Suchergebnisse

This article explores the uses and consequences of political communication in Australia. It considers the different types of government 'spin doctors' and explores the dimensions of the 'Australian public relations state'. The article then examines the relationship between the media, political communication and democracy. It subsequently develops a typology of overt and covert practices that suggests that there should be an analytical and ethical distinction between 'spin' and 'political communication'. The article concludes that media advisers are 'key activists' within the public sphere and that good political communication gives people the capacity for informed citizenship. Ultimately this discussion demonstrates that political communication has both democratic and anti-democratic aspects, and it offers a conceptual framework for exploring communicative practices and their consequences.

This article explores the relationship between ideology and media representations. It seeks to (1) re-contextualize the 2003 invasion of Iraq by exposing the ideological impetus for the conflict; (2) highlight the role played by the Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, Rupert
Murdoch, in helping neoconservative mandarins gain influence over the political public sphere of the United States; and (3) determine whether the Iraq/weapons of mass destruction story, as reported in the Australian Murdoch press, was influenced by the ideological proclivities of the CEO of
News Corporation. Drawing on an empirical case study, this article contends that Murdoch's influential broadsheet newspaper, The Australian, contained a pro-war/pro-neoconservative ideological bias during the sampled period.

When Rupert Murdoch announced in April 2004 that he intended to see his company, News Corporation, reincorporated in the United States, two competing representations of the `media mogul' came to dominate the press's interpretation of this event. The first of these `Murdoch representations' was the most common, and painted an image of a successful entrepreneur, a `celebrity CEO'. Yet, the second `Murdoch representation' painted a different image, a more detailed portrait, with critical attention paid to the modus operandi of the world's most notorious media proprietor. This article deconstructs these representations of Murdoch, a mythic fracturing of image resulting from the political economy of the Australian press. In essence, the article explores issues of media diversity, myth and ideology, and the propensity of the press for critical, impartial, journalism. The empirical data are drawn from an analysis of two of Australia's pre-eminent newspapers: The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.

News Corporation is one of the most closely studied international media conglomerates, headed by the world's most famous media proprietor. Yet, despite its prominence in the academic literature, little attention has been paid to the company's book publishing operations. This article seeks to rectify this oversight. It investigates some of the more controversial book deals made by HarperCollins, outlining a partisan publishing pattern that conforms to Murdoch's proclivity for conservative politics.

In Liquid Love Zygmunt Bauman argued that the solidity and security once provided by life-long partnerships has been 'liquefied' by rampant individualisation and technological change. He believes internet dating is symptomatic of social and technological change that transforms modern courtship into a type of commodified game. This article explores the experiences of users of digital dating and hook-up applications (or 'apps') in order to assess the extent to which a digital transformation of intimacy might be under way. It examines the different affordances provided by dating apps, and whether users feel the technology has influenced their sexual practices and views on long-term relationships, monogamy and other romantic ideals. This study shows that dating apps are intermediaries through which individuals engage in strategic performances in pursuit of love, sex and intimacy. Ultimately, this article contends that some accounts of dating apps and modern romantic practices are too pessimistic, and downplay the positives of 'networked intimacy'.

This article uses social media network analysis (SMNA) to examine whether there was an astroturfing campaign on Twitter in support of the Adani Carmichael coal mine in 2017. It shows that SMNA can be used to visualize and analyze outsider lobbying activity in issue arenas and is capable of identifying networks of fake opinion. This study found that in April 2017, there was a small network of accounts that made a series of suspiciously similar pro‐Adani tweets that could be considered a form of duplicitous lobbying. However, this study concludes that these posts were likely a weak influence on public opinion in Australia and largely ineffectual as a lobbying tactic. Nevertheless, this analysis shows how communitas public interests can be subverted by covert social media campaigns used in support of corporatas goals, as well as the role digital research methods can play in protecting the integrity on public debates by exposing disingenuous actors.

Cyberbullying is a relatively recent phenomenon that can have significant consequences for young people's wellbeing due to the specific technological affordances of social media. To date, research into cyberbullying has been largely quantitative; thus, it often elides the complexity of the issue. Moreover, most studies have been "top down," excluding young people's views. Our qualitative research findings suggest that young people engage in cyberbullying to accrue social benefits over peers and to manage social pressures and anxiety, while cultural conventions in gender performance see girls engage differently in cyberbullying. We conclude that cyberbullying, like offline bullying, is a socially constructed behavior that provides both pleasure and pain.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent and its application highly sophisticated. Concerns about AI's vulnerabilities and future threats have, however, long been debated among scientists and the tech community. By integrating Beck's theory of risk society with an audience-centered sense-making approach, we seek to understand the effects of AI on the general public's daily lives and their concerns when they adopt AI technology. Five focus groups with 36 participants from Singapore, a technologically advanced country, were conducted to investigate their risk perceptions of AI and AI-powered technology. We found that participants were not passive consumers of content showing up on their news feeds; indeed, some participants attempted to outsmart the algorithms. They were aware that tech companies often tweak algorithms to personalize content and drive consumers into rabbit holes. Nevertheless, despite a certain level of awareness and sporadic attempts to "outsmart" the system, many users might still be influenced by these algorithms, underscoring the extent to which consumers are often manipulated by smart tech powered by AI. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of our findings by looking at the contextual factors.