderated by the response strategy of the sponsor: the harm that the crisis did to the sponsor credibility was aggravated by a denial strategy, but somewhat weakened by a diminishing strategy. A rebuild response unexpectedly improved the credibility of the sponsor.Practical implicationsWhile partnerships in sports can be risky, because crises can be contagious, such partners can also help one another to protect their credibility. Therefore, this study advocates an integral approach of crisis communication. Sponsors may improve their credibility when they frame their contribution to the solution to the problems as an authentic effort to do good.Originality/valueStarting from an issue arena perspective, this contribution shows how crises in sports teams also affect sponsors and how sponsors can contribute to the restoration of the damaged credibility with suitable responses to the crisis situation.

Jewish Conversion Matters in Côte d’Ivoire

ABSTRACTThis article examines the 2017 Jewish conversions in Côte d’Ivoire, and explores some of the Ivorian Jewish-related efforts in their historical context. The article addresses cultural, gender, and various political aspects of the issue arena. It also considers the changing relationship between Israel and the Israeli embassy with these communities. Finally, this work contemplates issues related to North-South Jewish relations and, more generally, the discourse concerning conversion as an option for people who are involved in this phenomenon. The context of the 2017 Ivorian conversions is an excellent example of numerous and crosscutting pressures as well as aspirations that are operative today in relation to the Jewish phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa.

Policy entrepreneurship across boundaries: a systematic literature review

AbstractAlthough policy entrepreneurs are assigned an important role in crossing policy boundaries and addressing complex problems, our understanding of the process is limited. This article systematically reviews 51 studies on conditions, strategies and implications of crossboundary entrepreneurship. Findings show that (1) the literature predominantly mentions issue promotion and coalition-building as crossboundary strategies; (2) vertical boundary-crossing is discussed more frequently than horizontal boundary-crossing; (3) the most reported boundary-crossing function is to expand issue arenas; (4) conditions that enable crossboundary strategies include institutional overlap, issue interpretation, power vacuum, overruling policies and lacking resources; and (5) implications of entrepreneurship include raised opposition, increased competition over leadership, augmented complexity hindering collective action, raised costs and resources, and issues regarding trust, legitimacy and authority. Policy entrepreneurship allows for micro-level insights in the emergence of crossboundary processes. We suggest future research to focus on causal processes between conditions, strategies and implications to better understand their interplay.

Framing of issues across actors: exploring competing discourses in digital arenas

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the strategic selection of discursive and interactive strategies generates specific framings of an issue to advocate opposite positions, embodying a struggle of power between parties with their own agendas.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on literature within framing, digital issue arenas and critical discourse, this study analyses qualitative hypermodal data retrieved from two websites: Protect Mauna Kea, and Maunakea and Thirty Meter Telescope. These two websites frame the internationally renowned telescope’s construction on Mauna Kea Mountain in Hawaii from alternative perspectives.FindingsOn each website, frame articulation attempts to connect the event to specific concerns, values and beliefs in order to construct alternative versions of reality which can possibly fit with those of supporters. Simultaneously, this is reinforced by frame amplification concretized in selected discursive and interactive strategies that highlight or downplay the issue from particular perspectives.Originality/valueThe study offers a deep insight into the complexity and dynamic nature of framing, in particular into how framing can vary and compete across actors. It also responds to “the need for critical awareness of discourse in contemporary society” (Fairclough, 2010, p. 554) by revealing how the power positions of “challengers and powerholders” (Steinberg, 1998, p. 846) are discursively reproduced and reinforced through distinctive discursive and interactive strategies. Finally, this study adopts a critical approach to hypermodal discourse.

The Issue Arena of a Corporate Social Responsibility Crisis – The Volkswagen Case in Twitter

This paper explores the online debate in a corporate social responsibility crisis, where multiple actors communicate through social media, each representing different interests and views pertaining to the crisis. The study utilizes Twitter data relating to the recent case of the falsified Volkswagen diesel emissions that became public in 2015. To better understand the online interaction, use is made of issue arena theory and insights on CSR crises. The focus is on capturing the issue as it evolved over time, the actors and sentiments expressed, and the responses of the organization. The findings show that after the case became public, the emissions issue received massive attention in Twitter. Sentiment analysis showed high negative peaks following news that revealed details about the case. Among the most active external accounts, the group labeled General and business news was the most critical. The replies posted by Volkswagen on @VW were few, providing explanations and links. Volkswagen websites were used to disseminate information, but the case was also heavily discussed in a large number of independent discussion platforms, blogs and wikis. The findings demonstrate that CSR challenges can result in a crisis of a long duration marked by strongly expressed sentiments and a wide diversity in the views of different stakeholder groups. The focal organization reacted to the events with the twin strategies of apology and compensation. The study shows the risk of CSR challenges resulting in crises in cases where stakeholder expectations have been created but not met, generating loss of reputation.

