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This qualitative social media framing analysis captures the discursive engagement with COVID-19 in Fridays for Future's (FFF) digital protest communication on Facebook. In offering comparative insights from 457 posts across 29 public pages from FFF collectives in the European Union, this study offers the first analysis of social movement frames employed by FFF during the pandemic. By coding all Corona-related messages across collectives, we chart three framing processes: adaptation (compliance, solidarity), reframing (reclaiming the crisis, nexus between climate and health), and mobilization (sustained involvement, digital protest alternatives). We discuss our findings alongside social movement framing theory, including frame bridging and scope enlargement to accommodate the pandemic topicality into FFF's environmental master frame, and frame development by FFF movement leaders. This study thus provides key insights into discursive shifts in social movements brought on by external crises that threaten to marginalize the cause and demobilize adherents.
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Despite the increasing adaption of automated text analysis in communication studies, its strengths and weaknesses in framing analysis are so far unknown. Fewer efforts have been made to automatic detection of networked frames. Drawing on the recent developments in this field, we harness a comparative exploration, using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and a human-driven qualitative coding process on three different samples. Samples were comprised of a dataset of 4,165,177 million tweets collected from Iranian Twittersphere during the Coronavirus crisis, from 21 January, 2020 to 29 April, 2020. Findings showed that while LDA is reliable in identifying the most prominent networked frames, it misses to detects less dominant frames. Our investigation also confirmed that LDA works better on larger datasets and lexical semantics. Finally, we argued that LDA could give us some primary intuitions, but qualitative interpretations are indispensable for understanding the deeper layers of meaning. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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ThepresentresearchoffersacontrastiveanalysisofthenewsaboutCovid-19published inthenewspapersElPaísandTheGuardianduringthefirstmonthsofthepandemicThis research has been conducted within the theory of framing, which analyzes the various factors and mental processes that affect the creation and interpretation of news. The objectives of our work are to detect and analyze the dominant cultural settings in the selected newspapers;to contrast the results obtained in this analysis in order to establish the similarities and differences between the newspapers of both cultures;and to analyze the cultural implications of the framing applied by each newspaper and the cultural contrast between them. To achieve these objectives, a proprietary corpus analysis methodology has been developed, focused on detecting the dominant semantic fields by combining the use of the Sketch Engine computer tool with the researchers' criteria, followed by a quantitative and qualitative contrastive analysis. The results of our study reveal a difference in the dominance of the cultural frames of ElPaísand TheGuardian, both in terms of the topics to which the Covid-19 information has been linked and in the way the newspapers display said information. This research is a contribution to the framing theory, both for the proposed methodology and for the cultural contrastive approach that we have provided. © 2022 Departamento de Periodismo I de la Universidad de Sevilla.. All rights reserved.
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Established in 2014, SputnikTR (a localized version of Sputnik News) is the most popular pro-Russian media outlet active in Turkey. The news content published by SputnikTR's Twitter account currently attracts the highest engagement rates among the international public broadcasters active in Turkey. SputnikTR's official Twitter account has more followers (1M) than Sputnik News English (326K). This article argues that SputnikTR's Twitter account is used to promote Russian vaccine technologies in Turkey. We believe that it is also a conduit for the dissemination of pro-Russian as well as anti-Western narratives to the Turkish online public. Using a computational methodology, we collected 2,782 vaccine-related tweets posted by SputnikTR's Twitter account between April 2019 and April 2021. We deployed framing as well as critical discourse analysis to study the contents of our dataset. Our findings suggest that SputnikTR uses (a) disinformation as well as misinformation in vaccine-related news and (b) unethical communication techniques to maximize engagement with content posted on Twitter. Our findings are significant insofar as they are the first documented instances of Russian propaganda efforts on Turkish Twitter. These efforts seem to be focused on promoting the Russian vaccine while encouraging public hesitancy toward Western vaccine technologies. © The Author(s) 2023.
