Public Sphere Research Articles

Social media and health care: a cross-sectional analysis of X (Twitter) posts using the NodeXL platform

Introduction. The landscape of healthcare and medical education is rapidly evolving, driven by the popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, WeChat, and X (Twitter). These platforms have transformed healthcare communication, enabling trainees, medical students, and practitioners to enhance learning and clinical practice. Educators leverage social media to simplify complex medical concepts, fostering continuous learning and professional development. Despite their benefits, social media, notably X (Twitter), boasting over 186 million active users, are susceptible to misinformation, underscoring the importance of verifying data accuracy and identifying influential medical sources. This study aims to identify the most influential sources of health information through X (Twitter) analysis using the NodeXL tool. Methods. Employing a cross-sectional design, this study utilized the NodeXL platform for social media analysis. NodeXL facilitated the identification of prevalent topics in public health discussions on X (Twitter). Influencers, users, and prominent healthcare providers were categorized to assess the credibility of their information. Data collection extended up to March 1, 2024. Results. Analysis revealed that the #hospital hashtag garnered the highest number of tweets among popular healthcare hashtags (6,438 tweets, with 84% being unique). Conversely, #medicalcare and #medicine had the lowest citation counts (58 and 116 respectively). @MahaHealthIE emerged as the most famous account using the #healthservices hashtag. Notable influencers with the #hospital hashtag included YouTube, Narendra Modi, and Al Jazeera English. @GreenSwelfares led in using the #medicalcare hashtag, while YouTube and the World Health Organization (@WHO) were prominent among accounts using #medicine. Conclusion. This study underscores the significance of monitoring social media and tracking key influencers periodically. However, the study's limitation lies in its snapshot nature, failing to capture the dynamic shifts in influencer popularity trends over time.

How #Trad Catholics Challenge Current Constructions of Christian Nationalism: Counterknowledge, Masculinity, and Elite Aesthetics on Instagram

ABSTRACT I analyze traditionalist Catholic (or Trad) content on Instagram to add digital hyperconnectivity to current conversations about Christian nationalism in the United States. Building on studies of both epistemological and affective shifts in the age of digital hyperconnectivity, I argue that some pockets of right-wing Christian content are not anti-intellectual, but rather construct alternative knowledge bases to challenge mainstream authorities. This populist strategy of counterknowledge is mediatized in Trad Instagram, creating an epistemic community to counter those of the mainstream. The affordances of Instagram as a platform, characterized by its emphasis on visual content, brevity, and rapid consumption, have resulted in the decontextualized presentation of fragmented elements of Catholic philosophy and social teaching. This reconfiguration not only reshapes the public perception of Catholic thought but also fundamentally alters the grammar of public discourse. I draw on studies of affective polarization to argue that counterknowledge is not primarily about building a substantive alternative knowledge base, but rather about constructing an identity around the media image of an epistemic community under threat. The Trad aesthetic representation of intellectualism is distinctly gendered, presenting intellectual pursuit and reason as masculine virtues. I conclude by explaining how Trad Instagram contributes to and challenges current discourses on Christian nationalism by centering digital hyperconnectivity instead of a rationalist analysis of motivating beliefs, providing insights not only about shifts in authority and populism, but also moving beyond ideology to highlight aesthetic, affect, and the algorithmic curation of knowledge.

Towards a processual understanding of trust: A study of trust-building strategies of constructive journalists

Trust in news media is a hot topic in media research, and although several attempts have been made to explore it, the concept has commonly been viewed as a matter of audiences’ reception of news products. In contrast, we conceptualize trust as an integral part of all stages of the news production process and focus on the journalists’ perspective. Based on semi-structured interviews with Austrian constructive journalists, we investigate which strategies they use to improve the perception of their trustworthiness among audiences and what they want to achieve by being trusted. Trust-building strategies are identified across various stages of news production, with a notable emphasis on traditional journalistic values like objectivity, particularly in the context of separating facts from opinions to enhance audiences’ trust. Objectivity is sought through reliance on scientific sources, which are considered objective in their own right. This approach contrasts with conventional notions of objectivity in journalistic and academic discourse on constructive journalism. The findings reveal a focus on fostering trust to promote a solution-oriented approach to public issues, facilitating a more vibrant and constructive public discourse.

