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MMP Complete > Lecture 5 > Flashcards

Lecture 5 Flashcards

1
Q

Principle 4

A

The media are dedicated more than anything else to telling a good story and this can often have a major impact on the political process.

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2
Q

What makes ´a good story´?

A

Good stories are interesting → motivate people to consume
(market logic)

Many news values related to storytelling

–> Conflict, negativity

Stories only remain in the news as a series of conflicts and temporary resolutions
(Cook 2006, Governing with the News)

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3
Q

Gans: enduring values

A

Ethnocentrism (America first)

The ideal of democracy

Responsible capitalism

Small-town pastoralism

Rugged individualism

Social and moral (dis)order

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4
Q

Infotainment

A

a derogatory term meant to suggest that the news isn’t a serious means for informing the public; it is a simply another entertainment channel.

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5
Q

Criteria for an event to be newsworthy:

A

Drama

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6
Q

The Ultimate Cynics: The Spiral of Cyncism (Cappella, Jamieson)

A

Ø The news media, they argue, almost always use a “strategic frame” to cover politics.

A strategic frame= one that looks at politics as simply one ongoing contest after another.

  • Horse race coverage: in political campaigns journalists are more interested in covering the race itself (winners and losers)
  • Gotcha journalism: reporters follow the candidates around waiting for them to do something sufficiently stupid to warrant a headline

Journalists look for negative news and ‘game frames’

→ Game frame: politics as a game, framing as winners & losers, actions aimed at winning

Politicians provide these frames about their opponents

(cf self-mediatization; as a consequence, ‘good guys’ leave politics)

Public becomes more cynical,
increasing demand for negative/game news

During election campaigns, candidates have tremendous incentives to “go negative.”

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7
Q

Horse race coverage:

A

in political campaigns journalists are more interested in covering the race itself (winners and losers)

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8
Q

Gotcha journalism

A

reporters follow the candidates around waiting for them to do something sufficiently stupid to warrant a headline

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9
Q

Game frame:

A

politics as a game, framing as winners & losers, actions aimed at winning

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10
Q

Not all media are equally sensationalist. Important because:

A
  • direct relationship between sensationalism and cynical coverage (VB: When journalists are more interested in finding shocking materials than in informing the public, they are more likely to turn politicians into either evil villains or bumbling idiots)
  • Difference between “hard news” and “soft news”.
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11
Q

The increasing importance of the Internet as a source of political information may serve to raise levels of sensationalism and political cynicism to even greater heights.

A

The more sensationalist media are more cynical one would expect that a steady flow of negative news could lead people to drop out.

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12
Q

Difference between hard news and soft news

A

Traditional hard news is often unappealing to politically inattentive individuals.

For politically inattentive citizen soft news is more efficient than hard news to help people vote for the candidate party who best represented their self-described preferences.

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13
Q

Difference hard and soft news (DIMENSIONS)

A
  1. Focus dimension:
    Soft: thematic and episodic framing Hard: individual relevance, societal
  2. Topic dimensions:
    Soft: not politically relevant
    Hard: politically relevant
  3. Style dimensions:
    Soft: personal and emotional reporting
    Hard: unemotional (facts) and impersonal
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14
Q

Media malaise

A

the idea that continual exposure to the negativity in the media not only leads to cynical citizens, it also encourages people to “check out of politics.

When people lose faith in the poticial system, they have less motivation to get involved.

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15
Q

Virtuous circle

A

attention to the news media enhances people’s tendency to get involved in politics and this prompts more attention to the news.

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16
Q

Media, War and Terrorism

A
  • Conflict, violence, ‘good’ visuals
    High news values, good story
  • Focus on ‘episodic’ rather than ‘thematic’ frames
    Actions, violence, victims, not underlying causes, historical embedding
  • War: rally around the flag
    Uncritical reporting, strong consensus around ‘supporting our troops’
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17
Q

Rally around the flag

A

increased short-run popular support of a country’s government or political leaders during periods of international crisis or war.

