121 research outputs found
Evaluating the impact of snow fencing on snow conditions and ground temperatures in Hurricane Alley, Dempster Highway, Yukon, Canada
No full textSnow fences were installed at two sites near the Dempster Highway, Yukon, ~ 10 km south of the territorial border, to examine their impact on snow accumulation and ground temperatures. Temperature sensors were installed in August 2018 and snow surveys were conducted throughout winter 2018‒19. Natural snow accumulation ranged from a shallow snowpack of low density in wind-scoured upland, to high density, deep snow in the lee of a large hill. The snow fences accumulated wind-blown snow in large drifts of high density, which neared capacity by December. Topographic factors were not found to significantly alter drift characteristics at the fences. By late winter, thermal resistance was no greater in snow fence drifts than in natural tundra, however mean winter (Dec.-Feb.) ground temperature was higher beneath snow fence drifts than tundra by 3.5°C at 10 cm depth and 2.7°C at 50 cm depth
Content Detection in Handwritten Documents
Get PDFabstract: Handwritten documents have gained popularity in various domains including education and business. A key task in analyzing a complex document is to distinguish between various content types such as text, math, graphics, tables and so on. For example, one such aspect could be a region on the document with a mathematical expression; in this case, the label would be math. This differentiation facilitates the performance of specific recognition tasks depending on the content type. We hypothesize that the recognition accuracy of the subsequent tasks such as textual, math, and shape recognition will increase, further leading to a better analysis of the document.
Content detection on handwritten documents assigns a particular class to a homogeneous portion of the document. To complete this task, a set of handwritten solutions was digitally collected from middle school students located in two different geographical regions in 2017 and 2018. This research discusses the methods to collect, pre-process and detect content type in the collected handwritten documents. A total of 4049 documents were extracted in the form of image, and json format; and were labelled using an object labelling software with tags being text, math, diagram, cross out, table, graph, tick mark, arrow, and doodle. The labelled images were fed to the Tensorflow’s object detection API to learn a neural network model. We show our results from two neural networks models, Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) and Single Shot detection model (SSD).Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Computer Science 201
Frames (Automated Content Analysis)
Get PDFFrames describe the way issues are presented, i.e., what aspects are made salient when communicating about these issues.
Field of application/theoretical foundation:
The concept of frames is directly based on the theory of “Framing”. However, many studies using automated content analysis are lacking a clear theoretical definition of what constitutes a frame. As an exception, Walter and Ophir (2019) use automated content analysis to explore issue and strategy frames as defined by Cappella and Jamieson (1997). Vu and Lynn (2020) refer to Entman’s (1991) understanding of frames.
The datasets referred to in the table are described in the following paragraph:
Van der Meer et al. (2010) use a dataset consisting of Dutch newspaper articles (1991-2015, N = 9,443) and LDA topic modeling in combination with k-means clustering to identify frames. Walter and Ophir (2019) use three different datasets and a combination of topic modeling, network analysis and community detection algorithms to analyze frames. Their datasets consist of political newspaper articles and wire service coverage (N = 8,337), newspaper articles on foreign nations (2010-2015, N = 18,216) and health-related newspaper coverage (2009-2016, N = 5,005). Lastly, Vu and Lynn (2020) analyze newspaper coverage of the Rohingya crisis (2017-2018, N = 747) concerning frames.
References/combination with other methods of data collection:
While most approaches only rely on automated data collection and analyses, some also combine automated and manual coding. For example, a recent study by Vu and Lynn (2020) proposes to combine semantic networks and manual coding to identify frames.
Table 1. Measurement of “Frames” using automated content analysis.
Author(s)
Sample
Procedure
Formal validity check with manual coding as benchmark*
Code
Vu & Lynn (2020)
Newspaper articles
Semantic networks; manual coding
Reported
Not available
van der Meer et al.
(2019)
Newspaper articles
LDA topic modeling; k-means clustering
Not reported
Not available
Walter & Ophir
(2019)
(a) U.S. newspapers and wire service articles
(b) Newspaper articles
(c) Newspaper articles
LDA topic modeling, network analysis; community detection algorithms
Not reported
https://github.com/DrorWalt/ANTMN
*Please note that many of the sources listed here are tutorials on how to conducted automated analyses – and therefore not focused on the validation of results. Readers should simply read this column as an indication in terms of which sources they can refer to if they are interested in the validation of results.