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This article examines UK newspaper coverage during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic March-August 2020. A qualitative framing analysis of public messaging on age in five high circulation newspapers provides a detailed account of who is deemed to be at risk of dying from COVID-19. Newspapers represent older people as most at risk, with disability as a secondary factor. Reports on who is responsible, who is at risk, and who is to blame for deaths from COVID-19 are framed as issues of public health and generational fairness, with individual responsibility occupying a prominent role. We also find two counter-frames. First, in letters to the editor, older people's pleas for freedom are framed as a fight for their civil liberties. Second, newspapers praise 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore and frame his behaviour as a source of national pride. We identify this as positive ageism. We conclude that reporting across progressive and conservative newspapers reflects age-based stereotypes and paternalism towards older people. Public figures are represented as scapegoats or heroes, offering distraction from the less newsworthy fact that long-term under-investment in social care increased the risk of dying amongst the old and disabled during the pandemic.
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This article examines how "the elderly" is constructed in New Zealand online news media. By employing a critical framing analysis to challenge ageist practices, conceptually, the study adds to our knowledge of research methodologies in the field of adult development. Online news media articles were collected and analyzed to understand constructions of older adults as "elderly" over an 18-month period before, during, and since the COVID pandemic. Results demonstrated that the term "elderly" was framed powerlessly, in predominantly negative (74%) stereotypical messages about older adults. Positive stereotypes (26% of data) used human impact framing. Associations of "elderly" with being vulnerable, declining, and an individual or societal burden have serious implications, notably for the media in their role of both constructing and reflecting societal attitudes and actions towards older adults. Suggestions are offered to encourage reframing societal attitudes and promoting healthy adult development through age-equality messages that do away with the term "elderly."
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This study presents a critical gerontological framing analysis of how and why the term "elderly" is presently used in online news media articles in New Zealand, and the potential consequences of such constructions. The article contributes to conceptual debates on aging and later life research by challenging ageist (albeit perhaps subconscious) media practices. Analysis of online news media articles in New Zealand was conducted over an 18-month period before, during and since COVID. Findings revealed that "elderly" was framed as powerless, in predominantly negative (74% of data) stereotypical messages about older adults. The remaining positive stereotypes (26%) used human impact framing. Narratives of "elderly" as vulnerable, declining and a 'burden' may be dependent on several factors, including the media's role in both constructing and reflecting ageist societal attitudes and actions towards older adults. Recommendations are given to support re-framing societal attitudes towards age equality through non-discriminatory, respectful language.
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Ageism , COVID-19 , Geriatrics , Aged , Humans , Mass Media , New ZealandABSTRACT
The recent rise of right-wing populism has given new momentum to the discussion about the meaning of populism around the world and the covid-19 pandemic added yet another layer to the issue. Considering the growing circulation of the term "populism" in public discourse, as well as the volatility of its meaning, this paper seeks to identify the different constructions of meaning around this phenomenon by Brazilian media during the covid-19 pandemic. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, in which we used the perspective of media framings, we examine 170 articles from 17 Brazilian media outlets published between March 1st and October 1st, 2020. The results allow us to conclude that there are circumstantial meanings of populism that were incorporated during the pandemic, especially related to an antiscientific approach. © 2021 Associacao Brasileira de Pesquisadores de Jornalismo. All rights reserved.
