Media Events Research Articles

Media Events in the Digital Age: Analysis of the Treatment of Elizabeth II and Juan Carlos I During the State Funeral

Digitalisation has redefined both media events and monarchical communication by enabling the diverse and critical participation of journalists and citizens. Media events that were once dominated by official narratives are now subject to multiple real-time transformations, with competing storylines emerging. This study examines the treatment of two monarchical figures (Queen Elizabeth II and King Juan Carlos I) during “the first major state funeral in the digital age” when the official invitation to Juan Carlos I generated a debate about his status and sparked curiosity about a potential photo. From an initial collection of 100,000 tweets and 1520 news articles, 187 pieces simultaneously mentioning both monarchs were selected and analysed to compare their treatment. In contrast to the British portrayal linked to professionalism and tradition, the Spanish media—and especially the social networks—immerse Juan Carlos I in controversy. A planned event in which strategic institutional messages were launched serves as an excuse for criticism and polarisation around the monarchy. This confirms that digitalisation has not only altered the way people access and participate but has also redefined the narratives of even the most traditional events. These transformations pose significant challenges to the image management of institutions such as the monarchy.

Social Media, Mental Health, and Equestrian Events

Many studies have investigated the benefits and drawbacks of social media, but the impact it has on amateur sports participants who use it as part of their practice has been largely overlooked. This study addresses this gap, investigating the impacts of social media on the mental health of women participating in amateur sport activities–specifically, equestrian events through a mixed methods survey of 221 female amateur equestrians in the UK. Themes included the pressure to present a “perfect” image to an external audience, the stress of comparison to others, and constant judgment around the performance of a participant. We also found issues of distorted reality and false representation. We conclude by highlighting a need for better assistance for athletes both while they are competing at events and at other times, particularly pre/postevent.

Media construction of pseudo-events: Lula da Silva at the Portugal’s parliament during a historic annual celebration

The Carnation Revolution (25th April 1974) has changed the course of Portugal, leading it to transition from an autocratic to a democratic Government. Every year, celebrations are conducted at the national Parliament. In 2023, it counted with another guest: Lula da Silva, Brazil’s ongoing president. Considering the notion of cultural memory and media construction of social reality through media events, this article notes Lula da Silva’s presence and exceptional address was portrayed on newspaper front pages of several journalistic media outlets. Therefore, it aims at understanding meaning and discourse production with Lula da Silva’s visit to Portugal on the 25th April 2023 through media coverage and first page highlight. Lula da Silva is noticed by the front pages under analysis as a controversial, entertaining, and eventful celebrity linked to specific positioned actors that is invited to the Parliament and prompts indirectly and directly discontentment and, at the same time, support. Also, it discusses how such spotlight over Lula da Silva turned that visit and Parliament’s address it into a pseudo-event. Adopting a Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis approach, this research work intends to offer a multimodal eye upon those front pages and critically reflect on populism, coloniality, cultural memory, and journalism.

Rethinking Newspaper Company’s Media Event:The Conflicts as a “Public Institutions of Society” in the Case of Walking Event 2001

Rethinking Newspaper Company’s Media Event:The Conflicts as a “Public Institutions of Society” in the Case of Walking Event 2001

Strategy for Optimizing the Use of Instagram Social Media Glow Wedding and Event Planner

Strategy for Optimizing the Use of Instagram Social Media Glow Wedding and Event Planner

FIFA World Cup as a Media Event: Psychological Factors’ Influence on Second Screen Usage

ABSTRACT This study examined the viewing behavior of individuals (N = 515) who watched the FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022 to understand how second-screen usage may be related to the perception of the broadcast as a media event while considering psychological factors associated with media exposure. media event perception, engagement, transportation, and enjoyment were positively correlated with match-related and negatively correlated with match-unrelated second screen usage. Engagement mediated the relationship between independent variables (media event perception, engagement, enjoyment, and transportation) and match-related and unrelated second screen usage. The results provide valuable insights into how engagement and other factors are related to second screen usage during such a media event televised sports.

