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This article suggests that in times of digital mass media, mediatized political issues create a self-perpetuating phenomenon that is here titled a neo-myth. Through combining interdisciplinary theories of Issue-Attention Cycles and Social Dramas, the article argues that the standardized ways that political issues are framed, mass-mediated and consumed in a contemporary society, paradoxically create a cyclical and self-perpetuating pattern. Instead of being linear, rational and cause-to-solution oriented, they become stereotypical, cyclical and performative, thus resembling mythological patterns both content and form-wise. The article discusses how and why these neo-myths form, as well as how political, public and media actors interact within the process. It discusses them in terms of their emergence, structure, causality, processual logics and formal variety, and suggests that the phenomenon falls in line with the findings of recent research on the shifting knowledge patterns in times of digital culture.

This article suggests that in times of digital mass media, mediatized political issues create a self-perpetuating phenomenon that is here titled a neo-myth. Through combining interdisciplinary theories of Issue-Attention Cycles and Social Dramas, the article argues that the standardized ways that political issues are framed, mass-mediated and consumed in a contemporary society, paradoxically create a cyclical and self-perpetuating pattern. Instead of being linear, rational and cause-to-solution oriented, they become stereotypical, cyclical and performative, thus resembling mythological patterns both content and form-wise. The article discusses how and why these neo-myths form, as well as how political, public and media actors interact within the process. It discusses them in terms of their emergence, structure, causality, processual logics and formal variety, and suggests that the phenomenon falls in line with the findings of recent research on the shifting knowledge patterns in times of digital culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Crowdlending is increasingly popular among investors as a means of alternative investment or for raising capital. This platform emerged in Asia in 2009, with China being one of the earliest countries to introduce crowdlending. Since its inception over a decade ago, the industry has grown significantly; yet multiple unresolved issues remain. Method: Using computer-assisted textual analysis and content analysis, our study examined articles from representative online newspapers in Asian countries to understand crowdlending diffusion in Asia, both within China and outside China. Results: Using the issue-attention cycle and the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, our analysis of news excerpts relating to crowdlending over a ten-year period (2009-2019) showed that crowdlending diffusion took two different paths. In China, it started with the practical use of crowdlending, with government regulations introduced after numerous problems emerged. In contrast, outside China, the rules were enacted simultaneously with IT artifact and practice. Furthermore, in connecting the DOI theory with an IT-based regulatory system, we demonstrated the usefulness this approach in explaining how DOI can inform IT sensemaking and rulemaking, which can help crowdlending practitioners remove potential impediments from crowdlending practices. Lastly, media coverage on crowdlending practices was found to have offered multiple perspectives, which could have had an impact on public opinion and attitude towards the new technology. Conclusion: Our study's chief contribution lies in showing how media facilitates crowdlending diffusion. In painting a broad picture of crowdlending in Asia, we show that media can help the public, practitioners, and governments to be aware of the crowdlending platform's potential risks and to find ways to mitigate them. Knowing about crowdlending diffusion can help authorities in Asian countries consider more effective ways of regulating the industry. Hence, media as a contextual factor could be considered in other innovation research and IT-based regulation frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The election of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential race was said to result in an unprecedented surge in public support for nonprofit advocacy organizations. Given the cyclical nature of public attention to hard-to-solve social problems and the challenges associated with free-riding in collective action, a question arises as to the extent to which such elevated public support sustains itself over time. The purpose of this study is to examine whether local nonprofit advocacy groups experienced a post-election boost for public support and to what extent the increase, if any, sustained itself 18 months or longer after the election. Our study also explores various organizational incentives advocacy groups use to maintain support. We gather data from structured interviews of advocacy organizations in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Our findings suggest that many local advocacy groups did receive enhanced public support in the forms of volunteer requests, donations, and membership immediately after the election and the majority of them were able to retain the support over time. Normative organizational incentives were predominantly used to recruit and retain supporters, while utilitarian incentives, similar to Olson’s selective private benefits, were not commonly adopted.