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Digital reality technologies and their applications have become a truly global phenomenon, attracting enormous interest among museum researchers and professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has drastically changed contemporary human behaviors by forcing people to “shelter in place.” To deter the spread of the COVID-19 virus from adjacent human contacts and indoor congregations has prompted over 90% museums around the world to close their doors to the public. As a result, the COVID-19 also expedites the adoption of a variety of technologies by offering their services virtually. The objectives of this study are to investigate the impacts of digital reality technologies on museums around the world at this critical historical juncture. We employed a global text mining research to examine the current integration of digital reality technologies among museums and to examine how the affordances of these technologies have impacted on the museum sector as described by these media. This text mining study provides empirical data and best practice examples how museums around the world have integrated digital reality technologies in response to the challenges and opportunities due to COVID-19. Results find that virtual reality is still the most commonly used digital reality technology by museums for online viewing and exhibitions. In spite of the hype about extended reality technology, augmented and mixed reality technologies fall behind the popularity of VR. Additionally, the use of these reality-creating technologies among museums in different countries often echoes their economy and technology status. Discussion and implications are provided. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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BACKGROUND: The choices that policymakers make are shaped by how their problems are framed. At last, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen high on the global policy agenda, but there are many disputed issues. First, what are they? Their name refers not to what they are but what they are not. Second, where do their boundaries lie? What diseases are included? Third, should we view their causes as mainly biomedical, behavioural, or social, or a combination? Our failure to resolve these issues has been invoked as a reason for our limited progress in developing and implementing effective remedies. In this scoping review, we ask "What is known from the existing literature about how NCDs are framed in the global policy discourses?" We answer it by reviewing the frames employed in policy and academic discourses. METHODS: We searched nine electronic databases for articles published since inception to 31 May 2019. We also reviewed websites of eight international organisations to identify global NCDs policies. We extracted data and synthesised findings to identify key thematic frames. RESULTS: We included 36 articles and nine policy documents on global NCDs policies. We identified five discursive domains that have been used and where there are differing perspectives. These are: "Expanding the NCDs frame to include mental health and air pollution"; "NCDs and their determinants"; "A rights-based approach to NCDs"; "Approaches to achieving policy coherence in NCDs globally"; and "NCDs as part of Sustainable Socio-economic Development". We further identified 12 frames within the five discursive domains. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review identifies issues that remain unresolved and points to a need for alignment of perspectives among global health policy actors, as well as synergies with those working on mental health, maternal health, and child health. The current COVID-19 pandemic warrants greater consideration of its impact on global NCDs policies. Future global strategies for NCDs need to consider explicitly how NCDs are framed in a changing global health discourse and ensure adequate alignment with implementation and global health issues. There is a need for global strategies to recognise the pertinent role of actors in shaping policy discourses.
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Global Health , Health Policy , Noncommunicable Diseases , COVID-19 , HumansABSTRACT
Global pandemics are likely to increase in frequency and severity, and media communication of key messages represents an important mediator of the behavior of individuals in response to public health countermeasures. Where the media places responsibility during a pandemic is therefore important to study as blame is commonly used as a tool to influence public behavior but can also lead to the subjective persecution of groups. The aim of this paper is to investigate where the media places responsibility for COVID-19 in Australia. Specifically, we identify the key themes and frames that are present and observe how they changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to government actions and progression of the pandemic. Understanding media representations of the COVID-19 pandemic will provide insights into ways in which responsibility is framed in relation to health action. Newspaper articles from the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald were sampled between January 20 and March 31 2020 on every second Monday. Factiva was used to identify and download newspaper articles using the following search criteria: "COVID-19" OR coronavirus OR "Wuhan virus" OR "corona virus" OR "Hebei virus" OR "wet market" OR (Wuhan AND virus) OR (market AND Wuhan and virus) or (China AND Virus) or (Novel AND Virus). Articles were imported into Nvivo and thematic and framing analyses were used. The results show that framing of the pandemic was largely based on societal issues with the theme of economic disruption prevalent throughout the study time period. Moral evaluations of the pandemic were infrequent initially but increased co-incident with the first signs of "flattening of the curve." Explicit examples of blame were very rare but were commonly implied based on the causal origin of the virus. The Australian printed media were slow to report on the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition they were reluctant to apportion blame until the end of the study period, after confirmed case rates had begun to slow. This is interpreted as being due to an evaluation of the pandemic risks as low by the media and therefore the tools of othering and blame were not used until after the study period when the actual risks had begun to abate, more consistent with an inquiry than a mediating mechanism.