From Valuable Merchandise to Violent Rebels

From the moment the Dutch West Indian Company formally entered the slave trade in 1637, the Dutch periodical press consistently carried reports on slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. This article offers a long-term analysis of this coverage in the Dutch Republic, showing for the first time how the representation of slavery developed over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It demonstrates, first, that through the periodical press, knowledge of slavery was more widely spread in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century than is often assumed. The consistent, if intermittent, newspaper coverage meant that – well before the debates on abolition emerged – Dutch readers would be familiar with stereotypes of enslaved Africans as valuable merchandise or violent rebels. Second, this article argues that, in the second half of the eighteenth century, the periodical press offered its readers an ambiguous and contradictory image of slavery, contributing, on the one hand, to a public discourse underpinning slavery by depicting enslaved Africans as violent rebels, while at the same time covering political debates on the abolition of slavery.

Embedding constitutional rights

Abstract This article details the concept of constitutional embedding and demonstrates its utility in four country-rights cases. Constitutional embedding refers to the process by which some understanding of constitutional rights comes to take root in everyday life, moving from words on paper to something that shapes expectations and behavior. The degree of constitutional embedding varies along two dimensions: social and legal, or how individuals and groups operating in the social sphere understand and relate to constitutional rights, and how those working in the formal legal sphere do so. In a global political climate defined by democratic backsliding, powerful vested interests, and backlash against moves toward equality, the status of constitutional rights and how they become and remain embedded is doubly important. The constitutional embedding framework highlights how interactions between legal elites and ordinary citizens constitute the extent to which constitutional law influences daily life. The framework has broad applicability across contexts and rights domains.

Approaches to the Training of Engineering Personnel in the Context of Digital Transformation of Education

The relevance of the article is due to the increased importance of training engineering personnel in the context of the global digital transformation of the economy and social sphere, as well as the rapid acceleration of the pace of technological development. In order to avoid Russia's technological lag behind leading countries in the field of implementation and use of digital technologies in a variety of fields of activity, attention should be paid to the organization and content of higher technical education. The author considers it necessary to use competency-based and interdisciplinary approaches as basic ones when teaching the disciplines of the humanities and socio-economic blocks for future engineers. As part of the competency-based approach in the context of the digital transformation of education, it is proposed to actively use the gamification method in the educational process due to its obvious advantages: increasing the involvement of students in the educational process, increasing the motivation of students, etc. To substantiate the findings, a set of scientific methods and approaches was used: analysis and synthesis, comparisons, generalizations, scientific abstractions.

Monks, Blogs and Three Media Cases: Russian-Speaking Buddhist Communities in the Era of Social Media

This paper focuses on the problem of how Buddhism was reinstitutionalized in Russia in the frame of the meta process of mediatization. The empirical part of this study included two stages and was conducted during 2020–2024. In this paper, the authors focused mainly on the peculiarities of constructing strategies in the Internet and new media via traditional Gelug ethnic offline organizations, the Russian branches of the International Karma Kagyu Community, International Dzogchen Community and Russian-speaking community of Theravada converts. The methodological framework of the research included the institutional perspective developed by the Danish media scholar Stig Hjarvard for studying the mediatization of religion and the concept of “mediatized public religion” by Mia Lövheim and Marta Axner, as well as the concept of “digital religious innovators” by Heidi Campbell. The authors revealed that the processes of digitalization and mediatization have resulted in the emergence of Russian mediatized Buddhism. Various trends in modern Russian Buddhism are disproportionally represented in the public sphere of media; representation directly correlates with the strategies that Digital Buddhist creatives of different streams—Gelugpa traditional, Dzogchen, Theravada or Karma Kagyu—have chosen in relation to the Internet and new media.

Politeness Strategies in the 2020 Biden - Trump Preseidential Debate: A Pragmatic Analysis

This research explores the use of politeness strategies in the 2020 U.S. Presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The study aims to analyze how each candidate utilized these strategies to navigate the debate and influence public perception. By applying qualitative analysis, the research examines debate transcripts through the lens of Brown and Levinson's politeness theory, while also considering non-verbal cues using McNeill's coding scheme. The results show that Trump frequently employed direct and often confrontational bald-on-record strategies, whereas Biden leaned towards positive politeness, seeking to build a sense of connection with the audience. These findings provide valuable insights into the role of politeness strategies in political communication, highlighting their impact on the dynamics of public discourse.