References
Cappella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (1997). Spiral of cynicism: The press and the public good. New York: Oxford University Press.
Entman, R. M. 1991. Framing U.S. coverage of international news: contrasts in narratives of the KAL and Iran Air incidents. Journal of Communication, 41(4), 6-7.
van der Meer, T. G. L. A., Kroon, A. C., Verhoeven, P., & Jonkman, J. (2019). Mediatization and the disproportionate attention to negative news: The case of airplane crashes. Journalism Studies, 20(6), 783–803.
Walter, D., & Ophir, Y. (2019). News frame analysis: an inductive mixed-method computational approach. Communication Methods and Measures, 13(4), 248–266.
Vu, H. T., & Lynn, N. (2020). When the news takes sides: Automated framing analysis of news coverage of the rohingya crisis by the elite press from three countries. Journalism Studies. Online first publication. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2020.174566
Diversity in health professional education scholarship: a document analysis of international author representation in leading journals
Get PDFObjectives The global distribution of health professionals and associated training programmes is wide but prior study has demonstrated reported scholarship of teaching and learning arises from predominantly Western perspectives.Design We conducted a document analysis to examine authorship of recent publications to explore current international representation.Data sources The table of contents of seven high-impact English-language health professional education journals between 2008 and 2018 was extracted from Embase.Eligibility criteria The journals were selected according to highest aggregate ranking across specific scientific impact indices and stating health professional education in scope; only original research and review articles from these publications were included for analysis.Data extraction and synthesis The table of contents was extracted and eligible publications screened by independent reviewers who further characterised the geographic affiliations of the publishing research teams and study settings (if applicable).Results A total 12 018 titles were screened and 7793 (64.8%) articles included. Most were collaborations (7048, 90.4%) conducted by authors from single geographic regions (5851, 86%). Single-region teams were most often formed from countries in North America (56%), Northern Europe (14%) or Western Europe (10%). Overall lead authorship from Asian, African or South American regions was less than 15%, 5% and 1%, respectively. Geographic representation varied somewhat by journal, but not across time.Conclusions Diversity in health professional education scholarship, as marked by nation of authors’ professional affiliations, remains low. Under-representation of published research outside Global North regions limits dissemination of novel ideas resulting in unidirectional flow of experiences and a concentrated worldview of teaching and learning
The Representation of Kristaps Porzingis 2017./2018. season in NBA (before and after injury) in Latvian news portal "sportacentrs.com"
No full textBakalaura darba tēma ir Kristapa Porziņģa 2017./2018. gada NBA sezonas snieguma reprezentācija (pirms un pēc traumas) Latvijas sporta ziņu portālā “sportacentrs.com”. Darba mērķis ir izpētīt, kā Kristapa Porziņģa 2017./2018. gada NBA sezonas sniegums pirms un pēc traumas tika atspoguļots Latvijas sporta ziņu portālā „sportacentrs.com”. Teorētiskajā daļā tiks izmantotas sociālo reprezentāciju un mediju dienas kārtības teorijas, kā arī tiks aprakstīta informācija par sporta žurnālistiku. Metodoloģijas nodaļā ir aprakstītas kontentanalīze un intervija. Kā kvalitatīvā metode pētījuma veikšanai tika izvēlēta intervija, precīzāk, trīs ekspertu viedokļi (Rolands Eliņš, Emīls Ozerinskis un Agris Suveizda) no sporta ziņu portāla “sportacentrs.com”, kuri strādā medijā un laika posmā no 2017. gada 17. oktobra līdz 2018. gada 8. jūnijam veidoja publikācijas par Kristapu Porziņģi. Kā kvantitatīvā metode tika izmantota kvantitatīvā kontentanalīze, kuras ietvaros sporta ziņu portālā “sportacentrs.com” publicētie ieraksti tika analizēti pēc piecām kategorijām. Empīriskajā daļā ir aprakstīta informācija par Latvijas sporta ziņu portālu “sportacentrs.com” un Kristapa Porziņģa biogrāfiju. Tāpat empīriskajā daļā ir aprakstīti, kā arī grafikos un tabulās atspoguļoti iegūtie dati no kvantitatīvās kontentanalīzes. Empīriskajā daļā ir apkopotas intervijas ar trim žurnālistiem no sporta ziņu portāla “sportacentrs.com”. Secinājumos ir darba autora atziņas par iegūtajiem datiem no kvantitatīvās kontentanalīzes un trim intervijām ar sporta ziņu portāla “sportacentrs.com” žurnālistiem. Kvantitatīvās kontentanalīzes pētījuma rezultāti atklāja tendenci, ka sporta ziņu portāls “sportacentrs.com” aktīvāk sekoja līdzi Kristapa Porziņģa sniegumam pirms gūtās traumas, ko apstiprināja trīs medijā strādājošie žurnālisti.The theme of the bachelor's research is the representation of Kristaps Porziņģis 2017. /2018. season in NBA (before and after injury) in Latvian news portal "sportacentrs.com". The aim of the work is to analyze how Kristaps Porziņģis performance was reflected in the Latvian sports news portal “sportacentrs.com” before and after the injury. In the theoretical part will be described as social representation and agenda-setting theories and will be studied and described information about sports journalism. In the methodological part will be described content analysis