"In many countries, especially outside Europe and the United States, we find a significant further decline in the use of Facebook for news and a growing reliance on a range of alternatives including private messaging apps and video networks. Facebook news consumption is down 4 percentage points, acr
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oss all countries, in the last year.
• News use across online platforms is fragmenting, with six networks now reaching at least 10% of our respondents, compared with just two a decade ago. YouTube is used for news by almost a third (31%) of our global sample each week, WhatsApp by around a fifth (21%), while TikTok (13%) has overtaken Twitter (10%), now rebranded X, for the first time.
• Linked to these shifts, video is becoming a more important source of online news, especially with younger groups. Short news videos are accessed by two-thirds (66%) of our sample each week, with longer formats attracting around half (51%). The main locus of news video consumption is online platforms (72%) rather than publisher websites (22%), increasing the challenges around monetisation and connection.
• Although the platform mix is shifting, the majority continue to identify platforms including social media, search, or aggregators as their main gateway to online news. Across markets, only around a fifth of respondents (22%) identify news websites or apps as their main source of online news – that’s down 10 percentage points on 2018. Publishers in a few Northern European markets have managed to buck this trend, but younger groups everywhere are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past.
• Turning to the sources that people pay most attention to when it comes to news on various platforms, we find an increasing focus on partisan commentators, influencers, and young news creators, especially on YouTube and TikTok. But in social networks such as Facebook and X, traditional news brands and journalists still tend to play a prominent role.
• Concern about what is real and what is fake on the internet when it comes to online news has risen by 3 percentage points in the last year with around six in ten (59%) saying they are concerned. The figure is considerably higher in South Africa (81%) and the United States (72%), both countries that have been holding elections this year.
• Worries about how to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy content in online platforms is highest for TikTok and X when compared with other online networks. Both platforms have hosted misinformation or conspiracies around stories such as the war in Gaza, and the Princess of Wales’s health, as well as so-called ‘deep fake’ pictures and videos." (Executive summary, page 10)
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"In contrast to the top-down approach newsrooms have traditionally deployed, Community-Centered Journalism offers a more people-cen tered approach focused on meeting the demonstrable needs and priorities of communities. Instead of newsrooms assuming they know what information people need, they gathe
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r this knowledge through a comprehensive process incorporating deep listening and collaboration, as well as ongoing engagement and feedback. Andrea Wenzel of Temple University, a leading proponent of Community-Centered Journalism, describes this as “journalism produced with and for communities.” Through these efforts, journalists seek to actively build trust and credibility by producing news and information that is relevant and beneficial to the daily lives of the communities they are working with. Although the methods used to deliver these goals may be different, this activity is in line with what the American Press Institute notes is a core purpose of journalism: “To provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies, and their governments.” Establishing and meeting community information needs takes time. But an inclusive process is fundamental to under standing the stories and issues that matter to communities, and in determining how to best tackle them. That might include building relationships with communities and local partners (such as non-profits, government agencies, busi nesses and libraries). It also means meeting people where they are (e.g., language, delivery format, etc.) to maximize impact." (Pages 10-11)
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"In many countries, censorship, blocking of internet access and internet content for political purposes are still part of everyday life. Will filtering, blocking, and hacking replace scissors and black ink? This book argues that only a broader understanding of censorship can effectively protect free
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dom of expression. for centuries, church and state controlled the content available to the public through political, moral and religious censorship. As technology evolved, the legal and political tools were refined, but the classic censorship system continued until the end of the 20th century. However, the myth of total freedom of communication and a law-free space that had been expected with the advent of the internet was soon challenged. the new rulers of the digital world, tech companies, emerged and gained enormous power over free speech and content management. All this happened alongside cautious regulation attempts on the part of various states, either by granting platforms near-total immunity (US) or by setting up new rules that were not fully developed (EU). China has established the Great Firewall and the Golden Shield as a third way. in the book, particular attention is paid to developments since the 2010s, when Internet-related problems began to multiply. the state's solutions have mostly pointed in one direction: towards greater control of platforms and the content they host. Similarities can be found in the US debates, the Chinese and Russian positions on internet sovereignty, and the new European digital regulations (DSA-DMA). The book addresses them all." (Publisher description)
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"In order to spread Russian narratives about Ukraine that create a false impression of the country among external and internal audiences, the Russian Federation uses a whole complex of information and communication channels. Their main task is to replace the target audience's existing ideas about th
