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Research pertaining to the emergence and presence of trans and gender nonconforming identities in press materials has been lacking, particularly within the queer Irish context. This article fills this gap by presenting the findings of a study exploring the emergence of gender nonconformity through the alternative queer media outlet, Gay Community News (GCN). Using the first decade of the GCN’s reportage (1988 to 1998), this article explores 113 issues of GCN, including supplements, deploying textual analysis to uncover how GCN negotiated and represented trans and gender diverse identities. Through this analysis, three key themes relating to trans visibility emerge across this decade: 1. Negotiating the inclusion and exclusion of trans femme identities; 2. Transvestite identity and its normal attachments and 3. Information provision and consciousness-raising. In exploring these themes, this article argues that alternative media have been crucial for the emergence of trans and gender diverse visibility in the Irish queer press. Additionally, it contends that this community is very much minoritised regarding the kinds of inclusions offered to them. While highlighting the activist potential of alternative media like GCN, the article demonstrates that trans visibility was often complex, marred by exclusions and expectations around conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to investigate the present scenario of social media-based public library services in Bangladesh and develop a model plan to popularize these services among the user community. A semi-structured interview questionnaire was used to collect responses from the representatives of public libraries. Findings indicated that while there is a growing trend of using social media for community engagement in public libraries in Bangladesh, there are significant challenges that need to be addressed. The study also identified several opportunities for public libraries to use social media to better engage with their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the dynamics of online community entrepreneurship, using a rural grocery store as a case study. I examine the role of social media in community entrepreneurship, revealing insights into the interplay between social interactions, spatial factors, and the entrepreneurial process. The case account outlines a process where online communities turn ideas into actions and shape local environments. Social media acts as a platform for collective effort, resource allocation, and coordination, challenging traditional notions of localized entrepreneurship. Three key themes emerge: social media facilitates communication and collaboration; collective agency empowers online communities for change; and the dynamic nature of context blurs the boundaries between local and online. I introduce the concept of 'online community entrepreneurship', which connects participants based on shared interests, promoting social goals and asynchronous engagement. This research enriches an understanding of community entrepreneurship by highlighting the transformative impact of online communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concept of brokerage to the scholarship of local news. Drawing on anthropological conceptions of actors that bridge gaps in social structure and help information flow across such gaps, we propose that local journalists act as cultural brokers in rural towns. Building upon Gould and Fernandez (1989, "Structures of Mediation: A Formal Approach to Brokerage in Transaction Networks." Sociological Methodology 19:89. ), we employ a typology of five brokerage functions to classify relationships between local journalists, their sources, and their audiences. In addition to coordinating, itinerant, representative, liaison, and gatekeeping brokerage, our analysis reveals a novel type of brokerage: relay brokerage. We argue that this typology is useful to conceptualize information relationships in rural communities and to understand how information flows change when local journalism ebbs. Empirically, the paper presents a comprehensive study of staffing at rural newspapers in Alberta, Canada, revealing that local media are stretched so thin in many geographic areas, there is little left to cut. For scholars, this simplified media ecosystem is an environment where relationships between reporters, sources, and audiences may be more easily analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the discourses on mobile others as objects of massification or likened to natural forces. By creating a dialogue between theories of crowds/masses and popular geopolitics, we examine how a local media frames the actual, imagined and absent border crossings of refugees and tourists when a voluminous mobile group disappears in tandem with an emerging unease about a new mobile group. We focus on the freesheet Imatralainen, published in a South Karelian Finnish-Russian bordertown that has been a tourist destination since the late eighteenth century but where invisible geopolitical tension is part of everyday life. Our discourse analysis shows that from the Crimean crisis to the migrant 'crisis' (2014–2016), local media have frequently portrayed Russian tourists and non-European migrants via a natural force rhetoric while viewing both refugees and tourists as potential resources or burdens. The mobility of others can represent itself as an external threat, and it can be taken as a perspectival threatscape that opens space for geopolitical issues amplified or transformed through the idea of masses and crowds into potential local issues. The article contributes to tourism geographies and the geopolitics of mobilities literature by evaluating the potential of classical crowd theories for understanding how threatscapes relating to the refugee-tourist nexus are made and manipulated by linguistic collectivisation, silencing and dehumanisation. We argue that more attention should be given to the role of the local in shaping the popular geopolitics of mobilities that construct, sustain and fabricate discourses of 'otherness' and massification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media scholars have long expressed concern that news outlets’ tendency to frame policy debates in terms of partisan conflict or political gamesmanship politicizes and polarizes public opinion. This tendency may be particularly problematic with new, highly salient issues like the COVID-19 pandemic during its earliest stages. To evaluate the degree to which coverage of the pandemic in its first months was framed in partisan terms we analyze the content of COVID-19 related articles published on the front page of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and a random sample of local newspapers between February 21 and May 15, 2020. Contrary to what existing work about the politicization of early-pandemic news coverage might lead us to expect, we find these newspapers employed partisan framings of the pandemic in only about one out of ten articles. However, these frequencies differ dramatically across the kind of newspaper, with the two national papers far more likely to employ partisan framings than the local newspapers, and lower-circulation local papers much less likely to employ partisan framing than higher-circulation local papers. These