of the Latvian sports news portal “sportacentrs.com” published articles about Kristaps Porzingis and interviews/expert opinion. As qualitative method will be used an interview, more specifically, expert opinions from three journalists (Rolands Eliņš, Emīls Ozerinskis, and Agris Suveizda), who work at the sports news portal “sportacentrs.com” and who write about Kristaps Porziņģis in the time period from 17th October 2017 until 8th June 2018. As the quantitative method is used quantitative content analysis and with that method was used, where entries published in the sports news portal “sportacentrs.com” were analyzed in five categories. In the empirical part is information about sports new portal “sportacentrs.com” and biography about Kristaps Porziņģis. Also, an empirical part has described the results of content analysis. The results of content analysis are reflected in graphics and table. There also is described interviews from three journalists who work in sports news portal “sportacentrs.com”. In conclusion, there are bachelors author thoughts about results from content analysis and three journalists’ interviews. In content analysis, there is a tendency that confirmed interviews with experts, that sports news portal “sportazinas.com” followed more before Kristaps Porziņģis injury
Spring 2018 Signature Lectures to bring internationally renowned speakers to campus, law school April Sibley Lecture included
No full textSpring 2018 Signature Lectures to bring internationally renowned speakers to campus, law school April Sibley Lecture included Friday, January 19, 2018
Athens, Ga. – Nationally and internationally influential figures from a wide range of fields will visit the University of Georgia this spring as part of the Signature Lecture series.
Signature Lectures are designated at the beginning of each semester by the Office of Academic Programs to highlight campus talks by internationally prominent leaders. Many of the lectures are supported by endowments, while others honor notable figures and milestones in the university’s history.
The Spring 2018 Signature Lectures are free and open to the public. For more information about these events and other notable lectures this spring, visit https://provost.uga.edu/news-events/events/signature-lectures/2017-2018/#spring.
J. Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor “The Challenges of Communicating Science to Non-Scientists” Founders Day Lecture Jan. 22, 1:30 p.m., Chapel A leading international expert in weather, climate and remote sensing, Shepherd is director of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. He serves as host of The Weather Channel’s Sunday talk show “Weather Geeks” and as a contributor to Forbes magazine. Shepherd served as president of the American Meteorological Society in 2013 and is the recipient of the society’s 2018 Helmut E. Landsberg Award. Sponsored by the Office of the President, UGA Alumni Association and Emeriti Scholars
Qiu Xiaolong, novelist “A Chinese Cop in the Global Age” Betty Jean Craige Lecture Feb. 8, 4 p.m., Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries Auditorium Qui is a poet, literary translator and crime novelist. His critically acclaimed Inspector Chen series —which is set in Shanghai, China, in the 1990s—has been published in 20 languages and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Qui’s novel “Death of a Red Heroine” won the Anthony Award for best novel in 2001. Sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts
Scott Colosi, president and CFO of Texas Roadhouse Terry Leadership Speaker Series Feb. 9, 10:10 a.m., Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries Auditorium Colosi has more than 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry. He currently serves as the president and chief financial officer of Texas Roadhouse. Previously, he was the director of investor relations for YUM! Brands Inc., which owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell brands. Sponsored by the Institute for Leadership Advancement, Terry College of Business
Michelle Asha Cooper, president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy “Tackling Postsecondary Challenges Today” Louise McBee Lecture Feb. 12, 10 a.m., Chapel Cooper has served as the deputy director for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance at the U.S. Department of Education. She also provides commentary to various media outlets including NPR, FOX News, the Washington Post and C-SPAN. Cooper is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellowship and the Center for Nonprofit Advancement’s EXCEL (Excellence in Chief Executive Leadership) award. Sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, award-winning journalist and alumna “Giving Voice to the Voiceless” Holmes-Hunter Lecture Feb. 15, 1:30 p.m., Chapel One of the namesakes of UGA’s Holmes-Hunter Academic Building and the annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture, Hunter-Gault was one of the first two African-American students to enroll at UGA. Throughout her celebrated career as a journalist, Hunter-Gault has received numerous honors including two Emmys, a Peabody, two awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the 1986 Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. She is also the author of “In My Place,” a memoir about her experiences at UGA. Sponsored by the Office of the President