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e real, factual state of affairs with ideas that are considered to be more beneficial to the aggressor country. Russia rejects democratic principles and Ukraine's desire for a European future. Depending on the tasks and results (successes/failures) of operations to influence the internal politics of Ukraine and the formation of its image among the Western audience, Russian narratives changed from a presentation of Ukrainians and Russians as “brotherly” peoples or even one people to the importance of the complete extermination of "Ukrainian nationalists and Nazis," denial of the very existence of Ukrainians as a distinct ethnic group (thereby “justifying” genocide), returning supposed "historical territories of Russia," and promoting the idea that Ukraine has never really been a proper state or is a historic mistake. The narratives of Russian propaganda intertwine, sometimes reinforcing and sometimes contradicting each other. But whatever the Russian narrative may be, its main goal is to undermine Ukraine’s democratic development and its integration into the Western world, to weaken the desire of Ukrainians to determine their future outside Russian influence, within the European family, as well as to weaken international support for Ukraine. The Kremlin's disinformation campaign led to the emergence of a number of stereotypes that influenced the decision-making of Ukraine's partners at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, which led to numerous human casualties, the destruction of Ukrainian economy and infrastructure, and a real threat to the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Fortunately, Ukraine has persevered. Unbreakable people of an unbreakable country continues its fight not only for itself but the whole democratic world." (Summary)
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"Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective examines how conspiracy theories and related forms of misinformation and disinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic have circulated widely around the world. Covid conspiracy theories have attracted considerable attention from researchers, journalists,
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and politicians, not least because conspiracy beliefs have the potential to negatively affect adherence to public health measures. While most of this focus has been on the United States and Western Europe, this collection provides a unique global perspective on the emergence and development of conspiracy theories through a series of case studies. The chapters have been commissioned by recognized experts on area studies and conspiracy theories. The chapters present case studies on how Covid conspiracism has played out (some focused on a single country, others on regions), using a range of methods from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including history, politics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Collectively, the authors reveal that, although there are many narratives that have spread virally, they have been adapted for different uses and take on different meanings in local contexts." (Publisher description)
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"This book brings together a vast range of pre-eminent experts, academics, and practitioners to interrogate the role of media in representing economic inequality. It explores and deconstructs the concept of economic inequality by examining the different dimensions of inequality and how it has evolve
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d historically; how it has been represented and portrayed in the media; and how, in turn, those representations have informed the public's knowledge of and attitudes towards poverty, class and welfare, and political discourse. Taking a multi-disciplinary, comparative, and historical approach, and using a variety of new and original data sets to inform the research, studies herein examine the relationship between media and inequality in UK, Western Europe, and USA. In addition to generating new knowledge and research agendas, the book generates suggestions of ways to improve news coverage on this topic and raise the level of the debate, and will improve understanding about economic inequality, as it has evolved, and as it continues to develop in academic, political and media discourses. This book will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike in the areas of journalism, media studies, economics, and the social sciences, as well as political commentators and those interested more broadly in social policy." (Publisher description)
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"Unruly Speech explores how Uyghurs in China and in the diaspora transgress sociopolitical limits with "unruly" communication practices in a quest for change. Drawing on research in China, the United States, and Germany, Saskia Witteborn situates her study against the backdrop of displacement and sh
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ows how naming practices and witness accounts become potent ways of resistance in everyday interactions and in global activism. Featuring the voices of Uyghurs from three continents, Unruly Speech analyzes the discursive and material force of place names, social media, surveillance, and the link between witnessing and the discourse on human rights. The book provides a granular view of disruptive communication: its global political moorings and socio-technical control. The rich ethnographic study will appeal to audiences interested in migration and displacement, language and social interaction, advocacy, digital surveillance, and a transnational China." (Publisher description)
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"Photovoice is an emerging qualitative research method used to engage community members in research that highlights their lived experiences and initiate change. Photovoice offers potential benefits to research conducted by and with Indigenous communities through privileging Indigenous knowledge and
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perspectives. There is a lack of synthesized evidence about the usage, benefits, and challenges of conducting Photovoice research by and with Indigenous communities, which this systematic methods review aims to address. We specifically focus on Indigenous young people in Canada, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States. Five databases were searched systematically for articles including keywords for ‘Indigenous’ and ‘Photovoice’. Empirical studies and methods papers reporting the use of Photovoice with majority cohorts of young Indigenous participants were included. Relevant data were extracted and Photovoice methods analysed using an integrative approach. Database searches yielded 1402 articles, with 109 reviewed in full and 41 included in the review. These articles represented 37 unique studies, with most from Canada (n = 17), and the United States (n = 14). Our analysis revealed great variability in how Photovoice has been applied across studies with Indigenous young people. However, some notable commonalities include recruitment of participants via community networks, and participant involvement in data collection and analysis. The potential benefits associated with using Photovoice with Indigenous young people included: fostering participant autonomy and authority; photography being familiar and fun; the visual medium being culturally appropriate for Indigenous peoples; and the method being effective for engaging the whole community. Challenges associated with Photovoice included: engagement difficulties between researchers and participants; issues with photography; and ethical complexities. These findings suggest that Photovoice is an appropriate and largely effective method to engage young Indigenous people in research. However, there are logistical and ethical issues associated with the method that require careful consideration." (Abstract)