results suggest that the degree to which news consumers receive partisan-framed messages about the pandemic depends on whether they consume local or national media. Further, the collapse of local news outlets may have led news consumers to see more partisan-framed coverage in the early stages of the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms can leverage social media brand communities (SMBCs) to manage consumer relationships. This study investigated firm engagement tactics using a mixed-methods approach with qualitative (Study one) and quantitative (Study two) analyses. Building on uses and gratifications theory and the qualitative results, we identify brand-specific consumer education, reputation enhancement, incentives provision, interaction support, and entertainment support as firm engagement tactics. Next, we explore the moderating effect of firm engagement tactics on the SMBC identification/SMBC engagement and SMBC engagement/brand loyalty relationships using the partial least squares method. The results confirm that consumer engagement mediates the link between SMBC identification and brand loyalty. In addition, firm engagement tactics positively moderate the aforementioned relationships. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current teleultrasound methods include audiovisual guidance and robotic teleoperation, which constitute tradeoffs between precision and latency versus flexibility and cost. We present a novel concept of "human teleoperation" which bridges the gap between these two methods. In the concept, an expert remotely teloperates a person (the follower) wearing a mixed-reality headset by controlling a virtual ultrasound probe projected into the person's scene. The follower matches the pose and force of the virtual device with a real probe. The pose, force, video, ultrasound images, and 3-dimensional mesh of the scene are fed back to the expert. This control framework, where the actuation is carried out by people, allows more precision and speed than verbal guidance, yet is more flexible and inexpensive than robotic teleoperation. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this concept as well as a prototype teleultrasound system with limited haptics and local communication. The system was tested to show its potential, including mean teleoperation latencies of 0.32 ± 0.05 seconds and steady-state errors of 4.4 ± 2.8 mm and 5.4 ± 2.8 $^ \circ $ ∘ in position and orientation tracking respectively. A preliminary test with an ultrasonographer and four patients was completed, showing lower measurement error and a completion time of 1:36 ± 0:23 minutes using human teleoperation compared to 4:13 ± 3:58 using audiovisual teleguidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local news organizations are currently redefining how they tell stories, and one tool they are utilizing to reconnect with members of their communities is solutions journalism. This solutions-oriented approach to storytelling includes voices who have the tools to combat local, national, and international problems as well as those who have been directly impacted by issues. This back-and-forth narrative gives deeper insight into issues pervading society (and what can be done about them) than a traditional news story might. However, much is still unknown about how journalists and their media organizations are defining and practicing solutions journalism, especially from the context of local media. This study sought to give foundational understanding to how media practitioners in the southeastern United States who recognize and utilize solutions journalism are pioneering this subsection of the journalism landscape. Insights mined from semi-structured interviews indicate that the definition and practice of solutions journalism is evolving, and that symbiotic relationships formed through the practice of solutions journalism can aid in building credibility, creating stronger bonds within communities, and positively impacting underrepresented communities through tangible change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPark visitors are increasingly gravitating toward peer-to-peer sources of information on social media to prepare for their visit to nature parks. This has significant implications for park safety and management. The current study utilizes the Theory of Consumer Values and Crompton’s Push and Pull Theory as the theoretical lens. This research presents a thematic analysis of 19 interviews with participants who visited a nature park in Western Australia and engaged with social media communities to seek park-related information in the past 12 months. Six themes were identified related to the motivators and barriers for park visitors to seek park-related information from social media communities. They are: (1) destination planning and activities information; (2) access to real-time information; (3) source credibility; (4) social interactions and influences; (5) entertainment; (6) novelty. The findings provide significant managerial insights for park agencies and managers to optimize their social media communication of park-related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the journalistic role perceptions and role performance of local interloper media practitioners in Finland. The examined media include non-commercial outlets funded by a city administration or other local authorities as well as commercial online-only outlets. The outlets are conceptualised as interlopers because they apply journalistic forms, styles and methods in their content but do not necessarily consider themselves as journalists or adhere to the ethical guidelines of journalism. The outlets' role performance is analysed in their published content, while the practitioners' role perceptions are analysed via semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals that the non-commercial practitioners primarily perceive and perform the loyal facilitator role, whereas the commercial practitioners serve the disseminator role. The watchdog role is virtually absent among all the examined outlets. The lack of critical perspectives indicates a selective and strategic adoption of journalistic roles aimed at enhancing public relations efforts and appearing more trustworthy and interesting to audiences or advertisers. The investigated outlets and practitioners therefore challenge the monopoly of local legacy news media over local news. Their adoption of certain journalistic roles while abstaining from critical scrutiny of local authorities shows a tendency to disguise political or private ambitions as public interest news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public Service Media remains at the centre of the public sphere in Northern Ireland. Public Service Media organisations such as the BBC broadcast in a society that remains politically and culturally divided. This has been the case for decades, even if the worst of the violence in Northern Ireland has now dissipated. The Northern Ireland media system includes local media provision, along with provision from the rest of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. This article identifies Northern Ireland's media system as sharing characteristics with what Puppis (2009) defines as a small media system, under slightly different conditions. This article takes a Critical Political Economy approach to