Shirley Brice Heath, Marjorie Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature and Professor of Linguistics, emerita, Stanford University “The Arts as Brick and Mortar of Community Building” Aralee Strange Lecture Feb. 22, 5:30 p.m., Georgia Museum of Art Heath is a linguistic anthropologist whose research focuses on learning through sustained experience in art and/or science as well as across various environments. She has written several books and publications on her work with community building as well as directed and produced short documentaries on the topic. She also serves as the director of research for The Public Theater in New York City. Sponsored by the Georgia Museum of Art and the Aralee Strange Fund for Art and Poetry
Gale Anne Hurd, CEO of Valhalla Entertainment Will Packer, Emmy-nominated producer Jeff Stepakoff, executive director, Georgia Film Academy Lee Thomas, division director of the film, music and digital entertainment division at the Georgia Department of Economic Development “Hollywood South: The New $9.5 Billion Georgia Industry” Charter Lecture Feb. 26, 2 p.m., Chapel Hurd has produced numerous works of film including “The Walking Dead,” “The Terminator” and “The Incredible Hulk.” She has been awarded numerous honors, including the 2017 Fangoria Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in the horror and science fiction genres as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2011 Hurd became a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and she currently serves as recording secretary for the Producers Guild of America. Packer has established himself as one of Hollywood’s blockbuster hit makers with eight of his films opening No. 1 at the box office. His work includes the films “Girl Trip,” “Straight Outta Compton” and “Ride Along.” He also was the executive producer of the Emmy-nominated “Roots” remake. Stepakoff has more than 30 years of experience in writing, producing and content creation in the film and television industry. Some of his most notable television and movie works include “The Wonder Years,” “Dawson’s Creek,” “Tarzan,” “Flipper” and “Major Dad.” Stepakoff also has written popular video games, is a best-selling novelist, and has worked in research and digital art for entertainment companies. Thomas, a native of Atlanta and a UGA alumna, served as film division director and location specialist for the Georgia Film and Videotape office, working with movies such as “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “The Blind Side,” “Footloose,” “Zombieland” and “Fast Five.” She has also worked for the Brooklyn Arts Council. Sponsored by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Academic Programs
Bakari Sellers, CNN political analyst “Education, Civil Rights and Equality: Cornerstones for our Future” Mary Frances Early Lecture April 2, 3 p.m., Georgia Center for Continuing Education, Mahler Auditorium Reception to follow At age 22, Sellers was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, making him both the youngest member of the state legislature as well as the youngest African-American elected official in the nation. Sellers represented South Carolina’s 90th district in the state legislature from 2006-2014. He has also worked for Congressman James Clyburn and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Sponsored by the Graduate School, Graduate and Professional Scholars and the Office of Institutional Diversity
Dan Barber, chef and author “What Kind of Menu Will Meet the Challenges of the Future? Exploring a New Recipe for Good Food from the Ground Up” April 10, 2 p.m., Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries Auditorium Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the author of “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food.” He has received multiple James Beard awards and was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. Barber has also been featured in the Netflix documentary series “Chef’s Table.” Sponsored by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Heather Gerken, dean of Yale School of Law “The Lessons of Lawyering: Why Ours is an Honest Profession” John A. Sibley Lecture April 13, 3:30 p.m., Hirsch Hall, Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom Gerken is one of the country’s leading experts on constitutional law and election law, and her work on election reform has affected policy at a national level. Gerken’s work as Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law focuses on federalism, diversity and dissent. Her work and scholarship has also been featured in a wide array of publications including The New York Times, Boston Globe, Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal. Sponsored by the School of Law
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Writer: Kristina Griffith, [email protected]
This release is online at https://news.uga.edu/signature-lectures-will-bring-renowned-speakers-campus/
Note to editors: For images of the speakers, email Camie Williams at [email protected]
Theoretical typology of deceptive content (Conspiracy Theories)
Get PDFThe conceptual fuzziness of terms like misinformation, disinformation, rumour, gossip, conspiracy theories has been discussed by various scholars (e.g. DiFonzo & Bordia, 2007; Rojecki & Meraz, 2016). In both academic research and media reports, it is common to see these terms being used interchangeably. To develop better understanding of how and why different forms of misinformation operate, it is important to clarify the conceptual boundaries between these terms in a meaningful way.
