网络谣言：值得警惕的另类突发事件

近年来，谣言这个东西仿佛获得了某种“能量”，总是时不时地出现，时不时地给人们造成一种冲击，一种震撼，众多荒诞鬼魅的谣言已经从网络段子上升为公共危机事件，成为破坏社会稳定、左右公共利益、制造社会恐慌的巨大力量，应该引起各级地方政府的高度重视。     

网络谣言:值得警惕的另类突发事件

近年来,谣言这个东西仿佛获得了某种"能量",总是时不时地出现,时不时地给人们造成一种冲击,一种震撼,众多荒诞鬼魅的谣言已经从网络段子上升为公共危机事件,成为破坏社会稳定、左右公共利益、制造社会恐慌的巨大力量,应该引起各级地方政府的高度重视. 一、网络谣言作为突发公共事件的特征 我国《突发事件应对法》把突发事件分为四大类,即自然灾害事件、事故灾难事件、公共卫生事件、社会安全事件.以往,谣言往往只是重大突发事件的副产品,国家和各级地方政府对各类突发事件发生后蓄意编造、传播有关突发事件虚假信息的行为有相应的惩处规定和应对预案.     

谣言诱发的微博围观与治理

一、作为概念变量的谣言 20世纪40年代起,西方学者就着手对谣言的传播机制进行系统分析,研究成果主要从事件的重要性、信息的不确定性以及公众的批判能力三个方面剖析谣言产生的原因。其中,奥尔伯特与波斯特提出了一个谣言传播的经典理论,认为谣言的两个基本条件是事件本身具备重要性和信息模糊不清,换言之,事件的重要性、事件信息的暧昧度与产生谣言的可能性以及谣言传播的强度和范围成正比。     

情感与网络抗争动员——基于湖北“石首事件”的个案分析

本文打通个人层次与社会层次联系,从微观层面展现当代中国网络政治抗争动员的一般图景,以克服资源动员理论对中国网络政治抗争动员机制解释的不适应问题。湖北"石首事件"个案分析表明,情感在网络政治抗争动员过程中发挥着决定性的作用。从个体层次看,事件对网民的情感刺激决定了网民对事件的解读方式,从而直接影响公共话语建构和网民的社会认同。从社会层次看,网民情感反应根植于社会文化之中,社会文化框架决定着政府与网民互动的模式,直接决定网络政治抗争动员框架的建构。打通个体分析层次与社会分析层次的联系是理解情感影响下的社会认同建构是根本,也是理解当代中国网络政治抗争的根本。分析情感对网络政治抗争动员的影响有利于深入理解网络社会运动的内在机理,也有利于政府科学应对网络集体行动,促进政府与公众的良性互动。     

“匹配效应”:政治谣言的心理及意识形态根源

国内多数谣言研究以宏观政治社会结构或环境作为变量来解释谣言的生成和流传,但是,这一理论取向无法解释同一社会政治结构下个体在相信谣言方面存在的差异。本文认为,受众自身的威权人格与意识形态立场是解释个体信谣与否的重要变量,威权人格与信谣、意识形态立场与信谣分别存在着"匹配效应"。以政治谣言为焦点,本研究通过针对网民群体的问卷式实验方法发现:高威权人格者更愿意相信与政府立场一致的谣言,不愿意相信与政府立场不一致或不利于政府的信息,而低威权人格者则相反;左派群体更倾向于相信与政府立场一致的谣言,更不愿意相信批评政府的谣言,而右派群体更倾向于相信批评政府的谣言,更不愿意相信与政府立场一致的谣言。但是在辟谣效果上,并不存在"匹配效应"。文章对研究发现的政治意涵作了分析。     

灾难事件中谣言的新闻学意义阐释

本文通过对灾难事件中新闻与谣言概念及传播特性的探讨,分析了在灾难事件中谣言传播的新闻质量特性,并论述了当事件具有极强的模糊性时、谣言对处在信息匮乏状态的人们而言具有新闻价值——这种价值不仅表现在它对话题的关注,更表现在传播过程中不断添加的"即兴新闻"。因而,本文进一步论述了正是这种新闻的价值使谣言在这一特定环境中发挥着"替代性新闻"作用,并与大众媒介的新闻一道共同建构起受众对事件的整体性认知。文章从谣言双重信息传播的角度,揭示了这种认知所包含的不客观和虚假成分的形成路径,探讨了在社会意义上通过谣言去发现真相的可能性。     

网络化时代的社会管理创新

人类社会已经进入网络化时代,网络在国家政治治理和社会管理的方方面面发挥着十分重要的正功能,如促进社会民主、促进社会认同、促进社会正义以及起到社会安全阀的功能。但是网络也存在一些负功能,如网络会使人们从深度阅读与解析事件变成浅度浏览与简析事件,以及网络容易成为谣言的温床。如何发挥网络的正功能,抑制其负功能,从而更好地促进社会管理,政府、社会和个人三方面都应做出努力。     

