Media Tone Research Articles

Media Tone Goes Viral: Global Evidence from the Currency Market

Using several million news and social media articles related to currencies, we examine the role of media tone in predicting the exchange rate returns of 12 developed and 24 emerging markets from 1998 to 2016. The text-based currency Media tone is a strong positive predictor of currency excess returns beyond fundamentals of one to three months ahead and six months cumulatively, with the average in-sample and out-of-sample R^2s of 4.45% and 9.03% in the US. The one-month predictability is observed in four other developed markets and 18 emerging market currencies, with the latter showing a stronger pattern. This predictability encompasses previous month currency returns, currency factors, macro fundamentals, and market sentiment and is stronger for currencies that are freely floating, less liquid, difficult to value, costly to arbitrage, and which have high interest rates. The effect is channeled through expectation errors and driven by the forecasting component rather than risk. The predictability of Media tone is driven by non-mainstream financial media.

Asian American Identification with African Americans, Latinos, and Whites: The Roles of Discrimination and Self-Identified Skin Tone

ABSTRACTUsing a sample of up to 1,208 Asian Americans, we examine the effects of skin tone on perceived commonality with African Americans, Latinos, and whites. Overall, we find that Asian Americans are more likely to identify with whites than with African Americans or Latinos. When we account for skin tone, we find that Asian Americans with a medium skin tone experience increased odds of perceiving a commonality with African Americans and Latinos. While we expected the relationship between skin tone and perceived commonality to be mediated by experiences of discrimination, this was not the case. We conclude that Asian Americans occupy a position toward the top of the black-white binary and the oppressive racial hierarchy that exists within the United States. Like previous scholars, we suggest that Asian Americans can use their relative standing to disrupt the oppressive racial hierarchy. However, we recognize that whites, holding a position at the top of the racial hierarchy, must also be responsible for dismantling it.

Tooth Shade and Skin Colour: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Selection of proper tooth shade is one of the most significant factors influencing patients' aesthetic perception and improved prosthesis acceptance. Guidelines in the dental literature suggest age, sex, colour of skin, hair and eye for selecting tooth shade when past records cannot be obtained. The objective of the study was to find out the prevalence of the most common tooth shade in relation to the skin colour and the prevalence of the same in relation to age and sex. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at Kathmandu Medical College from June to August 2019. Vitapan Classical Shade guide was used to select the shade of upper right central incisor in 338 participants. Revlon Foundation Makeup Shade guide was used to determine colour of skin. Participants were examined without facial makeup. Skin colour and teeth shade were examined in daylight at about the same time of the day. Data obtained were computed and analysed using Microsoft Excel 2016 software. Prevalence of tooth shade with high value (lighter shade) was seen in all fair 121 (35.8%), medium 63 (18.6%) and dark skin tones 23 (6.8%). Most common teeth shade in fair individuals was B1 47 (37.9%), in medium also B1 25 (7.4%) and dark was B2 9 (2.7%). Age range of 10 to 35 years had tooth shade with higher value 159 (47.04%). Hence, teeth shade with high value (lighter shade) was prevalent in skin tone of all types in current study. Skin tone was not related to teeth shade selection, teeth became darker with age and females had lighter teeth shade (high value).

Characteristics of Kim Jong-un’s leadership: analyzing the tone of official North Korean media

ABSTRACT This paper describes the characteristics of Kim Jong-un’s leadership primarily through the analysis of the tone observed in Rodong Sinmun, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). It has described five characteristics of the Kim Jong-un administration. The first characteristic is preference for fast-paced action. While there are considerable overlaps with previous studies, it is possible to clearly identify aspects that are different from the Kim Jong-il administration. The second characteristic is Kim Jong-un’s tendency toward pragmatism. He has repeatedly criticized “formalism” during his field inspections. Third, a new tendency to place greater importance on the policy-making process has become apparent. In addition to the plenary sessions of the Central Committee, meetings of the WPK Politburo Presidium, and Central Military Commission of the WPK are now convened, albeit irregularly. Fourth, obsession with certain specific issues is also characteristic of Kim Jong-un. His areas of concern are apparent from his works and from reports on his activities. These include science and technology, education, children, households, and families, the ilkun [executive staffs], buildings, vehicles, the air force, physical education, the Internet, and diversification of foreign trade. Lastly, the shift away from Songun is evident. The Kim Jong-un has increasingly distanced itself from the army-first Songun politics that symbolized the Kim Jong-il period. Kim Jong-un no longer mentions Songun. The National Defence Commission, which was the command center for the Songun system, was disbanded by an amendment to the Constitution.