Public Service Media organisations operating in Northern Ireland, in order to argue that while there is prominence in the place of PSM in the media system, there is also vulnerability inherent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Positive journalism" is always emphasized in China, which is currently named as "ZhengNengLiang" (literally referring to "positive energy"). Such content is hoped to spread confidence, hope, and optimism. During public crises like the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is particularly highlighted. Since "ZhengNengLiang" is a term that is difficult to match perfectly with any existing concept of journalism, this study investigates its connotations by applying qualitative methods and taking Shanghai's lockdown for the COVID-19 as an example. Adopting grounded theory, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 15 practitioners of community media were conducted, and 3016 valid subjective questionnaires were collected from audiences. All materials were coded by applying thematic analysis. It is found that content producers tended to emphasize adherence to mainstream ideology, upholding opinion climate in communities, and promoting neighborly mutual assistance. Audiences' understandings of it were partially in line with the producers', but they placed priorities on practicality. These findings resonate with some established theories like constructive journalism. However, China's political system and cultural traditions make the connotations of "ZhengNengLiang" complex. We suggest policymakers provide content producers at grassroots level more room to create "ZhengNengLiang" content with more practical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Public Service Media (PSM) have implemented innovation departments or labs that seem to be useful for experimenting and developing innovative ideas regarding technologies, content, audiences and other areas. We have identified 17 PSM labs. We analyse these units through the lens of the Model of Coordinated Action developed by Lee and Paine (2015) and the concept of "Community of Practice" that describes how a group communicates, learns, participates and transforms their practice, drawing from Wenger's theory (1998). This study addresses how innovative PSM labs are managed, focusing on the cases of BBC News Labs and RTVE Lab. The methodology is based on participant observation in their workplaces, as well as semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 23 managers and employees. The results highlight that both teams manage innovation in their functional organization through learning processes among their professionals and transfer their innovations to other areas of their respective corporations. PSM labs encourage their team members to innovate through a collaborative culture that makes it possible to identify them as Communities of Practice that foster coordinated action and learning in their work. Their organizational culture relies on a strategy that seeks to increase their public service function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The affective contagion theory is essential in marketing and consumer research. By integrating this perspective with cross-cultural mobile marketing, our study explores the role of valenced emotions aroused by cultural elements within the app and further affective contagion effects, culture affinity as antecedent, and cross-cultural factors that may affect these evaluations. Based on three evaluative conditioning experiments with foreign users in China, we found the valenced emotion aroused by cultural elements in local apps (movie posters, media content, products) triggers a contagion effect on their attitudes toward the app. Moreover, we validate the role of culture affinity in providing ex-ante emotional associations during the appraisal process, the negative impact of language foreignness, and the interaction between app origin and political ideology. Our findings hold practical implications for app developers and marketers, particularly regarding the relationship between emotion and cultural bias in global markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how local newspaper stories in a college town created a dominant cultural narrative about an urban redevelopment project using tropes of physical blight and financial obsolescence. The article discusses descriptive tactics that appear throughout 16 years of coverage alongside patterns in the stories' frequency, focus, and authorship. The conclusion shares a series of practical takeaways for technical writers looking to collaborate with communities facing redevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments often launch high profile and expensive bids to host large-scale sporting events to promote economic development. However, many studies have called into question the economic benefits of these events for host communities and businesses. This study examines the perceptions of host city businesses and their decision-making in relation to event leveraging, using the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games as a case study. Using in-depth interviews, a purposive study of 38 business professionals and experts based in the host city of the Gold Coast were conducted. Example mass media, social media, documents, and personal communications materials are presented to illustrate the messaging that businesses were exposed to. Data were analysed using an inductive thematic content approach through the software NVivo. This study confirms that event-related information is vital for business leveraging behaviour. The data illustrated that local firms were at a point of information asymmetry between official forecasted information and their actual in-time experience. As businesses sought out information to inform their business decision-making, they found incomplete and inaccurate information which impacted their success in event leveraging decisions. Our contribution to knowledge and practice is to propose that event mis/information that is often associated with large-scale sporting events is problematic for business planning and decision making. In applying signalling theory, we discern how official event messaging influences business performance, making an important contribution by highlighting that this mismanagement of official event messaging by event officials presents a critical inhibitor for event leveraging decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community broadcasting is anecdotally considered a 'training ground' for the mainstream media. However, there is little empirical research that supports these claims around skill development and career outcomes. Similarly, while community broadcasting is broadly recognized as contributing to social cohesion, the focus of much of this research is on audiences rather than the experiences of community media practitioners. This article is based on a broader programme of research that interrogated the experiences of people with significant involvement in the Australian community broadcasting sector to examine the impact of community media participation on career pathways. Here we consider a key finding: working or volunteering in community radio plays an important role in developing robust and meaningful networks, connections, and relationships which are central to shaping