Revisiting the Women’s Movement in India (1970s–80s) Through the Women’s Programme

The article charts the evolution of Ghar Parivar or Home and Family (1972-mid1980s) and Ghar Bahar or Home and Outside (1979- late 1980s) two early women’s programmes, from being classified ‘programme for minority’ in TV listings to becoming significant counter-public spheres that effectively mounted national discussions from a ‘women’s perspective’. A historic and contentious Ghar Bahar episode is examined as a media event, including an interview with a session’s judge about the unprecedented verdict in a dowry murder case that served as national testimony and led to significant legal reforms. The final section investigates how, despite rising from its marginal position to prime-time programming in the early 1980s, the women’s programme was co-opted by the state, which now closely monitored women’s issues and appropriated its distinct realist aesthetics to project a progressive image and media autonomy. Given the loss of original episodes, this case study employs textual historicism, relying on interviews, legal rulings, media reports, and a few available fragments of the women’s programme to reconstruct the significance of women’s shows and women producers in early Indian television.

Be there or share: Emplacement and embodied protest in Facebook Live videos

Live video is often used by protesters and political activists while broadcasting from conflict arenas since it gives the viewers a sense of “how it feels to be here.” This qualitative study suggests that digital “broadcast” technologies such as livestreaming can construct new forms of place-bound media events which intertwine “liveness” and “emplacement.” The article examines 97 Facebook Live videos uploaded during the May 2021 escalation of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict from varied sites of struggle and detects three main practices among live streamers: constructing “on-location” presence, performing sensuous place-making, and producing connectivity. It proposes the concept of “networked emplacement”: a combination of social media connectivity with streamers’ techniques of embodied presence that “emplaces” viewers in a rolling event with political significance.

Sweetening the deal: an infodemiological study of worldwide interest in semaglutide using Google Trends extended for health application programming interface

BackgroundOff-label use of semaglutide for non-diabetic weight loss (which regulators have linked to social media promotion) created worldwide supply shortages. We evaluated worldwide semaglutide interest measured by online search behavior to gauge social media and conventional print media reporting’s effect on search interest.MethodsUsing Google Trends Extended for Health (GTEH) multiple sampling, we retrieved regional online interest (ROI) for all countries and extracted timelines and top search queries for January 2021–August 2023 for countries with median ROI ≥ 20 using the “semaglutide” topic. We obtained semaglutide media reporting from the ProQuest database. We estimated the effect of media and within-country semaglutide interest on between-country interest with Granger causality analysis. We determined changepoints for trends within each country with joinpoint regression. We determined prominent themes in search queries for each country with natural language processing thematic analysis.ResultsTwenty-seven countries were included. Most countries showed an increase in semaglutide interest over time, with Canada and the USA showing the largest sustained interest. Most of the search interest arose from 2022 onwards. Granger’s analysis showed that media coverage could only partially explain interest, and interest in some countries partially preceded interest in others, with the UK and Germany showing strong relationships between news reports and lagged search interest. Joinpoint analysis identified up to four significant within-country changepoints. Most countries showed significant positive weekly trends in 2021–2022, although uptrends in search interest varied considerably between countries. One episode of the Dr. Oz show (TV media event) coincided with strong peaks in numerous countries. Natural language processing of top search queries showed some agreement between countries and country-specific themes. Weight loss was a major theme in most countries, while a diabetes theme was generally absent or weak. Some countries (Australia, Chile, South Africa, UK) had themes for buying Ozempic from (named) local retailers, and Germany had a theme related to buying Ozempic without a script.ConclusionsGTEH data provided insights into global search interest in semaglutide and regional variation. Studies focusing on specific countries which include social media data can elucidate specific drivers behind the surge in off-label use of semaglutide.