制止网络谣言

谣言，是指利用各种渠道传播的对公众感兴趣的事物、事件或问题的未经证实的阐述或诠释。“凡街市无根之语，谓之谣言。”     

自然灾害时期主流媒体应对网络谣言的思考——基于汶川特大地震期间网络谣言的分析

网络早已不是一个纯粹的独立于现实的虚拟世界,网络传播的实时性、匿名性、互动性,使谣言在网络中的传播具有广泛性、快捷性、难控性、互动性、逼真性等特点,引起的暗示和传染性也更强,在短时间内,谣言就能形成广阔的覆盖面和极大的传播强度,造成的影响远远超出人们的想象。思考灾难事件中媒体如何应对网络谣言,既是现实的需要,也是网络发展的必然。     

我国网络谣言治理的路径及反思

自2013年8月网络谣言治理专项行动开展至今,已有近一年的时间。以近两年的网络热点舆论事件为研究对象,通过对这些事件中网络谣言的治理手段的分析,阐明网络谣言治理路径正从单一的"上层官方治理"转向"全社会共同治理"。在网络谣言治理的现象分析的基础上,剖析治理路径转变的原因,为我国网络谣言的进一步规制提供建设性意见如下:应树立政治权威的必要性;营造民主环境的重要性;提升网民素养的长期性。     

Getting to justice?

This article addresses whether Albert Weale’s view in Democratic Justice and the Social Contract (OUP 2013) fits into one of two strands of social contract traditions, and how his account stands up to critics. He claims to stand in the contractarian tradition, which seeks to justify normative principles of justice from non-moral premises. The alternative is the contractualist tradition which assumes that individuals are also motivated by other-regarding moral considerations. The aim of the latter theories is often limited to systematise and specify vague and contested normative judgements concerning shared institutions. There are tensions in Weale’s account as to whether it addresses the question of concern to contractarians or rather that of contractualists. A second challenge concerns Weale’s attempt to extrapolate principles of justice from common property resource regimes within the basic structure of society to that basic structure of a ‘great society’ itself. The impact of the basic structure on individuals is so pervasive that the principle Weale proposes seems misapplied. A claim to the marginal product in complex modes of production supplemented by a social insurance scheme says little about the distributive principles for assessing how the basic structure as a whole should engender the distribution of marginal products among us.     

(Sex) Crime and Punishment in the #MeToo Era: How the Public Views Rape

One of the core tasks of a well-functioning state is providing fair and adequate criminal justice. Recent events have raised concerns that the US exhibits a “culture of rape,” wherein victims are often disbelieved and blamed. Scholars have not yet examined how the public understands rape and how it should be punished, despite the important role that public pressure has played in the #MeToo era. We present an empirical conceptualization of rape culture to generate predictions for how various attributes of rape incidents affect the likelihood that they are perceived as punishable crimes. In a series of conjoint experiments, we demonstrate that details relating to the victim’s consent and credibility significantly decrease participants’ propensities to support reporting to police or to recommend a severe punishment for the perpetrator. The results show that emphasizing certain legally irrelevant features of rape strongly affect whether the public views an incident as severe or worthy of punishment.

     

The Perils of Terrorism: Chinese Whispers,Kevin Bacon and Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia – A review essay

This review examines the scholarship on Islamic terrorism and Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia, arguing that three factors undermine the academic credibility of much of this scholarship. Two points relate to the extensive reliance on interviews with various anonymous ‘security personnel’, or media reports of such statements. Firstly, these sources are in themselves problematic in that they cannot be independently checked or verified. In such circumstances, factual errors undermine the credibility of the argument. Secondly, many researchers using these sources appear to take them at face value, without interrogating their reliability and political motives. The third point relates to the way in which different types of source are utilized and, in particular, how tentative allegations are transmuted into established facts. The review concludes that such studies would benefit from greater contextualization within the domestic politics of the countries in question, rather than their current focus on specific individuals, organizations and networks.     

Does polarization affect even the inattentive? Assessing the relationship between political sophistication,policy orientations,and elite cues

In this paper we focus on how individuals’ level of political sophistication conditions how they respond to growing elite polarization. The party coalitions in the electorate have become increasingly ideologically sorted. We assess whether all citizens have sorted into the ideologically “correct” partisan camp or whether this phenomenon is limited only to the highly sophisticated. Using a combination of ANES and DW-NOMINATE data we show that individuals of all sophistication levels have become more likely to identify with and vote for the party that best matches their policy orientations as a function of increasing elite-level polarization. Our findings suggest that the effects of increasing polarization are felt throughout the electorate.     

