Global Perspectives
Democratic Disorder - Disinformation, the Media, and Crisis in a Time of Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrew Simoncelli, Lance Arnold
College students have been increasingly turning to the internet for their formal education and as a means to gather information. Social media and the internet have become the leading news source for 18-24 year olds as opposed to the more traditional outlets of newspapers and television of previous generations. This research looks at how online students learn about media literacy in a world of disinformation. It details how it is taught at one regional university in a deep south US state. The research examines how the content is taught through e-learning and the impact it has on the remote learners. The results were compiled through the past five years and looks at the changes over time from one presidential administration to the next. We also look at the comparison of the online students and those of on-campus students who are taught in a traditional classroom. How does the online group fare in media literacy, how do they compare to their on-campus peers, and how do both groups manage in spotting “fake news”?
Contribution of Broadcast Media in Shaping Public Opinion on Religious Minorities in India View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Priyanshi Jain
It is very difficult to identify if media is contributing to spreading religious differences in the country in black and white but we can always figure out some aspects of it from the kind of language used by the media. The larger aim is to identify the communication strategies and whether the religious minorities are targeted by the media as well. The research largely focuses on the primetime debates conducted by the NDTV (Prime Time with Ravish Kumar) and Aaj Tak (Aaj Tak Adda). The cases I have identified for the research are the Malegaon blast case (2006), the Pehlu Khan lynching case (2017), and the Kathua rape case (2018). These cases are chosen on their qualification of a direct relationship with religious matters in the country. I look at the debates and discussions conducted by the above-mentioned news channels to discuss about these three cases and focus on the kind of language used by the media to give out information to the people. Looking at the language used by the media, we come to know how does media contribute to shaping the opinion of people on religious minorities. The findings of the research can be that the media’s contribution is either positive or negative in molding public opinion based on the coverage given to these particular cases.
A Communication Rupture, then Event : Evolving Global Systems
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marcus Breen
On February 4, 2022 the Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development was released. It described China’s and Russia’s role in the “redistribution of power in the world” informed by “the advent of the information society.” This statement was the event within a historically evolving rupture in the global relations detailed in Emmanuel Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory. The announcement of these new arrangements can inform research exploring the dialectics of communication within human development systems. While communication is the primary vehicle for globalization, it is the means through which the global orientation of world powers with each other is imbricated and effects change. Within the dialectical approach, the political economy of communication embodies a Rupture: it offers a radicality of systems of interaction that enhance economic development alongside cultural enrichment, which generate their opposite in relation to the original. In this case, referred to by Wallerstein as “structural crisis,” the rupture occurred as the US domination of the digital innovations associated with the Internet gave way, as China utilized U.S. and western technologies for its own purposes, achieving major power status by 2020, moving within the global system from the periphery to the core. A systems approach – grounded in critical theory with Marxist attention to the whole of (global) society – explores the impact of the rupture and the event of the Joint Statement for communication.