personal and professional pathways. These findings draw on rhizome theory to highlight the importance of community broadcasting for building and maintaining diverse and enduring networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of recent trends forcing local news organisations to adjust business models, local news publishers are often challenged with recognising new technologies as business opportunities. This contribution investigates the role of localisation technologies by using an abductive qualitative approach. We analyse how local media managers' everyday activities shape the capability of creating, identifying, and experimenting with new business opportunities in a local news media market – discussed here for location-based services (LBS) – in a case study of a local news market with local journalists with managerial responsibilities and newsroom managers. Doing so, this contribution comments on activities undertaken concerning evolving technologies. The findings indicate that the selected local media managers do not experiment with LBS, and most organisations use LBS only for advertising. We reveal the factors explaining this finding to be the media managers' limited information about technological developments, their lack of experimentation within core areas, and media organisations' constraints to the acceptance of mistakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media brand communities engage consumers and build relationships. This research aims to empirically investigate how consumer engagement in social media brand communities can be used to achieve branding outcomes. Fashion brands are divided into three categories clothing, shoes and bags, and accessories. Data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling based on a survey of 475 people who belong to social media brand communities of fashion brands. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesis. The study reveals Social Media Brand Engagement of consumers of fashion brands positively influences brand experience, brand image, trust, and loyalty. Furthermore, product type moderates the relationship between Social Media Brand Community Engagement and Brand Experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents a case study of how academics can use traditional research and non-traditional knowledge mobilization to improve the dissemination of findings related to stigmatized communities. The International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP) used peer-reviewed scholarship to challenge pervasive media misconceptions and misinformation about furries. Finding the reach of traditional academic outlets was inadequate to meaningfully impact mainstream misconceptions, we rebranded our research efforts under the name Furscience and utilized social marketing and creative dissemination to repackage the IARP's research into more public-friendly, accessible formats. Furscience has become a multi-purpose platform specifically engineered to forge connections among academics, furries, the public, and media. It also supports the furry community's own diverse, anti-stigma efforts by providing data, public education, and partnerships. We offer preliminary evidence that suggests Furscience has increased its public reach and that furries, themselves, see improvements in how the media and public understand their community. This case study offers academics who work with stigmatized populations—especially those plagued by misinformation—and engage in translational research an example of how data, community and media partnerships, and non-traditional dissemination strategies can improve research accessibility and anti-stigma efforts. We conclude with a summary of the lessons learned by Furscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid the retreat of local journalism and the resulting emergence of "news deserts," where communities lack authentic and civically accountable sources of news, it is important to not only seek new revenue streams for news organizations but also to consider how financial resources and institutional structures secure journalistic autonomy and an abiding dedication to public service. Surveying initiatives to bolster local reporting in multiple countries, this study finds that such efforts frequently rest on an unstated optimism that market failures can be corrected and that new, sustainable business models ultimately will solve the journalism crisis. In contrast to these stopgap interventions, initiatives based on public service media principles found in the world's healthiest democracies—such as providing information across all social groups and fostering civic engagement—are better positioned to rebuild local systems in which news media are structured as enduring social institutions with crucial roles to play in democratic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning January of 2020, COVID-19 cases detected in Arctic countries triggered government policy responses to stop transmission and limit caseloads beneath levels that would overwhelm existing healthcare systems. This review details the various restrictions, health mandates, and transmission mitigation strategies imposed by governments in eight Arctic countries (the United States, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Russia) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, through 31 January 2021s31 January 2021. We highlight formal protocols and informal initiatives adopted by local communities in each country, beyond what was mandated by regional or national governments. This review documents travel restrictions, communications, testing strategies, and use of health technology to track and monitor COVID-19 cases. We provide geographical and sociocultural background and draw on local media and communications to contextualise the impact of COVID-19 emergence and prevention measures in Indigenous communities in the Arctic. Countries saw varied case rates associated with local protocols, governance, and population. Still, almost all regions maintained low COVID-19 case rates until November of 2020. This review was produced as part of an international collaboration to identify community-driven, evidence-based promising practices and recommendations to inform pan-Arctic collaboration and decision making in public health during global emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coping with misinformation in a media environment is one of the challenges that undermine the role of the media. The pandemic of Covid-19 influenced the media organisations in their working processes significantly and a decrease in accuracy was one of the findings of our study. This paper examines the impact of the pandemic in local media to journalists' practices and the role of the media. We aimed to research the effects of the pandemic in the local environment on journalistic procedures and the media's role after this period. In answering the research questions, we used the method of a structured questionnaire for journalists and semi-structured in-depth interviews for local News Editors. We aimed to research the media production practices on various levels of professionals included in local news. We detected those production practices that could endanger the credibility of the local media. The findings provided insights into how Slovenian local journalists and editors