Media Sphere Research Articles

Contesting in the policy sphere: stakeholders and policy formulation on the lower Subansiri dam in the Northeast

ABSTRACT We advance a framework for analysis of democratic contestation in the policy and media spheres, in the context of the interest group theory and the stages of public policy evolution, to assess whether the contestation process favors some stakeholders over others in India, with a model that predicts pro- or anti-dam policy discourses in the news. There is evidence from participation in environmental movements, especially in the case of anti-dam protest groups, in the policy sphere that play a role in the contestation of scientific knowledge. Our core concern is to understand whether representation of the voices of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and protest groups in the news media affects public policy on controversial mega-projects such as the building of a mega-dam. Our focus is on the timely and critically important case of the Lower Subansiri Hydro Electric Project (LSHEP), a mega-dam on the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, the highest earthquake zoned states through which runs the mighty Brahmaputra river. The mega-dam construction was suspended after widespread protests led by social and environmental activists in 2010–11. However, the construction resumed after the election of the BJP-led national government in 2014 and in the state of Assam in 2016. The revival precipitated a new phase of democratic contestation in the policy sphere in 2015–17 which is modeled here, based on content analysis of news reporting. We find that in the policy sphere, the voices of anti-dam activists did not succeed in fostering an anti-dam frame in the news media in the form of news stories opposing the dam.

PERSONAL DATA PROCESSING BY SOCIAL MEDIA - NEW PERSPECTIVE IN META PLATFORMS CASE

Digital era has brought enormous changes not only to IT sphere, but also to media, especially social media, who strive to make their economic growth by collecting data of its users. How or if these users willingly give their personal data is questionable and subject to strict requirements of the new data protection legislation, which made its way in the EU especially since the GDPR has entered into force. The consent for processing of personal data of private subjects is multilayered and depends upon various features such as type of data, its sensitivity, but also upon the mode of giving such a consent. Whether direct or indirect, consent must contain certain prerequisites, so that the processing of that data would be considered as lawful. The more pronounced the value of personal data for a subject processing and using that data, the more thorough the legal requirements should be, especially when it comes to new forms of predictable behaviour, used for behavioural advertising, for example. The new judgment in the case of Meta Platforms2 gives a new light to data protection law, especially in social media sphere, widening its concept to competition law, dominant position of social media networks and antitrust policies.

The (de)-politicization of Internet memes in Chinese national youth propaganda campaign

ABSTRACT Visual political communication in the social media sphere is increasingly valuable for its ability to more effectively persuade viewers in this increasingly cluttered media landscape. Using multi-model discourse analysis and following the theoretical framework of Everyday Politics, this study focuses on a random sample (N = 200) of user-generated Internet memes from Chinese national youth propaganda campaign Youth Study. In addition, the author observed the sharing and dissemination of these memes in online public discussions. The findings reveal that young participants maintain a varying distance from politics. They employ strategies such as dark humor, hyperbole, contrast, and appropriation of pop culture to portray two key roles – the charming, brilliant followers and the abandoned, hunted breakers, and to construct four main scenarios-cute threat, humble beg, funny politics, and veiled resistance. This politicized propaganda campaign is being transformed from state aspirations to the creative daily cultural consumption of young netizens. This analysis contributes to the scholarly literature on youth subcultures, political mobilization, and visual propaganda in post-socialist China.

Singled Out and Mocked: Intersection of (Hetero)Sexism and Ableism and Mobilization of Anti-Discourses in Online Hatred towards Hypervisibilized Youth Activists

This article contributes to the relatively scarce research on the intersection of various anti-discourses in online hatred by focusing on online verbal attacks on publicly active, nonmature actors of diverse genders. It reveals that patterns of the discursive rejection of youth political actors are similar to the more extensively described hatred against activist women. It also documents that these violent expressions are no longer limited to the realm of extreme or far-right political circles, the typical focus of previous studies, but have penetrated mainstream civic discussions across the media sphere. Youth actors are vulnerable, the article argues, because their individual characteristics are singled out, made hypervisible and mocked as abnormal in the online sphere, or because they are associated with ideologies which the discussants reject as dangerous in their construction of imagined collective identities and mobilization of anti-discourses.