Field of Application/Theoretical foundation:
In their social psychology research, DiFonzo and Bordia (2007) propose an effective way to differentiate rumour from other terms, which emphasises the content, function, and context of each concept. This three-dimensional framework can be applied to systematically differentiate concepts related to misinformation.
In the field of media and communication studies, as research on digital misinformation continues to grow, it is crucial for researchers to understand the contexts of each concept and choose the appropriate term in accordance with their research agenda. It is worth noting that there are also overlapping dimensions between these concepts. For instance, rumour can contain misinformation, and conspiracy theories can be used for propaganda.
Example study:
Zeng (2018)
Information on Zeng, 2018
Author: Jing Zeng
Interest of the study: In her study on online rumours during times of crises, Zeng (2018) applies DiFonzo and Bordia’s (2007) framework to differentiate seven seemingly similar concepts: misinformation, disinformation, rumour, gossip, urban legend, propaganda, and conspiracy theories.
Table 1. Summary of main features of seven concepts related to misinformation
Content
Context
Function
Misinformation
Inaccurate information
Any circumstances of information circulation.
Does not have to have any specific function
Gossip
Talk about individuals or private behaviour
Shared between individuals or in casual social events.
Maintaining network, interpersonal relations
Urban legend
Meaning-making, value-endorsing stories related to contemporary life
Casual setting for storytelling.
Promote cultural and moral values
Disinformation
Deliberately deceptive information
Disseminated by institutions.
Undermine public support
Propaganda
Messages instrumentally disseminated to promote a political cause
Following a top-down pattern, disseminated by official sources.
Promote political and ideological values
Rumour
Unofficial information unverified by authorities
Circulated in circumstances of ambiguity, danger or threat.
Make sense of an uncertain circumstance
Conspiracy theory
Proposed explanations of an event or a practice that refer to the machinations of influential people, institutions, or a secret society
Emerged in responses to uncertainty and perceived threats posed by a coalition of elites/secret actors, and constructed as ‘alternative’ explanations challenging narratives provided by governments, mainstream media or scientific institutions.
Serves as a threat management response, and often also as an anti-establishment/anti-science, political and ideological stance
Misinformation is the most generic one among these terms, in the sense that it does not emphasise the social and political dimension of information. The concept of misinformation is mostly discussed in tandem with information, particularly by Information Science scholars. As a form of information, the defining feature of misinformation is its inaccuracy. Such inaccuracy is not necessarily caused by false information, but can also be caused by irrelevant and incomplete information.
Gossip is also a form of unverified information; however, the content is more private, and is mostly circulated in an interpersonal context (DiFonzo & Bordia, 2007; Rojecki & Meraz, 2016). In terms of function, instead of sense making, gossip is propagated for social purposes. As summarised by Foster (2004), gossip functions to achieve the formation, adaptation, and maintenance of social networks. This is to say, individuals share gossip in the context of managing their relationship with members within their social group. For instance, early literature on gossip associated the practice of gossiping with female social networking. As Rysman (1977) pointed out, one key reason behind the patriarchal criticism on female gossiping is gossip’s ability ‘to develop social ties outside the institution of male dominance’ (p. 176). This personal and interpersonal focus on the concept of gossip is its most distinctive feature.