Governance role of media information’s uncertainty in IPO market-oriented pricing

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how signals of uncertainty in the media affect retail investor decisions and initial public offering (IPO) underpricing through theoretical and empirical methods. Design/methodology/approach The authors construct a theoretical model of the influence of media signals on IPO pricing, which describes the micro process in which uncertain signals in media influence retail investors’ decisions and IPO underpricing. Besides, the authors take 516 small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) listed in A-share from July 2009 to December 2012 as samples for empirical tests and establish an in-depth learning model for text analysis with Java programming to measure Chinese media tone. Finally, the results of the model analysis are verified by empirical results. Findings The results show that authoritative media with high credibility can reduce the uncertainty of information sources attract more investors’ attention and improve the valuation and demand of retail investors. The higher the media credibility is the higher the IPO underpricing rate is. The uncertain tone of the media will increase the decision-making cost of investors reduce the valuation expectation and demand of the secondary market and lead to a lower IPO underpricing rate. Originality/value The authors study the influence of the uncertainty of media source and media content on the degree of IPO underpricing of SMEs. This is a useful supplement to the Chinese media tone research system that is still in the exploration stage. The research has reference value for government regulation and investor decision-making.

Political Connections and Media Bias: Evidence from China

This paper studies the effects of a firm’s political connections on media bias using a large sample of corporate news articles on publicly listed non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) in China. We document that politically connected non-SOEs receive more favorable news coverage than politically unconnected non-SOEs. The media tone becomes less favorable after a negative exogenous shock to non-SOEs’ political connections. Furthermore, we find that this political connection induced media bias strongly relates to firm value. Finally, we show that the media tone of politically connected and unconnected non-SOEs deviate significantly around the time of political and corporate events.

Manifestation of the Maternal Effect in Inheritance of Leaf Colour in Safflower

Safflower is a representative of Asteraceae and is one of the most ancient crops cultivated by man. Its center of origin is the Mediterranean. Safflower is one of minor crops: its sown area is limited and it is used by a small number of countries, including Ukraine. This is a rough herbaceous plant, adapted to the hot arid climate, the habitat of safflower is confined to the steppes and semi-deserts. Today it is used mainly as an oilseed crop. Golkar et al. studied the level of chlorophyll in safflower leaves. The level of chlorophyll a, b and a + b in safflower in hybrids and parental lines was evaluated. As a result, it was found that in most cases hybrid plants have levels of chlorophyll intermediate in relation to the parental lines. Chlorophyll a and b have different absorption maxima. The maxima of the first are in the ranges 420-440 and 650-670 nm, the second - 450-470 and 630-650 nm. For this reason, chlorophyll a has a bluish tint and chlorophyll b has a yellowish tint. The aim of this work was to clarify the nature of the inheritance of leaf color in safflower. The colour of leaves in safflower was studied. The work was provided on the material of the Institute of oilseed crops of National academy of afrarian sciences of Ukraine collection. The parent samples had 3 phenotypes: a medium-tone blue-green leaf, a light green leaf, and a light yellow-green leaf. Leaf color was evaluated visually and using the Adobe Photoshop CS3 computer program in Lab and RGB modes. In Lab mode, the assessment was performed in the Lightness channel to determine the average or light tone of the sheet. While breeding samples with different leaf color the results of direct and reciprocal crossing differed, the F1 hybrids had leaf colour matched the maternal plant. In the second generation segregation was observed. Basing on the received data, we draw a conclusion that 3 nuclear genes with cytoplasmic genes determine inheritance of leaf colour. We propose that the nuclear genes be designated Gra, Grb, Grc as “green”. The interaction of these genes with cytoplasmic genes gives a light, medium, and dark leaf tone. In the cytoplasm, we assume two possible genotypes. Depending on them, the type of cytoplasm can be normal or light. Phenotypic manifestations of some gene combinations (gra gra Grb-Grc- — medim leaf tone; Gra-grb grb Grc-, Gra-grb grb grc grc, gra gra Grb-grc grc — light leaf tone) do not depend on the type of cytoplasm. In other cases a maternal effect is observed. In the combination of genes Gra-Grb-Grc- the light type of cytoplasm brightens the medium tone of the leaf to light, and in the combination gra gra gra grb grb Grc- — dark to medium, which determines the existence of different variants of segregation according to the phenotype with the same genotype. So we conclude that leaf color is inherited by three nuclear genes Gra, Grb, Grf-. Additionally, the color of the leaf is affected by cytoplasm. Light cytoplasm can brighten the leaf tone compared to the mediun for the same genotype. There are genotypes whose leaf tone does not depend on the type of cytoplasm.