Estimation and Some Statistical Properties of the hybrid Weibull Inverse Burr Type X Distribution with Application to Cancer Patient Data

In this paper, the Burr type X distribution is represented as a mixture with the hybrid Weibull family, called hybrid hybrid Hybrid Weibull Inverse Burr Type X (HWIBX) distribution in order to justify its usefulness in modeling statistical regularities in extreme values recorded in non-stationary streams of media events, the basic new distribution functions are presented in addition to several statistical and mathematical properties of the hybrid distribution as well as estimating the model parameters by three methods, namely maximum likelihood, least squares, and weighted least squares with Conduct Monte Carlo simulations for the three methods. Finally, these results are illustrated through an example of matching the hybrid distribution with data representing the values Bladder cancer and survival times (given in years) of a group comprising 46 patients treated with chemotherapy alone and knowing the results of the improvement of this expansion through comparison with some other distributions using some Statistical metrics.

Feminist flashpoints and the burning question of accountability

The media coverage of the Rubiales/Hermoso non-consensual kiss reveals the ongoing difficulties of holding powerful men accountable, despite decades of feminist mobilisation around sexual violence. This essay builds on Sarah Banet-Weiser’s concept of the ‘feminist flashpoint’ as spectacular media events which can help problematise cultural understandings of ‘accountability’ beyond ‘cancel culture’ and carceral feminist politics. Analysing the Rubiales/Hermoso non-consensual kiss in relation to another feminist flashpoint, the contested interpretation of the photograph V-J Day in Times Square, initiates an epistemological shift that focuses on the spectators of the kiss instead of its protagonists. This critical shift locates a feminist practice of accountability in processes of historicization and thinks of responsibility in collective rather than invidividual terms. This piece is part of a special themed issue on the Rubiales/Hermoso non-consensual kiss.

Cognitive rhetoric in super sports reporting: unveiling perspectives through multilevel analysis of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics from five international media outlets

ABSTRACT This study utilizes the Event-Domain Cognitive Model (ECM) within cognitive linguistics to analyze narrative construction in international news media coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Through qualitative analysis of 1673 news articles from five diverse media outlets, the research outlines a multilevel cognitive rhetoric framework to explore the integration of cultural, historical, and emotional factors in media discourse. At the macro level, cultural and historical contexts influence the selection of event subdomains. At the meso level, cognitive reference points shape portrayals of international diplomacy. At the micro level, rhetorical strategies, especially metaphorical language, reveal media knowledge structures and emotional responses. The study highlights the media's dual role in reinforcing shared humanistic values and exposing geopolitical rivalries. Findings indicate the Olympics as a global stage for uniting cultures through common values and manifesting political and ideological differences, with varying narratives reflecting each outlet's cultural and political context. The study underscores the importance of cross-cultural media literacy to develop a critically aware public and contributes to international media studies, cognitive linguistics, and communication by providing a comprehensive model for analyzing media narratives and encouraging further research into global media events.

The carnivalesque celebration of a slack laborer icon on a talent show: Civic engagement, commercialization, and political control

In Produce Camp 2021, an online Chinese talent show, an underdog named Lelush rose to fame as a slack laborer icon. This study investigated this case through a critical discourse analysis incorporating media events theory, the concept of carnival, aesthetic public sphere theory, and the concept of structures of feeling. It was revealed that the audience related to Lelush's slackness on carnivalesque social media, indirectly addressing work oppression and social stratification in an aesthetic public sphere. However, the audience's ambiguities, where they also objectified Lelush, somewhat diminished the aesthetic discussions’ critical potential. This contradiction suggested a new structure of feeling associated with rapid social changes in China. Besides, this study demonstrated that although the audience discourse appeared challenging, it was harnessed by the producer for commercial benefit. Meanwhile, as the audience's critical discourse did not directly threaten the political legitimacy, the Party-State allowed it for political and economic purposes.

Sexual health interventions with social marketing approach targeting young people: a scoping review.

