A new study by All Together Now shows mainstream media comments sections are polarising readers and perpetuating Islamophobia.
Are comments sections on media articles perpetuating Islamophobia? And what role does the media play in this?
A new study, Politely Racist, by All Together Now (ATN), an Australian nonprofit promoting racial equity, has revealed that comments sections on The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun and The Sydney Morning Herald are a microcosm for racist discourse.
Analysing comments from readers responding to 29 articles containing negative opinions about Muslim Australians, ATN found that readers freely exchanged discriminatory views that were polite enough to pass moderation but were racist in content. Furthermore, when like-minded people shared similar opinions, they tended to leave the discussion with more extreme views than before the conversation, further entrenching their discriminatory views.
While it’s easy to dismiss the comments sections as the stomping ground of internet trolls, ATN believes that reader comments are “powerful pieces of reproduced information that influence the shaping of discourses around racism”.
The portrayal of Muslim people in Australian mainstream media
Previous research from ATN has shown that Muslim people are negatively targeted in a disproportionate manner by mainstream media. Negative opinion pieces accounted for 78% of all media coverage of Muslim Australians, with majority of these pieces published in News Corps publications.
While audience engagement is a key feature to informed citizenry, it seems the protection of anonymity and the removal of verbal cues and body language in online discussions can lead to unrestrained and unchecked dialogue, creating online bubbles and echo chambers that encourage polarisation and racist discourse. The media model has evolved to add fire to the fuel. Clickbait, social media engagement and virality are all key indicators of an article’s success.
The report found that most comments in The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun typically agreed with the sentiment of the opinion pieces, while readers of The Sydney Morning Herald often disagreed with the content of negatively racialised opinion pieces.
It seems that readers will use comments sections to share viewpoints that are generally rejected by the public. Engaging with others who share their viewpoints can validate one’s belief that their viewpoints are valid.
ATN’s research also revealed instances of the opinion polarisation used to describe the phenomenon of when a group of like-minded people share similar opinions in a discussion, only to leave the discussion with more extreme viewpoints than they started out.
This can have a huge impact in evolving the discourse around race and racism.
Identifying politely racist comments
The ATN analysed comments based on sentiment, agreement, tone, interactivity, constructive discussion, and then conducted a thematic analysis to identify key themes arising from reader comments.
The report found that most comments had a neutral tone and conveyed neutral sentiments, and while lacking in overt features of racist language, such as profanity, tended to agree with the ideas published in the negatively racialised opinion pieces.
Company policy no doubt has a role in filtering out abusive language and profanities, however, it seems neutral tone and sentiment allow racist ideas to be disguised and pass comment moderation.
Thematic analysis also strongly shows similarity in frequently used words in racially biased articles and audience comments, suggesting an alignment between the article sentiment and reader opinions.
The way forward
The future may look bleak in terms of the state of racial discourse, but ATN have six recommendations requiring the collaboration of government, media, nonprofits, researchers and advocacy organisations to rid society and media of systemic racism. They are:
- Journalists need to consider more closely the effect of their work.
- All news organisations need to cultivate and maintain an anti-racist culture within their workplaces.
- Mainstream media organisations need to increase cultural diversity across all parts of their operations.
- The Federal Government and the media industry need to invest in media literacy education for audiences.
- All sectors of society need to invest in opportunities for independent journalism.
- The Federal Government needs to continue to provide financial support for public journalism.
The need for independent journalism is apparent in the fight against system racism, however, as the report showed racist beliefs aren’t on the fringes of society. More needs to be done to create a welcoming and truly multicultural society.
"discourse" - Google News
May 25, 2021 at 08:22AM
https://ift.tt/3vm1Qi9
Politely Racist: How comments sections can perpetuate racist discourse - Fundraising & Philanthropy Australasia Magazine - Fundraising & Philanthropy Magazine
"discourse" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KZL2bm
https://ift.tt/2z7DUH4
No comments:
Post a Comment