Tweeting Facts,Facebooking Lives: The Influence of Language Use and Modality on Online Source Credibility

The present study examines how language use (e.g., personalized vs. depersonalized language) and modality (e.g., tweets vs. Facebook status updates) influence source credibility interdependently. A total of 257 participants read personalized or depersonalized health messages embedded in mock-up tweets or Facebook status updates. The results show that users perceive depersonalized tweets as more credible than depersonalized status updates posted on Facebook. On the other hand, personalized status updates on Facebook generate higher credibility judgments than personalized tweets. The findings are discussed in light of the MAIN model as well as the preconceived user expectations and communication norms of social media.     

Strategically constructed narratives on artificial intelligence: What stories are told in governmental artificial intelligence policies?

What stories are told in national artificial intelligence (AI) policies? Combining the novel technique of structural topic modeling (STM) and qualitative narrative analysis, this paper examines the policy narratives in 33 countries’ AI policies. We uncover six common narratives that are dominating the political agenda concerning AI. Our findings show that the policy narratives' saliences vary across time and countries. We make several contributions. First, our narratives describe well-grounded, supportable conceptions of AI among governments, and show that AI is still a fairly novel, multilayered, and controversial phenomenon. Building on the premise that human sensemaking is best represented and supported by narration, we address the applied rhetoric of governments to either minimize the risks or exalt the opportunities of AI. Second, we uncover the four prominent roles governments seek  to take concerning AI implementation: enabler, leader, regulator, and/or user. Third, we make a methodological contribution toward data-driven, computationally-intensive theory development. Our methodological approach and the identified narratives present key starting points for further research.     

Fake News

The crisis in Ukraine has accentuated the position of Russian television as the government’s strongest asset in its information warfare. The internet, however, allows other players to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative by providing counter-narratives and debunking distorted information and fake images. Accounting for the new media ecology—through which strategic narratives are created and interpreted, this article scrutinizes the narratives of allegedly fake news on Channel One, perceiving the fabricated stories as extreme projections of Russia’s strategic narratives, and the attempts of the Ukrainian fact-checking website Stopfake.org to counter the Russian narrative by refuting misinformation and exposing misleading images about Ukraine. Secondly, it analyses how Twitter users judged the veracity of these news stories and contributed to the perpetuation of strategic narratives.     

Organizing collective action amid the ripple effects of change: narratives of crisis,disaster, and opportunity

This study examines how narrative is used by remote stakeholders to cope with organizational change. Specifically, I focus on the public narratives of community leaders because these narratives often function as a rhetorical resource to attract businesses, receive grants, and retain local residents. Public stories announcing, explaining, and managing the ripple effects of organizational change warrant deeper analysis in order to refine our ability to respond to these effects at a community level. This in-depth case study analysis of one community's efforts to respond to the loss of its largest employer suggests that naming a change event as a crisis, disaster, or opportunity positions actors differently within narratives, creating powerful implications for social action. Specifically, crisis narratives call for punishment of the causal agent and legislation of responsibility; disaster narratives call for assistance to affected communities and legislation of support; and opportunity narratives create an unclear policy mandate and demand transformational leadership to mobilize action.     

The Matrix and Critical Theory's Desertion of the Real

This article uses the narratives of the popular films The Matrix, Matrix: Reloaded, and Matrix: Revolutions as a lens through which to discuss the problems of the real and human agency in contemporary critical theory. Alongside a reading of the films’ invocations of social theory, the article describes parallel academic theories whose strongest structuralist and poststructuralist manifestations abandon conceptions of the real and willful human agency. In a field whose pessimistic narrative of Marxism often begins with anti-humanist structuralism, classical Marxist discourse theories offer a viable standpoint-based concept of reality upon which to found solidaristic human action.     