Urban Transformations for Universal Accessibility: Socio-Educational Dialogue

This paper offers a systematic review of the papers in the present century that have addressed the intersection between urbanism, universal accessibility, and the socio-educational sphere. The paper explores, describes, and interprets the published literature found in academic sources included in Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) from the year 2000 to the present about the intersection of these three topics. We start from the dialogue between the social and the educational spheres as a basic premise. Thus, the main objectives of this review are (1) to identify how many articles explicitly address the social dimension in relation to education and universal accessibility; (2) to determine if there is an upward or downward trend in socio-educational perspectives, inclusion, and new urbanism; and (3) to find out if the research provides frameworks for universal accessibility, urban planning, and socio-educational inclusion from this holistic perspective. After removing all exclusion criteria, the study was restricted to 29 papers. The small number of research found is noteworthy. We understand that this shortage is due to the inclusion of the social dimension as a required area. Although there seems to have been a slight increase in recent years, the sample found does not allow us to determine whether or not there is a greater interest in studying the social sphere in relation to inclusive education. We do conclude, however, that this gap highlights the need to make the socio-educational dimension more present.

A cultural theory of expertise: styles of thought in attitudes, beliefs, and expectations regarding the COVID-19 pandemic

This article aims to analyze attitudes towards the pandemic by finding correlations between them that can be used to identify different styles of thought. The research involved two surveys (with 5990 participants) conducted in Argentina during the period of isolation regulations. These surveys assessed people’s attitudes toward the pandemic, their beliefs, fears, and expectations. We can group the people surveyed into three styles of thought, represented by those who believe in a natural origin of the virus, those who believe it leaked by accident from a laboratory, and those who believe it was intentionally released, all three distributed equally among the Argentine population. An important finding of this work is how attitudes are articulated within each style of thought: each group has its own defined position regarding the inquired issues, that is, its own ideological matrix, a different opinion on vaccines, science, and the pandemic. We referred to these three styles of thought in relation to the pandemic as open-to-expertise, nihilist, and self-expertise-only. Articulating perspectives from anthropology and the sociology of knowledge, our analysis proposes a cultural theory of expertise as a model to analyze the different attitudes found in the public sphere regarding the pandemic and other debates. According to the cultural theory of expertise we propose, how people perceive expertise shapes their thoughts and influences their opinions about phenomena in which reliance on others’ knowledge is crucial.

One Family, Two Leisure Worlds: Analysis of Gender Order and Its Relationship to the “Leisure Gap” Between Mothers and Fathers

This study aimed to explore contextual factors influencing couples’ leisure practices and experiences through in-depth interviews with 15 Taiwanese heteronormative married couples. Findings suggested that despite Taiwanese women’s performance in the public sphere, husbands benefit from using work-family narratives and attendant gender order and practices as unconscious “social defenses” to rationalize leisure inequality generated by gender norms. When married women are under pressure to accept gender norms attached to wives or mothers, they reconfigure their understanding of gender roles to implicitly acknowledge male dominance in a “system justification” manner. In addition, they further redefine motherhood in the way they feel best fits their position in the family and curb their desire for personal leisure. Unequal gender relationships determine couples’ perceptions and patterns of leisure, which contributes, at least in part, to the persistence of leisure inequalities in the family environment.

Public Discourse on Criminal Responsibility and Its Impact on Political-Legal Decisions: Analysing the (Re-)Appropriation of the Language of Law in the Sarah Halimi Case

Public Discourse on Criminal Responsibility and Its Impact on Political-Legal Decisions: Analysing the (Re-)Appropriation of the Language of Law in the Sarah Halimi Case

Beyond the 5-year recovery mark: Perspectives of researchers with lived and living experience on public engagement and discourse

There has been growing attention toward including people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) with substance use, substance use disorders, and recovery in public-facing activities. The goals of including PWLLE in sharing their perspectives often include demonstrating that recovery is possible, destigmatizing and humanizing people who have substance use experiences, and leveraging their lived experience to illuminate a particular topic or issue. Recently, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing issued a set of guidelines entitled, “Protecting Individuals with Lived Experience in Public Disclosure,” which included a “Lived Experience Safeguard Scale.” We offer the present commentary to bolster some of the ideas presented by the Council and to articulate suggested changes to this guidance, with the goal of reducing unintentional gatekeeping and stigma. Specifically, we offer that there are numerous problems with the recommendation to only invite people who have “five or more years of sustained recovery” to contribute to public discourse. The idea of perceived stability after five years of abstinence is not new to us or the field. We suggest that this idea excludes people who have experienced the present rapidly changing substance use landscape, people who have briefly returned to use, some young people, and people with living experience who also can valuably contribute to public discourse. We offer alternative guidelines to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and others seeking to promote practices that are inclusive to the diversity of PWLLE.