Disinformation and propaganda are two very closely related concepts, because they are both disseminated for political purposes (Lewandowsky, Stritzke, & Freund, 2013). In terms of content, disinformation is deliberately deceptive information that is used to undermine public support of a regime, whereas propaganda is information used to mobilise public support for a political cause or a regime (Rojecki & Meraz, 2016). The word disinformation originated from ‘dezinformacija’, a Russian term coined in the former Soviet Union (Karlova & Fisher, 2013). Given the particular cultural and political context in the region at that time, this term was originally closely associated with intelligence operations and political tactics. However, the definition of disinformation has, over time, expanded to include the propagation of misinformation that is non-politically motivated.
Urban legends are contemporary tales that are shared to promote moral and cultural values (DiFonzo & Bordia, 2007). Construed in this way, urban legends are similar to propaganda in the sense that they encode and transmit values, but they are used mythologically rather than strategically. Furthermore, where propaganda emphasises political and ideological values, urban legends focus on cultural and moral values. One key criterion for an urban legend is that it must be grounded in the day-to-day affairs of contemporary life, hence the ‘urban’ in urban legend (Bennett & Smith, 2013). A classic example of an urban legend is the claim that a tooth left in a glass of Coca Cola can dissolve overnight. This story promotes health messages to avoid excessive consumption of soda drinks. Another case is the tale of a drugged traveller awakening in an ice-filled bathtub, only to discover one of his kidneys has been removed by organ thieves. This tale echoes a classic form of legend that teaches the moral lesson to avoid dangerous situations.
Rumour, in terms of content, is unofficial information – that is, information whose authenticity is not verified by an appeal to authority. By this definition, the defining characteristic of rumour content is not its falsity, but its ‘unofficial’ status and therefore its relationship to social institutions (Fine, 2007). Second, rumour arises in contexts that are ambiguous, threatening or potentially threatening (DiFonzo & Bordia, 2007, p. 20). In such uncertain contexts, rumour functions to make sense of the unknown situation. This may explain why rumour goes hand in hand with crisis events, during which there is often a paucity of information and a state of anxiety among the populace.
Conspiracy theories’ content is proposed explanations of an event or a practice that refer to the machinations of powerful people, institutions, or a secret society (e.g. Coady, 2003; Goertzel, 1994; Keeley, 1999). One distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is its reference to a coordinated group of deliberate actors. For instance, in anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, ‘big pharma’ companies are accused of conspiring with politicians; likewise, flat earthers implicate NASA in the plot to keep the truth about the “true nature” of the Earth from the public. Similar to rumour mongering, the context in which conspiracy theories emerge is often one of uncertainty and perceived risks, and conspiracy theorising represents a form of ‘alternative’ collective sensemaking to challenge established narratives provided by the mainstream media and institutions. Therefore, conspiracy theorising is not merely sensemaking, but also has anti-establishment and anti-science undercurrents. Therefore, in terms of function, conspiracy theories serve as (1) a threat management response to ‘secret coalitions’ that are perceived to pose direct threats to the collective well-being, health, and safety of the society (van Prooijen et al., 2018); and (2) a political and ideological stance (Hofstadter, 2012).
References
Bennett, G., & Smith, P. (2013). Contemporary legend: A reader. London: Routledge.
Coady, D. (2003). Conspiracy theories and official stories. International Journal of Applied Philosophy, 17(2), 197–209.
DiFonzo, N., & Bordia, P. (2007). Rumor, gossip and urban legends. Diogenes, 54(1), 19-35.
Fine, G. A. (2007). Rumor, trust and civil society: Collective memory and cultures of judgment. Diogenes, 54(1), 5-18.
Foster, E. K. (2004). Research on gossip: Taxonomy, methods, and future directions. Review of General Psychology, 8(2), 78-99.
Goertzel, T. (1994). Belief in conspiracy theories. Political Psychology, 15, 731–742.
Hofstadter, R. (2012). The paranoid style in American politics. New York: Vintage.
Karlova, N. A., & Fisher, K. E. (2013). A social diffusion model of misinformation and disinformation for understanding human information behaviour. Information Research, 18(1), paper 573.
Keeley, B. L. (1999). Of conspiracy theories. The Journal of Philosophy, 96(3), 109–126.