Media, independent non-executive directors and strategy disclosure by non-financial listed firms in the UAE

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effect of media coverage, negative media tone and the interaction between negative media tone and independent non-executive directors (INEDs) on strategic information disclosure (SD).Design/methodology/approachThe authors rely on media agenda-setting theory, agency theory and a panel data set of 52 UAE non-financial listed firms from 2009 to 2016. Multivariate regressions examine the effect of media coverage and negative media tone on SD and examine the moderation of INEDs on the effect of negative media tone on SD while controlling for firm size, board size, board meeting frequency, firm profitability and leverage.FindingsThe results show that negative media tone has a negative effect on SD, and there is no association between media coverage and SD. The results show that INEDs are negatively associated with SD and have a negative moderating effect on the negative media tone–SD relationship. INEDs follow a conservative approach, encouraging less SD when their firms face negative media tone.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors measured media coverage and negative media tone by the number of news articles. In the robustness test, they use media tone score. They measured SD using an index that captures firm strategy dimensions. Though these measures are inherently subjective, they were used to measure variation in media coverage, media tone and SD across listed UAE non-financial firms. Mitigation of subjectivity was achieved through rigorous cross-checking measurements.Practical implicationsFindings assist UAE policymakers and the international business community with insights related to articulation of media to SD and INEDs’ role in moderating the effect of media on SD.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that combines media agenda-setting theory with agency theory and SD in an emerging market economy (the UAE). The study is also among the few studies that illustrate the possible role of INEDs under different media tones in emerging markets.

Media coverage of reports published by the Québec Ombudsman: an automated content analysis

This article examines media coverage of reports published by the Québec Ombudsman, a body that upholds the rights of citizens and that goes by the name of ‘Public Protector’. A large part of the Québec Ombudsman’s mandate is to conduct investigations and issue recommendations following infringements by Québec’s administrative apparatus that affect one or several citizens. These infringements are reported to the ombudsman by citizens, which means that it must be visible to the public. Such visibility relies, to a great extent, on the media, hence the importance of analysing the Québec Ombudsman’s media coverage, a subject that has received little attention in the academic literature. Our article reveals that media coverage of the ombudsman’s reports is inconsistent. We also observe that, on average, newspaper articles adopt a more negative tone than the reports themselves. However, contrary to our expectations, reports with a more negative tone are not necessarily given more media coverage. The best predictor of the presence or absence of media coverage and tone congruence between reports and articles appears to be the presence of a press release issued by the ombudsman. Points for practitioners This article examines media coverage of reports published by the Québec Ombudsman. Based on an automated content analysis, it appears that the media coverage of the reports is not explained by the tone used in the documents published by the Québec Ombudsman. Reports that are more negative are not necessarily given greater coverage by journalists than positive reports. Direct communication efforts with the media (e.g. a press conference and the publication of a press release) are more likely to lead to media coverage.

Rising Powers and Grassroots Image Management: Confucius Institutes and China in the Media

Abstract This article proposes and tests a mechanism of grassroots image management to explain how rising powers craft an international environment more conducive to their interests. The aim is to promote the state’s foreign policy goals by influencing the perceptions of ordinary foreign citizens. To test this mechanism, we examine the impact of China’s Confucius Institutes (CIs) as an observable instrument of China’s grassroots image management strategy. Using data from the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT), we employ a spatial–temporal approach which finds that proximity to an active CI significantly and substantively improves the tone of media reporting about events relevant to China in that locality. The finding is robust to different specifications and estimation strategies, and is qualitatively consistent with results generated using household opinion data from Afrobarometer surveys. Theoretically, our results suggest the importance of systematically examining presentations and perceptions about rising powers at the popular level, in addition to focusing on elite attitudes, to understand discursive change. More directly, our findings reveal that CIs are helping to improve how China is viewed among foreign publics.