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"This edited collection investigates the linguistics of globalisation, geopolitics and gender in workplace cultures in a range of different contemporary international settings. The chapters examine how issues of globalisation, gender and geopolitics affect professionals in different workplace contex
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ts, including domestic workers; IT professionals; teachers, university staff; engineers; entrepreneurs; CEOs of different corporates including locally based businesses as well as multinationals; farmers; co-operative leaders; NGO leaders; bloggers; healthcare assistants and caregivers. Taking different sociolinguistic approaches to exploring language and the geopolitics of gender at work in Dubai, Kuwait, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Nigeria, Malaysia, Turkey, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, Uganda, the UK and the USA, each focuses on a range of salient geopolitical issues which often have global applicability, but which may also be subject to more localised socio-cultural variation. The chapters critically discuss issues of gendered language, perceptions and representations of workplace cultures, discrimination, the role of gendered stereotyping and deeply ingrained socio-cultural myths about gender and the importance of examining the intersections of identity - all of which continue to persist as barriers to equality and inclusion in workplaces worldwide. Despite the variation and diversity in professions and geopolitical contexts captured across the chapters, remarkably similar issues of gender discrimination and persisting inequalities are identified and critically discussed, thus pointing to the global nature of these issues." (Publisher description)
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"This Handbook presents a transnational and interdisciplinary study of refugee narratives, broadly defined. Interrogating who can be considered a refugee and what constitutes a narrative, the thirty-eight chapters included in this collection encompass a range of forcibly displaced subjects, a mix of
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geographical and historical contexts, and a variety of storytelling modalities. Analyzing novels, poetry, memoirs, comics, films, photography, music, social media, data, graffiti, letters, reports, eco-design, video games, archival remnants, and ethnography, the individual chapters counter dominant representations of refugees as voiceless victims. Addressing key characteristics and thematics of refugee narratives, this Handbook examines how refugee cultural productions are shaped by and in turn shape socio-political landscapes." (Publisher description)
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"The proliferation of political mis/disinformation on social media has led many scholars to embrace “inoculation” techniques, where individuals are trained to identify the signs of low-veracity information prior to exposure. Coordinated information operations frequently spread mis/disinformation
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through inauthentic or “troll” accounts that appear to be trustworthy members to the targeted polity, as in Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 US presidential election. We experimentally tested the efficacy of inoculation against inauthentic online actors, using the Spot the Troll Quiz, a free, online educational tool that teaches how to spot markers of inauthenticity. Inoculation works in this setting. Across an online US nationally representative sample (N = 2,847), which also oversampled older adults, we find that taking the Spot the Troll Quiz (vs. playing a simple game) significantly increases participants’ accuracy in identifying trolls among a set of Twitter accounts that are novel to participants. This inoculation also reduces participants’ self-efficacy in identifying inauthentic accounts and reduced the perceived reliability of fake news headlines, although it had no effect on affective polarization. And while accuracy in the novel troll-spotting task is negatively associated with age and Republican party identification, the Quiz is equally effective on older adults and Republicans as it was on younger adults and Democrats." (Abstract)
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"Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19 provides a wide-ranging analysis of the emergence and development of conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on the US and the UK. The book combines digital methods analysis of large datasets assembled from social media with politic
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ally and culturally contextualised close readings informed by cultural studies. In contrast to other studies which often have an alarmist take on the "infodemic," it places Covid-19 conspiracy theories in a longer historical perspective. It also argues against the tendency to view conspiracy theories as merely evidence of a fringe or pathological way of thinking. Instead, the starting assumption is that conspiracy theories, including Covid-19 conspiracy theories, often reflect genuine and legitimate concerns, even if their factual claims are wide of the mark. The authors examine the nature and origins of the conspiracy theories that have emerged; the identity and rationale of those drawn to Covid-19 conspiracism; how these conspiracy theories fit within the wider political, economic and technological landscape of the online information environment; and proposed interventions from social media platforms and regulatory agencies." (Publisher description)
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"This study investigates the effects of exposure to news frames on attitudes toward Syrian refugee admissions and anti-immigrant sentiment. Findings show that framing Syrian refugees, ranging from benefits, victims to a security threat did invoke changes of attitudes toward admitting Syrian refugees
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. Participants reading a benefit frame story expressed more favorable opinions on accepting Syrian refugees than participants in the threat frame condition. In contrast to the extant literature, arguing victim frame enhances positive attitudes, the findings suggested that participants, who were exposed to a victim frame story yielded stronger anti-immigrant sentiment than participants who read a threat frame story. These findings advance scholarship on media framing of refugees and its effect on anti-immigrant sentiment and have important refugee admission policy and advocacy implications." (Abstract)
