This book provides journalists and the public with a broad overview of all the ways modern communication technologies and information approaches make it difficult for people to effectively find and interpret information and what they can do about it. The public may have a general awareness that things like confirmation bias content algorithms and the backfire effect exist and can influence their behaviour but this book will explain them in one place in plain language. Journalists likewise know that their audiences are dealing with some of these issues but continue to operate under the assumption that if they just publish facts the truth will win out in the court of public opinion.

The central argument of the book is that journalists and audiences can no longer afford to pretend that all information is competing on an even playing field and that it is enough for journalists to simply publish “the facts.” Just as behavioural economics provided a new way of thinking about economics one that understood people as non-rational actors this book attempts to explain the reality rather than the ideal of how people seek and process information and what journalists and their audiences can do to try to create an informed public in the face of that reality.



For many American journalists their work and their responsibility to the public is grounded in the concept of a marketplace of ideas. Journalists believe they should just report the facts as neutrally as possible and let the public judge those facts and put them in context. The marketplace of ideas requires individuals to rationally consider the information that is presented to them and weigh it against other available information. Through this process bad ideas will be judged and dismissed and good ideas will win out. We might like to believe that we are all capable of carefully and rationally evaluating information but the evidence is clear that it is simply not true. If it were true we would not observe such things as the continued persistence of flat-Earthers and moon-landing sceptics and others who champion backward social ideas that were dismissed decades or even centuries ago. The fact that these ideas continue to persist tells us that the public is not engaging in a clear-eyed rational consideration of all the available verified facts.

The research addresses how gender violence against feminists on Twitter during COVID-19 is produced. Mainly focused in the Catalan cultural context 462281 attacks on Twitter were analysed using virtual ethnography and content analysis. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with key agents. This enabled to (1) analyse the profiles of feminists subjected to attacks and those who attack them (2) identify the characteristics of this violence: how it appears to which subjects it refers and what the trigger is (3) identify which axes of inequality intersect in the attacks. The results determine that there are specific typologies of aggressors that there is a correlation between the political–social agenda and the attacks essentially on female politicians and journalists and that they tend to happen collectively as personal aggressions that get worse if they intersect with racial issues for example.

This study investigates the impact of charitable advertisement appeals on prosocial behaviour and intentions to donate employing cutting-edge neuroscientific techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracker. It also seeks to analyse the moderating effect of altruism social norms and moral intensity on the relationship between advertising appeal and prosocial behaviour and intention to donate. Findings indicate that negative appeal is more effective than positive appeal in influencing prosocial behaviour and intent to donate. Furthermore using an eye tracker showed that individuals try to avoid painful scenes in charitable advertisements. This study provides valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms that drive prosocial behaviour and donation intentions by delving into the influence of various charitable advertisement appeals (both positive and negative) on individuals’ neural and ocular responses. We therefore argue that findings from this research hold significant implications for marketers and advertisers seeking to create more effective and persuasive charitable advertisements ultimately promoting greater engagement and support for philanthropic causes.

The dissemination of rumours and fabricated information via social media has the potential to adversely impact social cohesiveness and contribute to political polarization which may lead to political divisions by casting doubt on the effectiveness of government and politicians. In light of the global economic crisis caused by the Russian–Ukrainian War this study aims to identify economic rumours that were circulating in Egyptian society via social media. Machine learning was employed as a means of analysing the sentiment of user comments on various posts thus providing an effective method for debunking fake news. In order to identify the most salient features of misleading information the study qualitatively assessed the visual and linguistic elements of the postings. A total of 10031 comments were analysed after being categorized into main groups. The study’s results revealed key features pertaining to the sentiments expressed in the comments as well as identifying common textual traits of rumours and specific visual sentiments depicted in accompanying photos. This research sheds light on the importance of identifying and debunking rumours and fabricated information in order to mitigate their potentially negative effects on social cohesiveness and political polarization. Additionally it highlights the utility of employing machine learning as a tool for analysing sentiment in user-generated content on social media platforms.