Internal Control Weakness and CEO Media Exposure

This study selects a sample of Taiwanese electronic firms from 2010 to 2014 to investigate the relationship of firms’ internal control weakness (ICW) and CEO media exposure. Empirical evidences show that firms with more internal control weakness experience higher CEO media exposure and the results remain consistent using an alternative measure of media exposure taking into accounting of media tone. This implies that CEOs are concerned with corporate reputation in the media so they will take actions in the media when facing negative events such as internal control weakness. This study further finds that corporate governance alleviates the above-mentioned relationships. Similarly, family firms would less likely allow CEOs to overly exposed in the media for possible impression management when incurring internal control weakness comparing to non-family firms.

Media tone, bias, and stock price crash risk: evidence from China

ABSTRACT This paper studies the effect of media tone on firm-specific price crash risk. Media tone measures the imbalance between positive and negative coverage. Using data from China, we find firms with more favorable media tone have higher crash risk. The transmission channel is through weakened media governance and the subsequent motivated managerial opportunism. Moreover, the effect is more prominent for firms having more advertising expenditures, institutional holdings, and analyst coverage. We also find only the tone of state-controlled media significantly affects crash risk. Our study suggests the existence of media bias and its economic consequence.

Asymmetric Effect of Media Tone on IPO Underpricing and Volatility

ABSTRACT Because of asymmetric information between issuing companies and investors, media coverage plays an important role in conveying information to investors during an initial public offering (IPO). The stock price is affected by a large amount of information released to the public through media coverage. Using a comprehensive sample of 1,075 IPOs on China’s stock market from 2009 to 2016, this paper conducts a textual analysis to determine the tone of media coverage and examines the relationship between media tone and IPO underpricing as well as post-IPO volatility. The empirical results show that media coverage during an IPO is significantly negatively associated with IPO underpricing, which confirms our hypothesis that the tone of media coverage reduces the degree of information asymmetry between investors and issuers, regardless of whether the tone is positive or negative. Consistent with prospect theory, investors are more sensitive to media coverage with a negative tone.

News sentiment and sovereign credit risk

AbstractWe explore the impact of media content on sovereign credit risk. Our measure of media tone is extracted from the Thomson Reuters News Analytics database. As a proxy for sovereign credit risk we consider credit default swap (CDS) spreads, which are decomposed into their risk premium and default risk components. We find that media tone explains and predicts CDS returns and is a mixture of noise and information. Its effect on risk premium induces a temporary change in investors’ appetite for credit risk exposure, whereas its impact on the default component leads to reassessments of the fundamentals of sovereign economies.

Media-Expressed Tone, Option Characteristics, and Stock Return Predictability

We distill tone from a huge assortment of NASDAQ articles to examine the predictive power of media-expressed tone in single-stock option markets and equity markets. We find that (1) option markets are impacted by media tone; (2) option variables predict stock returns along with tone; (3) option variables orthogonalized to public information and tone are more effective predictors of stock returns; (4) overnight tone appears to be more informative than trading- time tone, possibly due to a different thematic coverage of the trading versus the overnight archive; (5) tone disagreement commands a strong positive risk premium above and beyond market volatility.

Hostile Media Perceptions of Friendly Media Do Reinforce Partisanship

The hostile media effect (HME) entails that partisanship incites hostile perceptions of media content. However, other research underscores that partisans selectively turn to like-minded media, resulting in a friendly media phenomenon (FMP). The present study suggests that the HME and FMP co-exist, and, furthermore, jointly affect people’s voting behavior. More specifically, based on a media content analysis and a long-term panel survey surrounding the 2014 election for the European Parliament in the Netherlands, we find that people selectively turn to like-minded friendly media (FMP), but perceive coverage about the EU (European Union) in these media as relatively unsupportive of their own position (HME). In this context, the FMP and HME appear to jointly influence voting behavior. People cast votes in line with the objectively partisan-friendly media tone of their self-selected media. However, to a certain extent they do so, because they seem motivated to counteract the seemingly unfair or insufficient coverage about the EU.