НОВОСИБИРСКИЕ СЕЛЬСКИЕ РАЙОНКИ НА РАЗЛИЧНЫХ МЕДИПЛАТФОРМАХ

The article shows how the newspapers of the municipal districts of the Novosibirsk region are represented in social networks. The relevance of the stated topic is due to the fact that expanding interaction with social networks is one of the main features and trends in the development of regional and local press markets in Russia. The novelty is determined by the lack of published scientific articles concerning the current state of affairs in such a large region as the Novosibirsk region, as well as the empirical nature of the work carried out, which made it possible to trace the current state of this segment of the media sphere. The article presents the results of the analysis of audience indicators of public newspapers and monitoring of their content both in traditional social networks, such as VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, and in the relatively new Telegram, YouTube or Yandex.Zen. It is shown that all newspapers of this type have their own pages, on average they have 1.5–3 thousand subscribers on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. The median number of posts per week is 22.5 posts for VKontakte and 20.8 for Odnoklassniki. At the same time, new platforms, such as Telegram, are just beginning to attract the interest of editorial offices — nine newspapers launched their tg channels in the spring of 2022, but the number of subscribers there is not yet large.

Public narratives of the relationship between post-pandemic economic recovery and decarbonization: A case study of Toronto’s media sphere

Recent research indicates that the economic downturn brought by the COVID-19 pandemic has bolstered a “climate delay” discourse. This has led environmental scholars and policymakers to express concern over how the relationship between economic recovery and decarbonization is being framed in current public discussions about post-pandemic economic recovery. To better understand how the climate delay discourse is mediated by local media and its potential impact on public support for green transformation, this article examines relevant coverage published by popular Toronto local media throughout 2020. A qualitative thematic analysis reveals a rising public demand for decarbonizing the Canadian economy. However, this demand has also been challenged by a counter storyline that seeks to divert public attention from the severe structural crisis underlying the fossil fuel sector. The study concludes by cautioning against “climate delay” narratives’ potential suppression of public support for green economic recovery.

Dispersion properties of nanoplastic spheres in granular media at low Reynolds numbers

Nanoplastic particles (<1 μm) are among the contaminants of emerging concern, and compared to microplastic (<5 mm), our understanding of the transport and fate of nanoplastic in water, sediments and soil is very limited. This paper focuses on developing fundamental insight into the dispersion behaviour (sum of hydrodynamic dispersion and diffusion) of nanoplastic spheres, which are likely the most mobile shape of nanoplastic. We measured the dispersion coefficient and dispersivity of nanoplastic spheres (100 nm, 300 nm and 1000 nm diameter) in granular media with a range of pore sizes. We investigated the mechanisms that control the behaviour at low Reynolds number (smaller than 2), relevant to the dispersion of nanoplastic across the riparian area at water velocities of the common river and shallow groundwater. The measured dispersion coefficients were compared with the predictions by two commonly used models. The results show that there are significant differences between measurements and predictions for the case of colloidal size nanoplastics (MAPE>100%). The retarded dispersion caused by the size-exclusion effect was observed to be important in the case of 1.7 mm and 0.4 mm granular media for 300 nm and 1000 nm nanoplastics, reducing the dispersivity and sensitivity to Reynolds number. The methodology in this paper can be adopted in studies on other sizes and shapes of nanoplastic, assisting with predicting the transport and fate of nanoplastic granular media.

Ethical considerations of ‘going public’: public and media co-dissemination of research findings with refugees

ABSTRACT Collaborative dissemination of research findings in the public and media spheres has the potential to reach large audiences, enhance forced migrants’ political participation and impact policies. ‘Going public’ further requires both researchers and forced migrants to engage visibly in a sphere that is often unexpected and less familiar to them. This paper discusses the methodological and ethical challenges and possibilities surrounding joint dissemination, drawing on a case study of public and media co-dissemination that occurred as part of an anti-deportation public campaign. In 2018, the Israeli government initiated a forced deportation plan aimed at deporting refugees to Rwanda. The authors had previously conducted research exploring the journeys of refugees who ‘voluntarily’ departed Israel to Rwanda, revealing that the deportees were pressured to embark on life-threatening journeys, eventually gaining protection in Europe. The findings were collaboratively shared through various activities, such as media interviews, public events, advocacy and cooperation with civil society organisations in Israel and globally. This paper discusses the three main aspects derived from our experiences: power imbalances and divisions of roles, consent as a process, and re-traumatisation and agency. Finally, ethical and practical recommendations for mitigating some of these challenges are offered.