In a fast-paced digital and global environment, sexual education must keep up with young people's sexual health needs. Social marketing is an approach that has been used in sexual health promotion for young people. The objective of the scoping review is to identify and map the use of social marketing in sexual health promotion for young people. Specifically, the content, delivery methods and effects of interventions on sexual health were researched. Six databases were systemically searched to capture the relevant peer-reviewed quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods articles without time restrictions that provided evidence of sexual health-related social marketing interventions targeting young people aged 11-25. An inductive and deductive content analysis was performed. Nineteen studies were included in the data. The content of interventions was dominated by sexual risks and risk prevention, focusing particularly on sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and sexual violence. Additionally, interventions included topics of morals of sexual relationships and changes in the body. The delivery of interventions occurred through various media channels, events and activities, while the effects of interventions were monitored as improvements in sexual perceptions and sexual behaviour, limited gender-related effects, limited evidence of intervention attributed to behaviour and effects in different age groups. The social marketing approach was mostly preventive and concentrated on the risks, whereas the delivery methods were diverse and creative, combining modern and already well-established channels. Sexuality should be seen comprehensively, and interventions should respond to the full range of young people's needs.

Exclusionary inclusion? Streaming platforms and trans inclusive policies and practices: A case study of Netflix

This article examines the incongruence within Netflix’s corporate practice: while on the one hand the streamer promotes trans inclusion along with trans talent development in Netflix’s production culture, both on and off screen, on the other hand its industrial practices and representational output demonstrate a different approach. This article argues that, while the streamer positions itself as a champion of inclusion and diversity in the television industry, Netflix is invested in transness as an economic frontier rather than in adopting anti-transphobic practices. In making this argument, this article fosters a three-pronged approach to explore the treatment of trans identities by Netflix. Firstly, the article analyses Netflix’s corporate practices in relation to promotion of its limited series, Tales of the City. Secondly, the article explores the media event of Dave Chappelle’s comedy special The Closer and the subsequent trans employee walkout. Thirdly, it performs on audit of Netflix’s website and corporate materials to highlight how Netflix has developed a response to trans inclusion in relation to the walkout. Exploring these facets through Aron Kundnani’s (2023) critique of the diversity industry, this article argues that, on a policy and corporate performativity level, Netflix’s approach to trans inclusion can be defined as transliberalist (Raha, 2015), so that its practices result in a platform catalogue that is simultaneously at best trans-affirming and at worst transphobic.

EXPERT-ANALYTICAL PRODUCT: APPROACHES TO FORMATION AND IMPLEMENTATION IN THE COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT OF POLITICAL SECURITY

The article is devoted to the unification of approaches to the analysis of the public information environment, as well as the coordination of efforts to counter information aggression on a decentralized basis. The purpose of the study is to establish the main features and principles of the formation of an expert-analytical product within the framework of strengthening the security capacity of Ukrainian society. The value of a quick asymmetric information response in the form of discrediting the source, disavowing the information provided and/or using errors or mistakes in the information provided to one’s advantage is characterized. It was emphasized that the targeting of political and security content should also take into account the socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics (data) of the community to which the information is directed. The creativity of the expert-analytical security product is analyzed, which means a creative approach to counter hostile informational provocations and invasions. The importance of the principle of responsiveness, which means the compliance of the appearance of content with time dimensions and the requirements of the political and security situation, is revealed. It was found that the appearance of expert political and security materials should precede the events, be carried out according to the plan of media events, as well as within the framework of crisis situations. It was revealed that the empirical nature of the expert-analytical product involves the use of various models for assessing threats to political security. It is proven that the development of various scenarios of expert public content contributes to the development of the political situation in the future in the desired direction. It has been established that the expert-analytical product of public direction (reports, assessments, analytical summaries, etc.) should not only be broadcast in an accessible (understandable) language. It is assumed that the complexity and completeness of information means its completeness in terms of known and unknown facts. It has been established that the value neutrality of communication messages means avoiding the promotion of ideological messages and motivational components, except when such materials are not included in special promotions and operations. It was found that open discussion leaves the possibility of the information consumer to interactively interact with the text of the message and data. It was concluded that a promising direction of information security activity is asymmetric action in relation to operational massive support of political actions of hostile power institutions on the international arena.