Social acceptability of environmental management actions, such as prescribed burning used to reduce wildfire risk, is critical to achieving positive outcomes. However, environmental managers often need to implement strategies over a long time period, and sustaining long-term community support can be challenging. Public attention to environmental issues is argued to vary over time, with acceptability of management interventions theorized to decrease with time since experiencing an environmental problem. However, it is unknown whether a person needs to personally experience the problem to maintain support, or if hearing about it in the media is sufficient. In this paper we explore whether acceptability of prescribed burning used to reduce wildfire risk declines with length of time since personally experiencing a wildfire. In a sample of 4390 Australians, acceptability of prescribed burning was not predicted by length of time since personally experiencing a wildfire, or perceptions of wildfire risk. Significant predictors included perceptions of local fuel loads, and of positive and negative impacts of prescribed burning, suggesting addressing these issues may be more effective in maintaining long-term support for wildfire management policies than investing in increasing attention to wildfire risk. This suggests environmental managers can design communication strategies to maintain support for environmental actions even in the absence of an individual personally experiencing the problem the action is designed to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certification of adherence to social and environmental standards allows companies involved in the (global) trade of commodities to dissociate themselves from negative impacts in the public eye. It can go beyond compliance with legal requirements. Certification can be an attempt to shift blame to uncertified others, but it can also contribute to resolving the underlying issues of concern. We provide a framework for a study of when, where and how certification schemes emerge and evolve, with specific attention to the degree to which underlying issues get addressed. Three strands of literature are combined in this framework (1) the issue–attention cycle as a schematic representation of public concerns shaping policy responses; (2) the management swing potential defined as the gap between best and worst current production systems and the basis for defining standards and (3) global value chains that link distant producers and consumers, and the power relations along these chains, including standards and certification. Based on literature review, we introduce a set of four propositions that inform testable specific hypotheses. We outline questions for reviews, in subsequent papers of this issue, of the experience on timber, oil palm, coffee, cacao and rubber as tropical-forest-margin commodities dominated by global trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coral reef systems are in global decline. In Australia, much of this decline has been attributable to cyclic outbreaks (every ~17 years) of the coral-feeding crown-of-thorns seastar. While a native species, when in large enough densities the seastar acts like an invasive pest. Since 2012 the Australian government has invested significantly in a targeted control program using lethal injection. While this program is effective for individual reefs, it is not a complete strategy for the entire Great Barrier Reef (~2,500 reefs). In order to find a longer-term solution to the problem, in 2015, the lead author travelled to New Zealand, the United States, and Canada under a Churchill Fellowship to understand successful aquatic integrated pest management strategies and their potential application to the Great Barrier Reef. Meetings and workshops were convened with experts who specialise in risk assessment, categorisation, and management of aquatic invasive species. The experts comprised academics, applied scientists, policy makers, and a not for profit community based invasive species council. Bioinvasion management and prioritisation of management effort using risk-based frameworks were reviewed for application to the crown-of-thorns seastar. This viewpoint is novel in its approach of applying invasive species tools and perspectives to a non-invasive, native marine pest. Early detection and rapid response is key to preventing the transition of the seastar from natural densities to outbreak densities. However given the seastar is a native species already established, when in outbreak mode a multifaceted post-border management approach is essential. Private support funding models, that bridge conservation and tourism/philanthropy have proved successful in New Zealand to supplement government funded marine reserve management – this is an approach which should be explored by Australia to help manage the seastar. Dedicated support and commitment is needed to break the issue-attention cycle. On the Great Barrier Reef, a dedicated biosecurity approach should be used to maintain the seastar at natural densities, increase the time between outbreaks, protect coral cover and increase resilience of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates fundamental mechanisms generating issue-attention cycles in news coverage with a social simulation approach. An agent-based computer model is developed, which integrates the main drivers of news waves as identified by empirical research. By simulating the model many times under varying conditions, the interaction of the factors to generate the typical issue-attention cycle can be observed. Results suggest that the momentum of news waves is mainly driven by the adaptive reporting behavior of journalists. Sponsors actively supporting issues by initiating events are not necessary to generate issue-attention cycles, but change their typical dynamics. Comparing simulated time series to two empirical cases yields that the model produces more realistic patterns of media attention when issue sponsors are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are signs that a general ‘counter-attack’ is now being orchestrated against the ‘greens’. This paper surveys the evidence regarding an ‘issue-attention’ cycle in environmental concern in Western Europe and North America. It furthermore discusses the role of the news media in creating the cycle. It is well documented that the mass media plays an important role in determining which issues receive high or low attention by the general public. However, not only does the media's assessment of what is newsworthy mean that ‘green’ businesses will eventually lose the current of a rising issue attention cycle, but also its mere success means that stories framing ‘green’ businesses in a negative light become newsworthy while positive stories lose their newsworthiness. Therefore, and despite a large and loyal customer base, many ‘green’ companies now find themselves in a much more hostile environment than a decade ago. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is still undergoing complicated developments in Vietnam and around the world. There is a lot of information about the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the internet where people can create and share information quickly. This can lead to an infodemic, which is a challenge every government might face in the fight against pandemics., Objective: This study aims to understand public attention toward the pandemic (from December 2019 to November 2020) through 7 types of sources: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, news sites, forums, and e-commerce sites., Methods: We collected and analyzed nearly 38 million pieces of text data from the aforementioned sources via SocialHeat, a social listening (infoveillance) platform developed by YouNet Group. We described not only public attention volume trends, discussion sentiments, top sources, top posts that gained the most public attention, and hot keyword frequency but also hot keywords' co-occurrence as visualized by the VOSviewer software tool., Results: In this study, we reached four main conclusions. First, based on changing discussion trends regarding the COVID-19 subject, 7 periods were identified based on events that can be aggregated into two pandemic waves in Vietnam. Second, community pages on Facebook were the source of the most engagement from the public. However, the sources with the highest average interaction efficiency per article were government sources. Third, people's attitudes when discussing the pandemic have changed from negative to positive emotions. Fourth, the type of content that attracts the most interactions from people varies from time to time. Besides that, the issue-attention cycle theory occurred not only once but four times during the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam., Conclusions: Our study shows that online resources can help the government quickly identify public attention to public health messages during times of crisis. We also determined the hot spots that most interested the public and public attention communication patterns, which can help the government get practical information to make more effective policy reactions to help prevent the spread of the pandemic., (©Huyen Thi Thanh Tran, Shih-Hao Lu, Ha Thi Thu Tran, Bien Van Nguyen. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (https://medinform.jmir.org), 16.07.2021.)

This study examines the role of media in boosting environmental governance and monitoring sustainable development in China and explores the relationship between the Chinese government and media coverage, and helps audiences understand the positions of third world countries on climate governance. It also offers insights into strengthening international cooperation on the governance of air pollution. Drawing on the framing theory and issue-attention cycle literature, this study examines the frames, news sources, and media slants (negative, neutral, positive) that were used in haze coverage, between 2000 and 2018, by China Daily, the primary English-language newspaper in China. The results of a content analysis reveals that news coverage of haze in China Daily exhibits an issue-attention cycle. This study shows that the majority of haze coverage had a neutral slant, mainly adopted frames of define problems and suggest remedies, and cited sources from officials, agencies, specialists and scholars. Additionally, the usage of the science education frame significantly correlated with the citing of specialists and scholars as news sources. The define problems frame significantly correlated with the citing of officials and agencies as news sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]