Lewandowsky, S., Stritzke, W. G. K., Freund, A. M, Oberauer, K., and Krueger, J. I. (2013). Misinformation, disinformation, and violent conflict: From Iraq and the ‘War on Terror’ to future threats to peace. American Psychologist, 68(7), 487-501.
Losee, R. M. (1997). A discipline independent definition of information. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48(3), 254-269
Rojecki, A., & Meraz, S. (2016). Rumors and factitious informational blends: The role of the web in speculative politics. New Media & Society, 18(1), 25-43.
Rysman, A. (1977). How the ‘gossip’ became a woman. Journal of Communication, 27(1), 176-180.
van Prooijen, J. W., & Van Vugt, M. (2018). Conspiracy theories: Evolved functions and psychological mechanisms. Perspectives on psychological science, 13(6), 770-788.
Zeng, J. (2018). Contesting rumours on social media during acute events: The 2014 Sydney siege and 2015 Tianjin blasts (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology). Available at https://eprints.qut.edu.au/115786/
Sentiment/tone (Automated Content Analysis)
Get PDFSentiment/tone describes the way issues or specific actors are described in coverage. Many analyses differentiate between negative, neutral/balanced or positive sentiment/tone as broader categories, but analyses might also measure expressions of incivility, fear, or happiness, for example, as more granular types of sentiment/tone. Analyses can detect sentiment/tone in full texts (e.g., general sentiment in financial news) or concerning specific issues (e.g., specific sentiment towards the stock market in financial news or a specific actor).
The datasets referred to in the table are described in the following paragraph:
Puschmann (2019) uses four data sets to demonstrate how sentiment/tone may be analyzed by the computer. Using Sherlock Holmes stories (18th century, N = 12), tweets (2016, N = 18,826), Swiss newspaper articles (2007-2012, N = 21,280), and debate transcripts (2013-2017, N = 205,584), he illustrates how dictionaries may be applied for such a task. Rauh (2019) uses three data sets to validate his organic German language dictionary for sentiment/tone. His data consists of sentences from German parliament speeches (1991-2013, N = 1,500), German-language quasi-sentences from German, Austrian and Swiss party manifestos (1998-2013, N = 14,008) and newspaper, journal and news wire articles (2011-2012, N = 4,038). Silge and Robinson (2020) use six Jane Austen novels to demonstrate how dictionaries may be used for sentiment analysis. Van Atteveldt and Welbers (2020) use state of the Union speeches (1789-2017, N = 58) for the same purpose. The same authors (van Atteveldt & Welbers, 2019) show based on a dataset of N = 2,000 movie reviews how supervised machine learning might also do the trick. In their Quanteda tutorials, Watanabe and Müller (2019) demonstrate the use of dictionaries and supervised machine learning for sentiment analysis on UK newspaper articles (2012-2016, N = 6,000) as well as the same set of movie reviews (n = 2,000). Lastly, Wiedemann and Niekler (2017) use state of the Union speeches (1790-2017, N = 233) to demonstrate how sentiment/tone can be coded automatically via a dictionary approach.
Field of application/theoretical foundation:
Related to theories of “Framing” and “Bias” in coverage, many analyses are concerned with the way the news evaluates and interprets specific issues and actors.
References/combination with other methods of data collection:
Manual coding is needed for many automated analyses, including the ones concerned with sentiment. Studies for example use manual content analysis to develop dictionaries, to create training sets on which algorithms used for automated classification are trained, or to validate the results of automated analyses (Song et al., 2020).
Table 1. Measurement of “Sentiment/Tone” using automated content analysis.