define, understand, and practice fact-checking. The results led to an understanding that the perception of the media role in offering information was higher during the pandemic period and that human verification is key in ensuring the credibility of content in local newsrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the proximity of local media to audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is based on a case study of Italian daily L'Eco di Bergamo combining two sets of data: a list of initiatives the newspaper took in 2019 and 2020 to be closer to audiences, and interviews shedding light on how staff viewed the paper's relationship with audiences during that time. An analysis of these two datasets shows that the pandemic increased the newspaper's proximity to audiences but did not fundamentally change the way in which it related with audiences, despite significant changes in journalists' work routines. Based on these findings, the paper proposes a conceptualization of proximity as a dynamic balance between three structuring dimensions (gatekeeping, social and commercial), with a focus on audiences as a plural figure determined by news organizations' strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines two prominent discussions in media studies and industry: the challenged economic situation for independent community news and the complex relationship with digital platforms. Through empirical data, it assesses current incomes and the impact of platform companies on management practices in the UK. It finds that building your social media following, particularly on Twitter, correlates to higher income. Independent community media also report utility benefit from digital platforms for audience growth, the provision of analytics and story suggestions. Direct returns economically from advertising are less forthcoming and publishers feel subjugated by policymaker and platform opacity. Through a mixed method approach, we conclude social media practices can have positive indirect impact on the news revenue model, but absent direct returns mean management frustrations persist [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the discussion of possible solutions to the business crisis facing legacy media, insufficient attention has been paid to existing arrangements that channel public money to media serving marginalised audiences, particularly in Global South countries. Argentina and South Africa are upper middle-income, often turbulent countries that have set up official mechanisms to help fund local and community media. They are here compared with Norway, where such mechanisms are a key, long-standing element in a media system that is often held up as the gold standard of public communication. Three main mechanisms are compared: indirect subsidy, direct subsidy and government advertising. Differences in political and media history and landscape have led to variations in the relative importance of the various mechanisms, the media platforms targeted and the institutional arrangements. It is argued that arrangements for public support must be understood and designed in context, are always politically driven, must be safeguarded against political interference, and should be long-term and redistributive in approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study contributes to the theory of gatekeeping by examining how community media journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa navigate through conflicting information. Using the case of COVID-19, the study examined how journalists from community media in Zambia and Tanzania reported government information that conflicted with what the local communities they served believed to be untrue. Drawing from interviews with journalists from community media organizations, we were able to demonstrate that there was a schism between what the editors thought as newsworthy versus what the reporters believed as possessing journalistic values relevant for their communities. Unlike the reporters, most editors aligned much with what the government wanted the media to transmit. This is especially true in Zambia where reporters indicated that most of their stories were flagged as irrelevant by their editors. These findings are then examined through the lens of gatekeeping, particularly a focus on various levels of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and observers attribute many democratic benefits to local news media. This paper examines exposure to local and national news media websites, side-by-side in one model, testing their over-time effects on political participation, knowledge, and affective and attitude polarization. We test whether traditionally disengaged or disadvantaged groups (i.e., racial minorities, those with low education levels, politically disinterested, and those who do not consume national news), may particularly benefit from local news consumption. To this end, we combine three-wave panel surveys (final N = 740) with 9 months worth of web browsing data submitted by the same participants (36 million visits). We identify exposure to local and national news sites using an extensive list of news domains. The results offer a robust pattern of null findings. Actual online exposure to local news has no over-time effects on the tested outcomes. Also, exposure to local news sites does not exert especially strong effects among the tested sub-groups. We attribute these results to the fact that news visits account for a small fraction of citizens' online activities, less than 2% in our trace data. Our project suggests the need to evaluate the effects of local news consumption on the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze multi-layered communication responses to maritime disasters in Indonesia using two significant cases, namely the tidal flooding in Semarang and the tsunami in Banda Aceh. Reducing the risk of disaster is not only a technical matter but also strongly associated with communication issues. Therefore, there has been much research into disaster communication. However, research on multi-layered communication responses to diverse disasters must still be done. Data were collected through interviews with the people, journalists, and government officials in Semarang and Banda Aceh. These data were complemented by field observations and reviews of local media news and government policies. The results show that communication response in the two regions involved a complex triangle of science, religion, and politics. This means that the community, media, and government of these regions communicated these two types of disasters as involving science, religion, and politics to varying degrees. This article also finds that the local media was unable to optimally play its central role as an intermediary actor in disaster communication in the two regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations play an essential role in solving community problems and social media facilitates their efforts. This paper illustrates an approach to using the social media data of organizations to observe community-level social capital unobtrusively by comparing communities that differ by racial composition and poverty. Data from the IRS, US Census Bureau, and social media platforms revealed that most nonprofit organizations in a mid-sized city in the South have a social media presence, with Facebook substantially more prevalent than Instagram or Twitter. Disparities based on community poverty and race emerged. Exceptions and implications for practice and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extant literature on dark side of consumer-brand relationship is still growing. Recently, researchers have given it notable concentration, yet some gaps exist specifically in context of social media brand communities. The present work adds to the understanding of the negative sides of consumer-brand relationship via empirically investigating brand hate in social media based anti-brand communities specifically in an emerging market context of India. This study makes use of survey method to approach 387 users of social media platforms to empirically test an integrated model of precursors and consequents of brand hate in anti-brand social media communities. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and its findings confirm positively stronger association of symbolic incongruity and negative past experience with brand hate. Brand hate; in turn, strongly affect non-purchase intention, negative word-of mouth and retaliation. Results have managerial and useful implications for the brand managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by the theoretical framework of media effects and resonance theory, this study investigates how issue obtrusiveness and information richness as message attributes, and media hierarchy and orientation as source characteristics influence audience engagement with news posts on social media. The data of news posts (N = 943,793) from the top 99 Sina Weibo accounts of Chinese media with likes, comments, and reposts as indicators of audience engagement were retrieved. Through multilevel modeling, the study finds that source characteristics exert stronger effects on audience engagement than message attributes, and the effects on comments differ from those on likes and reposts. The association between issue obtrusiveness and comments is stronger than that between obtrusiveness and likes/reposts. Posts of high information richness draw more audience engagement than posts of low information richness. Through their news posts, central-level media attract more engagement than local media. The implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of papal communication in the local construction of royal and papal authority. Taking the kingdom of Denmark as its case, it analyses letters issued by Pope Alexander III to King Valdemar I and the Danish clergy before a grand meeting at Ringsted in 1170. It is argued that to understand the function and impact of the papal letters fully it is necessary to examine not only their verbal content, but also their wider processual context: how a Scandinavian delegation obtained the letters at the papal court in Benevento; how the letters were presented to the Danish audience as part of the ritual celebrations at Ringsted; and how the events later were framed and narrated by local Scandinavian authors. As a whole, the process constituted a 'circuit of legitimation', a reciprocal exchange between the pope and the king of recognition and glorification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when local journalism is under threat, regional newsrooms can play a crucial role in working with communities to confront shameful truths and profound failures. The regional city of Ballarat emerged as an "epicentre" of clergy sexual abuse through Australia's landmark Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (2013–2017). This article examines how the regional city's newspaper, The Courier, bore witness to these crimes and their impacts within its local community. A content and thematic analysis of coverage of child sexual abuse from 2010 to 2019 documents how The Courier's locally produced journalism revealed to its audience the extent of abuse, helping to acknowledge and face crimes that had occurred in Ballarat's local institutions. The interlinked themes of revelation, reckoning and recovery demonstrate how local journalism can work with its community to address traumatic events that occur within its geosocial space. Local media bore witness on multiple levels, as both the amplifier of stories told by survivors and the facilitator of community processes of reckoning and recovery. We refer to this special form of local journalism as "proximal" media witnessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swapnil Rai's book, "Networked Bollywood: how star power globalized Hindi cinema," provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of star power in Hindi popular cinema, commonly known as Bollywood. The book explores the evolution of the star system in Hindi cinema, tracing its historical development and its connection to socio-political changes in India. Rai also examines the globalization of Hindi films and the establishment of networks, highlighting the industry's popularity in various countries and its collaboration with international industries. The book also addresses the gender dynamics within the industry, discussing the obstacles faced by female stars. Overall, "Networked Bollywood" offers a transnational and interdisciplinary perspective on Hindi cinema, making it a valuable resource for those interested in researching the industry's intricate connections. [Extracted from the article]

Not only is social media a new channel to obtain financial market information, it has also become a venue for investors to share and exchange investment ideas. We examine the performance consequences of providing monetary incentive to both existing and new amateur analysts on social media and its implications for online investor communities. We find that monetary incentive is effective in increasing the amount of content output and generating more interest from the community, but it leads to neither better nor worse stock recommendations. Additional analysis suggests that monetary incentive results in wider stock and industry coverage, a sign of increased content diversity. This study contributes to the understanding of the role of monetary incentive in stimulating the sharing of value-relevant information by investors in social media communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not only the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), but also researchers have called for the involvement of local communities in the management of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in the last decade. Despite awareness of this need for local involvement, there is no consensus regarding common criteria and implementation methods, especially in the case of small urban neighbourhoods. This research seeks to fill that gap by exploring different participatory actions with local communities in the neighbourhoods to identify and inventory their ICH. A participatory process was conducted in the Fontanalla neighbourhood of the city of Malaga and included expert opinions and local knowledge. Informal interviews, observational works and participatory actions were used to collect extensive data, which was then categorised and analysed. The results allowed the singularities and traditions to be recognised as part of their ICH. An ICH inventory is proposed with the involvement of the local community. The results from collected data and the suggested methodology to