Questioning Race: Ancestry DNA and Dialog on Race

Human genetics and racial identity converge pointedly in the family narrative. Until recently, genetics, racial identity, and family narrative were all rather malleable concepts in the public arena. All were presented in anecdotal form for the most part, and were often based on certain social conventions. The interjection of popularly available ancestry DNA data adds an additional piece of information to the discussion of genetics, race, and narrative. Using the framework of both narrative theory and theory of social construction, this work uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore how individuals react to ancestry DNA findings and to consider if and how this information will change narratives, behaviors, and perspectives. We also explore whether one's racial identification makes a difference in initial accuracy and if there is a difference among racial groupings in terms of change in census identification based on knowledge of their DNA profile.     

Anarchism,the Chomsky Effect and the Descent from the Ivory Tower1

This paper examines how the Sydney Olympics Games’ opening ceremony presented images of a linear, multicultural, and chronological narrative of Australian history. However, the ceremony's attempts to manage difference produced multiple narratives of the Australian nation. Textual analysis of the Australian Channel 7 broadcast and newspaper coverage of the Olympics show how the ceremony's narrative of a united Australian nation responds to the increasing disintegration of nation-states’ boundaries in the context of globalization.     

Examining government cross-platform engagement in social media: Instagram vs Twitter and the big lift project

As governments are increasingly turning to social media as a means of engaging the public, questions remain as to how they are actually using various social media platforms. Do specific platforms engender specific types of messages? If so, what are they, and how do they affect civic engagement, co-participation, and address citizen concerns? In this paper, we compare the use of Instagram and Twitter by ‘The Big Lift’, a bridge re-decking project completed by Halifax Harbour Bridges. Based on a content analysis of Instagram (n = 248) and Twitter (n = 1278) public posts, we found that Instagram was used as a more ‘informal’ narrative platform that promoted a clicktivist type of responses from the audience, whereas Twitter was a more ‘formal’ news platform that supported greater two-way communication between the organization and the audience. We conclude that by building and maintaining their active presence and following base on social media, and especially on Twitter, organizations can develop a capacity to address social concerns during disruptive events or infrastructure projects like ‘The Big Lift’.     

The Cultivation of Idealistic Moral Expectations: The Role of Television Exposure and Narrative Engageability

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of how fictional television shapes people’s expectations about the moral workings of the real world, relying on cultivation theory and models of narrative and moral effects as theoretical frameworks. Using a cross-sectional sample of the general German adult population, this study investigated the relationship between television viewing time (overall television and three genres—crime drama, medical drama, sitcoms) and narrative engageability with three idealistic moral expectations (just world beliefs, professional altruism of doctors, tolerance of otherness). Although genre viewing was not related to idealistic moral expectations, overall television viewing and narrative engageability proved to have consistent positive relationships. Results indicate that television viewing, the audience’s eagerness to engage with narratives (narrative engageability), and moral expectations about the real world are intertwined and mutually dependent.     

Flying in a V formation: themes of (in)equity,reality, and togetherness in adult siblings’ narrative explanations of shared parental caregiving

Guided by communicated narrative sense-making, the present study explored the themes that characterize adult siblings’ stories about their experiences with sharing care of aging parents. Interviews with 20 adult siblings revealed the varied and emotional nature of their shared parental caregiving stories. Adult siblings primarily constructed meaning of their caregiving experiences by drawing upon three overarching narratives: (1) the narrative of (in)equity, (2) the narrative of ideal versus real, and (3) the narrative of interconnectedness. These findings highlight the need for adult siblings providing care for their parents to work together as a team, exercise empathy in their interactions, and express gratitude for one another’s contributions. Several practical applications are discussed that can help siblings manage and overcome the relational challenges associated with caring for a parent.     