Seen to be grieved: Queen Elizabeth II’s death and the unsettlement of the modern media event

Abstract With millions of viewers across the globe over more than 10 days’ time, media coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death appears to constitute a “media event” in the sense of its popularization by Dayan and Katz in 1992. But it also ignited an immediate synchronized effort at counter narration that criticized the Queen’s tenure and the institution of the British monarchy. Employing critical discourse and conjunctural analysis, I argue that the Queen’s death was a moment in which the state-driven “media event” was challenged by a grassroots “viral event.” Media events, I argue, deploy nostalgia, which masks history, as their prevailing tool, while the viral event of the counter commentary deploys critical memory, which highlights and parses history, to make its case—the latter upsetting the perceived dominance of the former.

Enhancing Public Relations (PR) as the Focus of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for CRG Indonesia

This study investigates methods to improve Public Relations (PR) within Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) for CRG Indonesia, paying attention to the key challenges encountered in media relations, event management, and community engagement/Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Through conducting qualitative analysis and interacting with stakeholders, the research has found that there is a requirement for content which can be tailored to specific locations, a more solid sustainability message, and enhanced digital interaction. The findings show that CRG’s current public relations strategies have to be better aligned with local sensitivities and company goals. The recommended enhancements involve establishing more robust media connections, implementing thorough event organization, and integrating corporate social responsibility initiatives to cultivate community confidence. The implementation plan utilizes digital platforms, establishes explicit CSR objectives, and adheres to a comprehensive timeline based on the AISAS (Attention, Interest, Search, Action, Share) model. This strategy ensures effective involvement and extensive understanding among all parties involved. By implementing such strategies, CRG Indonesia may enhance its prominence, convey its dedication to sustainability, and establish a robust public relations structure that aids both short-term and long-term business goals.

‘But it’s really about …’

This article examines the Norwegian media coverage of and public debate about a series of anti-Muslim demonstrations in which Qur’ans were burned in Sweden and Norway over the Easter of 2022. Conceptualizing Qur’an burnings and the ensuing riots in Sweden and Norway as a media event, the article explores how different actors manage, negotiate, and use the mediated attention constituting such an event. The empirical material consists of all articles published by ten selected Norwegian newspapers between 14 and 30 April 2022, as well as interviews with seven journalists from these newspapers. A key point the article makes is that news journalists are mindful of how they cover and frame such an event. They take steps to ensure that their coverage accords with professional journalistic standards. The analysis shows, however, that the media coverage is complex and multi-layered, and that news journalists’ managing strategies only influence a small part of the total coverage and debate. A media event is by its nature discursive, and the article discusses how the event’s ‘real meaning’ is contested as various actors within and outside the media reframe it to fit already established discourses.

The Qur’an Burnings of SIAN

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway have in recent years seen a wave of Qur’an burnings, a subset of Qur’an desecration, involving largely non-religious fringe actors. Desecrations of the Qur’an are nothing new, but their mode of articulation in the present requires attention to both context and the actors involved. In this article we examine the Qur’an-burning events of the Norwegian organization Stop the Islamisation of Norway (SIAN). The article draws on media events theory, paying attention to how the symbolic and ritual dimensions of such spectacular mediated events generate both cohesion and conflict among globalized audiences. Informed by both on- and offline ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the mediated ritualization of smaller-scale urban events involving staged Qur’an burnings by this far-right fringe group in Norway in recent years. We demonstrate how a relatively small and marginal far-right political actor succeeds in being foregrounded by the media, creating polarization, capturing free speech, and racializing Muslims by desecrating the Qur’an.