activate ICH participatory processes are expected to be useful for researchers and practitioners working on Intangible Cultural Heritage as well as Urban Regeneration in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media architecture community systematically explores the potentials of computation and digital media to intervene in form-finding, fabrication of buildings and urban data collection processes. Combining social media topic modelling techniques with the review of media architecture-related literature, I discuss methods to locate the media architecture community in social media, conduct initial discourse analysis and pursue a deeper investigation of the topics addressed by community. In the literature, media architecture is presented as an interactive set of technologies for a participative public life. And yet, while a dynamic facade increases possibilities for participation and creative expression, it also facilitates reframing participation as a technical problem. I position optimization and efficiency in media architecture discourse as a form of optimism and offer insights into its political implications. I propose to rethink the shortcut between optimism and optimization by tracing conceptual and professional relations that inform media architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the establishment of two local museums which were co-created by local communities: the Museum of Podgórze in Krakow and the Praga Museum of Warsaw – two museums devoted to districts of major cities; however, neither of them is autonomous, but part of, respectively, the Museum of Krakow and the Museum of Warsaw. In both cases communities were critical in establishing the institutions, and once opened, both needed to renegotiate their positions in the community – they gained prestige and power, but lost flexibility, freedom and some energy. The main question in the article is whether local communities are treated as an object or have some real influence on museums, particularly in their programming and philosophy. The article demonstrates that while the public and local communities are largely involved in the process of creation of museums, their role in museums functioning diminishes when newly established institutions are opened. Formalisation and bureaucracy of museums, despite attempts of some staff members, considerably challenges and hinders participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism facilitates the public sphere, playing a key role as a social institution dedicated to informed citizenship. From a democratic perspective, a diversity of opinions and viewpoints on the mediated agenda is vital. This article analyzes the sourcing practice in Norwegian local and regional media, identifying what kind of sources are given access and who is not. With diversity and media shadows as central concepts, the research question asked is: What characterizes the sourcing practice in local and regional media, and how does this contribute to diversity in the coverage. With its characteristic geographic stratified media landscape and a large amount of local and regional media, the Norwegian context is of special interest when elaborating on the institutional role of local media, and the ideal of diversity. The article is based on a content analysis of 24 Norwegian local and regional media including print, online and broadcast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible signalling behaviour is widespread, with adjustments often enhancing gains or reducing costs of signalling based on the current state of the signaller's local communication network. Male túngara frogs call within multispecies communication networks containing conspecifics (both target receivers and rivals) and eavesdropping predators. These diverse players all exert an influence on male calling strategies. We investigated the degree to which patterns of changes in call characteristics across individual túngara frog calling bouts were influenced by callers' social environment, body condition, and ambient temperature. Most call bouts exhibited two distinct phases, an initial steep increase in call amplitude (the rise) followed by a longer period of more gradual amplitude increase (the plateau). Rises were completed more quickly when males called in denser choruses, while call amplitude increases during plateau phases were greater for males in better body condition. Males also produced more complex calls and increased complexity sooner when calling in denser choruses. Our results suggest that the social environment is the main driver of within-bout calling patterns. This could be due to (i) increased call effort required when competing in denser choruses, (ii) dilution effects provided by nearby rivals releasing callers from eavesdropping risk or, likely, (iii) a combination of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Journalism innovation, according to service innovation theory, is about providing new journalistic services that create value for audiences, society, and the news organisation itself. This study explores how local news media responded to the Coronavirus crisis in terms of service innovation. Based on interviews with editors and top management representatives at two local newspaper groups in Norway (N = 20), we show how local newspapers developed new digital services in response to audiences' need for guidance, overview, and a sense of togetherness, and how the media operations generated revenues in the process. Theoretically, the study identifies two key innovation dynamics in local journalism during a crisis: A social-economic value creation dynamic which captures how local newspapers appropriate their business model to accommodate new service offerings and balance social and economic value creation considerations; and a service system-audience experience dynamic which captures how innovation in journalistic offerings are linked to concurrent innovations in journalistic production processes. This research enhances the understanding of journalism innovation as a value-creating phenomenon and the factors that stimulate such value creation during crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed at analyzing journalists' organizational working perceptions in the Ethiopian local media. The study covered six branches of Amhara Media Corporation (AMC). It applied explanatory sequential mixed research in the course of a survey, in-depth interview, document analysis and observation instruments. To gauge the levels of organizational trust (OT), organizational commitment (OC), job satisfaction (JS), social exchange (SE) and economic exchange (EE), a questionnaire survey was distributed to 220 randomly chosen respondents. Besides, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight purposefully selected media practitioners. The study's theoretical framework integrates the organizational theories of OT, OC, JS, SE and EE with the hierarchy of influences model. The findings revealed the levels of journalists' OT, OC and SE were moderate and their levels of JS and EE were high and low, respectively. Except for the working stream, journalists' OT level is unaffected by demographic and biographic variables. This study concludes journalists perceive AMC's organizational working atmosphere as partially positive, but the professional practice of journalism faced significant