Topical Seminar on May 14 Centred on Audience Roles in Crisis Communication in Media
18.05.2024
Two scholars with expertise in media psychology and sociology shared the floor on May 14 to make traction of the problem of how the audience reacts to and participates in media communication around emergency events and crisis situations.
Dr. Maria Laura Ruiu from Northumbria University in the UK aimed to observe the way contrasting forces of sceptical hegemony and preoccupied counter-hegemonies interact in both traditional and online media spaces in the context of climate change debates. As a space with vast potential for both reproduction and contestation of hegemonic ideologies, media is increasingly engaging the audience into the debates, not in the least due to its digitally expanded infrastructure. Quite noteworthy, sceptical positions are instrumental to the hegemonic elites even while remaining a minority, casting doubt among the neutrally-minded groups. Among curious demographic findings, Dr. Ruiu revealed that female users tend to be less sceptical than male audience, and older people oftentimes veer towards neutrality and indecision. New media appear to provide a platform for challenging the hegemonic narrative and at the same time may benefit sceptical perspectives due to their fragmented nature.
Maria Koroleva from the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov MSU continued the discussion around the dynamics brought about by new media, and focused specifically on user-generated content and its use in emergency coverage. Since the rise of the Internet and social networks in particular, journalists increasingly resort to comments and eyewitness accounts that are available in the online space. Drawing on her research, Maria Koroleva underlined that users’ photos and videos are more commonly exploited in news about man-made and natural disasters, while texts forms such as users’ social media posts are more frequently referred to in materials about biosocial disasters. Perhaps even more importantly, news that contain UGC are marked by human-centric approach and attract increased attention of the audience, while traditional texts typically are more power-centric.
Two scholars with expertise in media psychology and sociology shared the floor on May 14 to make traction of the problem of how the audience reacts to and participates in media communication around emergency events and crisis situations.
Dr. Maria Laura Ruiu from Northumbria University in the UK aimed to observe the way contrasting forces of sceptical hegemony and preoccupied counter-hegemonies interact in both traditional and online media spaces in the context of climate change debates. As a space with vast potential for both reproduction and contestation of hegemonic ideologies, media is increasingly engaging the audience into the debates, not in the least due to its digitally expanded infrastructure. Quite noteworthy, sceptical positions are instrumental to the hegemonic elites even while remaining a minority, casting doubt among the neutrally-minded groups. Among curious demographic findings, Dr. Ruiu revealed that female users tend to be less sceptical than male audience, and older people oftentimes veer towards neutrality and indecision. New media appear to provide a platform for challenging the hegemonic narrative and at the same time may benefit sceptical perspectives due to their fragmented nature.
Maria Koroleva from the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov MSU continued the discussion around the dynamics brought about by new media, and focused specifically on user-generated content and its use in emergency coverage. Since the rise of the Internet and social networks in particular, journalists increasingly resort to comments and eyewitness accounts that are available in the online space. Drawing on her research, Maria Koroleva underlined that users’ photos and videos are more commonly exploited in news about man-made and natural disasters, while texts forms such as users’ social media posts are more frequently referred to in materials about biosocial disasters. Perhaps even more importantly, news that contain UGC are marked by human-centric approach and attract increased attention of the audience, while traditional texts typically are more power-centric.