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18
Q

CNN Curve

A
  • Initial positive war coverage

CNN Effect: media as agenda setter and accelerant
Rally around the flag
(→ Hallin’s Sphere of Concensus)

  • Followed by decline
    Bodybags, abuses, failures, leaks
    Discussion (of means & goals) rather than consensus
    Authorities lose control
19
Q

Media Responsibility and War

A

“[..] inappropriately italicized by lavish front-page display
and heavy-breathing headlines”

“[..] provided perspective or challenged information in the faulty stories were played as quietly as a lullaby. “

“Hunger for scoops [..] Front-page syndrome”

“The failure was not individual, but institutional”

“War requires an extra standard of care, not a lesser one”

20
Q

The drama of war and terrorism

A

News media have a clear economic interest in conflict

News about war and terrorism is usually less cynical than other forms of political news, especially in the early stages of conflict

21
Q

Role of the news media in war:

A
  1. War is very good for the news business, its provides a level of drama that is hard to find anywhere else.
  2. Coverage of these conflicts tends to be less cynical than other types of political news

(due to the level of drama)

22
Q

Terrorism

A

In sum, news about war and terrorism is inherently dramatic, and this is why journalists have always considered this a wonderful place to find good stories.

This coverage of war and terrorism is generally much less cynical probably because such an approach would take something away from the drama.

The routines for covering terrorism are also cause for concern because they can in the end make it that much easier for such extremists to achieve their goals.

While the reasons for all this are understandable, they highlight the serious consequences of putting such an emphasis on “good” stories

23
Q

Need for drama also has a problematic influences on attempts to end conflicts

A

Unintended consequences: media plays a destructive role in peace processes:

  1. Journalists’ need for drama: a peace process is mostly boring.
  2. Emphasis on immediacy: the fresher the news the more interesting and exciting it is. > News deals with events, not (peace) processes. Peace is a long-term investment.
24
Q

Peace & Negotiations

A

Peace talks “boring” (from ‘good story’ perspective)
No news/conflicts until final announcements

Good stories are bad for peace / negotiations

–> Leaks from inside (accidental or purposeful)

–> Radicals within party opposed to peace / compromise

–> Third parties interested in disturbing process

25
Q

The impact of peace and negotiations on the political process

A

Simple / urgent / interesting stories over complex / important / relevant ones

Makes it easier to start a war (but harder to wage it)

Makes it more difficult to forge/defend compromises

Can engender cynicism, lack of trust

26
Q

Is it all bad?

A

If news is not interesting, who would read it?

Infotainment as solution to the ‘knowledge gap’

–> Knowledge gap: Educated/interested people read more news, and are better at processing it, making them more educated/interested

Role for low-key news (& satire/humor)
in spreading information to
less-interested citizens?

27
Q

Is infotainment all bad?

A

Major reason for making the news entertaining: to increase the size of the audience

More citizens follow current events

Soft news: easily accessible and understandable source for political information.

Construction is news if an ongoing transaction between producers and consumers:

news makers will do whatever they can to expand audience size.

28
Q

In sum:

A

Storytelling is an important part of constructing news

Not all news media are alike: some are more towards drama/sensationalism than others.

Consequences: more cynical public, and less trust in their leaders and institutions

29
Q

Big-N Data-Mining: Micro targeting Detailed audience segmentation:

A

Advanced techniques of audience-segmentation allows for the population to be divided into ever smaller groups on the basis of granular information about demographics, psychographics ,behaviours and attitudes.

Micro-targeting of messages tailored to personal characteristics, mindset, emotional state, life-style and other characteristics.

Even if these messages not persuasive for people to change their mind, it may encourage of discourage them to vote.