Social Media Storytelling: Using Blogs and Twitter to Create a Community of Practice for Writing Scholarship

This paper argues that social media can function as an informal community of practice in writing scholarship where knowledge is absorbed into a user’s identity and practice through storytelling. Social media has increasingly attracted academics and educators as a method of trialing new research ideas and classroom strategies, seeking early peer review, and as a knowledge translation strategy for sharing research findings. Platforms such as Twitter and blogs work in tandem to provide exposure, encourage reflection, and build community. Storytelling becomes a form of persuasion, through use of literary strategies, to influence change. This argument recognizes how social media writing is situated in a unique genre and requires writing strategies that may be unfamiliar to academic writers. A social media storytelling interlude demonstrates a case of social media persona development for writing scholarship and acts as an example of the voice, tone, and literary strategies of social media writing. The paper concludes with a discussion of strategies aligned with researching the impact of social media on pedagogical practices.

Environmental information disclosure quality, media attention and debt financing costs: Evidence from Chinese heavy polluting listed companies

Employing the data of 842 listed companies in the heavy pollution industries between 2014 and 2016, this paper applies the fixed effect regression model to reveal the impact of corporate environmental information disclosure quality and media attention on corporate debt financing costs. Results show that: corporate environmental information disclosure quality has a significant negative effect on the debt financing costs, every one unit increase in the company's environmental information disclosure quality will reduce the debt financing costs by 0.31%; the linear adjustment effect of the number of media reports on corporate environmental information disclosure quality and the debt financing costs level of listed companies is not significant, but there is a significant U-shaped mediating effect. Further, by distinguishing between the positive tone of media reported and the negative tone of media reported, this article finds that: the coefficient of the cross item Media_Pos × EID_Quality is −0.0162, but it is not significant, which indicating positive media coverage has little impact on the negative relationship between environmental disclosure quality and debt financing costs; while the coefficient of the cross item Media_Neg × EID_Quality is −0.0163, and it is significant at 10% level, which disclosing media's negative reports mitigate the impact of environmental information disclosure quality on reducing corporate debt financing costs. Finally, this paper presents some policy recommendations: government departments develop and implement corporate environmental information disclosure standards for heavily polluting industries; company should avoid the impression management of voluntary disclosure of environmental information; eliminate collusion between the media and the company in the heavy pollution industries.

Early Enzyme Replacement Therapy Improves Hearing and Immune Defects in Adenosine Deaminase Deficient-Mice.

Background: Inherited defects in adenosine deaminase (ADA) cause severe immune deficiency, which can be corrected by ADA enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). Additionally, ADA-deficient patients suffer from hearing impairment. We hypothesized that ADA-deficient (–/–) mice also exhibit hearing abnormalities and that ERT from an early age will improve the hearing and immune defects in these mice.Methods: Auditory brainstem evoked responses, organ weights, thymocytes numbers, and subpopulations, lymphocytes in peripheral blood as well as T lymphocytes in spleen were analyzed in ADA–/– and ADA-proficient littermate post-partum (pp). The cochlea was visualized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The effects of polyethylene glycol conjugated ADA (PEG-ADA) ERT or 40% oxygen initiated at 7 days pp on the hearing and immune abnormalities were assessed.Results: Markedly abnormal hearing thresholds responses were found in ADA–/– mice at low and medium tone frequencies. SEM demonstrated extensive damage to the cochlear hair cells of ADA–/– mice, which were splayed, short or missing, correlating with the hearing deficits. The hearing defects were not reversed when hypoxia in ADA–/– mice was corrected. Progressive immune abnormalities were detected in ADA–/– mice from 4 days pp, initially affecting the thymus followed by peripheral lymphocytes and T cells in the spleen. ERT initiated at 7 days pp significantly improved the hearing of ADA–/– mice as well as the number of thymocytes and T lymphocytes, although not all normalized.Conclusions: ADA deficiency is associated with hearing deficits and damage to cochlear hair cells. Early initiation of ERT improves the hearing and immune abnormalities.

What Does Media Tone Tell about Expected Stock Returns?

What Does Media Tone Tell about Expected Stock Returns?