“It’s My Job Now,I Guess”: Biographical disruption and communication work in supporters of young adult cancer survivors

ABSTRACT

This study uses narrative interviews to describe how 25 young adult (YA) close supporters (i.e., romantic partners, siblings) experience an often invisible and uniquely burdensome biographical disruption following a young adult cancer survivor’s (YACS; i.e., 18–39) diagnosis. YA supporters reported varying levels of biographical interdependence with the YACS and family system uncertainty with other important supporters. These factors led YA romantic partners and siblings to engage in different types of communication work to negotiate and maintain primary and secondary support roles with parents and in-laws, to ensure that the YACS received helpful social support by gatekeeping (i.e., correcting, blocking) others’ support attempts, and to accommodate both their own and the YACS’s disrupted biographies.     

The Influence of Female Lead Characters in Political TV Shows: Links to Political Engagement

This study examined political television dramas with lead female characters, proposing a model that links viewing of these shows with political engagement. A survey revealed that regular viewers of Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, or Scandal reported feeling transported by these programs’ narratives and parasocial relationships with the main characters (i.e., women in positions of political leadership). These responses were also related to increases in political interest and self-efficacy, with interest predicting real-world political participation. The findings illustrate that these political dramas have prosocial implications, including the non-stereotypical representation of women as well as increased political engagement among viewers.     

An Exploration of Transportation and Psychological Reactance in Organ Donation PSAs

The present study expands on prior work on the use of narratives in persuasive communication by examining students’ (N = 201) reactions to six organ donation public service announcements (PSAs). Reactions to the type of appeal, donor-focused or recipient-focused, were also explored. Results indicated that being immersed in the PSA was positively associated with message reactions and negatively associated with threats to overall freedom of choice when deciding whether or not to become an organ donor. Those perceived threats partially mediated the relationship between immersion into the story of the PSA and message reactions, such that increased threats were associated with reduced message reactions. Individuals exposed to the recipient-focused appeals were more interested in the narrative of the PSAs than those exposed to donor-focused appeals. Results are discussed in the context of future message and campaign development.     

Peril in the personals: the dangers and pleasures of classified advertising in early twentieth‐century Britain

The question of how newsbook storytelling contributed to the cultivation and development of thinking about particular political practices during the English Civil Wars in the 1640s needs systematic attention. A sustained examination of newsbook narratives reveals assumptions about political order, activity and legitimacy that were being continuously reiterated in public discourse. Examining how the author of the Royalist Mercurius Aulicus chronicled, selected and ordered recent events into a series of narrative episodes across a number of issues, this article offers a preliminary approach towards understanding how newsbooks contributed to everyday political thinking. Using Charles Taylor's notion of ‘social imaginaries’, it outlines the ideas and assumptions that constituted Aulicus' discussion of the Solemn League and Covenant's introduction in September and October 1643. As an important form of political engagement, the stories newsbooks told were used to shape ideas about political propriety on a weekly basis.     

Boys Don't Cry and female masculinity: reclaiming a life & dismantling the politics of normative heterosexuality

–This analysis argues that Kimberly Peirce's film Boys Don't Cry can be read as a liberatory narrative that queers the centers of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity by privileging female masculinity and celebrating its differences from heterosexual norms. My critique emphasizes how the narrative strategically challenges heteronormativity and, in turn, “narrative's heteroideology” (Roof, 1996), in four ways: 1) by dismantling the myth of “America's heartland”; 2) by problematizing heteromasculinity; 3) by centering female masculinity; and 4) by blurring the boundaries of female masculinity. I argue that the articulation of each subversive strategy within the narratives of Boys Don't Cry can serve a liberatory function, whereby the privileged subjectivities of heterosexuality and hegemonic masculinity are dismantled and, simultaneously, female masculinity and gender fluidity are privileged and normalized. I conclude that the narrative structure of Boys Don't Cry not only privileges gender diversity, but also exposes the inherent sexual bigotry of heteroideology and the brutal and deadly consequences of society's failure to eradicate such prejudice. I just keep on laughing Hiding the tears in my eyes Because boys don't cry. Boys don't cry. (Smith, Tolhurst, & Dempsey, 1988)     