Author(s)
Sample
Procedure
Formal validity check with manual coding as benchmark*
Code
Puschmann (2019)
(a) Sherlock Holmes stories
(b) Tweets
(c) Swiss newspaper articles
(d) German Parliament transcripts
Dictionary approach
Not reported
http://inhaltsanalyse-mit-r.de/sentiment.html
Rauh (2018)
(a) Bundestag speeches
(b) Quasi-sentences from German, Austrian and Swiss party manifestos
(c) Newspapers, journals, agency reports
Dictionary approach
Reported
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/BKBXWD
Silge & Robinson (2020)
Books by Jane Austen
Dictionary approach
Not reported
https://www.tidytextmining.com/sentiment.html
van Atteveldt & Welbers (2020)
State of the Union speeches
Dictionary approach
Reported
https://github.com/ccs-amsterdam/r-course-material/blob/master/tutorials/sentiment_analysis.md
van Atteveldt & Welbers
(2019)
Movie reviews
Supervised Machine Learning Approach
Reported
https://github.com/ccs-amsterdam/r-course-material/blob/master/tutorials/r_text_ml.md
Watanabe & Müller (2019)
Newspaper articles
Dictionary approach
Not reported
https://tutorials.quanteda.io/advanced-operations/targeted-dictionary-analysis/
Watanabe & Müller (2019)
Movie reviews
Supervised Machine Learning Approach
Reported
https://tutorials.quanteda.io/machine-learning/nb/
Wiedemann & Niekler (2017)
State of the Union speeches
Dictionary approach
Not reported
https://tm4ss.github.io/docs/Tutorial_3_Frequency.html
*Please note that many of the sources listed here are tutorials on how to conducted automated analyses – and therefore not focused on the validation of results. Readers should simply read this column as an indication in terms of which sources they can refer to if they are interested in the validation of results.
References
Puschmann, C. (2019). Automatisierte Inhaltsanalyse mit R. Retrieved from http://inhaltsanalyse-mit-r.de/index.html
Rauh, C. (2018). Validating a sentiment dictionary for German political language—A workbench note. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 15(4), 319–343. doi:10.1080/19331681.2018.1485608
Silge, J., & Robinson, D. (2020). Text mining with R. A tidy approach. Retrieved from https://www.tidytextmining.com/
Song, H., Tolochko, P., Eberl, J.-M., Eisele, O., Greussing, E., Heidenreich, T., Lind, F., Galyga, S., & Boomgaarden, H.G. (2020) In validations we trust? The impact of imperfect human annotations as a gold standard on the quality of validation of automated content analysis. Political Communication, 37(4), 550-572.
van Atteveldt, W., & Welbers, K. (2019). Supervised Text Classification. Retrieved from https://github.com/ccs-amsterdam/r-course-material/blob/master/tutorials/r_text_ml.md
van Atteveldt, W., & Welbers, K. (2020). Supervised Sentiment Analysis in R. Retrieved from https://github.com/ccs-amsterdam/r-course-material/blob/master/tutorials/sentiment_analysis.md
Watanabe, K., & Müller, S. (2019). Quanteda tutorials. Retrieved from https://tutorials.quanteda.io/
Wiedemann, G., Niekler, A. (2017). Hands-on: a five day text mining course for humanists and social scientists in R. Proceedings of the 1st Workshop Teaching NLP for Digital Humanities (Teach4DH@GSCL 2017), Berlin. Retrieved from https://tm4ss.github.io/docs/index.htm
Copyright and shared networking technologies
No full textPhDThe technological zeitgeist has transformed the social-cultural, legal and commercial aspects of society today. Networking technologies comprise one of the most influential factors in this. Although this transformation can be discounted as a mere historical phenomenon dating back to the advent of the printing press, empirical data concerning usage of these technologies shows that there has been a radical shift in the ability to control the dissemination of copyright works. Networking technologies allow, in an unprecedented manner, user-initiated activities including perfect replications, instantaneous dissemination, and abundant storage. They are immune to technological attempts to dismantle them, and impervious to legal attempts to control and harness them. They affect a global audience, which in turn, undermine at negligible costs, the legal and business parameters of copyright owners.
The problem is whether it will now be possible to establish a copyright framework which balances the interests of the following groups: (a) copyright owners in their control of the dissemination of their works; (b) authors demanding remuneration for the exploitation of their works; (c) users wishing to consume works with clear immunity guidelines using networked technologies; (d) technologists striving to continuously innovate without legal and policy restrictions.
Copyright law is not a mechanism for preserving the status quo or a particular business model. It is, as suggested above, a reflection of the needs and interests of authors, copyright owners, entertainment industries, users and technologists. This thesis examines whether the balance between these actors can be achieved and, if so, how it can be implemented within international, regional and national copyright laws. It finds that a balance can be struck; but that this balance should be aligned along three key concepts: user integrity; technological innovation; and authors‘ and owners‘ remuneration. The proposal is that the optimal method for achieving this triptych is the introduction and global implementation of a reasonable and unobtrusive system of remuneration
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