“Alternative Facts”: The Origins of Fake News and its Implications

This paper examines the origins of the current rise in disinformation, compares and contrasts historical and modern examples of fake news, and analyzes the trends between them. By observing patterns across specific case studies where fake news was leveraged to manipulate public opinion, we dissect the contemporary misinformation dilemma and offer methods to combat false narratives. We achieve this through a historical analysis of Yellow Journalism in the late 1800s, early 20th-century propaganda, and disinformation in the 2020 United States election.&#x0D; One significant revelation in modern times that has altered the ways fake news perpetuates is media digitization. Platforms such as social media, news websites, and blogs have reshaped the contemporary media sphere. Misinformation proliferation has persisted since historical times and still threatens how citizens view political and social issues, something we need to mitigate. Thus, our overarching question is: “What are the dangers of fake news, and how have political leaders historically leveraged it to their advantage?” Today, there’s speculation as to whether or not media digitization has amplified its effects, another controversy we dismantle in this multi-dimensional article.&#x0D;

MEDIA LAW IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA: CURRENT TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT

In the modern era, the not at all new maxim that information rules the world is getting a new, this time “digital-platform” confirmation of its truth. With the emergence of global online platforms in the 1990s, the categories of “freedom of speech”, “freedom of mass information" and “freedom of self-expression”, while gradually changing the technological formats of their embodiment and implementation, keep their democratic essence and role in the processes of personal, public and state development unchanged.&#x0D; As humankind enters its next information cycle, roughly covering the first decades of the 21st century, institutional and regulatory potential of the historically “youngest” information and communication freedom — the freedom of web-based (online) information and communication — is gradually taking shape, gaining institutional and regulatory potential. Like its antecedents (freedom of speech, press, radio and television broadcasting), it requires a certain upgrade of its social regulatory mechanisms as it “matures” and enters into the life of global, national and regional societies.&#x0D; It is the context of the implementation of this kind of innovation on the example of a specific country — Australia — that determines the basic subject of this article, its main essential component. Specific and topical manifestations of this essence are analyzed by the authors of this article using examples of legal and other regulatory systems in the Australian media sphere. For example, one of the subjects of analysis is the question of how is Australia coping with the challenge of updating its social regulatory mechanisms in the media sphere. And, as a logical consequence of the former, is there any position in Australia's relevant experience that is worthy of reception in other legal and ethical orders?&#x0D; Focusing on these issues the authors review some of the most interesting decisions taken by the Australian government over the past decade. The authors also analyse the current law and other regulatory mechanisms and instruments in Australia aimed at regulating the mass media public relations in this country as well as the main trends of their development. In particular, such as pioneer (Australia is a recognised pioneer in this sphere of legal regulation!) changes in the regulation of digital media platforms on the example of Google and Facebook (from October 28, 2021 — Meta Platforms, Inc. in Russia, admitted as extremist organization by the Moscow Tverskoi Court), and quite specific modifications of Australian national defamation law.

The material kept the score: media and material practice in Jennifer Bloomer’s constructions, 1985–1992

Recent scholarship has highlighted the significance of media — photographs, drawings, magazines, and exhibitions — for late twentieth-century architectural production. The proliferating media of the period, however, has presented problems for historians. Does this expanded media sphere confirm the views of dominant period actors that the era was concerned with representation rather than materialisation? This paper challenges the characterisation of media as an agent of de-materialisation by highlighting the projects of Jennifer Bloomer, a practitioner and theorist who worked with new physical media derived from Conceptual Art. Architectural interest in Conceptual Art was prompted in part by the intense engagement of Conceptual artists with space in performance, land, and installation artworks. After 1975, architects on both sides of the Atlantic utilised Conceptual Art forms to move away from established architectural media. This essay begins by outlining the architectural turn to the physical media of Conceptual Art and uses the broader context of Conceptual Art to illuminate three installations produced by Bloomer over the period from 1985 to 1992. Borrowing from Conceptual Art’s particular spatial typologies and material interests, Bloomer used physical matter to confront the ideals and idealising functions of architecture and representation. To contest idealisation founded on significant exclusions and erasures, Bloomer used materials to embed architecture’s margins within her work, from marginalised building technologies and transgressive matter, to repressed histories. These installations, to borrow a phrase from Dominic Rahts, produced a ‘material continuity with the world', rather than a dematerialised media. Recovering Bloomer’s projects and framing them within a larger body of Conceptual Art-Architecture projects, this paper intends to expand the terrain and terms of late twentieth-century architectural production. It highlights those who worked with physical media and within a Conceptual Art tradition that asserted the materiality of the representational medium. Media could be material and representational.