Media representations have the power to evoke and circulate meanings about a dominant favoured ideology. Like films television soap operas too may become the sites of hetero-patriarchal representation. This article foregrounds the visual and textual tropes applied to coerce the audience into accepting patriarchal gender roles in the disguise of religious discourse. Using critical discourse analysis of three select Hindi soap operas Saath Nibhana Sathiya Choti Bahu and Bade Achche Lagte Hai this article flags the use of religious motifs as disciplining strategies of patriarchy. The resort-seeking behaviour of the female protagonists towards the male Hindu deity for the resolution of crisis becomes a marker of sexism. Furthermore this one-dimensional representation of a multicultural and multireligious Indian society in these Hindi soap operas has evolved them into Hindu Socials with their dominant tropes of Hinduness within the storyline rituals melodrama and misogynism.

The uncertainty of the COVID-19 virus outbreak triggered chaos panic and fear worldwide. During the outbreak many humorous posts tweeted and retweeted addressed the virus with a laugh. Humour is a way to escape reality but at the same time it may have negative outcomes. In Kuwait many such posts spread on social media especially Twitter. They reduced panic educated the public or made people ignore the seriousness of the pandemic. This study investigates the negative implications of using humorous text images and video messages on Twitter. A qualitative discourse analysis of 907 humorous texts images and videos posted on Twitter during the crisis revealed that humorous posts may foster negative attitudes concerning sectarianism tribalism racism sexism and hatred. Interestingly humorous posts in less emotionally charged categories such as sports family and children also include many negative connotations and denotations. This study is unique in addressing an understudied area; humour on social media in the Arab and Gulf region. Its findings show that humorous posts can produce negative outcomes and cause fear and hatred in society. There may be a need for self-censorship and moral behaviour to prevent social tension. The notion that jokes are only jokes and people should not be offended may have unforeseen negative repercussions.

This article explores the relationship between local journalism and place through a case study of the Somerville News Garden a community news initiative launched in 2019 to address the city’s failing news infrastructure. Researchers used collaborative ethnographic methods to study the News Garden from its inception in August 2019 to December 2021: we surveyed residents about their news preferences (n = 92) interviewed eighteen residents and conducted participant observation at planning meetings and public forums hosted by the News Garden. The study addresses two themes: first local journalism constructs and maintains place by covering location-specific issues and moving information across unfamiliar spaces; and second community news initiatives challenge scholars and practitioners to reconsider the role of local journalism and its continued relevance in civic life. Finally the study reviews the News Garden’s organizational structure and proposes grassroots governance: a model of news production and distribution based on collaboration and accountability in the service of democracy.

The book arises from an international research project that explores the future of media pluralism policies for online news. It investigates the latest European policies and techniques for regulatory intervention and examines the consequences of innovative news practices asking ‘How will automation of news affect public opinion in the age of social media platforms and what are the consequences?’

In Media Pluralism and Online News the authors make the argument that there is an urgent need for revitalised thinking for a media policy agenda to deal with the trends to platform power and concentrated media power which is an ongoing global risk to public interest journalism.

In the transition to a media landscape increasingly dominated by broadband internet distribution and the dominance of US-centric new media behemoths Google Facebook Apple Amazon and Netflix the book investigates measures that can be taken to reduce this ongoing march of concentration and the attenuation of media voices.

Securing the public interest in a vibrant and sustainable news media sector will require that merger decisions assess whether there is a ‘reduction in diversity’ -- calling for a new public interest test and a more expansive policy focus than in the past. This would include consideration of the sustainability of local businesses; the encouragement of original and local news content; quality of content in terms of the promotion of news standards; and new modes of delivery and consumption including the ‘automated curation’ of news content by digital platforms. 

For sometime now there has been a conversation among scholars about male hegemony in African popular music and how some women performers resist the established status quo. In joining the discourse in this article I focus on the owigiri music of Diepreye Osi a female bandleader among the Ịjọ of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. With particular attention to the departments in the bands of that premier neo-traditional music in the Ịjọ community including instrumentation dancing and singing I argue that Diepreye contests patriarchy in her musical ensemble. Data for the study was gathered from unstructured interviews of artists and ­non-artists and observation of live performances.

The move to constitutional rule and deregulation of media ushered Ghana into the milieu of media globalization. As such local television is experiencing a balancing act between national autonomy and international commitments. Given the limited empirical scrutiny of the progress of local television in the globalization milieu this study examines the globalized and dynamic environment within which local television functions in Ghana. This study reveals an industry that is characterized by changing notions of culture and shifting policies that attempt to accommodate contemporary global commitments while at the same time give support to culturally authentic and nationally relevant contents.