African Futures 2050 - The Next Forty Years

In this monograph the Institute for Security Studies and the Pardee Center for International Futures provide an extensive analysis of the projected course of African development to 2050. Combining the deep and wide knowledge of Africa within the ISS with extensive use of the IFs modelling system, this discussion goes beyond past work in a number of ways. It looks across most major issue arenas: demographics, economics, sociopolitical change, the environment and human development itself, including health and education. It explores further into our future than perhaps any other extensive study of African futures has ever done. While not pushing forward specific policy initiatives, it provides a context within which those who pursue sustainable human development can consider policies.

Public Discourse on Human Trafficking in International Issue Arenas

The purpose of this study is to better understand how the complex problem of human trafficking is addressed in international debates. How the discussion about human trafficking develops and how it is debated ultimately influences how the decision-making process unfolds. In order to understand the formation of public policy and laws, therefore, it is important to study the debate that occurs prior to decision making. This analysis focuses on the narratives used by major, well-established human rights and political actors that argue for necessary actions to be undertaken—such as the formation of new policies and laws in the European Union—as an attempt to protect citizens of the EU and other regions in the world from becoming victims of trafficking networks. Our research examines how the topic of human trafficking is framed and how this framework is intertwined in the debate with other social problems. We focus on how human trafficking is discussed by two well-established human rights Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Amnesty International (Amnesty) and Human Rights Watch (HRW), in addition to the European Parliament (EP). The research questions for this study include: (1) In what context is human trafficking discussed by the three actors? (2) How do these actors frame the definition of human trafficking in their presentations? To answer these questions, we have conducted a systematic content analysis of documents that include official statements and research reports of the NGOs, as well as resolutions and recommendations of the EP. Altogether, 240 documents were analyzed in detail. These findings indicate that the two human rights organizations, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, along with the European Parliament, all address human trafficking as an important social problem, albeit to varying degrees. Each actor has a different method of correlating human trafficking with many other social problems, thereby emphasizing different causes and effects. In our analysis, we examine the concept of framing and, in particular, responsibility framing in order to understand the causal relationships between actors and events. The findings of this study suggest that the formation of various social policies and laws in the international political forum are deeply affected by the dynamic interrelatedness between the political issues, actors, and form and content of the debates about human trafficking that precede the formation or revision of a policy and law.

"The Interplay between Issue Arenas, Relational Structures, and Meaning Systems"

"The Interplay between Issue Arenas, Relational Structures, and Meaning Systems"

Setting the agenda for research on issue arenas

Purpose– This paper seeks to contribute to the field of corporate communication by clarifying the theoretical basis of communication in issue arenas and proposing an agenda for research on issue arenas.Design/methodology/approach– Drawing on insights from stakeholder thinking, network theory, issues management, and agenda-setting theory, the authors identify different levels of analysis that could explain the behaviour of organisations in the public debate on current issues.Findings– The organisation-centred approach is replaced by a strong emphasis on interaction in networks of organisations, groups and individuals. Decision-making on communication strategies can be further developed by analysing the particularities of each issue arena, in particular the characteristics of the issue and the actors involved as well as the course of the debate and the communication strategies utilised in stakeholder interaction.Research limitations/implications– This theoretical approach calls for further research, but offers an agenda and suggests four starting levels for analysis.Practical implications– This paper provides a timely approach to the analysis of corporate communication that may help understand the complexities of a rapidly changing organisational environment and, ultimately, assist organisations in developing customised communication strategies suited to each issue arena relevant to their operations.Originality/value– Insights from various theories are brought together to serve as a starting point for the further analysis of communication in issue arenas.

G20 Endorsement in Post Crisis Global Governance: More Than a Toothless Talking Shop?

Research Highlights and Abstract This article Highlights how G20 ‘endorsement’ promotes and enhances the legitimacy of specialist technical agencies and organisations Provides a case study highlighting the impact of G20 endorsement on the OECD's international tax transparency agenda Develops a mid-level theory of G20 endorsement in order to analyse this emerging form of authority in global governance The G20 Leaders' Forum has been touted as ‘The world's premier forum for promoting global cooperation’, yet beyond this rhetoric the track record of the G20 is varied leading critics to claim sit is little more than a ‘toothless talkshop’. We argue that such sweeping generalisations are difficult to sustain in the light of evidence from some issue arenas in which the G20 has been active. This article draws on the extant literature on the ‘Gs'and network governance in an attempt to theorise and explain the G20's endorsement function, or its capacity to promote and legitimise the work of specialised organisations and networks. We build on the extant literature using a semi-inductive method focusing on the G20's endorsement of the OECD's international tax transparency agenda to develop a mid-level framework for analysing this important source of authority in global governance.