Eliciting Behavior From Interactive Narratives: Isolating the Role of Agency in Connecting With and Modeling Characters

A key component differentiating interactive storytelling from non-interactive media is agency, or control over character choices. A series of experiments show that providing agency over a character increased the user-character connection, which then increased engagement in a character-consistent charitable act. Findings were observed in technologically simple online narratives that controlled for navigation/controller differences, graphics, sounds, lengthy play, and avatar customization. Effects emerged even though users did not practice these acts by making their character behave charitably. Findings were robust across happy and unfortunate endings and across first-, second-, and third-person narrative perspectives. Findings suggest promise for developing inexpensive “storygames” to encourage supportive behaviors.     

‘He’s a battler. He’s not a quitter:’ the narrative framing of Jerry Kill’s health-related organizational exit

The abrupt retirement of Jerry Kill, the University of Minnesota’s head football coach, for health reasons during the 2015 season ignited intensely emotional reactions from diverse organizational stakeholders. Our essay analyzes the public discourses surrounding Kill’s organizational exit. Specifically, we explore how audiences co-constructed multiple and conflicting narratives about his departure, concurrently praising and blaming Kill for his body management. We highlight how these discourses construct complex subjectivities for working individuals who experience chronic illness. We conclude by discussing how the narrative frames implicate broader discursive struggles between the cultural values of health and work.     

Repertoires of collective action in an “IT City”: Urban civil society negotiations of offline and online spaces in Bangalore

This paper examines the ways in which two Internet-based civil society groups, Hasiru Usiru and Praja, negotiate online and offline spaces of collective action in Bangalore, India’s “IT City.” Based on ethnographic research, the study extends collective action theory through an examination of communicative interactions and experiences of urban civil society actors in a developing country. The paper highlight factors that impede and support collective actions, including attitudes toward the Internet as a tool for democratic engagement, ideological motivations, and perceptions of identity and membership, among others. Such a line of inquiry is significant in highlighting the possibilities of ICTs for collective action, while simultaneously avoiding the tendency to inflate and overestimate their capacity to produce social change.     

Curating Queer Heritage: Queer Knowledge and Museum Practice

Abstract Important work in the last decades within the museum studies field has laid bare the implicit nationalist, evolutionist, and patriarchal narratives of the traditional museum. So far, though, only a few writers have discussed the museum’s role in supporting “heteronormative” narratives that consolidate heterosexuality as a norm within social and cultural life. This article is a critical discussion of methodological aspects of a queer perspective in interpreting, exhibiting, and organizing museum collections. Two shows with LGBT / queer perspective that were exhibited in Stockholm, Sweden during EuroPride 2008 are the focus of this article’s analysis. They consist of the photo exhibition Show Yourself! at the Nordic Museum, and Queer: Desire, Power, and Identity at the National Museum of Fine Arts. The author himself was the curator of the latter exhibition. This article offers personal reflections on the methodological challenges of translating an abstract queer perspective into museum practice in order to envision online and on‐site museum encounters that can mobilize various kinds of pluralistic passions.     

When is Fiction as Good as Fact? Comparing the Influence of Documentary and Historical Reenactment Films on Engagement,Affect, Issue Interest,and Learning

This study advances documentary film effects research by comparing the influence of a political documentary with a historical reenactment film on narrative engagement, affect, learning, and interest. Using the Rwandan genocide as a context of study, a documentary film, The Triumph of Evil, and the historical reenactment fictional film, Hotel Rwanda, were examined. Results revealed significant differences between documentary and historical reenactment film exposure for affective responses and issue knowledge gain. However, increased issue interest and narrative engagement were not significantly different for the two stimulus groups, suggesting that dramatic fictional reenactments of socio-political events lead to increased issue interest as much or more than the live footage and factual account of events offered in a documentary. The results of this study are discussed in terms of their importance for key democratic outcome variables (e.g., knowledge and participation), along with suggestions for future documentary film research.