Power of E-technology for politics is personalization

30
Q

Psychographic profiling and behavioural micro-targeting

A

Profiling and segmenting voters so that political messages can be adapted to their psychological traits

The big 5 personality traits model:
5 key

Dimensions of people’s personalities

Openness

Conscientiousness

Extraversion/introversion

Agreeableness

Natural reactions

31
Q

The big 5 personality traits model: 5 key

A

Openness: (Intellect or imagination) measures level of creativity, and desire for knowledge and new experiences,

Conscientiousness: level of care people take in life and work. High scores indicate you are organised and thorough, and know how to make plans and follow them through. Low scores indicate you are likely be lax and disorganised.

Extraversion/introversion: measures your level of sociability. Outgoing versus quiet.

Agreeableness: measures how well you get on with other people. Considerate, helpful and willing to compromise versus rigidity and a tendency to put your own needs before others.

Natural reactions: (Emotional stability or neuroticism): measures emotional reactions.

32
Q

Psychographic database allows companies like Cambridge Analytica to develop communication programmes and electoral campaigns that triggers inner fears and exploit deep-rooted bias.

A

Computational propaganda: manipulation of public opinion via range of social networking platforms and devices.

Involves both algorithms distribution and human curation- bots and trolls working together

33
Q

Troll:

A

an actual person who intentionally initiates online conflict or offends other users to distract and sow division by posting posts in an online community, or a social network in order to provoke others into an emotional response.

34
Q

Bot:

A

an automated social media account run by an algorithm, rather than a real person, designed to make posts without human intervention.

35
Q

Botnet:

A

network of bot accounts managed by the same group. è Designed to manufacture social media engagement to make a topic of person appear to be more heavily engaged by real users than is actually the case.

36
Q

Mobility data:

A

approximate location of individuals: reconstruct individuals’ movements across space and time.

è Location data is necessary to provide services

37
Q

Why do people share news on social media?

A

Shareworthiness (Trilling et al., 2017) factors

  • Proximity
  • negativity
  • positivity (feelgood)
  • conflict
  • human interest
38
Q

Shareworthiness

A

Similar (but not identical) to news values

–> Both concerned with audience preference (market logic)

–> News values also take relevance (public logic) into account

(but maybe so does shareworthiness?)

(and to what extent does identity signaling / impression management play a role?)

39
Q

Hyperpartisan news?

A

News sharing mostly researched in ‘mainstream’ news

Hyperpartisan news interesting:

–> Social media sharing might be (even) more important

–> Hyperpartisan news related to misinformation / fake news

40
Q

Hyperpartisan news differs from mainstream news

A

–> Identity of producer, embedding in news ecosystem, explicit positioning

–> Users could have different motivations to share

–> Insufficiently researched

41
Q

Why do people share news?

A

Shareworthiness - inherent characteristics of the news

Proximity, conflict, human interest, morality, visual content

Individual motivations / Motivated reasoning

–> Belief preservation / self-concept defense

–> Attitude-contradicting content ignored or rejected

Expectations:

–> News that is more shareworthy is more likely to be shared (H1 - H5)

–> News that is attitude-congruent is more likely to be shared (H6)

42
Q

Research approach

A

Week of news from infowars.com

–> Hand-coded news values in n=169 items

All tweets about this news

–> Twitter (Academic?) API

–> n=5,280 tweets from n=1,064 unique accounts containing an inforwars URL

–> 4 - 5,427 retweets per tweet (median=30 retweets)

User attitudes

–> Clustered 1,064 user accounts profiles

  • -> Semi-automatic process to classify ideologies
  • -> (Trump, Patriot, Infowars, Christian, Military, Guns, Conspiracy)

–> Manual coding of news articles in same ideologies

43
Q

Conclusions

A
  • Proximity, Conflict, and Human Interest predict sharability
    of hyperpartisan news on twitter

–> Only human interest explains retweets

Ideology does not have consistent effect

→ Do they really measure ideology?

Study could easily be replicated in other context

–> Twitter access, media items, light manual coding

→ What can we improve? How could we measure ideology?

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