Shitposting as public pedagogy

In response to the growing ubiquity of social media, critical media literacy scholars have increasingly called for the examination of online practices and their embedded pedagogies and curricula. In response, I use this paper to reimagine shitposting, a discursive social media practice, as a form of public pedagogy aligned (at times) with critical media literacy education. I begin by engaging extant research to both define shitposting and position the practice beyond the neofascist ends of the alt-right movement that most scholars focus on. Examining this alignment through the lens of critical media literacy, I argue that shitposting exists as an online pedagogical technology that can potentially reorient the network of relationships within social media spheres and expand the possible range of identities for those involved. To illustrate this argument, I conclude with a close reading of posts from two Twitter accounts: dril, an anonymous user who has managed to inform political discourse through his shitposts, and the corporate account for the Sunny Delight Beverage Corporation. I describe how tweets from these accounts engage shitposts in divergent ways. In doing so, I contend that these tweets reveal shitposting’s potential for contributing to the democratic aims of critical media literacy education, but the appropriation of that practice by large corporations and individuals imbued with political power jeopardize that already fraught potential.

A global decoupling technique for subtractive modelling on acoustic and vibration problems

The reverse Condensed Transfer Function (rCTF) method is a substructuring approach based on the concept of condensed mechanical receptance and acoustical impedance. Its objective is to predict the vibroacoustic response of a subsystem which was initially part of a global system, from information taken from the global system and the subtracted subsystem which must be removed. This paper proposes an extended formulation to improve the convergence of the rCTF method for subtractive modelling. The fundamentals of the rCTF method have been proposed recently considering only the decoupling interface between the global system and the subtracted subsystem. This approach of decoupling, called the local approach, exhibits some numerical issues. In order to circumvent them, the decoupling interface is extended in this study to account for a second interface, internal to the subtracted subsystem. The numerical performances of this extension, called the global approach, are firstly studied on an academic rod decoupling case which allows parametric studies. Then, a comparison between the local and global approaches is proposed for the scattering problem of an acoustic plane wave by a rigid sphere in an infinite water medium.

Analytical algorithms for direct and inverse problems pertaining to the electromagnetic excitation of a layered medium by N dipoles

The direct problem of exciting a multilayered spherical medium by a distribution of arbitrarily located (internal and external) electric dipoles is considered. A formulation based on excitation operators is adopted. The solution of the direct problem is obtained by means of an overall superposition method that combines elements of the T‐matrix approach, the Sommerfeld's method, and Green's functions' techniques. Approximations are extracted for the obtained far‐field patterns in the long‐wavelength (low‐frequency) regime. A set of source‐localization inverse problems is considered. Analytical algorithms are devised in which nonlinear systems are obtained from specifically selected low‐frequency far‐field measurements. These systems are subsequently solved explicitly including all special cases. The developed algorithms are noninvasive and can determine accurately the characteristics of internal sources.

The Media in Southeastern Europe – Socialism, Transition, Capitalism

Abstract The Introduction to this volume presents an approach rarely used in the analysis of media in Southeastern Europe. Through the interpretive framework of the theme of capitalism, it examines the advantages of applying this research paradigm to the region. After 1989, capitalism succeeded socialism in the countries in the region. To understand what happened under the new common denominator imposed by the market, this Introduction first looks at the legacy of socialism in the media sphere. Following this line of analysis, the text identifies some important typologies in the media systems of the region focusing specifically on Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Croatia. The homogenizing effects imposed by capitalist-oriented globalization is discussed along with an analysis that traces the crises emerging in journalism. This profession is often practised in the zone of tensions between democracy and capitalism and the Introduction’s focus on these crises exposes the threats to media pluralism.

The Bulgarian Media after 1989

Abstract This article offers an overview of the most important developments in the Bulgarian media sphere after the changes of 1989. It fills a conceptual gap by analyzing the place of Bulgarian media in the context of the relationship between democracy and capitalism. The transition from socialist to private and market-oriented media, Bulgaria’s opening up to foreign media companies, the expansion of media into the internet environment, and the role of media regulation are identified as the key – and ambivalent – factors of change in the media sphere. The article argues that the tension between media democracy and media capitalism unfolded in the form of a permanent crisis in the media field. The analysis leads to the conclusion that indeterminacy and hybridity are key characteristics of the Bulgarian media system.