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"On average in the 16 countries surveyed, 56% of internet users frequently use social media to stay informed about current events, far ahead of television (44%). However, it is worth noting that differences exist among population groups: television is the primary source in the most developed countri
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es (55% compared to 37% for social media), while it lags significantly in countries with high (42% vs 63%) or medium/low levels of Human Development Index (HDI) (37% vs 68%) [...] The significance of social media as a source of information, especially during election campaigns, is even more crucial given that citizens believe disinformation is highly prevalent there. Across all 16 countries, 68% of internet users told us that social media is the place where disinformation is most widespread, far ahead of groups on online messaging apps (38%) and media websites/apps (20%). This sentiment is overwhelmingly prevalent in all countries, age groups, social backgrounds, and political preferences. This is even more important and citizens feel that the issue of disinformation is a real threat: 85% express concern about the impact and influence of disinformation on their fellow citizens." (Analysis of key results)
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"Moving beyond a common visual concern within Religious Studies with art, aesthetic value, and perceptions of beauty or coherence, this volume shows how, when, and why images dare, shock, terrorize, confront, challenge, mock, shame, taunt, or offend, either intentionally or unintentionally, and as s
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uch lead to both confrontation and affective religious engagement. Exploring and experimenting with the relationship between text and image, the contributions draw attention simultaneously to the messiness of everyday life and to highly targeted, disruptive interventions that mark religious contestation in an era of escalating mobility and digital multiplicity. The volume thus illuminates an insight that has received little attention so far: provocation is among religion’s most significant mediations." (Publisher description)
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"Throughout the twenty-first century, genocide denial has evolved and adapted with new strategies to augment and complement established modes of denial. In addition to outright negation, denial of genocide encompasses a range of techniques, including disputes over numbers, contestation of legal defi
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nitions, blaming the victim, and various modes of intimidation, such as threats of legal action. Arguably the most effective strategy has been denial through the purposeful creation of misinformation. Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century brings together leading scholars from across disciplines to add to the body of genocide scholarship that is challenged by denialist literature. By concentrating on factors such as the role of communications and news media, global and national social networks, the weaponization of information by authoritarian regimes and political parties, court cases in the United States and Europe, freedom of speech, and postmodernist thought, this volume discusses how genocide denial is becoming a fact of daily life in the twenty-first century." (Publisher description)
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"Long before the COVID-19 crisis, Mexican Indigenous peoples were faced with organizing their lives from afar, between villages in the Oaxacan Sierra Norte and the urban districts of Los Angeles, as a result of unauthorized migration and the restrictive border between Mexico and the United States. B
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y launching cutting-edge Internet radio stations and multimedia platforms and engaging as community influencers, Zapotec and Ayuujk peoples paved their own paths to a transnational lifeway during the Trump era. This meant adapting digital technology to their needs, setting up their own infrastructure, and designing new digital formats for re-organizing community life in all its facets—including illness, death and mourning, collective celebrations, sport tournaments, and political meetings—across vast distances. Author Ingrid Kummels shows how mediamakers and users in the Sierra Norte villages and in Los Angeles created a transborder media space and aligned time regimes. By networking from multiple places, they put into practice a communal way of life called Comunalidad and an indigenized American Dream—in real time." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing on interviews with 10 U.S. student journalists, we introduce an ethics-of-care approach for trauma-informed journalism pedagogy. We express grave concern for mental health in journalism programs, offering an empirical snapshot of students’ traumas and coping strategies. We confirm that st
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udent journalists, like working reporters, are traumatized by professional norms, high demands, poor boundaries, safety concerns, and ethical-professional responsibilities. Participants coped through emotional distancing, saving face, and relying on peers. We offer interventions based on student support needs and changing news values, including faculty affirmation, financial support, counselor support, diversity training, newsroom debriefings, emotional leadership, and reporting protocols." (Abstract)
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"Journalists are increasingly attacked in response to their work yet they often lack the necessary support and training to protect themselves, their sources, and their communications. Despite this, there has been limited scholarly attention that addresses how journalism schools approach digital secu
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rity education. This paper draws from an analysis of 106 US programs and 23 semi-structured interviews with journalism students and professors to examine how the next generation of journalists learn about digital security practices. Our findings show that most programs (88.7%) don’t offer formal digital security programming and that digital security skills are often deprioritized in favor of skills seen as more significant contributors to post-graduate hiring—a key priority of journalism programs. Additional barriers include a lack of space and time in existing curricula for added digital security coursework, a perception that students are not interested, and few professors with related knowledge. When security education is introduced, it’s done so in often informal and ad-hoc ways, largely led by “security champions,” both within and outside of journalism, who advocate for its legitimacy. These findings have important implications for journalism education and journalists’ capacity to carry out their work amidst a deteriorating safety environment in the United States." (Abstract)
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