The Boston Marathon Bombings: Who's to Blame and Why It Matters for Public Administration

This article examines how elite attributions of blame—statements from politicians and high‐level public administrators assigning responsibility for failure to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings—affect citizens’ beliefs regarding which government organizations, if any, are culpable for failing to prevent the bombings. The primary hypothesis is that public administrators, owing to their greater credibility relative to politicians, will more strongly influence citizens’ notions of who is to blame. Findings show that public administrators are viewed as significantly more credible among Democrats, and this credibility advantage translates into influence. Additionally, blame statements implicating the Federal Bureau of Investigation for failing to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings are particularly influential among Republicans, and exculpatory statements are particularly influential among Democrats. As discussed in the context of the Boston Marathon bombings, the public process of attributing blame for a perceived governmental failure has important implications for public administration.     

社会资本视角下慈善组织公信力影响因素研究

近年来我国慈善组织的公信力屡遭考验,嫣然基金事件又将慈善组织推到了风口浪尖。信任是社会资本的重要内容,从社会资本理论出发,根据文献梳理,找出慈善组织公信力影响因素主要有信息透明度、合法性、社会网络、内部治理结构以及慈善文化。目前我国慈善组织公信力提升应先从信息透明度与内部治理结构着手,为我国慈善组织深化改革提供了长远发展的突破口。     

Perceptions of Immigrant Threat,American Identity,and Vote Choice in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Among the central tenets of social identity theory are the arguments that individuals’ attitudes and behavior are shaped by (1) perceptions of threat by out-groups toward individuals’ in-group(s) and (2) the strength of individuals’ identification with the in-group perceived to be under threat. In this paper we explore how American identity and Americans’ perceptions of immigrant threat work together to shape their vote choices in the 2016 presidential election. With the presidential campaign of Donald Trump characterized by strong rhetoric that emphasized immigrant threat and American identity themes, we suggest that the effects of immigrant threat perceptions are amplified by individuals’ American identity, with those who have a strong American identity more likely to translate immigrant threat perceptions into support for Trump than those with weaker levels of American identity. Moreover, we consider whether the effects of American identity on vote choice are activated and moderated by individuals’ perceptions of immigrant threat. Using data from the 2016 American National Election Study, we find that the effects of immigrant threat perceptions and American identity on vote choice are magnified by each other: the effects of immigrant threat perceptions are enhanced among individuals with a strong American identity, and the effects of American identity are activated and magnified by perceptions of immigrant threat.

     

What Does Credibility Look like? Tweets and Walls in U.S. Presidential Candidates’ Visual Storytelling

This study considers the social media visual messaging of four candidates in the 2012 U.S. Republican presidential primary campaign. The analysis is guided by symbolic convergence theory, its method of fantasy theme analysis, and visual rhetoric theory. Using a schema of visual attributes, this study analyzes a rhetorical strategy of candidates' campaigns: the pictorial “public diary” found on their official Facebook and Twitter pages. It reveals how the credibility character traits of trustworthiness and expertise appear in the candidates' visual narratives, what messages dominate, and how candidates differ in succeeding or failing to visually communicate credibility. This study has important implications for how political management can use images in crafting and assessing messaging strategies in a competitive environment.     

How citizenship matters (or not): the citizenship–belonging nexus explored among residents in Oslo,Norway

This article sheds light on what citizenship means for individuals’ experiences of belonging. Through 41 interviews conducted in Oslo, Norway, we trace understandings of how, when and why citizenship matters (or not) for belonging. Our interviewees fall into one of four categories: born citizens; naturalized citizens; dual citizens and non-Norwegian citizens who would qualify for naturalization, thus mixing participants with and without immigrant backgrounds. We interpret individuals’ experiences evaluating whether formal citizenship is explicitly or implicitly salient and whether it is associated with secure or insecure belonging. We find that citizenship matters for security and recognition, both linked to belonging, in expected and unexpected ways. Our findings point to how, when and why citizenship matters (or not) for belonging, constituting the citizenship–belonging nexus. Here, race continues to matter, as does the materiality of the passport document, in how the citizenship–belonging nexus interacts with the nation as locus of membership for citizens.     

Government Communications,Political Trust and Compliant Social Behaviour: The Politics of Covid-19 in Britain

It is commonly said that the lockdowns and social distancing necessary to control coronavirus pandemics will only work if the general population trusts its government, believes the information it provides, and has confidence in its policies. This article traces the British government’s record in providing information about its policies and performance, and compares this with the public’s use of the mainstream news media. It then considers how these two sources of information affected trust in government and public compliance with social distancing and lockdown rules. Lastly, it compares Covid-19 with Brexit and draws conclusions about how beliefs and behaviour are formed when individuals are personally faced with a serious threat.