Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationTransgressing norms and barriers of mundane digital spaces to seize spotlight in the name of social change is breathtaking. Such are modern-day protest groups as they utilize a special mix of skills, tactics, and resourcefulness to become forces of disruptive tensions in the spectacular seas of image-whirls, sound-waves, and incredible storyscapes in which we live. "Femen and Assemblage Politics of Protest in the Age of Social Media" examines these disruptive tensions as created by the topless female activist group Femen. Specifically, I am interested in how human and nonhuman elements in Femen activism create lasting impressions in the fleeting everyday life of the millions of internet-connected individuals around the globe. I conceptualize these processes under the name of media-activism assemblage and illustrate the work of Femen protest politics through three different case studies. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, we see the dynamics of the Kiev 2012 cutting down of the crucifix by Femen

Active audiences and social discussion on the digital public sphere. Review article

In little over a decade, essential concepts in research on communication have become zombie concepts (Beck; Willms, 2004) and are no longer effective for understanding the profound transformation that has taken place with the arrival of the internet. Public sphere, deliberation, audiences, public... the academic literature has oscillated between an initial optimism about the potential for strengthening democracy of communication technologies to a critical scepticism. This text reviews the academic literature with regard to the forms of social deliberation adopted in the context of the media and social networks and its impact on the public sphere

Climate Change Frames and Emotional Responses on Reddit

Climate change remains a highly polarized topic in the United States. Research suggests that the divide in climate change beliefs is partly a result of news media’s representation of select aspects of the problem, or framing. Frames influence individuals’ attitudes, emotions, and behaviors towards climate change. Overwhelming representation of certain climate change frames has led to a lack of emotional connection to the issue, resulting in inaction or dismissal. Climate change researchers have investigated the presence and effects of frames on both news media and select social media sites, particularly Twitter. However, little research has investigated the climate change conversation on other social media sites, such as Reddit. Reddit is a community-based social media site whose users represent a unique demographic in the United States. Reddit users rely heavily on Reddit for news and are highly engaged with the site. Unlike Twitter, Reddit does not have a small character limit on posts, allowing for longer conversation and a potential for greater peer influence. Using both human coders and computer-aided textual analysis, this thesis investigated which climate change frames are the most popular on Reddit and which emotions appear most frequently in the discussion sections of those posts. This study sampled posts from six subreddits that represent a range of climate change stances. The data found that political/ideological struggle was the most common frame and that anger was the most expressed emotion. Further results and implications are discussed

Editorial analytics : how a U.S. newspaper applies data to match target audiences

This research is an in-depth case study of a major regional U.S. daily embracing audience data under the pressure of limited resources and shrinking advertising budgets. The legacy news operation observes analytics through "the rearview mirror," believing that it is neither a true measure of audience engagement nor journalistic quality. Experiencing first-hand the implications of a commodified consumer attention, newsmakers find themselves conflicted between exercising their traditional role of public service and them leaning toward "soft" news to drive higher page-view revenue. By applying the actor-network theory as its central theoretical framework, the study addresses an intricate interplay of day-to-day editorial decision-making, Big Data analytics and the market economics of evolving digital news business.Includes bibliographical reference

What happened after #StandwithWendy? The impact of social media campaigns on gendered framing in coverage of women candidates

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.Social media is a fact of life in the modern media sphere and its impact on traditional journalism should be better understood. This project examined that relationship through the lens of gender, specifically the impact of social media as a variable on gendered framing. By comparing coverage of two women candidates for governor, the researcher was able to determine one potential consequence of notable social media activity around one of those candidates. While many side effects of online activity are difficult to objectively measure, in this case the social activity around one campaign cemented a narrative of the candidate that resulted in a higher rate of gendered framing in newspaper articles.Includes bibliographic references

The personalization of engagement: the symbolic construction of social media and grassroots mobilization in Canadian newspapers

This article explores the symbolic construction of civic engagement mediated by social media in Canadian newspapers. The integration of social media in politics has created a discursive opening for reimagining engagement, partly as a result of enthusiastic accounts of the impact of digital technologies upon democracy. By means of a qualitative content analysis of Canadian newspaper articles between 2005 and 2014, we identify several discursive articulations of engagement: First, the articles offer the picture of a wide range of objects of engagement, suggesting a civic body actively involved in governance processes. Second, engagement appears to take place only reactively, after decisions are made. Finally, social media become the new social glue, bringing isolated individuals together and thus enabling them to pressure decision-making institutions. We argue that, collectively, these stories construct engagement as a deeply personal gesture that is nevertheless turned into a communal experience by the affordances of technology. The conclusion unpacks what we deem as the ambiguity at the heart of this discourse, considering its implications for democratic politics and suggesting avenues for the further monitoring of the technologically enabled personalization of engagement

Origin and evolution of the News Finds Me perception: Review of theory and effects

Research revolving social media and democracy has exploded. For almost two decades, scholarship has offered new theories, revisited some old ones, and provided empirical evidence that helped cast a strong light on social media effects over people’s social life, and democracy at large. Thanks to social media, citizens consume news, express their political views, discuss political matters, and participate in political activities. However, social media also cultivates the dissemination of fake news and misinformation, exposure to hate speech, media fragmentation, and political polarization. In short, social media seems to simultaneously be a springboard for encouraging and undesirable outcomes that foster and challenge democracies alike. One of these phenomena that stems from social media news use is the News Finds Me perception (NFM), which takes place when individuals feel they do not have to actively seeks news any more to be well-informed about public affairs, as they expect to receive relevant news and information by relying on their peers in social media. This article traces back the origin of the theory, its evolution, and the set of effects found in the literature. It also presents guidelines for future research and potential challenges as the scholarship centering on NFM continues to grow