challenges and influences from the ownership it bases and establishes. The media managers are intentionally and directly assigned in AMC to maintain the political hegemony and status quo of the ruling party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a social media-disaster resilience analysis framework by categorizing types of social media use and their challenges to better understand and assess its role in disaster resilience research and management. The framework is derived primarily from several case studies of Twitter use in three hurricane events in the United States – Hurricanes Isaac, Sandy, and Harvey. The paper first outlines four major contributions of social media data for disaster resilience research and management, which include serving as an effective communication platform, providing ground truth information for emergency response and rescue operations, providing information on people's sentiments, and allowing predictive modeling. However, there are four key challenges to its uses, which include easy spreading of false information, social and geographical disparities of Twitter use, technical issues on processing and analyzing big and noisy data, especially on improving the locational accuracy of the tweets, and algorithm bias in AI and other types of modeling. Then, the paper proposes twenty strategies that the four sectors of the social media community – organizations, individuals, social media companies, and researchers – could take to improve social media use to increase disaster resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not only is social media a new channel to obtain financial market information, it has also become a venue for investors to share and exchange investment ideas. We examine the performance consequences of providing monetary incentive to both existing and new amateur analysts on social media and its implications for online investor communities. We find that monetary incentive is effective in increasing the amount of content output and generating more interest from the community, but it leads to neither better nor worse stock recommendations. Additional analysis suggests that monetary incentive results in wider stock and industry coverage, a sign of increased content diversity. This study contributes to the understanding of the role of monetary incentive in stimulating the sharing of value-relevant information by investors in social media communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election, the public slowly began to grapple with the extent of Russian disinformation campaigns by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), elements of which were carried out on Facebook. Campaigns targeted people in the United States in many ways, including by publishing event pages on Facebook that were at times piggybacking on existing events, stoking fear, anger and other emotions already on the rise in an increasingly tribal political climate. In the summer before the election, two particular Facebook pages – 'Heart of Texas' and the 'United Muslims of America,' published events advertising protests in front of the Islamic Da'wah Center, a mosque and religious center in downtown Houston. Our study reverse-engineers the IRA-inspired 'Heart of Texas' protests on 21 May 2016, using qualitative in-depth interviews with 14 individuals connected to these events – including counterprotest participants and local organizers, journalists who covered the protest, as well as representatives of local organizations. Results shed light on the role that news media played in protest coverage, the dynamics at the protest, issues around vetting information and the serendipity around how protests emerge and get organized on and off social media. This research documents and critically assesses the on-the-ground transactions such propaganda foments and offers insights into the role of social media in local protests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, SNSs have been influential in re-shaping social movements. Not only do they allow access to cheaper and quicker mobilization resources for demonstrators, they also allow them to circumvent conventional communication networks to create their own narratives and thus gain communicative power. Therefore, the study explores the Twitter activities of the #EndSARS protesters in Nigeria on the night of the Lekki shooting with the specific objective of evaluating the role of influencers within the movement as well as establishing the various manifestations and expressions of anger or hope as tweeted by participants in the protests. The study discovered that users relied more on foreign media than local media for coverage while Nigerians in diaspora fueled information spreading about the protests on the night of the shooting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very few studies have examined discourses about Heads of State who have been pregnant whilst in office. In January 2018, Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand, announced her pregnancy and intention of taking six weeks of maternity leave, which sparked national and international interest. This study analyses the coverage of Ardern's pregnancy and contributes to literature on representations of female politicians. A thematic analysis of newspaper articles (N = 158) from six countries (New Zealand, Australia, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom, & the United States) was conducted. Mild nuances between international and New Zealand data were observed. The analysis suggests that Ardern's pregnancy was presented as a cultural achievement, in part through the tension between local and universal dimensions, and as a symbolic event, notably through the interplay between normal and extraordinary aspects. The findings indicate that Ardern's pregnancy was represented as a step closer to gender equality by advancing women's cause in society and working places and renegotiating representations of fatherhood and masculinity. The notion of privilege was also important, in part because of its absence as a significant consideration in the data, which further revealed normative feminist discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer-brand identification and consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBC) are two of the concepts most highlighted in recent studies, as brand benefit facilitators. This study addresses the importance of these two concepts and their interaction effect on brand loyalty in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category. The results of the quantitative study show that in FMCG, consumer engagement in SMBC is driven by information searching, brand passion, feelings of community connection, and self-expression in the community. Consumer engagement and consumer-brand identification have positive impacts on brand trust and loyalty. The moderating effect of consumer–brand identification on the relationship between consumer engagement in SMBC and brand loyalty is negative, revealing that consumer engagement in social media brand communities has a stronger impact on brand loyalty when consumer-brand identification is low. This study showed the role of SMBC as a powerful communication medium, where brands and consumers can meet, and reach a mutual understanding of common needs and aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]