Gravitational weak lensing of hairy black hole in presence of plasma

Gravitational weak lensing around a hairy black hole has been deeply studied in the presence of a plasma medium. The obtained results have shown that the effect of parameters a and l0 on the deflection angle of light rays around the black hole in hairy spacetime is perceptible. With an increase of parameter a the deflection angle of photon orbits decreases, and the effect of plasma on the deflection angle is the opposite. Here, we discussed different types of plasma distributions: uniform ωe=const, Singular Isothermal Sphere medium, 1/r and Non-Singular Isothermal gas sphere plasma. Additionally, The total magnification of the image source due to gravitational lensing has been also studied taking into account the effect of deviation parameter a and parameter l0 related to hairy spacetime in the presence of plasma around the black hole.

СУЧАСНА ПРАКТИКА ЖУРНАЛІСТСЬКИХ РОЗСЛІДУВАНЬ В УКРАЇНІ В УМОВАХ ВІЙНИ

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The purpose&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; of the study is to determine the peculiarities of journalistic investigations in the Ukrainian massmedia in wartime conditions.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Research methodology&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. To study the theoretical material, the method of monitoring and critical review, systematization and statistical method of studying the material was used; the traditional method of analysis and comparison, problematization and assessment, the method of deduction and synthesis of successful opinions and experiences was used to interpret and interpret the content of the research.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The results.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; The article analyzes the specifics of journalistic investigation in Ukraine: features, methodology, and modern development trends. It was determined that investigative journalism reflects the realities of modern life, focuses on the problems of society, which is especially relevant in the conditions of war, because the opposition at the time takes place not only at the front, but also in the political, economic, cultural and media spheres. The peculiarities of conducting journalistic investigations in the Ukrainian mass media in the conditions of a large-scale war and their significance for society have been investigated.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Novelty.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; It was determined that the importance of journalistic investigations during the war increases, because investigative journalists contribute to the disclosure of war crimes and the prosecution of war criminals, and also exercise the necessary control over the actions of the authorities on the part of the public, which encourages it to be more responsible, helps to reduce the level of corruption and making necessary decisions for the country, bringing victory closer.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Practical meaning&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;. The results of the research can be used in practical media activities and in the process of studying professionally oriented courses in the specialty «Journalism».&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Key words:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; journalistic investigation, investigative journalist, project of anti-corruption investigations, investigative content.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Arab Media Portrayals of Anti-Uyghur Repression: Chinese Propaganda, Anti-Islamist Anxiety, and Anti-Westernism

China is looked upon warmly in the Arab world. Allegations about extreme human rights abuses by the Chinese government of Muslim populations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, however, put the durability of this popularity into question. This article uses Arabic-language media sources to illuminate Beijing's efforts to neutralize this controversy for Arab audiences and the nature of the debate around the topic in the Arab media sphere. Widely sympathetic coverage reflects a synergy between Beijing's propaganda efforts and anxiety about Islamism among Arab regimes. In addition, this article argues that the leitmotif of anti-Westernism in Arab media suggests China's reputation reaps considerable reward from the fraught legacies of Western involvement in the Arab world.

The ‘most maligned’ witness in the Christopher Dawson case: Gender, power, media and legal culture in the digitally distributed live-streamed court

This article analyses the cultural construction of gender in a highly mediated, globally publicised Australian murder trial. Using the tools of multimodal socio-linguistic analysis, it interrogates the construction of a key female witness – known by the legal pseudonym ‘JC’ – in the physical, digitally distributed and livestreamed courtroom and subsequently through the media sphere, including in newspapers, magazines, podcasts, television and social media. It surfaces a victimblaming narrative in relation to alleged child sexual abuse that was an underlying theme in pretrial reporting, a central feature of the defence’s courtroom strategy and cross examination, and subsequently a dominant focus of the mainstream media’s trial coverage. It traces the emergence of a counter-discourse on social media largely propelled by contributors self-identifying as young women, and the radical reframing of the media narrative in response to the court’s verdict. The article also contextualises its findings against a background in which media technologies and media logics are dramatically reshaping the court’s practices and procedures in relation to ‘open justice’, as evidenced by the operation of the virtual media gallery and publicly livestreamed verdict. It concludes that the hyper-gendered narratives that framed the case are not new. Instead, media technologies – including the court’s livestream, and the public’s use of interactive media platforms – have brought new visibility to a longstanding socio-cultural problem. In Australia, R v Christopher Michael Dawson has been widely celebrated as a step forward for gender equality and the treatment of domestic and sexual abuse by and in the media and the legal system. This analysis demonstrates that in reality change is marginal and uneven.