Surveillance, Disinformation, and Legislative Measures in the 21st Century: AI, Social Media, and the Future of Democracies

In contemporary society, the internet, particularly social media, has become a significant area where individuals spend considerable amounts of time engaging in various activities. Concurrently, the growing utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a critical component of the propaganda that is disseminated online within economic, social, and political spheres. AI encompasses a broad range of applications, including data collection for microtargeting and the dissemination of diverse forms of disinformation. Additionally, AI can be effectively employed to detect and remove content from social media platforms that contradicts democratic principles, such as disinformation or hate speech. This study reviews the existing literature on the use of AI in political propaganda, examining not only how AI has become an integral part of propaganda strategies, but also how it is utilized to counter propaganda that violates democratic values. It explores the legislation in various countries that enables (and mandates) the removal of propaganda content contrary to democratic principles from social media platforms with the assistance of AI, and it discusses perspectives that highlight the potential conflict between these practices and the principle of freedom of expression.

Examining the Popularity, Content, and Intersections With the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Definition of Recovery in a Nonclinical Online Cannabis Cessation Community: Infodemiology Study of Reddit Posts.

Cannabis consumption has increased in recent years, as has cannabis use disorder. While researchers have explored public online community discussions of active cannabis use, less is known about the popularity and content of publicly available online communities intended to support cannabis cessation. This study aims to examine the level of engagement and dominant content of an online community for cannabis cessation through 3 specific aims. First, we examine the use of a subreddit cannabis cessation community (r/leaves) over time to evaluate the popularity of this type of resource for individuals who want to stop using cannabis. Second, we examine the content of posts in the community to identify popular topics related to cessation. Third, we compare the thematic findings relative to the 4 domains of recovery defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). By examining these 3 gaps, we take the initial steps toward understanding the experiences being shared online among individuals interested in cannabis cessation and compare them with the principles outlined in the SAMHSA definition of recovery. Using the Pushshift application programming interface, we collected the count of posts by year between 2011 and 2021 and the narrative of the 100 posts with the most comments per year in a popular cannabis cessation-focused subreddit (r/leaves). A linear model and a nonlinear model were compared to evaluate change in the number of posts by year. Mixed natural language processing and qualitative analyses were applied to identify top terms, phrases, and themes present in posts over time. Overlap between themes and the 4 SAMHSA domains of recovery (health, purpose, community, and home) were examined. The number of annual posts in r/leaves increased from 420 in 2011 to 34,841 in 2021 (83-fold increase), with exponential growth since 2018. The term that was the most common across posts was "smoke" (2019 posts). Five major themes were identified, and a narrative arc was represented, from motivations and perceived benefits of cannabis use to the negative consequences of use, strategies to change behaviors, and the positive and negative consequences of change. There was substantial overlap between these 5 themes and 3 of SAMHSA's 4 domains of recovery: health, purpose, and community. However, the domain of home was less commonly identified. Engagement in this online cannabis support community appears to be increasing. Individuals using this forum discussed several topics, including multiple aspects of recovery defined by the SAMHSA. Online communities, such as this one may, serve as an important pathway for individuals seeking to reduce or cease their consumption of cannabis.

Group boundaries in humor in the online public sphere

Group boundaries in humor in the online public sphere

Demarcation and Refugee Hate: Framing of Refugees in News and its Impact on Hate Speech in Public Comments

ABSTRACT This study analyses the interplay between media framing and hate speech in South Korean refugee-related news. As news about refugees within Korea has recently emerged in the Korean media, analyzing how news framing influences public discourse would serve as the starting point for understanding the media's role in shaping public opinions towards refugees. Using 3965 news articles and 314,769 comments on Afghan and Yemeni refugees, we employed the analysis of topic model network to identify frames. Deep neural networks detected hate comments, and Poisson regression assessed the impact of framing and its interaction with news scope on hate speech. For Afghan refugees, international news with a victim frame reduced hate comment, whereas domestically it increased them. Intruder framing generally decreased hate comments, particularly in domestic news. Similarly, for Yemeni refugees, international victim-framed news received fewer hate comments, while domestic news with the same frame increased hate comments. The intruder frame, which had no effect on domestic news, significantly increased hateful comments on international news. These results show how nuances of framing, along with news scope, affect the dynamics of hate speech in South Korea when refugees are portrayed as a domestic or as an international issue.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE RAILWAY TRACK OF UKRAINE AND PROSPECTS FOR THEIR IMPROVEMENT

The goal. The process of improving the design of the railway track requires a detailed study of the history of the development of its structural elements, methods of combination, interconnections and limits of mutual influence. Modern track designs are the result of many years of hard work by scientists and long operational tests. Some designs were inventions at the time, some were breakthrough technologies, some remained just ideas, and some have existed for more than a century. The study of the history of the development of railway track structures and modern existing structures in operation made it possible to identify a promising direction for improvement and further development, taking into account the existing problems on the mainline transport tracks and industrial enterprise tracks. Reinforced concrete sleepers and intermediate fasteners that allow for track gauge adjustment are the railroad track structure that should be improved in the coming years. Improving railroad track design is a continuous process in the development of rail transport. Recently, new track designs have been introduced on Ukrainian railways. As a rule, the problems of track facilities are first considered and technical tasks are formulated. Then, a public discussion is held in the scientific and practical environment and an appropriate development strategy is born. Such a strategy is reviewed and approved at scientific and technical meetings and specialized commissions. This article aims to identify promising areas for improving the track design and solving the problems of installing and operating a continuous track by analyzing existing designs and world experience of railways. Methods. Methods of scientific analysis and synthesis of track development design, methods of analytical geometry. Results. Based on the analysis of the history of the development of the railroad track structure and modern designs, a promising direction of improvement is proposed. A promising railroad track structure is defined as a reinforced concrete sleeper and fasteners capable of forming an adjustable track gauge of up to 1545 mm. At the same time, it is necessary that the new design has sufficient stability of the jointless track plates. Practical significance. The application of the proposed structure within small radius curves, provided that the results of trial operation and testing of the established procedure are positive, will reduce the operating costs associated with the current maintenance of the tracks, expand the scope of laying of the jointless track and use reinforced concrete sleepers in small radius curves at industrial enterprises.

Social Media and Deceptive Patterns: A Way Forward for Antitrust Enforcement

Abstract The digital public sphere's significance, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted concerns on how the concentration of market power can shape social interactions. Antitrust, in particular, has faced calls for reform to better serve democratic goals in this context. However, experts disagree on whether antitrust should be geared towards achieving these objectives. This paper discusses antitrust’s potential in fostering a healthier digital public sphere, particularly through the analysis of deceptive patterns deployed by social media platforms and their competition impact. It first discusses how the concept of deceptive patterns should be conceived—as there is no clear definition universally adopted in either academia or enforcement circles. It then moves on to explore ways to align traditional consumer-welfare antitrust analysis with this topic, by reviewing existing deceptive patterns’ literature, looking at existing taxonomies and how they can help clarify effects on consumers, markets, and society, with a narrowed focus on social media. Lastly, it attempts to offer a framework for the assessment of deceptive patterns in social media by antitrust authorities.

Quiet Quitting as Compensatory Respect: Meaningful Work, Recognition, and the Entrepreneurial Ethic

AbstractThis paper employs Axel Honneth’s recognition theory to interpret ‘quiet quitting’ – the practice of limiting work efforts to contracted requirements – as a strategic response by workers facing misrecognition in their work environment. Honneth argues that misrecognition in any one of three social spheres (the family, political society, and the workplace) constitutes disrespect and causes psychological harm. While Honneth contends that experiences of disrespect tend to motivate collective “struggles for recognition,” we suggest that quiet quitters present an alternative response to disrespect, individually seeking recognition in other social spheres rather than engaging in collective action. Further, we draw on Honneth to suggest that the contemporary “entrepreneurial” work ethic – the widespread expectation that workers invest emotionally in their work role – can in practice undermine workplace recognition, contributing to quiet quitters’ compensatory emphasis on recognitive relations outside of work. This recognition-theoretical approach extends current discussions around quiet quitting and yields valuable insights for management theory and practice regarding the critical role of genuine employee recognition in promoting individual well-being and meaningful work experiences.